(no subject)

[42itous]

This puzzle by selinker (known in the National Puzzlers' League as Slik) appeared in the Saturday-evening puzzle extravaganza at this year's NPL convention.

Each group of nine books can be divided into three groups: one linked by their authors, one by titles, and the third by cover images. Each group of three is part of a four-member set; figure out what the fourth word or phrase is in each set.

Table 1:


Table 2:


Table 3:


Table 4:


Table 5:


I apologize that not all the covers are legible: I tried to find an appropriate balance between legibility and overfilling your screen. If you ask me nicely, I'll send you a higher-resolution version of any or all images.
There was more to the puzzle, but it had to do with tying these answers in to a meta-puzzle encompassing the whole evening, and I think that sorting the books was the fun part of this puzzle.

PLEASE please don't post spoilers in the comments! I haven't solved the whole puzzle yet (I'm still missing six answers), and other readers of this post will want to solve from scratch.

Comments

[nurrynur.livejournal.com]

I'm looking up each book on Amazon to get the title/author/better idea of the cover.. I'll post the title and author, so others don't have to do the same legwork. Cover interpretation is subjective and what I see might be different than others, so I'm not including that.

Table 1:
Why Can't Sharon Kowalski Come Home? / Karen Thompson and Julie Andrzejewski
Never Say Never: Ten Lessons to Turn You Can't Into Yes I Can / Phyllis George
Best Easy Day Hikes Salt Lake City / Brian Brinkerhoff
The Revolution: A Manifesto / Ron Paul
Perfect Murder Perfect Town: JonBenet and the City of Boulder / Lawrence Schiller
Santa Fe Dead / Stuart Woods
I am third / Gale Sayers with Al Silverman
Midnight Murders/Katherine John
Every Second Counts / Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins