Marilyn: The Lost Photographs, the Last Interview by by Richard Meryman, Marilyn Monroe, Allan Grant (Weldon Owen) This haunting volume captures Marilyn Monroe at a moment of rare openness during the final weeks of her life. Built around Richard Meryman’s long-shelved 1962 interview, the book presents Monroe in her own voice: reflective, witty, vulnerable, and increasingly disillusioned with Hollywood’s machinery. Equally compelling are Allan Grant’s photographs, taken during what would become her last formal photo session. More than 400 images, most previously unpublished, reveal an unguarded intimacy far removed from the manufactured iconography that surrounded her. Together, text and photographs form a poignant portrait of a woman attempting to reclaim authorship over both her image and her future. https://insighteditions.com/

The Greatest Star: Behind the Scenes of Sunset Boulevard – THE OFFICIAL 75th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION Including the Original Shooting Script by Jeffrey Vance (Weldon Owen) Marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of Sunset Boulevard, this lavish commemorative volume revisits Billy Wilder’s corrosive portrait of Hollywood at the height of its self-mythologizing power. Built around Wilder’s original shooting script, the book is richly illustrated with rare production stills, posters, and behind-the-scenes material drawn from the Paramount archives, many reproduced here for the first time. Essays by film historian Jeffrey Vance and reflections from cast member Nancy Olson Livingston deepen the context without diminishing the film’s enduring mystique. More than a making-of chronicle, the volume becomes a meditation on fame, illusion, and Hollywood’s talent for devouring its own legends. https://insighteditions.com/

Revelation: A Journey Into Abstraction by Michelle D. Commander Et al. (Rizzoli Electa) Drawn from the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, this richly illustrated volume repositions abstraction as a vital language of Black artistic expression rather than a departure from cultural identity. Works by figures such as Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam, Jack Whitten, Julie Mehretu, and Rashid Johnson reveal abstraction as a means of addressing memory, sound, spirituality, materiality, and political history. Thoughtful essays and thematic conversations deepen the context without overwhelming the visual experience. More than a survey of style, Revelation becomes a powerful argument for abstraction as a space of reinvention, resistance, and expansive creative freedom. https://www.rizzoliusa.com/

The Morandi Museum: Catalogue Raisonné by Giorgio Morandi (Silvana Editoriale) This beautifully revised catalog reintroduces Giorgio Morandi through the quiet intensity that made him one of the twentieth century’s most singular painters. Drawing from the holdings of the Morandi Museum in Bologna, the volume gathers paintings, engravings, and drawings that transform bottles, vessels, and modest landscapes into meditations on form, stillness, and perception. Updated scholarship, expanded bibliographic material, and newly selected illustrations deepen the context without disturbing the contemplative atmosphere at the heart of Morandi’s work. More than a reference volume, the book offers an invitation into an artistic world where subtle shifts in light and arrangement carry profound emotional weight. https://www.artbook.com/

Drawing: Antony Gormley by Antony Gormley (Thames & Hudson) This revelatory survey shifts attention from Antony Gormley’s monumental public sculptures to the quieter, more introspective medium that underpins much of his thinking. Spanning four decades, the book gathers nocturnal works on paper that function less as studies than as acts of inquiry into body, space, and consciousness. Organized thematically and threaded with Gormley’s own reflections, the volume reveals a practice driven by experimentation and inward exploration. Essays by Jeanette Winterson, W. J. T. Mitchell, Margaret Iversen, and Merlin Sheldrake deepen the conversation. With 405 color illustrations, the book becomes both artistic archive and meditation on drawing as a way of being. https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/

The Wyvern Collection: Byzantine and Migration Period Jewelry and Metalwork by Marco Aimone (Thames & Hudson) This hefty, formidable catalog arrives in a deluxe slipcase, matching the ambition of the collection it documents. The Wyvern Collection brings together an extraordinary array of Late Antique and early medieval jewelry and metalwork, illuminating a period shaped by the fall of Rome, the rise of Byzantium, and sweeping migrations across Europe. Jeweled buckles, diadems, swords, and intricate garnet cloisonné pieces reveal a world where wealth, belief, and identity were carried on the body. Scholarly essays by Aimone and leading specialists deepen the context. With 500 color illustrations, the volume stands as both reference work and visual treasure. https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/

Secret Montenegro by Ivana Maksimovic (Vendome) Part travel guide, part personal meditation, this intimate portrait of Montenegro unfolds through the memories and sensibilities of its author. Moving from the quiet coves of the Lustica Peninsula to the dramatic sweep of the Bay of Kotor, the book captures a landscape where medieval churches, fishing villages, and discreet luxury coexist. Rich photography, including images by Boz Gagovski, anchors the narrative in place. More than a catalogue of destinations, it offers a textured sense of a country shaped equally by tradition, history, and a quietly enduring charm. https://www.vendomepress.com/

The Descent of Man: An Annotated Edition of Darwin’s Classic Work by Charles Darwin (Princeton University Press) This illuminating annotated edition revisits Charles Darwin’s most provocative work, situating it firmly within the intellectual and social currents of the nineteenth century. Editors James Costa and Elizabeth Yale surround the original text with incisive commentary that clarifies Darwin’s arguments on human evolution and sexual selection while interrogating the assumptions that shaped them. Victorian ideas about race, gender, and hierarchy are examined alongside the scientific insights that continue to resonate. The result is a richly contextualized reading experience that neither venerates nor dismisses Darwin, but instead invites a more nuanced understanding of a book that still unsettles. https://press.princeton.edu/

