NEW YORK — The holidays bring out a coffee-table book obsession in gift buyers. They’re easy, weighty and satisfying to give. You’ve done your job with your pricey treat.
A few to consider for music lovers, history buffs, foodies, fashionistas and more:
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MUSIC
• “The Beatles: The BBC Archives: 1962-1970,” by Kevin Howlett, Harper Design, $60. The Fab Four’s years on air at home, as told in transcripts of interviews, photos and internal documents. Coincides with the November 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, $45. 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 program 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, $29. 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 totaling 27 tracks.
HISTORY & MEDIA
• “Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the National Collection,” edited by Neil Kagan and Stephen G. Hyslop, Smithsonian Books, $40. 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, $65. Anything you ever wanted to know about the magazine in archival black-and-white, color covers and illustrations, all spanning the arts, war and politics.
• “Vietnam: The Real War,” by The Associated Press, $40. 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, $60. Notebooks, sketches and interviews from the mind of the “Hellboy” and “Pan’s Labyrinth” creator. Thoughts from Neil Gaiman, Ron Perlman and others.
FASHION & CELEBRITY
• “Dior Glamour,” by Mark Shaw, Rizzoli New York, $115. Shaw was behind the lens at the House of Dior shooting haute couture from 1952 to 1962. Color 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, $25. 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.
FOOD
• “Fruit: Edible, Inedible, Incredible,” by Wolfgang Stuppy and Rob Kesseler, Earth Aware Editions, $35. 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.
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