The holidays bring out the inner-coffee table book obsessive in gift-buyers. They're easy, weighty and satisfying to give. You've done your job with your pricey treat. Here's a few to consider for music lovers, history buffs, foodies, fashionistas and more:
MUSIC
- The Beatles: The BBC Archives: 1962-1970
by Kevin Howlett, Harper Design
The Fab Four's years on air at home, as told in transcripts of interviews, photos and internal documents. Coincides with the release of a new album, On Air _ At The BBC, Volume 2.
- Soul Train: The Music, Dance And Style Of A Generation
by Questlove, Harper Design
Aretha, Smokey, Ike and Tina, Marvin, Michael, Diana _ and plenty of photos and text covering the work of Don Cornelius, host of the longest running syndicated programme in TV history. The frontman for the Roots takes us on the journey through the show's debut in 1971 to 1993, the final episode Cornelius, the creator, hosted.
- Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music That Changed The World
by Robbie Robertson, Jim Guerinot, Sebastian Robertson and Jared Levine, Tundra Books
For young readers, the music industry vets offer an introduction to 27 legends, including James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding. Includes two CDs totalling 27 tracks.
HISTORY & MEDIA
- Smithsonian Civil War: Inside The National Collection
edited by Neil Kagan and Stephen G. Hyslop, Smithsonian Books
From the story of Winchester, the swift-footed horse of Union commander Philip Sheridan, to Winslow Homer sketches.
- Vanity Fair 100 Years: From The Jazz Age To Our Age
edited by Graydon Carter, Abrams
Anything you ever wanted to know about the magazine in archival black-and-white, colour covers and illustrations.
- Vietnam: The Real War
by The Associated Press
Mostly black-and-white, up-close photography of the fog and debris of war, including an injured John McCain and the cut of a knife into the belly of a Viet Cong prisoner under interrogation by a South Vietnamese soldier.
FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY
- Guillermo del Toro, Cabinet Of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections And Other Obsessions
by del Toro and Marc Scott Zicree,
Harper Design
Notebooks, sketches and interviews from the mind of the Hellboy and Pan's Labrynth creator. Thoughts from Neil Gaiman, Ron Perlman and others.
- Humans Of New York
by Brandon Stanton, St. Martin's Press
Includes 400 colour portraits from the meandering chronicler of the New York condition.
- The Wizard Of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion
by Jay Scarfone and William Stillman, Harper Design
Production stills, munchkin and Dorothy hair and wardrobe tests. Mock certificates for a brain, courage, heart and home are included in a back envelope of memorabilia, along with a death certificate for the Wicked Witch of the East.
- Caught In The Act: Actors Acting
by Howard Schatz, Beverly J. Ornstein and Owen Edwards, Glitterati Inc
Portraiture by Schatz with oral histories and improvisation at his direction. See Sam Waterston respond to the prompt: "You're a dairy farmer who hates cows, hates milk and hates getting up at 4am 7 days a week, just after signing a mineral rights deal with a natural gas drilling company." One hundred percent of royalties from sale of the book to be donated in equal shares to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and the SAG Foundation.
FASHION & CELEBRITY
- Dior Glamour
by Mark Shaw, Rizzoli New York
Shaw was behind the lens at the House of Dior shooting haute couture from 1952 to 1962. Colour and black-and-white candids, portraits, commercial spreads and shots of intimate fashion shows for small crowds, conducted in utter silence and without music.
- The Dirty Side Of Glamour
by Tyler Shields, HarperCollins
Celebrities bloodied, naked, on fire and otherwise staged for the unrelenting, Los Angeles-based provocateur. He includes the infamous chainsaw hacking of a $100,000 Birkin bag, Gary Busey in a straitjacket and never-before-seen work.
- Hollywood Costumeedited
by Deborah Nadoolman Landis, Abrams
Spans the silent era to present day with brief histories, accounts by costume greats like Edith Head and the people they dress. Learn what Johnny Depp thinks about the impact of his costumes on his work, along with Robert De Niro, a collector of the clothes he wears on set.
FOOD
- The Photography Of Modernist Cuisine
by Nathan Myhrvold, The Cooking Lab
Composed dishes levitated to reveal every delectable part. Food bisected in ovens and pots and beautifully scrutinised microscopically. The photo-scientists at The Cooking Lab offer lush, oversized spreads and all their secrets on how the work was done. Not a cookbook.
- Fruit: Edible, Inedible, Incredible
by Wolfgang Stuppy and Rob Kesseler, Earth Aware Editions
Similar microscopic cross-sections focused on fruit, seeds and nature's seed dispersers from the toucan to the fruit bat. Exhaustive scientific text. Stuppy is the seed morphologist for the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, the international conservation project.
