Today Granta unveiled that gorgeous cover for Granta 112, painted by truck and bus artist Islam Gull from a Bhutta village in Karachi.

Released this fall, the new Pakistan-themed issue will feature work by Daniyal Mueenuddin, Fatima Bhutto, and Lorraine Adams working with Ayesha Nasir.

Here’s more from the journal: ” Gull, born in Peshawar, has been painting since the age of thirteen. Twenty-two years ago he settled in Karachi, where he now teaches his craft to two young apprentices. In addition to trucks and buses, Gull decorates buildings and housewares and has worked for several consulates in Karachi, as well as traveling to Kandahar, Afghanistan to paint trucks there. Commissioned with the assistance of the British Council in Karachi, Gull produced two chipboard panels to be photographed for the magazine’s cover, using the same industrial paints with which he embellishes Pakistani trucks.”

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Simon & Schuster has unveiled the cover for journalist Bob Woodward‘s forthcoming book, Obama’s Wars. The 441-page tome will hit shelves on September 27th, Wooward’s 16th book.

Here’s more from the release: “Working behind the scenes for 18 months, Woodward has written the most intimate and sweeping portrait of Obama making the critical decisions on the Afghanistan War, the secret war in Pakistan and the worldwide fight against terrorism. Drawing on internal memos, classified documents, meeting notes and hundreds of hours of interviews with most of the key players, including the president, Woodward offers an original, you-are-there account of Obama and his team in this time of turmoil and uncertainty.”

The cover image is embedded above. In addition, The Washington Post will publish excerpts from the book on the week of publication.

The Penguin imprint Grosset & Dunlap released Dick and Jane and Vampires this month, bringing the mash-up trend to children’s books. We caught up with Penguin designer Megan Bennett to find out how they created more than 80 mash-up images for the book.

Bennett explained: “This book was truly a collaborative project. After the author, Laura Marchesani, had brilliantly reinterpreted text from the original Dick and Jane stories to fit the addition of Vampire to the plot, it was my job to see that the illustrator did the same with the addition of Vampire into the illustrations. Laura and I worked together, using her manuscript, to compile the art suggestions for each story.

She added: “Then, I amassed a sort of digital library of original Dick and Jane illustrations from the previous stories that would be used in this book. This library was passed along to the illustrator, Tommy Hunt, with the illustration suggestions.”

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Comedian and writer Dan Wilbur has launched a Tumblr blog simplifying the titles of popular books–revealing the juicy bits that a tasteful book jacket might hide. It’s perfect for a sleepy summer Friday.

Above, you can see Wilbur’s take on Stieg Larsson‘s bestselling The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. Another one of our favorites was “A Quaint Midafternoon Panic Attack” as the new title for Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. You can submit your own suggestions to dwilbs [at] gmail [dot] com.

Here’s more about the site: “This page is for people who have trouble slogging through the information on book jackets or feel intimidated by the title and cover itself. How many times have you perused the cover of a novel only to rub your sore eyes and realize you’ve learned NOTHING from the book’s title?! This blog is for people who do not have thousands of hours to read book reviews or blurbs or first sentences. I will cut through all the cryptic crap, and give you the meat of the story in one condensed image.” (Via Sarah Weinman)

In its annual “The Chart of Fantasy Art” survey, Orbit Books revealed that a whopping 35 percent of all fantasy cover dragons were colored green in 2009.

Here’s an excerpt about dragon trends on fantasy covers: “Green dragons featured prominently on fantasy covers this year — 35% of the dragons spotted wore dazzling shades of moss and emerald. Close behind were orange/rust colored dragons. Although we have no actual proof of this, our best scientific hypothesis is that dragons, being just a fantastical mashup of a lizard and a dinosaur, tend to most frequently follow actual reptilian coloring… BORING. We were happy to see some white, red, and black dragon activity, but one question: Where are all the purple dragons?”

Earlier this week, the survey revealed that swords dominated fantasy cover art for the second year in a row. Despite the proliferation of sword covers, the pointy symbols appeared on 20 percent less covers than last year–a dramatic reduction in an infamous cliché. In addition, abs are in and stilettos are out for fantasy heroine cover images.

It’s only August, but for those with Twilight fans on their Christmas list it might not be a bad idea to start shopping early. Bookseller reports that Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight Saga is coming out in limited paperback editions with a white background for its covers. The edge of the pages as well as the back cover will be a bloody crimson.

