The Coffee Table

The ViennaLos Angeles architect Richard Neutra‘s highly recognizable, sleek, modern post-and-beam-construction homes can be seen over and over again in gorgeous color and black-and-white photographs in the massive Neutra, Complete Works (Taschen, 464 pages, $150), edited by Peter Goessel. This is one book that can be judged, in part, by its cover -- a vast stretch of heavy pressed plywood that left tiny splinters in the tips of my fingers. If this mammoth 13-pound tome had legs, it could alone function as a coffee table. But it’s worth its weight in wood: Every single Neutra building ever constructed is included -- with commentary in English, French and German -- plus blueprints, sketches and maps noting Neutra dwellings around the U.S. and Europe. (Not surprisingly, L.A. is the only city warranting its own map.) This truly beautiful book opens with an essay by Neutra‘s architect son Dion.

If you’re still looking and haven‘t yet maxed your budget, check out these other notable books: Richard Misrach: The Sky Book, Arena Editions, 144 pages, $65; Ruth Bernhard: Between Art & Life, Chronicle Books, 159 pages, $30; The Oxford Companion to Jazz, Oxford University Press, 864 pages, $50; Greene & Greene, Phaidon Press, 240 pages, $75; The Big Book of the ’70s (written by Jonathan Vankin, who happens to be my husband), Paradox Press, 192 pages, $15; Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900--2000, University of California Press, 344 pages, $35; Framework Houses, MIT Press, 350 pages, $65; Iconic L.A., Stories of L.A.‘s Most Memorable Buildings, Balcony Press, 120 pages, $30; Boring Postcards: USA, Phaidon Press, 176 pages, $20; 1000 on 42nd Street, PowerHouse Cultural Entertainment, 300 pages, $35.