design for book review

25+ Book Review Templates and Ideas to Organize Your Thoughts

Danika Ellis

Danika spends most of her time talking about queer women books at the Lesbrary. Blog: The Lesbrary Twitter: @DanikaEllis

View All posts by Danika Ellis

When I was a kid I loved reading, but I hated book reports. It felt impossible to boil a book down to a few lines or even a page of writing. Besides, by the time I had to write the report, I had already forgotten a lot. It never ceases to be painful to try to pull my thoughts and opinions out of my head and put them on the page, especially in a coherent way.

As an adult, I continue to usually find writing book reviews painful . And yet, I maintain a book blog with reviews of all the (bi and lesbian) books I read. Why? For one thing, I want to raise the visibility of these books — or, in the case of a book I loathed, warn other readers of what to expect. It helps me to build community with other book lovers. It’s also a great way to force myself pay attention to how I’m feeling while I’m reading a book and what my thoughts are afterwards. I have learned to take notes as I go, so I have something to refer to by the time I write a review, and it has me notice what a book is doing well (and what it isn’t). The review at the end helps me to organize my thoughts. I also find that I remember more once I’ve written a review.

Once you’ve decided it’s worthwhile to write a review, though, how do you get started? It can be a daunting task. The good news is, book reviews can adapt to whatever you want them to be. A book review can be a tweet with a thumbs up or thumbs down emoji, maybe with a sentence or two of your thoughts; it can also be an in-depth essay on the themes of the book and its influence on literature. Most are going to fall somewhere between those two! Let go of the idea of trying to create the One True Book Review. Everyone is looking for something different, and there is space for GIF-filled squee fests about a book and thoughtful, meditative explorations of a work.

This post offers a variety of book reviews elements that you can mix and match to create a book review template that works for you. Before you get started, though, there are some questions worth addressing.

Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Book Review Template

Where will you be posting your book reviews.

An Instagram book review will likely look different from a blog book review. Consider which platform you will be using for your book review. You can adapt it for different platforms, or link to your original review, but it’s a good starting point. Instagram reviews tend to be a lot shorter than blog reviews, for instance.

Will you be using the same template every time?

Some book reviewers have a go-to book review template. Others have a different one for each genre, while another group doesn’t use a template at all and just reacts to whatever each book brings up.

Heading or no headings?

When choosing which book review elements to mix and match, you can also decide whether to include a header for each section (like Plot, Characterization, Writing, etc). Headers make reviews easier to browse, but they may not have the professional, essay-style look that you’re going for.

Why are you writing a review?

When selecting which elements to include in your review, consider what the purpose is. Do you want to better remember the plot by writing about it? You probably want to include a plot summary, then. Do you want to help readers decide whether they should read this book? A pros and cons list might be helpful. Are you trying to track something about your reading, like an attempt to read more books in translation or more books by authors of color? Are you trying to buy fewer books and read off your TBR shelf instead? These are all things you can note in a review, usually in a point-form basic information block at the beginning.

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Book Review Templates and Formats

Essay-style.

This is a multi-paragraph review, usually with no headers. It’s the same format most newspapers and academics use for book reviews. Many essay-style reviews use informal categories in their writing, often discussing setting, writing, characters, and plot in their own paragraphs. They usually also discuss the big themes/messages of a story. Here are some questions to consider when writing an essay-style review:

What is the author trying to do? Don’t evaluate a romance novel based on a mystery novel’s criteria. First try to think about what the book was attempting to do, then try to evaluate if they achieved it. You can still note if you didn’t like it, but it’s good to know what it was aiming for first.

What are some of the themes of the story? What big message should the reader take away? Did you agree with what the book seemed to be saying? Why or why not?

How is this story relevant to the world? What is it saying about the time it was written in? About human nature? About society or current issues? Depending on the book, there may be more or less to dig into here.

What did this book make you think about? It may be that the themes in the book were just a launching off point. How did they inspire your own thinking? How did this book change you?

A Classic Book Review

This is probably the most common kind of book review template. It uses a few criteria, usually including Setting, Writing, Characters, and Plot (for a novel). The review then goes into some detail about each element, describing what the book did well, and where it fell short.

The advantage of this format is that it’s very straightforward and applies to almost any fiction read. It can also be adapted–you will likely have more to say about the plot in a mystery/thriller than a character study of a novel. A drawback, though, is that it can feel limiting. You might have thoughts that don’t neatly fit into these categories, or you could feel like you don’t have enough to say about some of the categories.

Pros and Cons

A common format for a Goodreads review is some variation of pros and cons. This might be “What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like” or “Reasons to Bump This Up Your TBR/Reasons to Bump This Down On Your TBR.” This is a very flexible system that can accommodate anything from a few bullet points each to paragraphs each. It gives a good at-a-glance impression of your thoughts (more cons than pros is a pretty good indication you didn’t like it). It also is broad enough that almost all your thoughts can likely be organized into those headings.

This is also a format that is easily mix and matched with the elements listed below. A brief review might give the title, author, genre, some brief selling points of the novel, and then a pros and cons list. Some reviews also include a “verdict” at the end. An example of this format:

The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill

🌟 Fantasy All-Ages Comic 💫 Adorable pet dragons ✨ A diverse cast

Pros: This book has beautiful artwork. It is a soothing read, and all the character are supportive of each other. This is a story about friendship and kindness.

Cons: Don’t expect a fast-moving plot or a lot of conflict. This is a very gentle read.

Another approach to the review is not, strictly speaking, a book review template at all. Instead, it’s something like “5 Reasons to Read TITLE by Author” or “The # Most Shocking Plot Twists in X Series.” An advantage of this format is that it can be very to-the-point: if you want to convince people to read a book, it makes sense to just write a list of reasons they should read the book. It may also be more likely to get clicked on–traditional book reviews often get less views than more general posts.

On the other hand, listicles can come off as gimmicky or click-bait. You’ll have to decide for yourself if the book matches this format, and whether you are writing this out of genuine enthusiasm or are just trying to bend a review to be more clickable.

Your Own Original Rating System

Lots of reviewers decide to make their own review format based on what matters to them. This is often accompanied by a ratings system. For instance, the BookTube channel Book Roast uses the CAWPILE system:

CAWPILE is an acronym for the criteria she rates: Characters, Atmosphere, Writing, Plot, Intrigue, Logic, Enjoyment. Each of those are rated 1–10, and the average given is the overall rating. By making your own ratings/review system, you can prioritize what matters to you.

My favorite rating system is Njeri’s from Onyx Pages , because it shows exactly what she’s looking for from books, and it helps her to think about and speak about the things she values:

A “Live Tweet” or Chronological Review

Another format possibility is live tweeting (or updating as you go on Goodreads, or whatever your platform of choice is). This has you document your initial thoughts as you read, and it’s usually informal and often silly. You can add what you’re loving, what you’re hating, and what questions you have as you go.

This is a fun format for when you’re reading a popular book for the first time. That way, other people can cackle at how unprepared you are as you read it. This requires you to remember to always have your phone on you as you read, to get your authentic thoughts as they happen, but it saves on having to write a more in-depth review. Alternately, some people include both a “first impressions” section and a more in-depth analysis section in their final review.

Get Creative

There are plenty of book review templates to choose from and elements to mix-and-match, but you can also respond in a completely original way. You could create a work of art in response to the book! Here are some options:

• Writing a song , a short story, or a poem
• Writing a letter to the author or the main character (you don’t have to send it to the author!)
• Writing an “interview” of a character from the book, talk show style
• Making a visual response, like a collage or painting
• Making a book diorama, like your elementary school days!

Mix-and-Match Elements of a Book Review

Most book reviews are made up of a few different parts, which can be combined in lots of different ways. Here is a selection to choose from! These might also give you ideas for your own elements. Don’t take on too much, though! It can easily become an overwhelming amount of information for readers.

Information

Usually a book review starts with some basic information about the book. What you consider basic information, though, is up for interpretation! Consider what you and your audience will think is important. Here are some ideas:

• The title and author (pretty important)
• The book’s cover
• Format (audiobook, comic, poetry, etc)
• Genre (this can be broad, like SFF, or narrow, like Silkpunk or Dark Academia)
• Content warnings
• Source (where did you get the book? Was is borrowed from the library, bought, or were you sent an ARC?)
• Synopsis/plot summary (your own or the publisher’s)
• What kind of representation there is in the novel (including race, disability, LGBTQ characters, etc)
• Anything you’re tracking in your reading, including: authors of color, authors’ country, if a book is in translation, etc

Review Elements

Once you’ve established your basic information, you’re into the review itself! Some of these are small additions to a review, while others are a little more time-intensive.

Bullet point elements:

• Rating (star rating, thumbs up/down, recommend/wouldn’t recommend, or your own scale)
• Who would like it/Who wouldn’t like it
• Read-alikes (or movies and TV shows like the book)
• Describe the book using an emoji or emojis
• Describe the book using a gif or gifs
• Favorite line(s) from the book
• New vocabulary/the most beautiful words in the novel
• How it made you feel (in a sentence or two)
• One word or one sentence review
• Bullet points listing the selling points of a book
• BooksandLala’s Scary, Unsettling, and Intrigue ratings, for horror
• World-building, for fantasy and science fiction titles
• Art, for comics
• Narration, for audiobooks
• Romance, for…romance
• Heat level, for erotica

Visual elements:

• Design a graphic (usually incorporating the cover, your star rating, and some other basic info)
• Take a selfie of yourself holding the book, with your expression as the review
• Make a mood board
• Design your own book cover
• Make fan art

Elements to incorporate into a review:

• Quick/initial thoughts (often while reading or immediately after reading), then a more in-depth review (common on Goodreads)
• A list of facts about the book or a character from the book
• Book club questions about the book
• Spoiler/non-spoiler sections
• Research: look up interviews with the author and critique of the book, incorporate it (cited!) into your review
• Links to other resources, such as interviews or other reviews — especially #OwnVoices reviews
• A story of your own, whether it’s your experience reading the book, or something it reminded you of

This is not a complete list! There are so many ways to write a book review, and it should reflect your own relationship with books, as well as your audience. If you’re looking for more ways to keep track of your reading, you’ll also like 50+ Beautiful Bujo Spread Ideas to Track Your Reading .

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Guides • Book Design

Last updated on Jan 21, 2022

Book Design: Everything You Need to Make a Stunning Book

A: Book design is the art of arranging text, content, formatting, and visual assets into a single cohesive product that elevates a manuscript, paper stock, and its cover design into more than the sum of its parts.

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright famously said that “form and function are one,” meaning that design shouldn’t be a compromise between how something looks and how it works. While Wright was speaking specifically about building, his mantra perfectly sums up how we at Reedsy think about book design: that it should be both aesthetically pleasing and serve a greater practical purpose.

On this page, we’ve collected the best of Reedsy’s articles on book design . For an in-depth greater understanding of how book design can delight the senses, streamline the reading experience, and sell more copies, start here. 

Free course: Book Design 101

Learn the fundamentals of book design, from creating beautiful covers to formatting and typesetting professional-grade interiors. Get started now.

Book Cover Design

In combining form and function, a great book cover must:

• Visually stand out in a crowded bookstore – or as an online thumbnail;
• Legibly state the title and the author’s name (you’d be surprised by how many covers fall at this hurdle);
• Communicate the book’s tone and genre.

This third point is crucial to commercial success. Readers know what kinds of books they like. If they enjoy fast-paced Florida thrillers, they’ll pick up your page-turning Miami mystery novel as long as your cover conveys those elements.

Professional Cover Design

The most reliable way to get a beautiful, commercially viable cover is to hire a professional. This is someone who understands current genre trends and knows how to leverage them while also producing an original design. No easy feat. 

Looking for a professional cover designer you can trust?

300+ of the best designers are on Reedsy. Sign up to meet them within seconds!

Learn how Reedsy can help you craft a beautiful book.

The posts below will give you a good idea of how a professional cover designer works, what they can add to your book, and how to hire one. (They’re not as pricey as you might expect!)

• How to Design a Book Cover That Stands Out In 6 Steps
• Revealed: The Real Marketing Value of a Professional Book Cove r
• 6 Tips for Writing the Perfect Cover Design Brief
• What to expect from your book cover designer
• Book Cover Designer: Find Your Perfect Professional

Making your own book cover

Hiring a professional cover designer is often the best investment an indie author can make. However, not everyone’s budget can stretch a few hundred dollars further, which is why a lot of authors will choose to dabble in design themselves. If you are considering a DIY cover, here are some essential resources to help you on your way.

• How to Choose the Right Book Cover Dimensions
• Book Cover Maker: Which DIY App Is Best for You?
• 20 Royalty-Free Stock Image Sites to Source a Book Cover Picture
• The Back of a Book Cover: How to Build One That Actually Works (with Template)

Cover Design Inspiration

Need to know what’s hot and what’s not in the world of cover design? We love writing about book covers and with new exciting designs dropping every year, we’re not running out of inspiration fodder anytime soon. Take a peek at the best-of lists below and prepare to swoon.

• 2020's Best Book Covers: 45 Designs to Feast Your Eyes On
• The 50 Best Children’s Book Covers of 2019
• Reedsy’s Book Cover Art Gallery
• 68 Book Cover Ideas To Inspire Your Next Book
• 50+ Cookbook Covers Guaranteed To Make Your Mouth Water

Book cover critiques

One of our regular live (and completely free!) events at Reedsy is our book cover critique, where we invite a professional designer to review covers submitted by indie authors. The advice our guests provide is always practical and engaging — and will give you a fly-on-the-wall peek at how professional cover designers approach their craft, as well as the considerations that go into things like typography and color palettes

• Cover Critique with David Provolo
• Cover Critique with Natasha MacKenzie 
• Cover Critique with Michaela Alcaino 
• Cover Critique with Annamieke Beemster Leverenz 
• Cover Critique with Patrick Knowles 
• Cover Critique with Joel Tippie 
• Cover Critique with Anna Woodbine

Illustrations

• Book Illustration: 25 Beautiful Examples
• 20 Amazing Children's Book Illustrators (and How to Hire Them)
• Work with a Professional Children’s Book Illustrator (Webinar)
• Book Illustration: 100+ Illustrators For Hire

Interior Design

• Parts of a Book Explained: Front Matter, Body, and Back Matter
• What Are the Standard Book Sizes in Publishing?
• What is Typesetting? Your Guide to Interior Book Design
• Book Layout: 8 Key Tips from Professional Designers
• How to Format a Book (the Free and Easy Way)

 Typography

Of course, no conversation about book design is complete without mentioning the printed word itself. Having long since evolved beyond working with mechanical printing presses, the art of type has now entered a glorious, digitally-enhanced golden age. In these articles, meet the people who have dedicated their careers to making letters beautiful and learn the ABCs of typography.

