Gift Gallery

The holidays are almost here, with a flurry of gift-giving just ahead. The following big, beautiful books are full of vibrant narrative and photography that celebrates America's artistry, industry, cities and—most especially—her people, a treasure beyond price.

America the Beautiful: celebrating who we are

REVIEWS BY ALISON HOOD

Destination America: The People and Cultures That Created a Nation examines 400 years of journeys to America in a succinct narrative that tracks the history of U.S. settlement and immigration, exploring who came to America and why. The driving motivation to immigrate is shown through man's enduring desire for freedom—from religious persecution, oppression, want, fear and creative repression. Though Destination America augments filmmaker David Grubin's PBS documentary of the same name, author Chuck Wills has written an educational, stand-alone account of this country's diverse peoples and cultures. The book's images, enhanced by objective historical reporting, are portals into our past and present—sometimes humorous, often heartbreaking, always illuminating.

Destination America renders a multilayered portrait of America that will leave readers to ponder what it really means to be American. Wills posits a definition characterized by transience: "The one thing that unifies the 295 million people living in the United States today is that at some point . . . they, or their ancestors, came here from someplace else."


What happened in Vegas

Hot sun, hype, mobsters and money: it's Las Vegas, baby. Las Vegas: An Unconventional History, a companion to the PBS American Experience documentary series (and co-author Stephen Ives' film, Las Vegas), promises—and delivers—on its title. This western Capital of Sin began as a bleak boom-and-bust railroad town (and gateway to Hoover Dam) in which, says co-author Michelle Ferrari, "There was not much to see." True, unless you had opportunistic eyes and entrepreneurial spirits—as did mob man Bugsy Siegel and a parade of other high rollers who forged The Strip from a dusty street.

Ferrari and Ives have claimed their window of opportunity to plumb Las Vegas in this wonderful wacky tale of the small desert oasis (yes, really!) that grew into a glittering grotto of gambling and good times. With classic photos capturing Sin City's characters, hijinks, kitsch and casinos, the book also offers four essays by guest authors (Jim McManus, David Hickey, Max Rudin and Marc Cooper) that are odes to the town's glitz, glam and perfidy. Settled by Mormons, built up by mobsters, and fueled by the likes of millionaires Howard Hughes and Steve Wynn, the city's hedonistic roots are bared in vivid neon in Las Vegas, negating the town's latest advertising claim that "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."


Art decorated

In the heart of New York City stands iconic Rockefeller Center, a haven of commerce and industry, art, history—and ice skating. Center archivist and author Christine Roussel's gorgeous The Art of Rockefeller Center is an orderly catalogue of the Center's history, art and artists. This oversized volume is lavished with exquisite attention to detail; the book's design and typography, writing and photography are employed in shining homage to the artifice and artistry within and without the Center's venerable walls.

Rockefeller Center emerged during the Depression from the idealistic vision of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Where there were once grimy tenements, the Center rose as a cohesive melding of art, architecture and American ideals. Before construction could begin, Rockefeller spent two years planning a "modern, self-contained urban center" that would be "a mecca for lovers of art." Together with an art advisory group (including his wife, Abby Aldrich, and son, Nelson), he identified art sites, standards, themes and artists, allocating $1 million to fund the enterprise in 1931. Artists commissioned included Gaston Lachaise, Lee Lawrie, Paul Manship and Diego Rivera (although his finished artwork, considered fascist, was destroyed).

Each chapter of The Art of Rockefeller Center explicates the history and art of a single building of the complex, interpreting its art deco and art moderne treasures in exceptionally lucid prose and pristine photography. Especially interesting are explanations of the artistic processes used in creating public art and stories of the artists. The book also includes many historic photos, an index of artists and a color-coded map of the Rockefeller Center for reference.


Birthday blues

Blues musician B.B. King turned 80 in September, and The B.B. King Treasures: Photos, Mementos & Music from B. B. King's Collection is a warm tribute to this legendary American performer who, with guitar Lucille, has traveled the road entertaining audiences for nearly 60 years. Born Riley B. King to sharecropper parents in Itta Bena, Mississippi, King's lived a real rags-to-riches story. But the book is also a love song to the blues, and a testament to hard work and respect for others. Says a colleague, "if we had pictures instead of words in the dictionary, under the word 'gracious’' would have to be B.B. King."

B.B. King Treasures is a montage scrapbook that traces King's first Delta days through his musical odyssey to Memphis, Chicago and into mainstream America. It is an intriguing collection of biography, interviews, photography, a CD and memorabilia (reproductions inserted in the book via parchment sleeves), such as concert promotional ephemera, contracts and booking sheets—there's even B.B.'s business card, which proclaims "Blues is King—King is Soul."

Though B.B. King Treasures is mainly King's biography, the book reveals tangential stories—of the cutthroat music business, of struggles for racial equality and of the spread of the blues into the musical mainstream and across the globe. Co-author Dick Waterman, who has known King for nearly 40 years, marvels at his tenacity, about which has been said: "He's just a tough, tough dude."


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