Your search for the ultimate coffee table book is over.

Coffee table books are generally oversized pictorials about subjects as diverse as Maryland plantations or Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry collection, topics you would otherwise avoid if not for moments of pause in your in-law’s living room, medical offices and stylish friend’s dens.

These upcoming coffee table titles, however, promise to be worth more than a casual perusal – worthy, perhaps, of prime retail space on your own coffee table. They’re from the iconic bookseller Rizzoli whose various imprints publish definitive portfolios on art, architecture, interior design, photography, and more.

Author Lesley M. M. Blume has said of publisher and bookseller, regarding their flagship store in Manhattan:

“There are few treats as sumptuous as a visit to Rizzoli. Every time I walk in, I get the distinct feeling that I could happily stay forever in that oak-walled oasis on 57th Street. And I’m not the only one who feels this way; everyone in New York City speaks about Rizzoli with a particular reverence. It is a strangely nostalgic reverence – a nostalgia for something wonderful from a fine bygone era, something that no longer exists anywhere else.”

What more can be said? It’s a venerable publisher housed in a splendid bookstore, both of which are dinosaurs in our post Amazon world. Lest they too go extinct, here are seven art books, portfolios and monographs to lampoon on your coffee table in the year ahead.

Handmade Houses: A Free-Spirited Century of Earth-Friendly Home Design
Written by Richard Olsen, Photographed by Kodiak Greenwood and Lucy Goodhart
Release date: March 20, 2012

This book showcases a century of innovation and environmental sensitivity and is the first study of handmade-homes. It explores how these dwellings and their builders spearheaded today’s spirit of salvaged, reclaimed, industrial looking design.

Made in New York: Handcrafted Works by Master Artisans
Written by Nathalie Sann and Ted Sann, Foreword by Jamie Drake
Release date: April 10, 2012

As reported, the New Artisans are spawning a build-it-yourself renaissance and this book takes you inside the studios of master artisans in New York City crafting away in trades like glassblowing, masonry, wood carving, hatmaking, embroidery, and calligraphy.

Brassai: Paris by Night
Written by Brassai, Foreword by Paul Morand
Pub Date: February 14, 2012

Sixty-four pages of a 1920s nocturnal Paris photographed by Hungarian photographer, Brassaï. He photographed “its every aspect,” from police to prostitutes and the homeless to socialites.

Tomboy: Breaking the Boundaries of Fashion
Written by Lizzie Garrett Mettler
Release Date: April 10, 2012

Confident, rebellious, adventurous, bold, brazen, fierce – and sexy: all adjectives that describe Tomboy. This book investigates the mass marketing of gender stereotypes, and turns it on its head.

Fafi: The Carmine Vault
Written by Fafi
Release Date: April 10, 2012

Give your coffee table the Fafi effect. Celebrated Parisian street artist Fafi exploits female stereotypes with over-the-top, in-your-face, hyper-stylized renderings. She’s collaborated with Adidas, M.A.C cosmetics and Chanel and now her work is being presented in a lavish graphic-novel art book.

Indonesian Eye: Contemporary Indonesian Art
Written by Serenella Ciclitira
Release Date: April 24, 2012

Today’s contemporary Southeast Asian art market is being driven by Indonesia. This book presents work from seventy-five of the nation’s emerging artists and explores what differentiates them from their western counterparts.

Christian Louboutin
Written by Christian Louboutin, Foreword by John Malkovich, Contribution by Eric Reinhardt, Photographed by Philippe Garcia and David Lynch
Release Date: Now displaying on a coffee table near you.

If you don’t see yourself shelling out $500-$2,000 for a Louboutin, the gawking price is a mere $150 care of Rizzoli. The monograph is as theatrical as his shoes, with an elaborate pop-up, foldout cover, and dramatic stills photographed by David Lynch.

Prop your feet up on that.

Images: Mitch Steinmetz

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