• What is Typography, And How Can You Get It Right?
• Typography: Cover Design Masterclass (Webinar)
• Hire a professional typographer with Reedsy  

Creating a book

• Print-On-Demand vs Offset Printing: Which Wins?
• EPUB vs mobi: Is Amazon's mobi Format Now Dead?
• How to Make a Book: Binding a Hardback in 5 Simple Steps

With these articles as your starting point, we hope you’ve seen why we value book design as much as we do. As authors, one of your goals should be to put wonderful things out into the world — expressions of creativity and ideas packaged in a way that’s both practical and beautiful.

Brought together, a focus on form and function will help you create a unique book that deserves pride of place in the homes and hearts of your readers.

[Updated: 12/15/2020 UTC]

kasi nagarajan says:

08/12/2019 – 10:30

Very useful !

Comments are currently closed.

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The best design books

From interiors to products and beyond, here are the best design books to fill your bookshelf with.

Best design books overall

• Interior design
• Product design
• Graphic design

The best design books are invaluable fountains of knowledge that provide insight into the inner workings of all things design. Whether you’re an experienced designer or an aspiring creative, having one (or all!) of these design books on your bookshelf can help further your career and open your eyes to exciting new ideas and inspiration.

Below, we’ve rounded up the best design books for all your designing purposes, including the best interior design books, as well as graphic and product design books. If you like the sound of any of the titles you see below, simply click the retailer link to find the best prices.

Creative Bloq has covered design since its inception in 2012, so we know a thing or two when it comes to recommending the best design books for all your design and branding needs. We’ve read and researched a wide range of design books that offer advice, inspiration, tips and tricks, and insider knowledge that will help you become a better, more rounded designer.

For more inspiration, take a look at the best graphic design books , the best branding books and the best illustration books .

The best design books available now

Why you can trust Creative Bloq Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

The best design book overall

+ Highlights all the important stages  + Real examples from designers  + Case studies, storyboards and exercises

The Design Process is a must-have for any budding designer or experienced creative. The author, Karl Aspelund takes readers through seven stages of design and shows real life examples, case studies and storyboards from artists and designers across multiple disciplines. At the end of each chapter, there are exercises for readers to progress their design ideas into reality.

Best for strategy and jargon

+ Translates business, marketing and design jargon + Easy and straightforward to digest + Helps designers work better with marketers

Bridging the gap between business, marketing and design, Creative Strategy and the Business of Design translates terms and jargon for you to understand and apply to a creative strategy. This pocket sized book is crammed full of knowledge that’s straightforward to digest and can easily be used in practice.

Best full design history 

+ Gives a good design history lesson + Beautiful layout + Perfect gift for students and artists

A stunningly aesthetic book, both inside and out, Design: The Definitive Visual History showcases the evolution of design from its inception to modern day. The title is beautifully laid out with illustrations, images and examples to help you better understand the world of design.

The best design book for aspiring designers

+ Fun illustrations + Affordable - Might be too simple for some

For new artists and designers, Steal Like An Artist teaches readers how to use their surroundings and creativity. Full of illustrations, quotes and advice, this fun title won’t teach you much about strategy but can help you unlock your potential and style.

The best design book for graphic, product, industrial and architectural design examples

+ Covers all areas of design + Plenty of examples to take inspiration from + Delves into how design shapes the world

How Design Makes Us Think is essential reading for designers, advertisers and marketers, thanks to its wide knowledge of design and how it affects the world around us. Packed full of examples across all areas of design, the author explains how design explains itself and attracts attention.

The best design book for unlocking your creativity

+ Stunning photography + Exercises, inspiration and examples + Helps you find your creative passion

A title full of stunning photography, Conscious Creativity: Look. Connect. Create is all about finding your creativity and what kind of designs you want to create. Ideal for design newbies, this book has simple and engaging exercises to get your creative juices flowing.

Interior design books

The best interior design book for tips and tricks of the trade

+ In depth advice from a renowned design consultant + Practical tips and tricks from the industry + Helpful sketches and diagrams

One of the bestselling interior design books you can find today, The Interior Design Handbook is almost considered essential reading for any budding or experienced designer. The book is filled with helpful diagrams, tricks of the trade and useful advice, geared towards helping you become a professional interior designer.

The best interior design book for beginners

+ Advice and inspiration for each room in your home + Breaks down basic design styles + Perfect for aspiring interior designers

For beginner interior designers, Interior Design Masters is written by interiors expert Jo Thornhill and judges and contestants on the BBC One show, Interior Design Masters. The aesthetically pleasing book is filled with advice and inspiration for every room in your home which is easily broken down to help you with the whole process, including moodboards, design styles and finishing touches.

The best interior design book for personal style inspiration

+ Encourages interior designs out of their comfort zone + Styling tips to make your home more personal + Beautiful imagery

A newer title released in late 2022, How to Live With Objects is a beautiful book, designed to help bring you out of your comfort zone. The title covers design history, style tips and house tours, showing you how you can introduce unique and outrageous objects into your home with ease.

The best interior design book for expert advice

+ Inspiration from design experts + Stunning visuals + Goes into all the details of each room and style

Author and design expert, Athena Calderone has pulled out all the stops for Live Beautiful, showing off the interiors from multiple expert decorators and designers, including her very own home. The book goes through each room and style in detail, offering helpful tips and advice on how you can try different ideas in your own home.

The best interior design book for styling spaces

+ Written by the stylist for Architectural Digest + Mix of photos, essays and anecdotes - More of a coffee table book than a how-to

Put together by Colin King, stylist for Architectural Design and other interior design magazines, Arranging Things is a beautiful portfolio of how to arrange objects in the home. All images show how to position furniture, accents and portraits in rooms, with King offering advice and personal anecdotes in a series of visual essays.

The best interior design book for the entire creative process

+ Full creative process from start to finish + Encouraging and informative + Case studies and examples

The Fundamentals of Interior Design takes readers through the entire interior design process, from researching to building and beyond. The title encourages aspiring designers to find structure to suit their projects while also giving them confidence to experiment and find their style.

Design books: Products

The best product design book that covers the basics

+ Fundamentals of product design + Good vs bad design examples + Product stories from the expert

Regarded as an essential resource for all designers, The Design of Everyday Things looks into the fundamentals of product design from expert, Don Norman. With examples of both good and bad design, Norman looks at his own real life examples and how you can study human behaviour to perfect your product design.

The best product design book for simplicity

+ 10 laws of simplicity + Short and sweet + Looks at different perspectives

The Laws of Simplicity offers 10 laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in product design. The title teaches you how to tone things down and only introduce things that are vital and not just because you can. It also looks into how different perspectives view simplicity and how it can change people’s perceptions.

