Hello, scoopthelake-rs! I’m so excited to be introducing my world to you; my world of books! I’m an avid reader with books thrown throughout my apartment. Each month or so, I’ll bring you great (at least I think they’re great) books for all your reading pleasure.
I hope you’ll dig reading my pieces like I dig writing them for you.
Today I’m bringing you coffee table books. If a picture is worth a thousand words then gorgeous book on the coffee table is worth all the envy of your gal pals, right? I’ve searched the realms of the Earth, or at least the inner regions of my local book nooks, to find coffee table books that will appeal to one and all.
I even found a cat book. Yes! A cat book!
Kate Spade New York: Things We Love: Twenty Years of Inspiration, Intriguing Bits and Other Curiosities Hardcover by Kate Spade
Long before the days of Pinterest and Instagram, Kate Spade New York’s in-house creative team began amassing a collection of things we love on its website: a crayon ring, a cocktail doodle, a particularly dreamy photograph. People began visiting and chiming in with suggestions. now, the things we love have come to life in celebration of the brand’s 20th anniversary. Each chapter of the book is filled with things we love—from the color red to a well-placed bow to a sense of humor and handwritten notes. Part visual diary and part inspirational reference things we love is a beautiful compilation that visually represents the spirit of kate spade new york—a place where the colors are bold, smart design is key, and fashion is fun.
Essentially Lilly: A Guide to Colorful Entertaining Hardcover by Lilly Pulitzer & Jay Mulvaney
Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau is also almost as well-known for her entertaining as she is for her fashion. A tribute to her lifestyle, Essentially Lilly is lavishly illustrated and peppered with anecdotal memories of a life filled with color. Joined by her family and close friends, Lilly recalls the parties, the decorating, the food, and the fashion that have been part of her life in Palm Beach since she arrived there in the 1950s. With sections devoted to each part of the day, Essentially Lilly captures a variety of social events — from a sunrise sail to a beach supper under the stars — and imbues each with singular “Lilly style”.
“Vanity Fair” Portraits by Graydon Carter & Christopher Hitchens
Vanity Fair: The Portraits brings together 300 iconic portraits from magazine’s 95-year history in a remarkable book that captures the image of modern fame—the magical thing that happens when individual talent and beauty is caught in the spotlight of popular curiosity and passion. The photographers—from Edward Steichen and Cecil Beaton to Annie Leibovitz and Mario Testino—are a glittering and celebrated group themselves. Their portraits have become the iconic likenesses of the best-known figures from the worlds of art, film, music, sports, business, and politics.
National Geographic: The Photographs by Leah Bendavid Val
Each copy of National Geographic boasts exemplary pictures. So, when the editors complied The Photographs it easily became gift book of the year. It offers readers an inside look at National Geographic and a sharp-eyed view of the world. The book showcases the skill and imagination of such notable Geographic photographers as David Doubilet, William Albert Allard, Sam Abell, Jim Stanfield, Jodi Cobb, Jim Brandenburg, David Alan Harvey, and many more. They share their techniques, as well as personal and colorful anecdotes about individual images and their adventures in the field.
At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries by Estelle Ellis, Caroline Seebohm, & Christopher Simon Sykes
At Home with Books could be any of our book-loving homes with its visual delight and inspiration for all of us with a growing home library. It includes professional advice on editing and categorizing your library; caring for your books; preserving, restoring, and storing rare books; finding out-of-print books; and choosing furniture, lighting, and shelving.
The Art Book by Phaidon Press
An A to Z guide to 500 great painters and sculptors from medieval to modern times, it debunks art historical classifications by throwing together brilliant examples of all periods, schools, visions and techniques. Each artist is represented by a full-page color plate of a definitive work, accompanied by explanatory and illuminating information on the image and its creator. Glossaries of artistic movements and technical terms are included, making this book as valuable for its points of reference as for its beauty. By breaking with traditional classifications, The Art Book presents a fresh and original approach to art: an unparalleled visual sourcebook and a celebration of our rich and multi-faceted culture.
