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Five cover options for Andrew Levy's Cracking Up, all based on Judith Ornstein's "Listening," all in PDF format. They are roughly as follows:

CrackingUp-cover1-Listening.pdf
For this cover, I used P'shop to extend the texture of the paper out to the edges of the cover, so that Jude's image floats on the page. This one was the most work but it's also my least favorite, as I find it a little too "digital" -- esp. heavy-handed on the blur effect, most noticeably on the back cover.

CrackingUp-cover2-Listening.pdf
For this cover and those that follow, I boxed the image up in the standard way, deciding to let the layout and typography act as a counterpoint to Jude's image instead of relying on the image alone for interest. I particularly like the way that the image is slightly askew against the box, which makes the elements seem to drift slightly -- cracking up. This one uses a white background and black type, nicely understated; however, white covers tend not to wear all that well imho.

CrackingUp-cover3-Listening.pdf
Same strategy, this time using a black background and white type. I also reversed the frame on the image box to white, a simple innovation but one that, I think, gives the cover a flat, modern look that fits with the typesetting inside.

CrackingUp-cover4-Listening.pdf
Same strategy as #3, this time with a midnight blue background.

CrackingUp-cover5-Listening.pdf
Same strategy as #3, this time with an orange background.

CrackingUp-cover6-Listening.pdf
Same strategy as #3, this time with a green background.

Finally, here is the book layout for comparison: CrackingUp-layout-HelveticaNeueLTStd.pdf.