There’s a new trend in covers these days: bicycles! Is it the environmental movement? The growing popularity of steampunk? Who knows; as someone who rides a bike more often than your average citizen (it’s fun, I promise!) I’m happy to see it.
Alexander McCall Smith’s La’s Orchestra Saves the World (December) was one of the first I noticed, followed by the paperback version of Jedediah Berry’s The Manual of Detection (January).
More are on the way this spring: Roddy Doyle’s The Dead Republic (April), the long-awaited final volume of the Henry Smart trilogy that began in 1999 with A Star Called Henry; and Emily Winslow’s The Whole World (June), an anticipated debut that is being compared to Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories.
Tell me about your favorite bicyclist hero/heroine—or, if you can’t think of one, your first bike—in the comments, and you’ll be entered to win a copy of The Manual of Detection. ETA: Contest closed.
Also check out the cover of CRUNCH by Leslie Connor (a middle grade novel due March 30). There’s a cool bike on that cover, too!
My first bike was obtained for me by me dad…he has a knack for scavenging. anyway, it was big and heavy with fat tires, and the neighbor kids made fun of it, as it was around the time that 10-speeds were becoming popular, with their skinny tires. I loved it, and it fostered in me a love for biking.
I love bikes and I love books. I love it more when they’re combined!
There is a great Sherlock Holmes story involving bicycles — The Solitary Cyclist. Love detective stories AND my pink Schwinn!
In the Cat Who… books by Lilian Jackson Braun- Quill the main character is always riding around town on a recumbent bike! I love those books so much!
I don’t ride my bike anymore, but I remember I used to purposely ride along the grass when I was learning so when I fell, it’d be on something soft.
I love those covers, btw!
You’d love then the first book in a really good French WW2 series, “La Biciclette Bleue” (the blue bycicle)! It’s an excellent and thrilling story about a girl and her bike and la Résistance and from there jumps starts a series (I don’t remember how many, 6 books?) that I think finishes in French Indochine in the ’50s.
France and bicycles? Definitely up my street — thanks for the rec!
by Régine Desforges! They came out so long ago I imagine they should have had time to translate them to English by now
I saw them in a bookstore in Spanish years ago so.. enjoy!
Bike riding encompassed a great deal of my life when I was young because it represented travel, freedom and exploring. My first bike was a blue Raleigh which my mother ordered by phone from Eatons. I rode this bike everywhere, the library, swimming pool, to friends and I never tired of it. This bike was new, and a perfect fit. I wish that I still had it because I cannot replicate the bike, the comfort and the tires and the era.
My first bike was a hand-me-down from my mom, a 1960s blue bike, with thin-rimmed tires and pretty spiral-like handlebars wrapped in white leather. What a strange and beautiful bike… wish I still had it!
Bikes also seem to be making a resurgence in wedding printing. Invites, programs, etc – it’s like the new trendy paper theme. Who knew?
Sounds like a gorgeous bike. I do think people are starting to rediscover their aesthetic appeal.
it’s Ron McLarty’s Memory of Running..it’s terrific
I seem to remember the Trixie Belden series of childrens mystery books featured the heroes on bicycles since they were too young to drive cars.
I grew up using bikes that had pedal brakes and never got used to hand brakes. Showing my age…..
This year “bikes”, last year, blue skies, kids jumping into water, or seemingly just floating in the air.