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POP MUSIC & CULTURE

ROLLING STONE

Cover to Cover

Bondi Digital Publishing, 4 DVD-ROMs, 208-page book, $150

A spectacular new venture in digital plus print, this box contains every page of every issue of Rolling Stone, from Nov. 9, 1967, with John Lennon in military helmet, to May, 2007, 98,000 pages of rock 'n' roll and other news. And it's all searchable. The accompanying book is a colourful year-by-year guide, and a handy way to chart the evolution of pop culture over four decades.

PLAYBOY '50S

Cover to Cover

Edited by Hugh Hefner, Bondi Digital Publishing, 2 DVD-ROMs, 224-page book, $120

Bondi's other splendid effort is a searchable collection of every issue and every page of Playboy from the 1950s, not just the bunny photos which, of course, nobody bought it for, but the cartoons, articles and fiction that actually made it a serious, and spectacularly successful, magazine. The accompanying book, edited by Playboy impresario Hugh Hefner, is full of previously unpublished photos and letters. A seductive bonus is a replica of the rare first edition from 1953, featuring the famous Marilyn Monroe centrefold

CREEM

America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine

Edited by Robert Matheu and Brian J. Bowe, HarperCollins, 272 pages, $32.95

Founded in Detroit in 1969, Creem in its heyday functioned as bratty younger brother to the more reverential and serious Rolling Stone. This colour-packed, oversized anthology wisely leans heavily on Creem's 1970s glory days to serve up a raucous, frequently ribald rehash of the high jinks perpetrated by the New York Dolls, Bebe Buell, Zeppelin, T. Rex, Rod Stewart and the Stones, among many others.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967

By Dominic Molon et al., Yale University Press/Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, 288 pages, $40.50

Published in conjunction with an exhibition, this book looks at the ties between avant-garde art and rock music. From Andy Warhol's work with the Velvet Underground to new creations for the MCA by contemporary artists, the book explores the cross-pollination that has shaped and nurtured these art forms.

THE JIM MORRISON SCRAPBOOK

By James Henke, Chronicle, 64 pages, $42

Even if Jim Morrison wasn't in your sights when you were in your teens in the 1960s, he may be in those of your guitar-playing son, who will love this biography. Not just a book, but also a compendium of hand-written personal notes, poetry, lyrics, sketches and Doors tour program, with a CD of Morrison speaking. The author is curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

THE SIXTIES

Photographs by Robert Altman, Santa Monica Press, 192 pages, $49.95

Altman was a photographer for Rolling Stone, among others, in the late 1960s and early '70s. The black-and-white images feature the usual suspects - Mick Jagger, Ken Kesey, Tiny Tim, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin - as well as the sundry New Leftists, back-to-the-landers, Black Panthers, street performers and nudists who contributed to the era's febrile vibe.

GRATEFUL DEAD GEAR

The Band's Instruments, Sound Systems and Recording Sessions 1965-1995

By Blair Jackson, Backbeat Books, 290 pages, $43.50

It's been more than 12 years since Jerry Garcia's death put an end to the long, strange rock-and-roll road show that was the Grateful Dead. The allure of San Francisco's archetypal hippie band, however, continues undiminished, and now we have this thoroughly researched survey, in trade paperback, of the guitars, drums, keyboards and amplifiers the Dead used to conjure such classics as Truckin' and Touch of Grey.

DIANA,

PRINCESS OF WALES

THE PORTRAIT

OF PRINCESS DIANA

10th Anniversary Edition

By Rosalind Coward, Andrews McMeel, 248 pages, $37.50

A fascinating collection of information, photos, news clippings, interviews and archival material, which brings together the recollections of the closest friends and family members of the late Princess of Wales. This intimate look at the most famous woman in the last half of the 20th century is the only book authorized by her estate.

DIANA

An Amazing Life: The People Cover Stories 1981-1997

People Magazine, 192 pages, $23.95

Miss the time or two or 42 that Princess Diana appeared on the cover of People? You're in luck The magazine has compiled them all into a hardcover book with the original text and pictures, from Lady Diana, a sneak preview of their big day (June 22, 1981) to Goodbye, Diana (Sept. 22, 1997), and all the dresses she wore and all the boys she kissed in between.

DIANA

Woman of Style

By Jackie Modlinger, Reader's Digest, 160 pages, $49.95

This book examines Diana's transformation from shy nursery school assistant photographed in a see-through Laura Ashley skirt and Benetton vest to an international fashion icon. It includes more than 200 photographs and original sketches of outfits from her favourite designers, such as Catherine Walker (1,000 outfits) and Bruce Oldfield. There are also interviews with designers about the challenges of dressing one of the world's most photographed women.

ART

THE ART OF WILLIAM STEIG

By Claudia J. Nahson, Yale University Press/The Jewish Museum, 196 pages, $40

Steig, who died in 2003, produced powerfully distinctive work that melded symbolist art with cartoon. This lovely book, issued in conjunction with an exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York City, combines appreciative essays with much of Steig's work for The New Yorker (where he was a fixture since 1930) and illustrations from his superb children's books, such The Amazing Bone and Shrek.

THE CAT IN ART

By Stefano Zuffi, translated by Simon Jones, Abrams, 360 pages, $42

Though rarely a central figure in art, the cat has functioned as an important onlooker, observer and symbol in the work of many great artists: Dürer, da Vinci, Rembrandt, Hogarth, Chagall, Hockney et al. Using individual works, both full-scale and with close-ups of the cat component, Italian art historian Zuffi offers an illuminating analysis of the feline in art.

CANADIAN PAINTINGS,

PRINTS AND DRAWINGS

By Anne Newlands, Firefly, 366 pages, $69.95

Newlands, an art historian and educator with the National Gallery in Ottawa, surveys work from 164 of Canada's most interesting and important artists, with gorgeous, full-colour prints, drawings and paintings, from the 17th century to the present. Each artwork is accompanied by a short essay summarizing the artist's life, career and context, and discussing the work in question.

WILLIAM MATTHEWS

Working the West

Essay by Annie Proulx, Chronicle Books, 204 pages, $50

William Matthews is one of the great chroniclers of life on the ranches of the U.S. West, and his beautiful, luminous watercolour paintings are perfectly complemented here by Annie Proulx's unmistakable prose. The two between them deftly evoke the world of the ranch, the rodeo, the horse and the cowboy. The light and the horizon stretch far beyond the book's covers.

TITIAN

By Peter Humfrey, Phaidon, 238 pages, $49.95

The influential painter Tiziano Vecellio (c.1490-1576) was renowned for his extraordinary use of colour, and was in demand as a portrait and landscape painter, but also commissioned to produce a wide variety of religious and mythological subjects. This beautifully made, red-silk-bound book - along with Raphael the first of a new series of introductory works on the Old Masters - traces Titian's life and career, reproducing nearly 200 works in spectacular colour.

RAPHAEL

By Bette Talvacchia, Phaidon, 239 pages, $49.95

Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520) is one of the most important artists in the history of the West. Art historian Talvacchia, a specialist in the Baroque and Renaissance, explores the artist's origins, his early influences, the important Urbino period and the extraordinary frescoes and portraits of his later years in Rome.

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Celebrating Ten Years 1997-2007

By Barbara Buhler Lynes, Abrams/Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, 352 pages, $78

The O'Keeffe museum, in Santa Fe, N.M., holds the largest collection of works by this enormously popular artist, as well as her archives and two homes. More than 300 full-colour illustrations provide a comprehensive overview of O'Keeffe's paintings, along with those of several other Modernist painters. There are also many previously unpublished photographs by her and her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, as well as photos by the renowned likes of Ansel Adams, Philippe Halsman and Yousuf Karsh.

CAPE DORSET PRINTS

A Retrospective, Fifty Years of Printmaking at the Kinngait Studios

Edited by Leslie Boyd Ryan, Pomegranate, 304 pages, $75

The first book to tell the entire story of the legendary Inuit printmaking community of Cape Dorset, brought into being largely through the efforts of artist and writer James Houston in the 1950s. A dozen essays by those who participated in the development of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative and its Kinngait Studios are complemented by photos and more than 200 full-colour plates of work by the co-op's artists. A beautiful history.

INSPIRING IMPRESSIONISM

The Impressionists and the Art of the Past

Edited by Ann Dumas, Yale University Press, 280 pages, $65

This book explores the connections between the Impressionists and earlier art movements. By comparing landscapes, nudes, still lifes and genre painting, it reveals that, for all their modernism, Manet, Monet, Degas and others owed a huge debt to everything and everyone who came before them.

ANDY WARHOL PORTRAITS

By Tony Shafrazi, Carter Ratcliffe and Robert Rosenblum, Phaidon, 315 pages, $69.95

By the 1970s, Andy Warhol was fast becoming a purveyor of pastelized and pixilated publicity shots. A generation later, however, it looks as though he was merely prescient: His portraits reflect our ever-growing fascination with the famous. Glorious reproductions of his work here reveal his knack for making the iconic more iconic - whether it's a nubile Debbie Harry, an androgynous Mick Jagger, or an alluring Brigitte Bardot.

ALBERTA ART AND ARTISTS

An Overview

By Patricia Ainslie and Mary-Beth Laviolette, Fifth House, 147 pages, $39.99

A guide for those newly interested in the visual arts of Alberta, this book begins with the first artists of the West and moseys along the trail to more modern times. Each segment is filled with information and photographs, and stunning paintings and drawings of that era.

BEYOND WILDERNESS

The Group of Seven, Canadian Identity, and Contemporary Art

Edited by John O'Brian and Peter White, McGill-Queen's University Press, 390 pages, $49.95

Since the 1960s, artists have investigated the social relationships within landscape as a way to go beyond the legacy of the Group of Seven artists. The art and writings in the book challenge the traditional meanings of landscape and nation. The images and ideas are reflected in the content and structure of the book, which opens with essays by the editors on how a growing body of Canadian art and writing has looked beyond wilderness.

MASTER DRAWINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

By Claire Van Cleave, Harvard University Press, 192 pages, $34

This is an exquisite book of thumbnail biographies and drawings of some of the best-known Renaissance masters, but also many of the lesser known. The drawings are arresting for their beauty and, occasionally, for their titles. Da Vinci's Abdomen and Legs of a Man shows a man's body from the waist down, but one's eyes go immediately to the unnamed penis.

MILLER BRITTAIN

When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears

By Tom Smart, Goose Lane, 180 pages, $65

Readers interested in 20th-century Canadian art and fond of the poems of William Blake will enjoy this elegant account of the career of New Brunswick-born painter Miller Brittain. Many excellent colour plates, accompanied by thoroughly researched biographical information, chronicle Brittain's growth as a painter who, throughout his career, found inspiration in Blake's writing.

SPORTS

THE SPORTS BOOK

The Games, the Rules, the Tactics, the Techniques

DK, 448 pages, $42

The average summer Olympics showcases roughly 300 events, few of which make a lick of sense. With Beijing 2008 around the corner, sports fans are well advised to keep this collection of rules and factoids covering more than 200 sports close to the La-Z-Boy. Who knew, for instance, that underwater speakers help synchronized swimmers keep their musical timing while they are submerged, or that rhythmic gymnasts can lose points for a poor choice of hair band?

THE BASKETBALL BOOK

Edited by Rob Fleder, Sports Illustrated, 296 pages, $34.95

The editors of Sports Illustrated know what National Basketball Association promoters also know: It's the stars, stupid. And this glossy offering, culled from SI's prodigious archives, serves them up big-time. Here are Michael, Wilt, Kobe, Kareem, Dr. J and Pistol Pete. A celebration of the game invented by a Canadian just trying to save a rowdy bunch of future YMCA officials from cabin fever.

HISTORY

VITEBSK

The Life of Art

By Aleksandra Shatskikh, Yale University Press, 391 pages, $54

When you think of the town of Vitebsk, in Belarus, you think inevitably of Marc Chagall. But art historian Shatskikh shows how it evolved from a centre of Russian-Jewish intellectual and cultural life to become a locus for the Russian avant-garde from 1917 to 1922, with important experimental work being done in art, theatre, dance and music.

THE WAR

An Intimate History, 1941-1945

By Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, Knopf, 450 pages, $65

The Great Ken Burns Project seems to be to provide a documentary history of the United States: Series on the Civil War, jazz and baseball are now joined by one on the impact of the Second World War on four representative U.S. towns and families, from diverse parts of the country.

THE VICTORIANS

By A. N. Wilson, Hutchinson, 352 pages, $60

The prolific and sometimes controversial English novelist and biographer's books include the massive studies The Victorians and After the Victorians. This sumptuously illustrated edition - steam engines, photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, Dickens, empire, slums and so much more - is a compressed version of the former volume. Forceful and comprehensive.

THE MOST NOTORIOUS CRIMES IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Life Books, 144 pages, $34.95

The files of the crime-loving illustrated guide to America take us from the assassination of Lincoln to school shootings. We have Sacco and Vanzetti, Sid and Nancy, O. J. Simpson, the Black Dahlia, Ted Bundy, Heidi Fleiss, Al Capone and an array of other sordidness, replete with Life's rare photos in every case.

PAN AMERICAN CLIPPERS

The Golden Age of Flying Boats

By James Trautman, Boston Mills, 272 pages, $49.95

A brief but pioneering age of aviation, today all but forgotten, belongs to the great "flying boats" that symbolized romantic and luxurious travel in the 1930s and '40s. Beautifully illustrated with historic photographs and posters, this book follows the history of these majestic planes and the global travel network they created across the oceans.

CARTOGRAPHIA

Mapping Civilizations

By Vincent Virga and the Library of Congress, Little Brown, 266 pages, $75

Fitting that a book on cartography through the ages transports you on a fascinating journey, with a veritable road map on the human condition. More than a showcase for works of art, this book insightfully discusses the history of map-making and its contribution to the meaning of life, from the Atlas Novus to the human genome.

MAPPING A CONTINENT

Historical Atlas of North America 1492-1814

By Raymonde Litalien, Jean-François Palomino and Denis Vaugeois, McGill-Queen's University Press/Septentrion,

300 pages, $89

With many maps from an age when illustration often trespassed into geography, this volume is richly pleasurable and gives a vivid sense of how Europeans experienced New World space. It is a Quebec enterprise that takes the whole continent as its scope, for a period in which political divisions were fluid at best.

REMEMBERED

The History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

By Julie Summers, Merrell, 192 pages, $59.95

More than 1.7 million men and women died in Commonwealth forces during the two world wars. This staggering statistic is humanized in this work, sumptuously illustrated with stunning photography by Brian Harris and many period photographs. The work traces the history of the commission, which tends graves and memorials in some 23,000 locations in more than 150 countries. The guiding principle remains: All war dead, of whatever rank, race or creed, are equals.

50 AIRCRAFT THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

By Ron Dick and Dan Patterson, Boston Mills, 208 pages, $39.95

From the Wright Flyer of 1905 to Canadian-built Avro Lancasters and the not-yet- operational F-35 Lightning, this book devotes a four-page colour spread to each of aviation history's most influential aircraft. And while there's plenty of aeronautical eye candy to go around, the authors do not spare the details.

MINE EYES HAVE SEEN

Bearing Witness to the Struggle for Civil Rights

Photographs by Bob Adelman, text by Charles Johnson, Time Life, 196 pages, $38.35

In the 1960s, the United States was racked by three seminal happenings: the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll revolution. This book is both a photographic record, drawn from the extensive library of Time and Life, of the search by American blacks for equality, and an essay by writer Charles Johnson, winner of the 1990 National Book Award for his novel Middle Passage.

CANADA'S AIR FORCES ON EXCHANGE

By Larry Milberry, CANAV Books, 320 pages, $50

Larry Milberry chronicles the lives of those who have to adjust to new surroundings and different aircraft as they move from posting to posting on the pilot exchange. This book - for anyone with a yen for aircraft history and flying - is filled with anecdotes and photos of aircraft, and the stories of the men and women who flew them.

DARK STORM MOVING WEST

By Barbara Belyea, University of Calgary Press, 188 pages, $49.95

The advancing line of a prairie storm can be seen well before the rain actually comes pouring down. In much the same way, the economic, political and social conditions attributable to the fur trade in the North were experienced by Canadians with a similar delayed effect. These essays examine the fur trade's rapid movement west across North America. For a time, the business conducted between Europeans and natives brought benefits to the indigenous people, who welcomed the trade. But before long, it became destructive to the native way of life.

THE ARTIST GROWS OLD

The Aging of Art and Artists in Italy, 1500-1800

By Philip Sohm, Yale University Press, 221 pages, $50

Poussin's hands shook, Titian's eyes dimmed, Pontormo got scared. But these artists kept working and now we have some theories about how aging affected their art and new ways to look at the old masters. Michelangelo's blurry lines may have been the result of poor eyesight, but they can also be interpreted as a manifestation of his intensifying spirituality as he grew more mature.

THE LORDS OF AVARIS

Uncovering the Legendary Origins of Western Civilization

By David Rohl, Yale University Press, 524 pages, $49

Everyone grows up with stories about ancient Greek warriors, exotic Egyptian kings, biblical patriarchs and countless other tales, myths and legends from religious writings and epic poems. Here's a chance to follow a modern-day explorer searching for the archeological evidence behind these narratives.

HISTORY

The Definitive Visual Guide from the Dawn of Civilization to the Present Day

Edited by Adam Hart-Davis, DK, 612 pages, $60

This reference guide paints "broad pictures of history's great sweep," through photographs, maps and graphics. It's not hard to see how the past - for instance, the Persian Empire (the Achaemenid dynasty), China's Golden Age (the Tang dynasty), and Raiders and Traders (the Scandinavian terrorists known as Vikings) - shaped the present and suggests the future.

WARRIOR

A Visual History of the Fighting Man

By R. G. Grant, DK, 360 pages, $50

An eye-popping march through the history of men in combat, from Athenian Hoplites to U.S. marines. Lush original photography, illustrations and historic art work are accompanied by concise summaries of the soldiers, their equipment and their strategies. The double-page spreads on the uniforms, right down to the smallest details, are by themselves worth the price of the book.

TITANIC

By Jim Pipe, Firefly, 26 pages, $19.95

A hugely enjoyable book, written from the viewpoint of an awestruck "journalist" on the doomed ocean liner. Rather than traditional narrative, he presents information in two- to three-paragraph chunks, interspersed with lots of pictures, maps and diagrams, with menus, boarding passes, telegrams, etc. tucked into envelopes on every other page or so.

SONG WITHOUT WORDS

The Photographs and Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy

By Leah Bendavid-Val, National Geographic, 240 pages, $44

Family pictures and personal diaries are often out of date soon after they are made, but more than a century after Countess Tolstoy made this record, it still has the power to illuminate the life and times of her husband, the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

RECORDING THEIR STORY

James Teit and the Tahltan

By Judy Thompson, Douglas & McIntyre/Canadian Museum of Civilization, 207 pages, $55

An early champion of aboriginal rights and documenter Salish life in the early 20th century, James Teit assembled what's now the most complete collection of Tahltan artifacts. Part biography and part catalogue, the book recounts Teit's life among B.C.'s first nations, and presents the Tahltan photos, myths, tools and artwork he gathered during travels to the province's northwestern reaches.

PHOTOGRAPHY

THE SOVIET IMAGE

A Hundred Years of Photographs from Inside the TASS Archives

By Peter Radetsky, Chronicle, 288 pages, $55

The vast archives of the Russian news agency have been opened, and this sometimes astonishing collection of 300 photos dating from 1905 to 2005, many never seen before publicly, is the result: Leonid Brezhnev, rifle in hand, stands in a snowy forest over a deer he has just shot; Rasputin's brutalized body, fished from the icy Neva River in 1916; ships on the bottom of the drying Aral Sea; Lenin without his famous goatee and wearing a wig as a disguise. Indispensable.

DOGS

Edited by Catherine Johnson, Phaidon, 240 pages, $16.95

A collection of 450 vintage snapshots of man's best friend, mostly in family situations, from the beginning of photography in the 19th century right through the 1960s, salted throughout with homespun quotations about dogs. (Ben Williams: "There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy.") Famed dog photographer William Wegman provides a charming afterword.

NUDE PHOTOGRAPHY

The Art and the Craft

By Pascal Baetens, DK, 256 pages, $50

For a how-to book on nude photography, there's no better person to turn to than Pascal Baetens. In addition to providing pictures for untold numbers of magazines, the Belgian photographer has published three previous books. It's all here: the history of nude photography, techniques, lighting, choice of models and production tricks. And 350 pictures.

E. O. HOPPÉ'S AMERIKA

Modernist Photographs

from the 1920s

By Phillip Prodger, Norton, 176 pages $62.50

Composition and grey scale are well represented in this snapshot of 1920s Americana. Then there's the back story, about a studio photographer who wasn't taken seriously in his other pursuit, documenting the state of civilization in stark, honest tones. After being lockedin archives for 50 years, one man's (other) passion finally comes to light.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Photographs by Chen Changfen

Edited by Anne Wilkes Tucker, Yale University Press, 150 pages, $44

It's quite an accomplishment to photograph a single object dozens and dozens of times and have each picture look unique. Chinese photographer Chen Changfen achieves this feat in this sampling of 40 years of images of the 5,000-kilometre Great Wall. The photos have a timeless quality, perhaps because they are devoid of humans, modern references or political statements. It's just the Wall, in all four seasons, in various settings, from plains and deserts to mountains.

AFRICA

Beginning a Journey

By Roel Dixon-Mahatoo, Roelphotography, unpaginated, $49.99

Toronto-based Roel Dixon-Mahatoo, usually behind the lens capturing weddings, visited South Africa and Zambia in May, 2006, and came away with some terrific images of the continent's animals and landscapes. He also came away with an understanding of how AIDS has devastated Africa. To do his part to ameliorate the impact of the pandemic, he has created this limited-edition book (1,000 were printed) and will give the proceeds to African children affected by AIDS.

100 DAYS IN PHOTOGRAPHS

Pivotal Events That Changed the World

By Nick Yapp, National Geographic, 320 pages, $44

Flipping through these pages is like reliving some of the world's most momentous events: the Wall Street crash of 1929, Germany's Kristallnacht and the British quitting India in 1947, among others. The stunning photographs, coupled with Nick Yapp's insightful narratives, evoke emotions ranging from disgust to pride. Previously unpublished photographs shed new light on the past.

ALBERT WATSON

By James Crump, Phaidon, 120 pages, $49.95

Between the bound covers of this beautiful book are some of the fashion world's most iconic photographs and portraits, by one of the most famous and successful commercial photographers. From supermodel Kate Moss to legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, Watson masterfully captures the essence of his subjects. James Crump brings his vast knowledge of photography to explaining the circumstances of each photo, and throws in quotations - often humorous - from Watson himself.

THE ART OF LEE MILLER

By Mark Haworth-Booth, Yale University Press, 224 pages, $58

Lee Miller was exceedingly photogenic, posing for Edward Steichen, Man Ray and others around 1930. But she made her own name as a photographer, notably for Vogue and, most hauntingly, after the Allies marched into the concentration camps in 1945. Her shot of bodies piled high in Buchenwald is here, as it appeared in Vogue. So is the shot she had David E. Scherman take - "both symbolic and playful," signalling the end of the Reich - of her sitting in what had been Hitler's bathtub in Munich.

H{-2}O

By Howard Schatz, Bulfinch, 180 pages, $69.50

It has been more than a decade since Water Dance, in which Howard Schatz delighted the eye with pictures of people, mainly women, mainly nude, waving scarves and other colourful items under water. He is at it again here, exploring the ways that water twists and distorts light, and the way that light plays on the bodies being photographed. A gorgeous book, from start to finish.

IN THE SHADOW OF MOUNTAINS

By Steve McCurry, Phaidon, 132 pages, $69.95

A lush volume of luminous portraits, landscapes and street scenes from photographer Steve McCurry, renowned for his iconic 1984 National Geographic cover photo, The Afghan Girl. This volume presents extraordinary glimpses of the ordinary lives of Afghans set against a backdrop of strife, deprivation and the Hindu Kush. The stunning photos are mostly presented on full pages with minimal text, so as not to distract from their beauty and poignancy.

TRAVEL

THE AFRICA BOOK

A Journey Through Every Country in the Continent

By Roz Hopkins, Lonely Planet, 263 pages, $43.95

Forget the "Dark" continent, this vivid book brings Africa to life with eye-popping pictures and facts. It's a one-stop-shopping destination for would-be globetrotters contemplating a visit to Africa. The author takes a snapshot look at each of Africa's 54 countries, covering things such as music (Marrabenta in Mozambique) to trademarks and icons (Emperor Haile Selassi in Ethiopia) to the wild-est of the wild things (the sinister-looking robber crab in the Seychelles). The pictures are bold, compelling and beautiful.

ONTARIO'S GHOST TOWN HERITAGE

By Ron Brown, Boston Mills, 208 pages, $24.95

Ron Brown probably knows more than anyone about Ontario's abandoned communities. Having sold many thousands of copies of earlier books about the province's ghost towns, he revisited 80 of the most interesting places and brought them together in a full-colour guide that comes complete with driving directions.

JOURNEYS OF A LIFETIME

500 of the World's Greatest Trips

National Geographic, 400 pages, $50

Here's a lifetime pass for the armchair traveller. Matching hundreds of colour photographs with pithy descriptions of the glories of each site, National Geographic jumps from the Inca Trail in South America to the India Cuisine Tour to, yes, the Trans-Canada Trail. By the time the book gets to the Top 10 Funiculars and Cable Cars, even the most resistant readers may be out of their armchairs.

SPAIN

In Light and Shadow

By Eduardo Mencos, Frances Lincoln Ltd., 144 pages, $56.50

If you've ever been told on a trip to southern California that it has a Mediterranean landscape and were not sure what that meant, look at these photos of the Spanish and the Canary islands countryside. The vegetation may be a different species, but the light, topography and the feel of the land, as evoked by Eduardo Mencos, one of Spain's leading photographers and garden designers, prove the point.

VIA RAIL

By Christopher C. N. Greenlaw, Voyageur, 160 pages, $44.95

VIA's yellow and blue trains are icons. This book, tracing the ups and downs of the Crown corporation, is filled with photos for the train buff, and for anyone who enjoys views of the landscapes and whistle stops of Canada. And there are plenty of stories of intrigue and plans that never happened to make it a good read for political junkies.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

A Photographic Journey Coast to Coast - And Beyond

Edited by Robert Sullivan, Life Books, 145 pages, $34.95

In this inspiring book, Life takes you on a journey through 100 of the United States' most beautiful, important and intriguing places. From the scenic coast of Maine to the thunderous volcanoes of Hawaii, from northern Alaska to the Florida Keys, it's a showcase from three great photographers, including the legendary Ansel Adams.

VANISHING IRELAND

A Chronicle of a Rapidly Disappearing World

By James Fennell and Turtle Bunbury, Hodder Headline, 180 pages, $50

Join Paddy Canny as he closes his eyes and sees "heels kicking, skirts twirling, elbows flapping, feet stomping, smile flashing, embers glowing, then fading away." The octogenarian fiddler is one of more than 50 Irish old-timers who talk about their disappearing world in a fast-changing society.

AROUND THE SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR

A Guide to Historic Sites

By Margaret Beattie Bogue, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 378 pages, $37.95

If you're planning to drive by the shores of Gitchi Gumee (Ojibwa for "Big Sea Waters"), don't do it without this extensive and well-researched guide to the forts, lighthouses, beaches, churches, towns and ruins that are must-sees along the way. It also provides lots of historical context about the native cultures, mining camps, lumber companies and fur-trading concerns that have ebbed and flowed along its rocky shores.

WHERE TO GO WHEN

Edited by Joseph Rosendo, DK, 336 pages, $50

There are magical moments in travel when it all seems to come together: the weather, the culture, natural beauty and opportunities for romance. This book tries to pin down where to be and when to get the fullest experiences. Who would have thought, for instance, that January is the ultimate time to visit the Yukon? Not only does it tell you why, but how to get there and where to stay.

