One of the nice things about having a Book of the Month (referral link) subscription is that books that are released only in paperback get a nice, color-matched hardcover (although later reprints may substitute colors). My November 2024 BOTM pick was Julie Leong‘s The Teller of Small Fortunes. BOTM’s quick take reads:
In this magical story, a group of lovable misfits look for their place in the world and discover it with each other.
BOTM also tags this book as Magical, Quest, Cozy, and LGBTQ+ themes. I agree for the most part; The Teller of Small Fortunes has D&D questing vibes, with a magical but cozy storyline where your party accomplished things but the most important thing was getting the time to hang out and strengthen the friendships.
However, although this book is LGBTQ+ friendly, none of the main characters are explicitly LGBTQ+, and there are no significant romance storylines (LGBTQ+ or otherwise). If you pick up this book expecting a significant LGBTQ+ representation, you may be disappointed.
I have been sucked into the whole special edition books phenomenon and beautiful edges, and I wanted to try my hand at customizing my own book to make it my own “special edition.”
I tried to match the edges with the front cover. I used acrylic markers (Posca but also random acrylic pens from Amazon), watercolor pencils (Caran D’Ache Museum Aquarelle Pencils) for shading, and Tombow clear brush pens to activate the watercolor pencils. I finished it with Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating Spray.
This was my first painted edge that wasn’t a one-color edge, so I got pretty lucky here. (As I will later learn with another book, the acrylic + watercolor combo is great because too much acrylic layering will just make the edges peel off. Beginner’s luck was with me on this one.)
Some more photos:
I also wanted to add other touches, like a ribbon bookmark. I glued (Elmer’s Craft Bond) and stapled a ribbon between two notecard cutouts, then glued it down to the backing with Loctite transparent Vinyl, Fabric & Plastic flexible adhesive. I found that it’s easier to do this with the book opened in the middle; I used a book holder to hold the book open. To prevent fraying on the ribbon end, I placed a thin line of glue using Elmer’s Craft Bond clear dual tip glue pen.
I also like to protect my dust covers, so I used Brodart’s Just a Fold III book covers from Manaus Books.
Inside, I made custom endpapers using assets from Envato Elements (I have a yearly sub), specifically graphic elements uploaded by users moonery and bazzier.
Of course, even before my customization to my own tastes, the book itself was already such a beautiful work of art. Devin Elle Kurtz illustrated the cover, and Katie Anderson designed the cover.
The title and author font on the front cover is Splandor (all font identifications thanks to the Identify This Font subreddit).
The insides are also very lovely; Nancy Resnick at Penguin Random House designed the book.
The font used on the title page is Milonga. The body text on the flap is Roomy.
Unlike the UK edition that identifies the font used for the book, the US ACE edition does not. The Chinese on the dedication page is in Simplified Chinese (爸爸，谢谢你) and reads, “Dad, thank you.”
The chapter headings are really fun; there are five little icons that rotate throughout the chapters:
The font used throughout the text of the book is Carré Noir. I thought it was a great choice and reflected magical coziness.
And just as I finished all my customizations, my signed bookplate arrived in the mail! I am so grateful to the author and her generosity with her time.
The signature is accompanied with Julie Leong’s Chinese name stamped using Chinese seal ink paste; Julie Leong’s Chinese name is 梁如涛 (Liang Ru Tao in pinyin)…perhaps the inspiration for the main character’s name, Tao?
The BOTM edition also comes with a Reader’s Guide at the end with six discussion questions to mull over during book club.
As you will come to see in later posts, I really loved this book, because this won’t be the last edition of The Teller of Small Fortunes that I own.