The best coffee-table books do more than look good on a shelf. They offer a way into another world, whether through art, architecture, travel, fashion or food, with enough visual impact to keep returning to long after the first read. From Lee Bae’s monochromatic work and Assouline’s Costa Rica Vida to Taschen volumes devoted to Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, these are the books worth making time, and space, for.
Travel
Costa Rica Vida
by Assouline
Between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, Costa Rica has made living an art form lightly. Journalist Lale Arikoglu travels from the Osa Peninsula and Monteverde Cloud Forest to the energy of San José, finding “Pura Vida” expressed through wilderness, surf, food and community. Sun-drenched without losing sight of substance, the book captures a country whose celebrated ease rests upon a deep respect for the natural world.
Architecture
Francis Kéré: Building Stories
by Taschen
What if architecture were measured by what it gives back? For Francis Kéré, building is a social act, shaped by climate, community and a profound sensitivity to place. From his formative work in Gando, Burkina Faso, to public projects of global significance, 26 buildings are presented through photographs, sketches and firsthand reflections. The result is an unusually personal account of a practice in which sustainability is not a statement, but a starting point.
Art & Design
Lee Bae: Ultimate Form
by Rizzoli
Charcoal becomes something elemental in the hands of Lee Bae. The Korean artist’s spare, deeply meditative works turn one of the simplest materials into a language of gesture, shadow and quiet force, where black is never just black, but a field of memory, movement and time. Lee Bae: Ultimate Form traces the discipline and depth of his practice, revealing an artist whose work feels both ancient and entirely contemporary.
Raphael
by Taschen
Raphael’s genius lies in the illusion of effortlessness. Across paintings, frescoes and tapestries, the Renaissance master gave beauty a sense of balance so complete it still feels almost impossible, from the serenity of his Madonnas to the grandeur of the Vatican rooms. Taschen’s 45th anniversary edition gathers the full sweep of his work into a richly illustrated volume, tracing an artist whose influence shaped the visual language of Western art for centuries.
Pop Culture
Vespa
by Assouline
Few designs have travelled through the collective imagination quite like the Vespa. Created in postwar Italy and swiftly adopted by film stars, city dwellers and pleasure-seekers alike, the scooter became less a mode of transport than a shorthand for freedom, style and la dolce vita. This richly illustrated volume captures that enduring romance through archival imagery and cultural storytelling, tracing Vespa’s evolution across eight decades of design.
André de Dienes: Marilyn Monroe
by Taschen
Before she became Marilyn, she was Norma Jeane in André de Dienes’ lens: luminous, unguarded and on the edge of transformation. His photographs capture a rare intimacy, tracing the earliest contours of a legend before Hollywood fixed her in platinum. Taschen’s 45th anniversary edition gathers these extraordinary images into a richly evocative volume, revealing not only the birth of an icon, but the private radiance that made her impossible to forget.
Alfred Wertheimer. Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll
by Taschen
Alfred Wertheimer’s intimate photographs capture Elvis before mythology took hold: restless, magnetic and startlingly human. Taschen’s handsome volume moves with the heat of 1950s America, tracing the birth of rock ’n’ roll through stolen glances, backstage tension and the swagger of a star becoming legend.
Gastronomy
The Mon Lapin Cookbook: De Toute Beaute
by Phaidon
Mon Lapin has the rare quality of feeling both wildly of the moment and completely at ease in itself. From its Montreal dining room, the beloved restaurant has built a world around generous cooking, instinctive hospitality and a distinctly Quebecois sense of pleasure. Phaidon’s cookbook brings that spirit to the page, gathering recipes and stories that feel intimate, spirited and deeply inviting. A deliciously characterful tome for gastronomes.
Oak, Wine & Spirits
by Assouline
Long before a bottle is opened, its character is being shaped in the dark. This richly atmospheric tome turns its attention to oak, the quiet alchemist behind the world’s great wines and spirits, and the centuries of craft held within the barrel. From cellar rituals to the slow work of ageing, the book explores how wood lends flavour, texture, colour and depth to what we drink.
Fashion & Lifestyle
Grace Now
by Phaidon
Grace Coddington has always understood fashion as something more expansive than clothes. Across decades of image-making, the legendary stylist and creative director has turned editorials into worlds of their own, full of romance, wit, character and cinematic imagination. Grace Now revisits that singular vision, gathering the work and spirit of a woman whose influence helped define fashion publishing as an art form.
Bvlgari Eclettica
by Rizzoli
Colour, instinct and Roman glamour collide in Bvlgari’s singular world. Bvlgari Eclettica is a dazzling tome celebrating the maison’s unmistakable appetite for bold combinations, unexpected forms and stones chosen as much for their character as their brilliance. This is high jewellery at its most expressive, where elegance is enlivened, and beauty arrives with confidence.
Kids
Yayoi Kusama: Lots of Dots
by Phaidon
One dot, two dots, big dots, small dots, Yayoi Kusama’s playful world becomes a first lesson in colour, counting and pattern. Shaped like one of her famous pumpkins, this bright and engaging board book uses rhythmic text, shiny foil and clever die-cuts to delight little hands and growing minds. A joyful first encounter with one of the world’s most celebrated artists.