The best product design book for aspiring product designers

+ Helps beginners understand the basics + Examples, interviews and techniques + Inspiring visuals

Beginners will love Product Design and its comprehensive introduction to the field of product design. It details all stages of the creation process of a new product and provides an overview of design ideologies and techniques. Interviews, visuals and examples make this book look even more interesting.

The best product design book for understanding your audience

+ Insights into understanding your target audience + Affordable + Poses thoughtful questions

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People gives you valuable insights into understanding your audience and consumers. Full of research and examples, this title poses thought provoking questions which helps readers answer and address their product design issues.

The best product design book for strategy

+ Practical thinking + Written by admired and recognised design firm + Case studies and examples

From Ideo, America's Leading Design Firm, Change by Design takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the company’s strategies and practical thinking into creating its products. The book is full of helpful case studies, examples and problem-solving methods and techniques. 

The best product design book for design thinking

+ Explains the design process and methods + Best for expert creatives + Full of examples

Change by Design fully explains the concept of design thinking and offers real life experiences that are best for expert creatives and product design leaders. It dives into the collaborative process of product design that shows the designer’s methods and consumer’s needs with real life examples.

Graphic design books

The best graphic design book for inspiration

+ Inspiring designs + Thoughtful interviews and insight - Not a how-to guide

Whether you're pursuing a career in graphic design or diving into a side project, Drawing Type is a mix of inspirational designs and a workbook. The title features real-world projects and sketchbooks from well-known type designers to give you valuable insights and interviews for your next task.

The best graphic design book for smart career advice

+ Inspiring useful tips + Advice from a designing great + To the point

The reviewers at Creative Bloq found Work Hard & Be Nice to People to be sharp and concise, and full of inspiring and useful tips. The bite-size book is fun and easy to read, and offers sound advice from a design great.

The best graphic design book for tips and ideas

+ Condensed creative advice + Tons of prompts to work with + Real examples 

Now Try Something Weirder is packed full of prompts and ideas, based on the authors' experiences from decades in graphic design. This concise and condensed book is snappy, to the point and accessible to anyone, not just designers.

Branding books

The best branding book for anyone in the field

+ In-depth insights + Easy to read format + Fun case studies

Designing Brand Identity is the most complete branding book on the market today. Despite its overwhelming size, this book has a huge amount of knowledge, including 40 case studies, and explanations of principles, theories and practicalities of branding.

The best branding book for jargon busting

+ Beautifully written + Extensive advice + Busts branding and design jargon

Don't be put off by the size of  Branding: In Five and a Half Steps... this huge book is a must-have to understand everything about branding. Packed full of analysis and examples, this title  takes a look at the most iconic logos, adverts and campaigns and explains their concept and why they work so well.

The best branding book for detailed project walkthroughs

+ Deep dives into 16 projects + Nice design + In depth information

In Identity Designed: The Definitive Guide to Visual Branding, the author looks into 16 inspiring projects to give you insights into the successes of branding. The book is wonderfully designed and is an essential for understanding all things branding and designer/client relationships.

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Beth is the Home Editor at T3 , covering style, living and wellness. If it's something that goes in your house, chances are Beth knows about it and has the latest reviews and recommendations.

Having always been passionate about writing, Beth studied English Literature & Journalism at Cardiff University before diving into copywriting and marketing roles. She has written for websites, newspapers and magazines on a variety of topics, from jewellery and culture, to food and telecoms. Her work has been published across numerous sites and publications, including Wedding Ideas Magazine, Health & Wellbeing, The Bristol Post, Fashion & Style Directory, TechRadar and more.

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Gita Manaktala, executive editor at large, MIT Press

 “Finally, a book that illuminates the most mysterious warren of publishing—design. For all those seeking to understand the visual language of books, here’s your soup-to-nuts translator.”   

Danielle Svetcov, agent, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary

“A fascinating insight into the hidden world of book design. Invaluable for those who want to create beautiful books.”

Joanna Penn, author, podcaster, and blogger at The Creative Penn

Table of Contents

Lines of Thought

Ayelet Even-Ezra

Interacting with Print

The Multigraph Collective

The Art of Creative Research

Philip Gerard

But Can I Start a Sentence with "But"?

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Book Review: How Design Makes the World

This is a review of a PDF, media version of the book How Design Makes the World that I received from the author, Scott Berkun.

Throughout my career, I have advocated User Experience as more than simply a way of designing Web sites or apps, but instead a design methodology that begins with people. Plus, as Berkun notes in his opening lines, “Except … the natural world, if you look at everything you have ever loved, hated, used, or purchased…, it was all designed and made by human beings.” With that in mind, every person and organization engages in design—though to what degree they are successful is debatable.

Book Specifications

Title: How Design Makes the World

Author: Scott Berkun

Formats: Paperback, Kindle

Publisher: Berkun Media, LLC

Published: May 5, 2020

ISBN-10: 0983873186

ISBN-13: 978-0983873181

Example upon Example

Berkun makes a compelling case for the importance of design—both function and form—throughout his book. Through an anecdote echoing Don Norman’s work regarding the Three Mile Island accident, Berkun assesses the design of the fire-safety system of the Notre Dame cathedral and its role in the 2019 fire that damaged that landmark.

As Berkun describes, while dozens of experts put together the cathedral’s fire-safety system over six years, its alert messaging held a critical error that led to the collapse of the cathedral’s roof: an alert code was a nondescript string of letters, numbers, and hyphens. Some might say that the security personnel on duty should have been able to decipher this code and, thus, that this was human error—or, perhaps more generously, a training issue. But this really was a design flaw. The system was not designed for ease of use. It did not give a clear indication of the hazard or its location and, ultimately, led to a 25-minute delay in their identifying and locating the fire. By that time, the fire raging in the wooden attic had become uncontrollable.

This example illustrates the importance of incorporating a user-centered approach in the design of any system—especially those that are complex and considered critical. Relying on engineered solutions is not enough. This story also provides a great example we can give in response to those who ask, “What is the worst that could happen with bad user experience design? Maybe people have a harder time using an online shopping cart?” This and many other examples in Berkun’s book illustrate that the cost of bad design could range from inconvenience up to and including death—and the potential loss of a cultural icon.

Perception Is Reality

I love discussing queuing theory and its application to user experience—particularly because it demonstrates that UX design is not so much about making things look good as about human behavior, motivation, and perception.

You may be familiar with the use of mirrors in elevators or character visits to lines at Disney World to reduce the perception of waiting—or more likely, wasted time—on an elevator or at a theme park. This book introduced another example of reducing the perception of waiting to me: baggage carousels at airports. As you might expect, people really don’t like waiting for luggage once they disembark from a plane. In fact, this was a leading complaint at one airport, which hired more baggage handlers in an attempt to speed things up. But the complaints persisted. By realizing that the issue was people’s perception that idly waiting for luggage was wasting their time, the airport authorities devised a new solution: moving baggage carousels further away from arrivals. This might sound like a rather sadistic move—making passengers walk six times further to get their baggage—but the complaints vanished after the airport redesigned the process of baggage pickup.

