Poet and travel writer Marius Kociejowski (The Serpent Coiled in Naples) began what turned out to be a career in antiquarian bookselling in the 1970s; four decades later, in London, he was still at it. He shares marvelous stories in A Factotum in the Book Trade, but he also shares his fear that his sort of retailing is a dying breed: "With every shop that closes so, too, goes still more of the serendipity that feeds the human spirit." In a voice that's erudite, witty, cranky yet charming, he neatly captures the value of bookstores, both antiquarian and new: "I want to be able to step into a place and have the sense that there I'll find a book, as yet unknown to me, which to some degree will change my life."

Kociejowski's memoir is stuffed with droll digressions about those books and sharp portraits of the collectors and writers he's encountered over the years. (He drops plenty of names--Elton John, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Annie Lennox). This tribute to a vanishing industry proves the necessity of books and bookstores (and booksellers) in our lives. Perfect for any book lover. --Robin Lenz, managing editor, Shelf Awareness

Mick Rock (1948-2021), the sardonically self-described "godfather of rock photography," captioned the images that appear in Shot! by Rock, but aside from the odd photo of a cat or a kid, he needn't have provided his subjects' names: readers will recognize practically every mug. He snapped a young David Bowie, the newborn Sex Pistols and a baby-faced Ozzy Osbourne. As Rock boasts, and with good reason, "I can make anyone look like a poet." Lou Reed's Transformer, the Stooges' Raw Power and Joan Jett's I Love Rock 'n' Roll are among the standard-bearing album covers that Rock shot, and most of the other photos reproduced here--spanning 1968 to 2021, some in black and white but most glisteningly supersaturated--could have served the same purpose. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

In the introduction to Our America: A Photographic History, filmmaker Ken Burns describes his life's calling as "trying to tell complicated stories about history, particularly the visual history of our even more complicated country." And that is precisely what he does in this stunning collection of more than 200 carefully curated black-and-white images. Accompanied by a preface by Sarah Hermanson Meister, MoMA's photography curator, and steeped in the "myriad tensions" of American history, these chronologically ordered photographs show majestic vistas of American natural beauty alongside closer images of individual Americans: men at work and at war; women quilting and protesting; people living and dying. Each image on its own is an invitation to consider what story an image can tell about a moment and includes detailed endnotes that document, for curious readers, the context of each photo. Collectively, the photos in Our America are a tribute and a revelation, offering a sweeping view of a nation born of both building and destruction. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Welcome to the Universe in 3D, the ideal gift for star gazers of all ages, brings readers a built-in stereo viewer--a portable Hubble Space Telescope of sorts, built into a fold-out section of the book--that enables a 3D tour of the universe. Armchair astronomers can peer through the stereo viewer, page through nearly 60 double images of the solar system and take in three-dimensional images from as far away as 13.8 billion light years. Neil deGrasse Tyson (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry; StarTalk) and three other astrophysicists--J. Richard Gott, Michael A. Strauss and Robert J. Vanderbei--succinctly explain each dazzling image, which include Earth's neighboring planets, a black hole, the Coma cluster of galaxies and a quasar two billion light years away. A helpful glossary explains such concepts as the Big Bang, exploding supernovas and white dwarfs. Cheaper than a telescope, this is a marvelous introduction to astronomy. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant

House Plant Club creators Morgan Doane and Erin Harding (How to Raise a Plant and Make It Love You Back) share thoughtful advice on selecting plants, containers and locations in How to Plant a Room. Filled with gorgeous and inspirational photos, this guide includes ideas ranging from lush indoor greenhouses to simple sideboard displays, and the final chapter, "The Planted Room," will send readers running to their nearest nursery. Plant lovers--and their indulgent housemates--will smile at such tips as: "when you've run out of floor space, look to the walls for inspiration." One part helpful guide, one part aspirational beauty, this fun and tidy book is the ideal gift for readers looking to welcome more green into their homes. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian and freelance reviewer

In her first book, Blooms & Dreams, former travel writer Misha Gillingham gives readers a tour of her family's small farm on Bainbridge Island, Wash., emphasizing how beauty, community and a connection to the land have brought healing. Gillingham briefly recounts her move from fast-paced Los Angeles to a tiny rural community and then dives into showcasing the various fields, crops and animals on Evergreen Acres Farm. She celebrates the variety of plants she's able to grow, gives practical advice for novice gardeners and writes lovingly about her family's pets and livestock, along with the ways in which they partner with a local food bank and other organizations. Filled with photos of luscious dahlias, cuddly alpacas and verdant gardens, Gillingham's book is a pleasant journey for armchair travelers and gardeners alike. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Filled with beautiful infographics and charts disseminating positive news--Infant deaths worldwide have decreased by more than a half! Transgender rights are expanding around the world! LED bulbs are saving energy and money!--the uplifting Beautiful News from David McCandless (Knowledge Is Beautiful; The Visual Miscellaneum) is the antidote to the seemingly ever-terrible flow of information seen on television and online. The book, with thick, glossy pages and charts covering such information as human rights, natural disasters and carbon emissions, is the perfect choice for that friend who already has everything. Anyone can find an infographic that will interest them in Beautiful News and, because page 241 shows that "everyone, everywhere is living longer," readers will have plenty of time to page through the whole thing. --Jessica Howard, freelance book reviewer