Inside the Hamptons by Jennifer Ash Rudick (Vendome) This inviting survey opens the doors to some of the most characterful homes along the Hamptons’ storied East End, where architecture and atmosphere are inseparable. Curated by Jennifer Ash Rudick, the selection ranges from weathered cottages to striking contemporary residences, each reflecting the sensibility of its creative owner. Photographs by Tria Giovan capture interiors shaped as much by light and landscape as by design. More than a showcase of style, the book offers a nuanced portrait of a place where tradition, experimentation, and coastal ease quietly converge. https://www.vendomepress.com/

Inside Mallorca by Ricardo Labougle (Vendome) This stunning volume opens the doors to Mallorca’s most compelling private interiors, where design is shaped as much by landscape as by lifestyle. Photographer Ricardo Labougle captures 17 residences that range from restored farmhouses to pared-back contemporary villas, each reflecting the sensibility of its creative inhabitant. Homes by figures such as John Pawson, Claudio Silvestrin, and Michael S. Smith reveal a shared pursuit of calm, light, and material integrity. More than a design showcase, the book offers a portrait of Mallorca as a creative refuge, where architecture, art, and daily life settle into an effortless Mediterranean rhythm. https://www.vendomepress.com/

Earth Works: Houses by Byoung Cho (Thames & Hudson) This quietly powerful monograph turns to the residential work of Byoung Cho, revealing a practice grounded in restraint and an acute sensitivity to place. Focusing on fifteen largely unseen houses, the book traces a trajectory from early experiments such as Concrete Box House and Earth House to more recent typological explorations. Photographs, plans, and models are paired with Cho’s own reflective texts, which probe perception, material, and the Korean concepts of imperfection and emptiness. With 600 illustrations, 500 in color, the volume offers a poetic yet rigorous account of architecture that seeks harmony with landscape rather than dominance over it. https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/

Textiles x Art: How Textiles Are Shaping Contemporary Art by Ramona Barry, Beck Jobson (Thames & Hudson) This timely survey positions textile art at the center of contemporary practice, where material and message are inseparable. Authors Ramona Barry and Beck Jobson bring together forty-four artists who expand traditional techniques such as weaving, embroidery, and dyeing into works that confront questions of identity, migration, and environment. Far from nostalgic, these pieces operate as acts of storytelling and resistance, challenging long-held distinctions between craft and fine art. With 325 color illustrations, the book captures a field in motion, reasserting the expressive and political force of cloth. https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/

At the Derby: Kentucky’s Grandest Celebration of Fashion by Lili Kobielski (Rizzoli) This exuberant volume turns its gaze from the racetrack to the stands, where the Kentucky Derby unfolds as a spectacle of style as much as sport. Through Kobielski’s lens, feathered hats, pastel tailoring, and gleefully extravagant ensembles take center stage, revealing a tradition that thrives on both elegance and excess. Men’s fashion, newly emboldened, proves just as expressive as the women’s. The photographs capture not only clothing but personality, tracing a visual dialogue between Southern heritage and contemporary flair. The result is a vivid portrait of an event where fashion runs as fast as the horses. https://www.rizzoliusa.com/

Lee Bul: Life and Work by Lee Bul, Doryun Chong, June Young Kwak (Thames & Hudson) This expansive monograph situates Lee Bul as one of the most probing voices in contemporary art. Spanning four decades and multiple mediums, the book traces her evolution from confrontational performance works to intricate installations and recent commissions, including her 2024 project for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Essays by leading critics and curators frame recurring themes of the body, gender, and technological futures shaped by failed utopias. With 415 color illustrations, the volume offers a rigorous and visually compelling account of an artist whose work remains both unsettling and visionary. https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/

Hubris: Pericles, the Parthenon, and the Invention of Athens by David Stuttard (Belknap Press) Stuttard dismantles the familiar mythology of Athens’s so-called Golden Age, revealing a city consumed by political rivalry, imperial overreach, and cultural anxiety. Beneath the grandeur of the Parthenon and the brilliance of Periclean democracy, he uncovers tensions between class, religion, and power that would ultimately fracture Athenian society. Figures such as Alcibiades, Pheidias, and Socrates emerge not as marble icons but as participants in a volatile civic drama shaped by ambition and accusation. Vividly written and sharply revisionist, the book recasts fifth-century Athens less as a triumphant pinnacle of civilization than as a cautionary study in political hubris. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/

Venice and the Mongols: The Eurasian Exchange That Transformed the Medieval World by Nicola Di Cosmo, Lorenzo Pubblici (Princeton University Press) Nicola Di Cosmo and Lorenzo Pubblici recast the medieval world as a web of exchange rather than a map of isolated powers, tracing how Venice and the Mongol Empire forged unlikely but consequential ties. Drawing on rich archival research, the book follows merchants, envoys, and seafarers who navigated newly opened routes across Eurasia, facilitating the movement of goods, ideas, and institutions. Familiar figures such as Marco Polo are reconsidered within this broader network, while attention to law, diplomacy, and rivalry adds depth. The result is a compelling account of how commerce reshaped both empires and connected distant worlds. https://press.princeton.edu/

Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction by Laura B. McGrath (Princeton University Press) McGrath shifts the lens of literary history to a figure often overlooked but quietly decisive: the agent. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and data, she traces how these intermediaries have shaped American publishing from the mid-twentieth century onward, influencing everything from debut careers to the rise of major literary movements. Profiles of figures such as Sterling Lord and Andrew Wylie anchor a broader analysis of negotiation, advocacy, and taste-making within a commercially driven industry. Both revealing and astute, the book reframes the literary canon as a collaborative construction rather than a purely authorial achievement. https://press.princeton.edu/