Plus, the inclusion of estimated wait times can give users a sense of what to expect. Lacking some expectation of the waiting time for a theme-park attraction, being put on hold on the phone, or waiting in any other queue, people’s anxiety can rise. Will it be a five-minute wait? A five-hour wait? Am I still in the queue, or has there been a system failure? Of course, well-designed systems overestimate wait times. After all, who would not find it gratifying to be greeted by a customer-service agent after waiting just three minutes, when a previous message had advised that there would be a five-to-ten minute wait?

Similarly the perception of a lack of control creates anxiety for many people. I’ve frequently hypothesized that an irrational fear of flying—which is perhaps the safest form of travel, as opposed to driving—is the result of a person’s lack of control while traveling in an aluminum tube, 30,000 feet in the air, with someone else at the controls rather than because of the actual odds of a bad outcome.

Berkun describes the use of placebo buttons , which give people a sense of control—or the locus of control . Scattering these buttons throughout cityscapes provides the illusion that pressing a button would activate a stop light, allowing pedestrians to cross at an intersection. We see similar buttons in elevators. Do you really think the Close button works?

Let’s consider another application of this phenomenon: the use of autosave in cloud-based software. It is common for such software to continuously save drafts and changes to email messages, presentations, or other documents. Unfortunately, poorly designed apps omit a Save button, assuming that users would know that their work has been saved. The resulting lack of user control can create anxiety and doubt about whether the application has saved the user’s work and, thus, whether he can close the browser tab.

Defining Good Design

What is good design? This question has dogged many designers. I recall this question being posed early in my studies in graphic design. At that time, we considered effectiveness to be the primary criterion for evaluating the goodness of a designed solution. Berkun provides a more refined definition, noting that this product-centric evaluation is flawed because it “assumes goodness and badness are defined by the thing rather than by what the thing is used for.”

Berkun advises that good designers should ask two questions throughout any project: What are you trying to improve? Who are you trying to improve it for? These two questions can provide a powerful set of guardrails for projects that, all too often, get wrapped around the axle of building the solution. Without these guardrails, teams may design projects for ease of production, cost savings, or the all-important project timeline. But, if you return your focus to what you need to improve and for whom—usually a customer or user—you’ll realize that the ultimate indication of whether a project is successful is user sentiment. Without focusing on the customer or user, there is ample opportunity for conflicting goals and suboptimal results.

Saying It’s Easy to Use

Sadly, too many organizations use the language of user-centeredness as marketing phluff . Rather than investing in research and iterative design, they resort to mediocre copywriting in an attempt to convince customers that they really are the focus of their product design. In an amusing example, Berkun shares a photo of a jar of dehydrated onions, which seems to provide evidence on its label that it is easy to use. Berkun discredits the points the label makes, one by one, starting with the first attribute suggesting ease of use: “No refrigeration required.” Now, I’m not sure whether storing a food product in a refrigerator or a pantry makes a difference in its usability, but this is an invalid point of differentiation for dehydrated onions. Because no dehydrated onions require refrigeration. Nor do fresh onions. In his critique, Berkun exposes the hollow exploitation of user-centered design principles.

Style and Substance

One unfortunate, possible consequence of our focus on usability is that the role of style and aesthetics could be dismissed as being unimportant to the user experience. However, as Berkun illustrates, the choices of fonts, colors, and form can influence the perception of a product’s quality and the meaning of a message. In an especially effective comparison, Berkun presents a 1972 Porsche 911. Clearly, in the case of the 911, its designers considered the entire product as a whole—from its engine to its frame and its spoiler. They designed the car—and its users experience it—as a singular object. In contrast, Berkun shows a four-door hatchback—a car that was clearly designed to be a utilitarian means of conveyance, but whose after-market spoiler, frankly, makes a rather plain vehicle ugly. Of course, incorporating style with function and experience is not a problem. However, it would be a huge error to assume that we could apply some pretty visuals to wallpaper over earlier design mistakes.

I enjoyed reading Scott Berkun’s earlier book The Myths of Innovation when pursuing my MBA at the Weatherhead School of Management. So I was especially excited to receive his latest work. As much as I liked Myths , I found How Design Makes the World to be more accessible to a wider audience. Plus, I could see growth in Berkun as a writer and storyteller.

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Join the discussion, d. ben woods.

Owner and Principal Consultant at Covalent Studio LLC

Akron, Ohio, USA

Other Articles by D. Ben Woods

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• Book Review: How Not to Be Wrong
• Book Review: Innovation by Design
• Book Review: A Designer’s Research Manual

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System Design Interview Book Review: Finally, a Book for Getting Better at Architecting Systems

I've come across the book System Design Interview: an Insider's Guide by accident ( paperback book , and online course ). I was looking for good book resources after several people have been asking me how they can get better at building distributed systems or learning designing systems at scale. Especially when they don't have the opportunity to do so as part of their day-to-day work.

The topic is somewhat a chicken-and-egg one. You'll know how to design a large system after you designed one before. But if you've not done so: how would you build an URL shortener like bit.ly, with hundreds of millions of links? A chat app like Whatsapp? A file storage system like Dropbox or Google Drive?

There are many resources online - the most well-known one being System Design Primer on GitHub or reading High Scalability articles . In my case, I was looking for a more "structured" approach, as opposed to just dumping a bunch of concepts you need to know in these interviews.

This book is the most "real-world" systems design book I've come across that does a solid effort to teach concepts, step by step, to people who have yet to work at systems at scale. And it's also a welcome refresher to those who are familiar with some of these systems but would like to venture into various other types of large systems. It is clear from the start that the book was written by someone familiar with systems at scale. The author is Alex Xu, a software engineer previously at Oracle, Zynga, and Twitter.

The book comes with more than 10 case studies and a framework that it introduces and consistently uses with these case studies. There's also an accompanying online course that has the same content as the book, but you can follow along in a web browser, and the diagrams are colored.

Still, don't forget that this is just a book. Books can help with understanding the theory but are not a replacement actually working on large-scale production systems. These systems are always more complex than any book describes them.

Note that none of the below links are affiliate links or sponsored. See my ethics statement on the lack of such links.

Update on March of 2022: System Design Interview: Volume 2 is out, and I can recommend that book just as much as the first part, which I am reviewing here.

A framework for the systems design interview

System design interviews can feel intimidating, and having a framework on how to navigate them can help you feel more in control. The book recommends a 4-step process that I also agree with:

• Understand the problem and establish the design scope. I like to phrase this as confirming the problem, asking questions, and making constraints clear. "In a systems design interview, giving out an answer quickly does not give you you bonus points." - the book suggests. They are right.
• Propose high-level design and get buy-in. I see people all too often jump into implementing without confirming their approach satisfies the constraints, and they're not over-engineering. The interviewers expect a conversation - similar to real-life design - and this step helps you achieve exactly that.
• Design deep-dive . Once you know you're on the right track, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get into the details. This is the part you'll need to have the understanding and vocabulary of the systems domain. The book will help understand several of the concepts you'll need. Resources like System Design Primer also help with this phase.
• Wrap-up. With a design that seems sensible, you might close with identifying the bottlenecks and improvement areas.

