Beauty, be it in nature or art, is at the heart of this dozen new coffee-table books. Photographs of forest, animals, artworks and architecture play well in the big format and work well as gifts. Here a few fresh-for-the-season eye-catchers.
Nature
"Birds of Paradise: Revealing the World's Most Extraordinary Birds." It's unlikely that you're going to venture to New Guinea in the coming year, but you can armchair-travel there now via this colorful book about the exotic, oddly behaved birds that call it home. Photographer Tim Laman and Edwin Scholes from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology spent a decade documenting all 39 species, tracking their elusive subjects known for extravagant plumage through rain forests by perching in tree crowns or cleverly designed jungle blinds. (National Geographic Books, $50)
"Longleaf, Far As the Eye Can See." Pines are so plentiful around these parts that it's hard to think of any species of them being endangered. But logging, suppression of fire, destruction by landowners and other factors have reduced the longleaf forests that once stretched from Texas to Maryland to Florida. Once commanding 92 million acres, these old-growth pines are now found on only 3 million acres. Beth Maynor Young's photographs make a compelling case for their beauty, and the closing essay by Rhett Johnson, director of the Longleaf Alliance, makes an equally persuasive case for the preservation and restoration of this Southern forest staple. (University of North Carolina Press, $35)
"Safari: A Photicular Book." This small book is a page-turner of a new order. Using a never-before-seen technology involving sliding lenses and four-color video imagery, the movement of eight African animals comes to life as viewers flip "Safari's" 16 pages. A western lowland gorilla chews on foliage. A plains zebra gallops. An African elephant snaps its ears. There is accompanying information about each animal and an essay by Carol Kaufmann about experiencing a safari, but it's hard to take your eyes off photographer-inventor Dan Kainen's movie-like pictures. (Workman, $24.95)
"Owls of the World: A Photographic Guide." Many humans adore these mostly nocturnal birds and see them as smart and a bit mystical, while many birds see them as a threat. But even if you're on the fence about them, this guide could turn you into an "owlaholic" (defined herein as anyone who collects items carrying owl images). Author Heimo Mikkola provides detailed text on every one of the world's 249 owl species. The 750 photographs are more guide-y than artful, but the birds are captivating beauties on their own. (Firefly, $49.95)
"The Life & Love of Cats." When it comes to felines, most folks are all the way in or all the way out. Lewis Blackwell's handsome coffee-table book isn't going to change that but certainly will play like catnip to the first group. Blackwell takes inspiration from the mythical nine lives of the cat to organize nine chapters exploring our connection to them. The book's fussy design overplays typographic tricks, from blowing up short odes to kitties over two-page spreads (with attributions for these quotes annoyingly way in the back) to eye-strainingly tiny type filling other pages. Cat lovers likely will skip all that and ooh and aah over the 115 images the author selected from leading international animal photographers. (Abrams, $50)
Art and architecture
"O. Winston Link: Life Along the Line." More than five decades after he shot his last image of America's last major steam railroad, the Norfolk and Western, photography and railroad purists still celebrate Link's dramatically lit nighttime photos of iron horses. A large number of his classic images are here, many imbued with Link's flair for hyper reality. But as the subtitle suggests, so are a cache of never-before-published pictures showing that this native son of Appalachia also was interested in the region's true grit. There are portraits of townsfolk, images of N&W railroaders at work, street and home scenes and even daytime steam engine shots. Link's genius wasn't limited to the smoke-filled dark. (Abrams, $40)
"Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial." A companion piece to the outstanding same-titled exhibit at the High Museum of Art, this book lends deeper meaning to the 59 works on view by the Alabama self-taught artist. Dial's wall-mounted assemblages, free-standing sculptures and drawings are dense with meaning, and exhibit curator Joanne Cubbs explains nuances in his potent critiques of social issues in America. (Prestel, $45) Also consider the same-titled catalog for the concurrent exhibit,"Fast Forward: Modern Moments, 1913-2013." (Museum of Modern Art, $50)
"The Civil War and American Art." Responding to the desecration of the American Flag during the shelling at Fort Sumter, Frederic Edwin Church in 1861 painted red and white stripes and Union stars across the night sky in the landscape "Our Banner in the Sky." As Smithsonian American Art Museum senior curator Eleanor Jones Harvey illustrates in this compelling tome, the advent of photography made it impossible for American artists to approach the Civil War within the hero-worshipping conventions of European history painting. She writes in this survey of artwork created between 1859 and 1876 that landscape painting "became the emotional barometer of the mood of the nation." (Yale University Press, $65)
"The Art Book: New Edition." Art, like time, marches on. A fresh idea when it was published in 2005, this art dictionary needed a freshening up to catch up to developments in 21st century art. The "New Edition" adds more than 100 works and incorporates newer media such as performance art and video installations. Across 592 pages (listing artists alphabetically), each maker is represented by a full-page illustration of a signature work, accompanied by concise text summarizing the piece in the context of its creator's career. (Phaidon, $59.95)
"20th Century World Architecture: The Phaidon Atlas." It might be a good idea to bolster that coffee table before sliding this massive compendium atop it. For sheer heft, it's hard to imagine any of this season's gift books overtaking this 832-page, 18.3-pound whopper, documenting 750 of the world's best buildings from a century of towering architectural accomplishment. No, there are no Atlanta landmarks among the 3,000 color and 2,500 black-and-white images. (Phaidon, $200) But the High Museum of Art is featured in "Richard Meier," a career-spanning survey of 90 of the New York architect's buildings, including the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art. (Phaidon, $59.95)