THE NEW TRAVELER'S ATLAS

A Global Guide to the Places You Must See in Your Lifetime

By John Man et al, Barron's, 224 pages, $37.50

The New Traveler's Atlas is based on a daring premise: "the inspiration and the information to help you plan the rest of your travelling life." Its wish list is somewhat scattered, but its vibrant photographs and elegant graphic design will convince even jaded wanderers to pencil in its dream itineraries as their own.

THE ASIA BOOK

A Journey Through Every Country in the Continent

By China Williams et al., Lonely Planet, 231 pages, $44.95

Nobody knows Asia like Lonely Planet, a publishing empire built on travelling the largest continent. If LP's sunny guidebook distillations haven't already lured you to destinations such as Indonesia (delicious cuisine) or India (yoga, multi-armed deities), perhaps this book's coffee-table format and eye-candy will do the trick.

BERLIN

Portrait of a City

By Hans Christian Adam, Taschen, 671 pages, $130

A big, big picture book (it must weigh 10 kilograms) on a big, big city: Berlin. This massive collection of almost exclusively black-and-white photographs captures the city and its inhabitants from 1860 to the present. Through wars, division, destruction and regrowth, this is the family album of a powerhouse.

ON SITE WITH MAURICE HAYCOCK

Artist of the Arctic

Compiled By Kathy Haycock, Edgar Kent Publishers, 112 pages, $39.95

In 1926, Maurice Haycock and his boyhood friend Ludlow Weeks set out on a geological expedition to the Arctic. For the next year, they travelled, hunted and shared their lives with the Inuit. On board the ship that came to take them home were A. Y. Jackson and Sir Frederick Banting. The Arctic experience and the chance meeting with Jackson shaped Maurice's life. This gem of a book is filled with paintings, drawings and descriptions of a journey through a compelling land.

PLAYBOY'S SILVERSTEIN

AROUND THE WORLD

By Shel Silverstein, Simon & Schuster, 181 pages, $28.99

Noted cartoonist, poet, playwright, author and songwriter Shel Silverstein established himself in the fledgling Playboy magazine. Here are 23 globe-trotting sketchbook reportages from that magazine from 1957-1968. Silverstein turns his idiosyncratic line and witty commentary loose on Africa, Switzerland, Italy, hippies, bullfighting etc.

SCIENCE & NATURE

REEF

DK, 360 pages, $50

Minimal but informative text accompanies this spectacular, multi-photographer (from the Malaysian-based diving collective ScubaZoo) look at life on coral reefs, where 25 per cent of all marine species live. The waters, and pages, are inhabited by sharks, crabs, turtles, clams, fish of all sorts, coral (of course) and the magnificent leafy sea dragon, a species of sea horse. And while one is transfixed by these images, one is also aware of the threat to the irreplaceable reefs, which are in danger of disappearing.

MAP SATELLITE

DK, 360 pages, $50

Here is New Orleans from 438 miles above, a week after Hurricane Katrina, the floodwaters ominously dark. Here are the drying lake Chad, the watery mangrove swamps of the northern Bay of Bengal. Other pages of this breathtaking array of satellite photos feature area maps accompanied by aerial photos. Guaranteed to inspire awe - and possibly regret - at the range and beauty of the threatened planet we inhabit.

BIRD

The Definitive Visual Guide

By David Burnie, DK/Audubon Society, 509 pages, $60

Among the many, many bird books of the past few years, this is one of the best, and certainly most comprehensive. There are major sections on bird anatomy, breeding and nesting patterns and habitat, but the meat of the book is devoted to profiling more than 1,000 species worldwide, Hundreds of fine photos, all in colour, and a CD with 60 birdcalls (try No. 43, the Screaming Piha) make this perfect for birders.

BIRD SONGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

By Les Beletsky, Chronicle/Cornell Lab, 367 pages, $45

Those with birds on the brain will recall that unlikely bestseller Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song. The book's success was predicated on its having a built-in digital audio where delighted and surprised readers could match birds and their songs. This follow-up of birds from around the world features the soon-to-be-known likes of South America's Olive Oropendola ("explosive, gurgling") and the "chip-chip, pick-it-up, wittachew" of Australia's Striated Pardalote. A charming form of armchair ornithology.

SHELLS

By Paul Starosta and Jacques Senders, Firefly, 379 pages, $85

Part of the joy of this book is Paolo Portoghesi's introductory discussion about the structure and design of seashells and the history of their relationship to human architecture. But mostly what you want to see are the 300-plus glorious photos, by noted biologist and photographer Paul Starosta, of the 50-years-in-the-making collection of malacologist Jacques Senders and his wife Rita.

THE LAST WILD WOLVES

Ghosts of the Great Bear Rainforest

By Ian McAllister with Chris Darimont, GreyStone, 192 pages, $45

McAllister is a West Coast conservationist, photographer and filmmaker. His home on B.C.'s rugged north coast is one of the last places on Earth where wolves live relatively undisturbed by humans. In this book, he documents two packs of wolves, in text and photos, following their day-to-day lives from birth to death. Includes a DVD documentary on the Great Bear Rainforest and the animals who inhabit it.

STARFINDER

The Complete Beginner's Guide to Exploring the Night Sky

By Carole Stott, DK, unpaginated, $38

This gorgeous package comes complete with a planisphere, a circular star chart with a rotating window that shows the stars as they appear at any time of the year and looking in any direction. As well, there is a guide to the night sky, prepared by astronomer Stott, 44 constellation cards and a night light.