Harry Potter: Film Wizardry by Brian Sibley
For every Harry Potter movie fan in the world you will enjoy learning the tricks of movie magic that helped create the spectacular films we love. As you peruse the pages, you’ll learn why Yule Ball ice sculptures never melt, where Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts are really “minted,” how to get a Hippogriff to work with actors, the inspiration behind Hogwarts castle, and why Dementors move the way they do. Written and designed in collation with the cast and crew that brought J. K. Rowling’s celebrated novels to the silver screen, Harry Potter: Film Wizardry delivers an enchanting interactive experience, transporting readers to the wizarding world by sharing film-making secrets, unpublished photography and artwork, and exclusive stories from the stars. Full of removable facsimile reproductions of props and paper ephemera from the movies, this collectible volume offers a special look for Wizards and Muggles alike.
SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions by Rainn Wilson, Devon Gundry, Golriz Lucina, & Shabnam Mogharabi
Somewhere over the course of history, chewing on Life’s Big Questions lost its cool factor. Fortunately for mankind, Rainn Wilson (best known for playing Dwight Schrute on NBC’s The Office) and a bunch of his friends are on a mission to change that. CAN MEN AND WOMEN REALLY BE “JUST FRIENDS? IF YOU ONLY HAD ONE HOUR LEFT TO LIVE, HOW WOULD YOU SPEND IT? WHAT PARALYZES YOUR CREATIVITY? WHAT FUELS IT? Based on the wildly successful website SoulPancake.com, this book urges you to explore philosophy, creativity, spirituality, love, truth, science, and so much more. I’m not sure how long this one will stay on your coffee table. You’ll laugh too hard to keep it there.
The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman
Scott Schuman just wanted to take photographs of people that he met on the streets of New York who he felt looked great. After fifteen years in the fashion business, Scott Schuman felt a growing disconnect between what he saw on the runways and in magazines, and what real people were wearing. The Sartorialist was his attempt to redress the balance. His now-famous and much-loved blog, thesartorialist.com, is his showcase for the wonderful and varied sartorial tastes of real people across the globe. This book is a beautiful anthology of Scott’s favorite images, accompanied by his insightful commentary. It includes photographs of well-known fashion figures alongside people encountered on the street whose personal style and taste demand a closer look.
America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart & John Oliver
Jon Stewart, host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Daily Show, and his patriots, deliver a hilarious look at American government. American-style democracy is the world’s most beloved form of government, which explains why so many other nations are eager for us to impose it on them. But what is American democracy? In America (The Book), Jon Stewart and The Daily Show writing staff offer their insights into our unique system of government, dissecting its institutions, explaining its history and processes, and exploring the reasons why concepts like one man, one vote, government by the people, and every vote counts have become such popular urban myths.
On This Earth: Photographs from East Africa by Nick Brandt
Nick Brandt depicts the animals of East Africa with an intimacy and artistry unmatched by other photographers who choose wildlife as their subject. He’s able to create photos with contrasting moments of stillness with bursts of action by engaging with these creatures on an exceptionally intimate level, without the customary use of a telephoto lens. Evocative of classical art, from dignified portraits to sweeping natural tableaux, Brandt’s images artfully and simply capture animals in their natural states of being. With a foreword by Alice Sebold and an introduction by Jane Goodall, On This Earth is a gorgeous portfolio of some of the last wild animals and a heartfelt elegy to a vanishing world
The Life and Love of Cats by Lewis Blackwell
The Life and Love of Cats takes us on an unforgettable journey—we travel from the homes of middle-America today, back to the demonized creatures hiding in the alleys of medieval Europe; from wild cousins on the plains of Africa to rare hybrid domestic breeds like the Savannah; and from fashionable show breeds to shelter cats lovingly rescued by volunteers. Starting with the earliest records of domestic cats 9,000 years ago in Africa and the Mediterranean and moving to the present, Lewis Blackwell weaves stories of one of humankind’s closest companions with a collection of more than 100 unforgettable images. Sadly, my Skippyjon Jones didn’t make the book. So, I had to show him to y’all as the 101st unforgettable image.
