It is no doubt inescapable to anyone who steps into a bookshop that this is the time of year is when book publishers load up their releases with big books traditionally falling under the rubric “coffee table” or “art” books: oversize books with lots of illustrations, photographic or other wise, usually curated around (one can hope) a novel theme. Whatever the content, these monographs are strong arguments for the printed book—the size of the images having much to do with their impact on the viewer. Probably every publication, Web or print, is offering their readers an edited list of their “hot,” “best,” and “quintessential.” Normally consensus is not a bad thing—but the small range of choices selected (as in the small number of titles reviewed) necessarily ignores a plenitude of wonder—such as represented by the books that follow.