Here’s more from Bookseller: “The four limited-edition titles: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, will be published by Atom on 14th October as £7.99 paperbacks, available only in the UK and Ireland, and Little, Brown’s territories including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. The white editions will not be available in the US.”

GalleyCat reported back in June that Stephenie Meyer is “really burned out on vampires.” Despite those feelings, the franchise churned out The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner published earlier this summer in addition to the white-covered special edition.

HarperCollins unveiled the cover for pop star Justin Bieber‘s memoir, Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever: My Story. The book will be released in October 2010.

People also provided a glimpse inside the memoir: “Fans can expect to read about Bieber’s jet-setting lifestyle (performing in front of thousands on his world tour), his road to stardom (from viral video to meeting Usher in Atlanta) and personal anecdotes about his family and best friends. As an added bonus for those with “Bieber Fever,” the book, to be published by HarperCollins, will also include tidbits about the tween’s love life, including his history with girls and his very first date.”

GalleyCat readers debated the Bieber memoir news last week. Bieber’s four million Twitter followers regularly enjoy his online writing.

Just in case you needed more celebrity book cover news, here’s a glimpse at the cover of Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian’s new book.

Do you prefer the original cover on your favorite book or the updated version?

Flavorpill put together a photo montage of several books who have had book cover cosmetic surgery over the years. Iconic classics such as George Orwell‘s 1984, Aldous Huxley‘s Brave New World, and Truman Capote‘s In Cold Blood have all been redesigned.

Flavorpill writes: “While some of these covers have clearly been redesigned with an eye towards picking up a new kind of consumer, others are just ‘modernized’ or simply ‘ruined.’ Peep 14 before and after cover designs for yourself after the jump, and let us know whether you prefer the classic or the nouveau.”

Earlier this summer, GalleyCat reported when contestants on Bravo’s reality show, Work of Art, were challenged to re-create covers for select Penguin titles. Those titles included Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and Dracula by Bram Stoker. The winning cover is for The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (pictured).

Yesterday we mentioned the recent episode of Bravo’s Work of Art, in which contestants competed to see who could design the best book cover for selections like Frankenstein and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The winner was contestant John, for his futuristic pineapple. But today we’re going to look at the runner up, Nicole, who appears to have created a design for Alice that really could be a book cover–and, in fact, is.

John C. Ford, an author and GalleyCat reader, points us to a book by Heidi Durrow called The Girl Who Fell From The Sky, which shares some key characteristics with Nicole’s entry. Ford explains on his blog: “I’m loathe to speculate too much here, as I have no idea how the Bravo contestant came up with her design, how she executed it, or even when the episode was taped. Yet, at first glance, it would appear that the two designs share significant similarities. The female form in the Alice cover [pictured on the left] is facing the opposite direction, does not appear to have braids, and seems to have her legs positioned differently. But at the conceptual level–a stark, silhouette image of a female form falling in free space–well, they appear nearly identical.”

It’s a stretch, but he’s got a point. Again, there’s simply not enough to call foul play–people use silhouetted girls in art all the time. If she did copy the Durrow book cover, she’s guilty of being lazy. And if she didn’t, then she’s guilty of unoriginality. What’s worse?

Two Jersey Shore castmates landed a book deal yesterday and we joked: In this celebrity-obsessed publishing environment, could reality TV shows replace creative writing MFA programs? Then, we uncovered the sobering video clip embedded above–a book cover shoot featured inside a reality TV show.

The Bravo reality show Real Housewives of New York City recorded that book cover shoot for Jill Zarin. She’s a member of the Housewives cast and co-author of Secrets of a Jewish Mother: Real Advice, Real Stories, Real Love. The reality TV star co-wrote the book with her mother and sister, both celebrities as well.

Here’s more about the book: “In what could be thought of as the Jewish Mother’s Guide to Life, Jill Zarin, the breakout star of Bravo’s hit series, The Real Housewives of New York, teams up with her sister, Lisa Wexler, award-winning host of daily radio program The Lisa Wexler Show, and her mother, the estimable Gloria Kamen who made a splash on Jill’s series last year. Secrets of a Jewish Mother shows readers that being clear about what you want is the best policy, and standing up for yourself and your family is always the right way to go.”