EVOLUTION

By Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu, photographs by Patrick Gries, Seven Stories, 287 pages, $81.50

This is a bare-bones examination of evolution, artfully executed with simple black-and- white photographs of complex skeletal structures of a wide variety of animals: a pile of python bones, coiled and ready to strike, a red fox skeleton pouncing on that of a common vole. The book adds some flesh to the effort with long essays on various aspects of evolution.

THE KNOWLEDGEBOOK

National Geographic, 512 pages, $44

Billed as everything you need to know to get by in the 21st century, this reference manual is certainly stuffed with information, from how moun- tains are built to manifestations of new religions. It's the perfect gift for a young mind trying to make sense of a complex and fascinating world.

OWLS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Behavior

By Wayne Lynch, UBC Press, 256 pages, $44.95

Owls are the stuff of legend and mystery. Never before has one book revealed so many secrets about what is perhaps North America's most elusive winged predator. With a text that brims with information on anatomy, habitat, diet and social life - supplemented by a breathtaking array of photos of owls in flight or alighted - the book is the life work of a doctor who gave up medicine so he could pursue his private fascination.

BIRDS IN LOVE

The Secret Courting and Mating Rituals of Extraordinary Birds

By Jean Léveillé, Voyageur, 160 pages, $25

There is no cuter way to find out where little birds come from than this full-colour, profusely illustrated volume. White terns caress each other with their black beaks; mourning doves coo and moan; two cranes raise their heads as if synchronized and purr. The author, a Montrealer and doctor of nuclear medicine, provides accompanying text, much of it based on personal observation.

EARTH THEN AND NOW

Amazing Images of Our Changing World

By Fred Pearce, Firefly, 288 pages, $39.95

The cover photos of Hong Kong in 1880 and in 1997 suggest a quaint collection of old, black-and-white photos of vast open spaces contrasted with the same locales thick with skyscrapers. It's more nuanced than that, and interestingly so, exploring how the planet is changing in so many varying and subtle ways.

HUBBLE

The Mirror on the Universe

By Robin Kerrod and Carole Stott, Firefly, 192 pages, $35

For 15 years, the space telescope has been giving scientists enough data to keep them postulating for years to come. This kaleidoscope of cosmic colour presents some of that thinking, with discussion on the science and theory going on amid some fascinating images.

STORM CHASER

A Photographer's Journey

By Jim Reed, Abrams, 192 pages, $42

Jim Reed has been chasing angry mesocyclones for two decades, and recent disastrous storms certainly take centre stage. But in this offering - part art, part photojournalism - he throws in a perfect summer day, a nearly perfect double rainbow, perfectly rimed trees and other benign samples of the weather expressing the climate.

BOAS AND PYTHONS

OF THE WORLD

By Mark O'Shea, Princeton University Press, 160 pages, $29.95

With their brilliant colouring and intricate patterning, these snakes are often very beautiful. Although it can be hard to tell them apart, one major difference is that pythons lay eggs and boas produce live young. Colour photographs and clear text make this an informative and visually appealing compendium of constrictor habits and habitats.

THE DEEP

The Extraordinary Creatures

of the Abyss

By Claire Nouvain, University of Chicago Press, 252 pages, $45

Somehow you don't imagine that creatures who live in total darkness could sport the vivid colours and remarkable markings of the bizarre fish, shrimps and can-you-believe-'ems who live in the deepest parts of the oceans. The velvety black pages of this gorgeously printed book offer a vicarious look at a part of the world only a handful of humans have ever seen.

CREATURE

By Andrew Zuckerman, Chronicle, unpaginated, $60

Stunning portrait photographs of amazing animals, from a black horse to a giraffe to a baby mountain lion to a tortoise. These images remind us in magnified detail of the variety of beautiful and start-ling life in the natural world.

PENGUINS OF THE WORLD

By Wayne Lynch, Firefly, 176 pages, $24.95

A magnificent photo-essay book featuring our favourite flightless seabirds. In addition to the wonderful pictures of diving, belly-sledding, waddling, nurturing penguins, the text tells us things the photos cannot, such as how penguins choose their partners and then court them.

DOMINANT WAVE THEORY

By Andy Hughes, Abrams, 204 pages, $84

A gifted photographer and avid surfer, Andy Hughes takes us to his favourite wave beaches, but with a twist. He focuses on the pollution befouling long, pristine shores: unwanted objects, abandoned and, when seen through Hughes's lens, transformed into works of sculpture. Crumpled objects become a complex assembly of curves and angles, but leaving cosmic questions about why they are there.

EARTH FROM SPACE

By Andrew K. Johnston, Firefly, 272 pages, $29.95

This compendium of photos of Earth taken by satellites is definitive proof that nature is the best artist. From hundreds of kilometres up, the corn fields of Kansas resemble a Kandinsky, the Amazon becomes a study in surrealism, and Antarctica is revealed as a magical snowflake. The snapshots of Canada's cities from space show eerie detail, right down to the shadows of pedestrians on the streets.

PLANET EARTH

As You've Never Seen It Before

By Alastair Fothergill et al., University of California Press, 309 pages, $39.95

It would be difficult to top Planet Earth, the BBC's high-definition, high-achievement documentary series. So consider the print version a high-quality program guide to its astonishingly beautiful TV counterpart. If nothing else, the documentary team's print photography will make readers want to run out and rent the DVDs all over again.

SEASHELLS

Jewels from the Ocean

By Budd Titlow, Voyageur, 112 pages, $24

Photographer and wetland scientist Budd Titlow has assembled a stunning collection of colour photographs showcasing these "jewels from the ocean" to illustrate a comprehensive look at how seashells are formed, where they're found and their ties to human history. The book also offers tips for shell collectors, including best sites in North America, and a chapter on how seashells function as the environmental "canaries" of the ocean.