The book lays out time allocation suggestions for an hour-long interview: a few minutes for understanding, 10-15 for the high-level design, 10-25 for the deepdive, and a few more for the wrap-up. I wouldn't be overly prescriptive, but I would suggest to not start the deepdive the first 10 minutes (gather enough context), and leave time for the wrap-up.

Case studies

I've done dozens of systems design interviews as an interviewer. Back when I was interviewing at the likes of Facebook and Uber, I also got feedback on how good (or not great) my approach was.

One thing you should avoid is "just memorizing" the approaches of the problems . That's far from the point. I made this mistake when I interviewed at Facebook, and was asked to build a part of Instagram. I had done this exercise, and so I just drew out a complicated system. I never talked about constraints or tradeoffs with my interviewer. In fact, I never had a two-way conversation.

A systems design interview is as much about communication with the interviewer as it is about your systems and architecture knowledge. This is why, while the book will help fill gaps you might have on how large systems are built, it won't substitute you collaborating with someone in designing a system.

The book's case studies work well as they go deeper and deeper into the problem domain, forcing you to understand relevant concepts at each step. Take the rate limiter problem and how it's tackled:

• Client-side vs server-side rate limiting , and their tradeoffs.
• Rate limiting algorithms : token bucket, leaking bucket, fixed window, sliding window log & counter.
• Deepdive: rate limiting rules . A look at Lyft's rate limiting component.
• Rate limiters in distributed environments , supporting multiple servers and/or concurrent threads.
• Performance optimization & monitoring . Most of this falls into productiozation, and operating a real-world system.
• References for further reading , linking to industry sources like the how Cloudfare built their rate limiter or understanding the AWS API rate limiting settings .

A pro for the book is how the case studies in the book cover good ground, and a variety of problems:

• "Basics" : rate limiter, consistent hashing, key-value-store, zero to millions of users.
• Web : URL shortener, web crawler.
• Social : newsfeed, notification system, chat
• Videos & storage : design YouTube, design Google riveConclusion
• Misc : unique ID generator in distributed systems, search autocomplete

This book is a solid recommend from me : and not just for preparing for the systems design interview, but to strengthen your systems design muscle for the day-to-day. The book/course comes with typical design problems and brings a pretty good, step-by-step approach to them. But if you just read through them, you'll miss out on the real value of such a resource.

Aim to draw out how you would design the system before reading how the author tackled the problem. You'll go through the book slower: but the concepts will stick. And you'll have approaches to use not just on the interview but when debating with colleagues on how to build a system.

There were a few topics that I missed from the book and that I would have covered. Though the book does a good job in going deep in fundamental concepts like rate limiting, consistent hashing, and sharding, or exploring the scene behind key-value stores, I wish things like caching and replication strategies would have been explored more. Both these topics are relevant in many scenarios.

While the book presents decent solutions to each of problems, I missed having alternative solutions with tradeoffs. In several cases, you can tradeoff the number of machines (and thus cost) for latency, resilience for disasters for cost or latency, and so on. These concepts are easier to grasp with examples. While the book goes deeper in this space that what I have otherwise seen, there is room for more depth.

Additionally, the book focuses on backend systems design. Client-side systems design problems for native mobile engineers or web engineers are usually different - I've helped design both these types of interviews. In all fairness, covering those approaches is likely out of scope for this book. Still, for non-backend engineers, the book can be helpful but potentially less applicable.

Fun facts about the book: from the author himself

After reading the book, I reached out to the author, Alex, congratulating him for a solid resource. As I'm also writing a book , we started talking about how he approached writing and what he's learned from this experience. Here area few fun facts, straight from the author:

• Alex started to write the book when he was preparing for systems design interviews and could not find good resources to do so. His friends quickly became interested, and he ended up releasing the first version as a course and on Amazon.
• The first version of the book came with lots of reader feedback. While the book has a good number of readers, many of them complained about diagrams not being clear and not being enough case studies. Alex decided to act on all the feedback and redid most of the book for the second version.
• The second version of the book took a year to write. Alex progressed roughly one chapter per month. He shared how coming up with "easy to understand" diagrams were time-consuming, as was finding the balance of progressing with "good enough" speed for the reader to follow.
• The book, over time, broke into the 100 Computers&Technology books on Amazon. At the time of my writing, it ranked as #89 in this category. Alex shared how this was an organic process. The book and accompanying course are now both popular enough for him to consider spending even more time on them.

Further systems design resources

Apart from this book, there are other good resources to learn about how real-world systems are built.

• Google's architecture in 2008 on High Scalability. I find it helpful to understand how companies handled scale over a decade ago. Keep in mind, Google was already bigger in 2008 than many companies need to worry about in 2020.
• Youtube architecture in 2008 . Building a system similar to YouTube is a common challenge. It's good to understand how YouTube addressed this, early on.
• Scale at Facebook in 2010 : how Facebook approached scaling challenges in their earlier days.
• Scaling Twitter in 2009 and in 2013
• The Netflix experimentation platform in 2016
• How these companies approached scale: Flickr , Dropbox , LinkedIn , Uber , Whatsapp , Pinterest .
• Money movements at scale at Uber - this is talking slightly home, as I worked with the system described in this article, and wrote about some of my learnings. Airbnb scaling their payments platform is also a good read.
• System Design Primer on GitHub: the largest collection of all systems related concepts worth knowing.
• High Scalability blog : the place to go for real-world scalability articles and discussions.
• Designing Data Intensive Applications book : this is a must-read book on distributed systems concepts and building blocks. It goes much deeper than this book does (or wants to). It's a more difficult and longer read. My two cents is anyone serious about distributed systems should read this book, which is also on my bookshelf.

Other paid courses:

• Systems Design Interview Course - from the author of this book, Alex Xu. Probably the most thorough resource.
• Grokking the systems design interview by educative.io ($66/year). A similar number of case studies, but fewer diagrams, and the diagrams are not as neat, judging from the example material as I've found in the book. I have heard many people recommend this course in the past, though.
• SystemsExpert by AlgoExpert ($79/year) 10 systems interview walkthroughs. Based on this video review , these are video walkthroughs. If you learn better with video, this might work well for you. I'd still recommend to pause and "draw ahead" to solidify the learnings.

Note that all of the above courses are a time-based subscription, meaning you lose access to them after a year. Another reason why getting a book might be a good investment: pay once; keep it forever.

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By Her Own Design: A Novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register Paperback – June 7, 2022

Purchase options and add-ons.

The incredible untold story of how Ann Lowe, a Black woman and granddaughter of slaves, rose above personal struggles and racial prejudice to design and create one of America's most famous wedding dresses of all time for Jackie Kennedy.

1953, New York City

Less than a week before the society wedding of the year where Jacqueline Bouvier will marry John F. Kennedy, a pipe bursts at Ann Lowe’s dress shop and ruins eleven dresses, including the expensive wedding dress, a dress that will be judged by thousands. A Black designer who has fought every step of the way, Ann knows this is only one struggle after a lifetime of them. She and her seamstresses will find the way to re-create the dresses. It may take all day and all night for the next week to accomplish the task, but they will do it.