The aerial photographs of David Ondaatje's Water Views capture stunning seascapes, beaches and coastlines. The author chairs a fishing rod company, and his angling adventures in the Bahamas, British Columbia and Montana provided opportunities to take many of these images using a drone. Extreme, wide angles and panoramic shots re-create natural grandeur, and human figures lend a sense of scale. Elsewhere, man-made structures provoke wonder where water adjoins a city, as in Rome or Miami. Striped umbrellas form eye-catching patterns on European beaches, while surfers and kayakers stud Californian ocean views. Brief captions add context and anecdotal information. The variety of compositions and lighting conditions--from fog that renders scenes nearly black and white to a golden evening sun--make this a spectacular set of photos for armchair travelers to browse. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader and blogger at Bookish Beck

Nature and adventure photographer Paul Zizka offers stunning images and narrative in Spirits in the Sky: Northern Lights Photography. Photos with brief, descriptive captions take center stage. They are accompanied by a few concise sections of text, which provide an overview of what the northern lights (or aurora borealis) are; some of the myths used to explain them; and the stories behind Zizka's work in capturing these breathtaking images. Wildlife, human models, outdoor sports and self-portraits appear among the images, but it is the wildly colorful lights themselves--in the striking landscapes of Canada, Greenland, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands--that make these photos unforgettable. Spectacular scenery and an elusive natural phenomenon combine in special ways in this gorgeous collection of art photography. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Photographer Shannon Taggart examines spiritualism--its history and present-day practices--through the camera's eye in Séance, an eerily beautiful, exquisite and unsettling book of photos and essays centered around the spiritualist community of Lily Dale, N.Y. This redesigned reissue, which includes a foreword by comedic actor and fourth-generation spiritualist Dan Aykroyd, features vintage photos from Lily Dale's past and essays by artists Andreas Fischer and Tony Oursler on "the powerful influence they released on the field of fine arts." Taggart's own photos of mediums and artifacts have an otherworldly, off-kilter luminosity. She thoroughly documents the stories and spiritualistic techniques portrayed in each image. This beautiful, engrossing tribute from a true believer is a testament to American spiritualism's continued popularity. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

National Geographic photographer and explorer Chris Rainier has spent the last 40 years asking: "What is sacredness and what does it mean to be sacred?" After exploring numerous regions and cultures, his search did not conclude with a single answer but, instead, a stunning collection of photographs he took along the way. Sacred: In Search of Meaning presents crisp black-and-white and vivid, awe-inspiring color photographs on sprawling spreads cataloguing spiritual monuments, natural phenomena and beautiful landscapes around the world. Rainier, respected for his documentation of endangered cultures, and a host of other contributors supplement the photos with insightful essays on their personal musings on the word sacred. This collection takes readers around the globe, stopping at the most inspiring and magnificent sights along the way. --Clara Newton, freelance reviewer

John Gendall's Rocky Mountain Modern showcases houses with clean, minimalist designs that allow for, as their main attractions, breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains. Though the idea of modern architecture might evoke visions of sleek steel materials, the homes in this collection--in locations that include Jackson Hole, Wyo., Aspen, Colo., and Golden, N.Mex.--also incorporate such natural resources as locally found stones and logs. Architects marry the desire to bring the outside in--creating the feeling of "being alone in the forest," as designer Tom Kundig puts it--with the need to protect the residents from extreme temperatures. The results are stunning structures that are simultaneously homes and retreats. Readers don't need a plane ticket; they can merely open the pages of this beautiful book for an instant getaway. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd

Great Women Painters, a handsome volume of full-color works by more than 320 women artists from some 60 countries, "celebrates the persistent endurance of painting by repositioning the place of women in its history." Part of the pleasure of this book, which includes an introduction by Alison M. Gingeras, is that the editors have balanced the familiar with the unfamiliar. For every Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keeffe and Suzanne Valadon, a newer artist receives the well-deserved spotlight. Also featured are never-give-up types of stories about painters such as Carmen Herrera, the Cuban-born artist who made brilliant monochromatic paintings for decades yet didn't sell her first work to a gallery until she was 89. Great Women Painters is a beautifully produced compendium of paintings by diverse artists from all over the world. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

Fans of Shaun Tan's work and newcomers alike will rejoice while getting lost in the pages of Creature: Paintings, Drawings, and Reflections, a stunning coffee-table collection of his artwork from 1995 to 2021. Tan provides only introductory essays to the four sections, beginning with "Lost Things" and closing with "Birds," allowing readers space to take in the images. Tan says he has "always been more attracted to an empathetic reading of otherness, quite far from the usual notion of a monster: something more like a companion." His works depict the uneasy relationship between nature and urban sprawl, the familiar and the strange. His art ranges to include an oil painting of a dugong on the front lawn of a Craftsman house in "Undertow" (from Tales from Outer Suburbia) and a spread of two dozen pencil renderings of "Emoticons" as vignettes of a one-eyed, rabbit-like creature displaying an array of emotions, moods and ideas. Notes about each piece at the end will inspire budding artists and allow devotees to go deeper (Tan's cover for The Arrival began as a self-portrait). --Jennifer M. Brown, senior editor, Shelf Awareness

A bibliophile's delight, Spine Poems: An Eclectic Collection of Found Verse for Book Lovers is a stunningly produced volume of "found verse." Former bookseller Annette Dauphin Simon's bookstore pastime of stacking the inventory to create messages made of titles segued into her photographing her creations--and eventually compiling a book of more than 100 "spine poems." Fourteen whimsical chapters cover cooking (Taking Turns/ Cleaning Up/ This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage); parenting (Hey, Kiddo/ Telephone/ Love, Mama); and true crime (Full Disclosure/ I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf). Opposite each full-color photo are literary quotes, anecdotes and research relevant to the poem, so every two-page spread offers a visual treat, a verse and fun facts. The gold-embossed cover hints at the biblio-rich entertainment inside this delightful collection. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.