OCEANIC WILDERNESS

By Roger Steene, Firefly, 340 pages, $59.95

It's a journey into an underwater realm you never knew existed. In luscious colour and rich photographic detail, Oceanic Wilderness explores a vast array of otherworldly aquatic life, from the creepily insectile to the gloriously tropical, including a number of species discovered during the book's creation. A cascade of stunningly vibrant visuals and a smattering of text.

THE NEW EARTH FROM ABOVE

365 Days

By Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Abrams, 752 pages, $35.95

Combining striking aerial photographs with verbal snapshots of locations around the globe, this volume is an inspiring examination of the conditions that shape our lives. Thought-provoking essays are interspersed throughout, on topics such as bio- diversity, renewable energy and global poverty. A source of geographic curiosities and endless travel ideas,

FILM & TELEVISION

SILENT MOVIES

The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture

Peter Kobel and the Library of Congress, Little, Brown, 299 pages, $56

The birth and early years of the movies are chronicled in this delightful and lavishly illustrated (mostly in B&W, naturally, but with some lovely colour posters, as well) history. Here are developing technologies, innovations, the rise of the director and, of course, the stars: Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin, Swanson, Keaton.

IN THE FRAME

My Life in Words and Pictures

By Helen Mirren, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 272 pages, $41

The actress, once told by a palm reader that her greatest success would come after the age of 45, treats us to pictures from her life, beginning with her Russian father at his illustrious family's spacious home before the Bolshevik Revolution. She gives us her thoughts on being sent to a convent school by her atheist parents, her film, theatre and television career, and why she didn't marry as a younger woman.

THE MAKING OF STAR WARS

By J. W. Rinzler, Ballantine, 314 pages, $35

Any 1970s kids who cherished their Boba Fett action figures will love this book, which explores the origins of Star Wars, now a 30-year pop culture and marketing phenomenon, but once just a goofy idea in George Lucas's head. The illustrated book documents everything from the Buck Rogers inspirations for the swashbuckling space knights, to Chewbacca's many incarnations, to the relatively primitive 1970s movie-making techniques that inspired today's seamless, computer-generated film sequences.

THE ART OF BEOWULF

By Mark Cotta Vaz and Steve Starkey, Chronicle Books, 160 pages, $44

Robert Zemeckis's filming of the epic poem Beowulf followed the usual exhaustive preparation of the look of the movie, through costumes, set design and other elements, on which legions of unsung creators laboured mightily. This is their reward: to see the conceptual art, sculptures and photographs laid out in a beautiful coffee-table book, with a foreword by Neil Gaiman.

THE SOPRANOS

The Complete Book

By Brett Martin, Time Inc., 225 pages, $43.95

"Originally, I didn't want any credits at all. I just wanted the black screen to go the length of the credits - all the way to the HBO whoosh sound," David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, says in a chapter to which Sopranophiles will flip straight off: Everything Comes to an End, on The Sopranos' final episode. Plot summaries, interviews with characters, casting stories, everything about the 86-episode show.

THE ART OF BEE MOVIE

By Jerry Beck, Chronicle Books, 160 pages, $40

As far as "art of" books go, The Art of Bee Movie is among the best. Featuring an in-depth look into the making of Jerry Seinfeld's DreamWorks picture, the book boasts hundreds of stunning images covering every aspect from concept designs to layouts to character development.

MARILYN MONROE

A Life in Pictures

Edited by Anne Verlhac, Chronicle, 192 pages, $47.95

Whether the world truly needs another book of photographs of Marilyn Monroe is an open question, but looking at her is not in the least tiring, and page after page of this elegantly designed book illustrates the way she came alive through the lens. The pictures begin with her at six months and close with her laughing on a Los Angeles beach in 1962, the year she died.

JAMES BOND ENCYCLOPEDIA

By John Cork and Collin Stutz, DK, 320 pages, $50

There may be readers who will painstakingly search for Toro, Colonel between Three Blind Mice, The and Tree, Shady in the section on villains, but this volume seems designed more as a combination of eye candy and serendipity. Colour photos linger as lovingly on Bond's Aston Martin as on Halle Berry in her orange bikini. The bite-sized text entries explain where they all fit in.

ILLUSTRATION/COMIX

OH SKIN-NAY

The Days of Real Sport

By Clare Briggs, verses by Wilbur D. Nesbit, Drawn & Quarterly, unpaginated, $27.95

U.S. cartoonist Clare Briggs captured everyday moments in funny, sentimental and nimbly drawn panels in the early 1900s, under such series headings as When a Feller Needs a Friend. This is a lovely facsimile of a 1913 compilation of his "In the Days of Real Sport" cartoons, concerned not with sport as such, but rather with the interactions of kids ("Oh Skin-nay Yoo-hoo C'mon over") in the streets and the playgrounds. Jeet Heer provides an informative afterword.

TO THE KWAI - AND BACK

War Drawings 1939-1945

By Ronald Searle, Souvenir, 192 pages, $47.95

Searle is one of the foremost and best-known humorous illustrators of our time. Less known are the details of his early years as a prisoner of war in the Japanese Changi camp. Searle's fascinating account of this brutal time includes a large number of his own drawings, almost all of them done during his time as a PoW.

RANDOLPH CALDECOTT'S PICTURE BOOKS

By Randolph Caldecott, Huntington Library, unpaginated, $26

For those whose budget doesn't extend to buying English illustrator Caldecott's beautiful children's books in their late-19th-century originals - that would include most of us - the Huntington Library and Art Gallery in California has considerately photographed its copies of nine of his popular books. The Queen of Hearts is here, as is The House That Jack Built, with its detailed sketches and paintings of worried cats and tossed dogs.

Next week: Design & Architecture, Food & Drink, House & Garden.