1918, Tampa

Raised in Jim Crow Alabama, Ann learned the art of sewing from her mother and her grandmother, a former slave, who are the most talented seamstresses in the state. After Ann elopes at twelve with an older man who soon proves himself to be an abusive alcoholic, her dreams of becoming a celebrated designer seem to be put on hold. But then a wealthy Tampa socialite sees Ann’s talent and offers her an amazing opportunity—the chance to sew and design clothing for Florida’s society elite. Taking her young son in the middle of the night, Ann escapes her husband and embarks on the adventure of a lifetime.

Based on the true story of one of the most famous designers of the twenties through the sixties who has since been unjustly forgotten, By Her Own Design is an unforgettable novel of determination despite countless obstacles and a triumph celebrated by the world.

• Print length 384 pages
• Language English
• Publisher William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date June 7, 2022
• Dimensions 5.31 x 0.86 x 8 inches
• ISBN-10 0063059746
• ISBN-13 978-0063059740
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

"I could feel the love with which Piper Huguley crafted this tale about the life of Ann Cole Lowe, yet another "hidden figure" in American history. Huguley expertly morphs each one of Lowe's heartbreaks into triumph and hope." — Kaia Alderson, author of Sisters in Arms

"From the first words of By Her Own Design , Ann Lowe's vibrant, determined voice positively leaps off the page. Piper Huguley captures lightning in a bottle, an ideal match between writer and subject. In Huguley's talented hands, Lowe's remarkable story surges out of the shadows, practically demanding to be told and shared and celebrated." — Greer Macallister, bestselling author of The Magician's Lie and The Arctic Fury

"As intricate and impressive as one of Ann Lowe's designs, Piper Huguley's By Her Own Design isn't just the story of a dress, or even a life. It's a whirlwind trip through an America in flux, from the days of hobble skirts to the wobbly image of Lady Diana Spencer on a square tv screen, seen through the eyes of a woman so real and raw that you'll feel like you're living it all with her. This is biographical fiction at its very best!" — Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author of Band of Sisters

" By Her Own Design  is a vivid, powerful, and ultimately hopeful novel about “hidden figure” Ann Cole Lowe and her fight to create and deliver Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress—as well as her life-long battle for love, family, and legacy. Brava Piper Huguley, who brings a fascinating chapter of history to vibrant life. I loved it!" — Susan Elia MacNeal, New York Times bestselling author of the Maggie Hope series and  Mother Daughter Traitor Spy

“ By Her Own Design captivated me completely, from beginning to end. Ann Lowe’s voice rings out powerfully from the pages, and the reader will reckon with the world through her eyes—eyes that saw both beauty and pain, triumph and erasure. Piper Huguley has written a masterpiece for the ages, richly crafted with glamorous detail and unflinching emotion.” — Paulette Kennedy, author of Parting the Veil  

"I can’t remember the last time a book has enchanted me so much. Piper Huguley writes with an unparalleled voice, bringing the reader deep into the ambitious heart of one of the most influential figures in the history of western fashion. I couldn’t put this novel down." — Libbie Grant, author of The Prophet’s Wife

"Piper Huguley’s By Her Own Desig n is a breathtaking journey. With masterful craftsmanship, Huguley brings to life the story of Ann Lowe, the first African-American fashion designer. Lowe learns her craft at her mother and grandmother’s knees and ascends to the highest levels of the fashion industry in New York despite every possible challenge being thrown her way. Huguley’s deft rendering of Lowe’s tale is at once heart-rending and uplifting. Compulsively readable, with a rich cast of characters and flawless pacing. I fully predict this book will be a breakout hit of the season. Not to be missed!" — Aimie K. Runyan, bestselling author of The School for German Brides

"I flew through the pages of this fascinating novel about Ann Lowe and her incredible rise in the fashion industry. In By Her Own Design , Piper Huguley has written a wonderfully inspiring and intimate book that will leave readers hungry to read more about women who have been overlooked for far too long. Don't miss this one!" — Elise Hooper, author of Angels of the Pacific

For too many years fashion designer Ann Lowe's work has gone uncredited, but Piper Huguley's utterly compelling novel celebrates her incredible designs and work in a gripping story as intricately detailed as one Lowe's gowns. Huguley is masterful in bringing Lowe's voice to life through her struggles and her triumphs.  By Her Own Design is a must-read!  — Julia Kelly, international bestselling author of The Last Dance of the Debutante

" By Her Own Design ’s powerful voice and dedicated research bring an unsung heroine into the well-deserved spotlight. Fierce and fashionable Ann Lowe, long erased from history as the unnamed "colored dressmaker" behind Jackie Kennedy's famous wedding dress, claws her way here from a Jim Crow Alabama childhood to a storied career as dress designer for the social elite. Her climb is mesmerizing-- Piper Huguley has crafted a heroine for the ages!" — Kate Quinn, NY Times Bestselling author of The Diamond Eye

“Piper Huguley’s By Her Own Design is a sumptuous quilt with lyrical lace and detailed thread work that made an iconic life feel authentic and heartwarming… Readers will love getting to know Ann Lowe and the story behind the designs.” — Vanessa Riley, Bestselling Author of Island Queen

"The facts of Ann Lowe's life are remarkable, but Huguley has taken us a step further, harnessing the art of fiction to invoke the emotions of her experiences and bring Ann Lowe to life." — Elizabeth Way, Associate Curator, The Museum at FIT and editor of Black Designers in American Fashion. 

"Piper Huguely’s captivating and eye-opening novel By Her Own Design , explores the life of Ann Lowe, a gifted woman descended from slaves, who overcomes brutal racial prejudice and personal strife to become a dress designer for society’s elite, ultimately designing Jacqueline Bouvier's iconic wedding gown. Like Lowe’s gorgeous and whimsical dress designs, Huguley’s By Her Own Design is beautifully crafted with meticulous attention to detail, pulling this extraordinary woman out of the shadows of history and bringing her into the light for posterity." — Jane Healey, bestselling author of The Secret Stealers

"A remarkable, exciting read, not only because Huguley brings to life a brilliant fashion designer who's been lost to history, but because she practically channels the spirit and voice of Ann Lowe. This is a book to be devoured." — Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Magnolia Palace

"Piper Huguley's novel follows the arc of Ann Lowe's amazing life from her childhood in Alabama fashioning ethereal silk flowers to the greatest commission of her career, the wedding dress of Jacqueline Bouvier to John F Kennedy. The challenges of that life and her determination to succeed are beautifully recounted in this wonderful story." — Dr. Kate Strasdin, Senior Lecturer, Cultural Studies at Falmouth University

"An extraordinary woman steps from the pages of this novel, full of courage and tenacity despite the limitations placed on her because of the color of her skin. I love the distinctive voice of Ann Lowe: she’s a true original. It's difficult to write in first person but Piper Huguley completely nails it, giving us a character who sounds and feels utterly authentic. It's a compelling read." — Gill Paul, author of The Manhattan Girls

About the Author

Piper Huguley is the author of By Her Own Design as well as the Home to Milford College and the Migrations of the Heart series. She is a multiple-time Golden Heart finalist. Piper blogs about the history behind her novels on her website. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and son.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow Paperbacks (June 7, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0063059746
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063059740
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.86 x 8 inches
• #35 in Black & African American Historical Fiction (Books)
• #78 in Cultural Heritage Fiction
• #278 in Black & African American Women's Fiction (Books)

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About the author

Piper huguley.

Piper G. Huguley’s biographical historical fiction, By Her Own Design: a novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register (William Morrow Publishing) tells the inspiring story of the Black fashion designer of Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress. By Her Own Design was a Booklist top 100 Editor’s Choice selection for 2022, was named one of the top 100 books of 2022 in Canada by the Globe and Mail newspaper and was selected as the historical fiction winner for 2022 by the American Library Association’s Reading Council.

She is also the author of Sweet Tea, a contemporary romance about food and history (of course) and the author of two historical romance series: “Migrations of the Heart”, about the Great Migration and “Home to Milford College”. Her next historical fiction book, American Daughters (2024), is the story of the decades-long interracial friendship between Alice Roosevelt and Portia Washington, the rebel teenage daughters of President Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington, respectively. She is a literature professor at Clark-Atlanta University and blogs about the history behind her novels at http://piperhuguley.com . She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and son.

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Author-Senior architect-Critic-Urbanist

The nature of urban design- A book review

the nature of urban design author Alexandros Washburn is from an art and biology major; he studied master of architecture from Harvard University. He worked in several areas of specialty in the United Nations as public work advisor, president of a big development in Pennsylvania, a partner in architecture and landscape firm, chief urban designer in Department of City Planning in New York, a professor in Stevens Institute of Technology, and now having his own practice in broklyen. It is obvious that the author possesses various experiences in architecture and urban design as well as research. Most of his career work is focused on environmental issues that influence the city he lives in. climate change and storms hitting the city of New York pulled all his attention and was the major drive of his work. The author wanted to–through his work- to experience and observe closely what happens to inhabitants and the city when hurricane hits the city .He was on the roof of his house when hurricane hit the streets , lights and power off, people vacated, sand all over the place, sea water hit the banks of shores.

Whoever sees the need to transform our cities, people who want to become urban designers whether they are students or practitioners in the field of–politics, finance, design- or who help to enhance the design of the city, this book is for them. He emphasizes the need for citizen’s involvement and participation in the urban design process as community involvement and stakeholder involvement for that ordinary people need to read this book. He claims ordinary people should read this book because they have a role in building our cities may be through their effect on politics .He thinks that public intervention is very important to define factors that influence the separation of poor neighborhoods from rich neighborhoods, the idea of urban design as a universal language. In my experience, the book though limited benefit because its focus on managing risk and environmental issues in the urban design process it can serve a wide range of readers, people looking for: strategies to tackle environmental disasters, community and stakeholder involvement in the urban design process, practitioners and students who want to strengthen their capabilities in making the urban design products, general interest about why city should transform.

In the beginning of the book the author describes the context of New York City as a city specialized in ship building and industrial sector; the city is under regular attack of environmental hurricane causing various disasters. The book is centered on a general theme; this theme is the answer to the two questions raised by the author. Why do we care about cities? And why Americans live in suburban areas? The book focus on mitigation strategies to prevent disasters of hurricane hitting megacities like new York ; the urban design role to participate in the resilience work to decrease risk and damage in disaster time by increasing community involvement and stakeholder involvement. The author emphasizes the need to make urban design a major discipline to face climate change and increase the quality of living in cities.

The author in his book introduction gives a clear message that he “loves his city, new York city”. The introduction starts by indicating the last mayor city evacuation he was in the city, but this time he is going to stay. Washburn describes various things starting from the characteristics of his city being a place of building ships and the place of industrial activity and warehouses. His neighborhood population count and what is the physical form of it; and at the time of hurricane how the roofs and building were as well as how people move in that event to safe areas. The author proceeds in describing the storm event and what he saw and experienced in the city and the neighborhood the lights shut down, the buildings surrounded by water, the roofs leaking water. I think the introduction does not provide a clear message related to the goal of writing this book, but to describe or tell a story of the storm hitting the area he lives in. In reading the introduction, the reader does not have a clear idea about the book content or what is he going to read.

The book is built in an extreme hierarchy from the preface to the last chapter. As he indicates in a paragraph who should read this book it’s for every one interested in urban design. The book structure is merely a story of a city that is hit by a hurricane, in some areas of the book, he introduces examples of facing climate change. The book provides in general the method of urban design work in the American context with no correlation to theory or detailing the relation of these process components to professional practice.

The author connects all the book components, chapters, paragraphs in high hierarchy. In the first chapter, he talks about the effect of city on nature and vise versa. The city design affects our environment if not designed properly; the city could increase gas emission and environment temperature as well as sea level. In his second chapter defines three phases of the urban design process, designing the problem, designing the solution, implementing the solution. The third chapter is focused on the urban design production as he names it the products: building brief, writing guidelines, structuring rules of the development, and the urban development design. He hints to the misconception of urban design build cities, but it makes products. The author transfers directly to an example in chapter four of the high line project in Chelsea in USA to reflect the previous chapters on the project development. Resilience is a major idea he focuses on within the urban design process, mitigation and adaptation; the strategies to achieve resilience are mainly green building and sustainability concepts. He drags the reader to examples from the world to reflect the misconception and the introduced ideas to land with the reader on a concept he believes in that urban design is about transformation.

Since the book as I have mentioned earlier simulate sustainability concepts; most of the book ideas are to date relevant in terms of research content and correlation to urban design debate. But Washburn did not provide alternate solutions or new proposals to tackle the problems he intends to turn the public concern to. In many areas of the book in presenting an idea it lacks proper support as he is an academic specialist in his field no reference to: studies in urban design, statistics support his arguments nor graphs or illustrations, but mostly are photos from cities in the world mainly from Hong Kong.  

Alexandros is concerned about his city new York, the climate change, the risks of storms hitting the city, community involvement in building the policies, the role of urban design in transforming the city, the people engagement in the urban design process and politics, and finally he was very successful to reflect the book title and to connect all the content to it . In every chapter, Washburn repeats again and again his extreme interest in his city and his love to New York.

From the first eye catch on the book index it is closely ties to the chapters of the book and their content. What was needed to enhance the visibility and attraction to interested people to buy the book is to provide subdivisions to every book chapter. This will allow the reader to take full picture of the book content and to examine whether the relevant information and knowledge he is looking for exists in the book.

This is not the place to discuss the green space movement or the similar one’s targeted to enhance the urban environment in country side development and as well in city centers. The author does not link any of his discussions to any organizations research, university studies, or professional guidelines and best practices. The author focus on three urban designers works from the early mid 20 th century. Olmsted efforts to build New York central park and how it became a reservoir to many inhabitants and water. Moses work on the derelict areas in New York to build the middle class towers and the automobile network to enhance middle class labor living conditions. Jane Jacob works to enhance what mosses started to focus on daily activity in the city’s streets and the importance of community involvement.

Regardless it is a valuable book for students in various majors such as geography, planning, political science, architecture, and environment as the book theme is repeated and could be found in other books in much more detail. The book gives a general idea for practitioners and non related professionals about the urban design process from the American context and perspective. If the reader is looking for a good information about the documentation work within the urban design process then this is one of the books he need to read. This book review was written based on my method of writing a book review check details click here .

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