The Interior Review's Guide to 2025’s Most Beautiful and Interesting Books
Explore a curated collection of books for the aesthetically minded reader—spanning design, architecture, art, culture, food, craftsmanship, and childhood wonder. Consider it a thoughtful shortcut to giving something meaningful, beautiful, and immediately cherished.
Books for Architecture and Place Lovers
Books that explore how cities, landscapes, and built environments shape the way we live, move, and imagine place. A selection for readers drawn to design rooted in geography and culture.
An offbeat, addictive dive into Florida’s cultural psyche—tracing its art, architecture, overlooked histories, and the eccentric personalities who shaped one of America’s strangest, sunniest mythologies. It’s limited to 2,100 copies — $60 at Cultural Counsel.
Presented at a generous scale, this is a look inside some of Aspen’s most striking contemporary homes—18 modernist hideaways folded into the Rocky Mountains. Revealing how architecture meets landscape in this distinctive valley, these properties are lushly documented, and many are being publicized for the first time ever — $64.95 at Phaidon.
Both physically and materially monumental, New York 2020 is an encyclopedic look at New York’s defining twenty-first-century transformations, including the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, the rise of Hudson Yards, new Supertalls, and the revival of waterfronts. Editions are signed by the author — $150 at Phaidon.
A decade after its original publication, this richly photographed work remains as timeless as the Virginia inn it examines. Originally created by chef Patrick O’Connell, the title features a foreword by Martha Stewart and images by Gordon Beall and Derry Moore. The book traces a transformation from a rural garage into a celebrated country house hotel, shaped in collaboration with British designer Joyce Conwy Evans — $50 at The Inn at Little Washington Shop.
Women Who Changed the World
Stories of women whose vision reshaped fashion, architecture, craft, and cultural discourse. These books highlight legacies defined by discipline, originality, and long-lasting influence.
A lavish tribute to Carmen Dell’Orefice, the world’s longest-working model. The book traces her rise from a teenage Dalí muse to a prolific beauty with eight decades of Vogue covers, collaborations with Avedon, Penn, Weber, and Meisel, and campaigns for Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga, and Mugler — $55 at Amazon.
Take a globe-spanning journey through Brazilian designer Silvia Furmanovich’s collaborations with artisans, from India’s miniature painters to Japan’s bamboo craftsmen and Brazil’s marquetry makers, revealing how ancient craft traditions have shaped visionary jewelry and objets — $60 at Rizzoli.
A dual-language study of three pioneering women, Gae Aulenti, Ada Louise Huxtable, and Phyllis Lambert, showing how they redirected architecture toward cultural meaning, civic value, and lived experience. Explore Aulenti’s transformative museum work, Huxtable’s era-defining criticism, and Lambert’s preservation leadership, revealing how each reshaped the modern city from a different front — $35 at Artbook.
For Those Living with Art
These are books that reveal private archives, meticulous processes, and the obsessive worlds behind extraordinary collections, possibly inspiring your own collecting.
A richly illustrated look inside one of Mexico’s most significant private art collections. Spanning fifty years, the Levy family’s holdings bring together Mexican masters such as Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros with global icons including Chagall, Duchamp, Miró, Picasso, Hockney, and Rauschenberg. The result is a study in vision, rigor, and cultural legacy — $45 at SKIRA.
Become immersed in the universe of Tom Sachs, a multi-discplinarian whose craft spans sculpture, film, ceramics, installations, and the studio systems behind them. With 650 color illustrations and a tactile PVC jacket, it’s the most complete portrait yet of one of today’s most inventive, process-driven artists — $89.95 at Amazon.
A personal and wide-ranging collection of interviews by musician and writer Harper Simon, featuring conversations with cultural figures including Fred Armisen, Natasha Lyonne, Sean Baker, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Mark Mothersbaugh, David Gilmour, Jaron Lanier, and others. Simon blends his own artistic life with candid dialogues about creativity, politics, belief, and mortality, creating a layered portrait of contemporary culture for readers who live closely with art and ideas — $32 at Hat & Beard (pre-order).
For the Ambitious Home Cook
Cookbooks that go deeper than recipes, offering cultural insight, technique, and sense of artistry. Perfect for cooks seeking confidence, context, and new flavors without complication.
Embark on a 450-recipe tour of Vietnam’s home kitchens and regional foodways. Go from Hà Nội broths and Saigon street snacks to grilled dishes, hotpots, stir-fries, desserts, and pantry staples. Photographed on location and organized by how Vietnamese cuisine is actually cooked and eaten, it’s the definitive guide for anyone ready to cook with depth and confidence — $54.95 at Phaidon.
Both a collection of art works and recipes, this one-of-a-kind collaboration between River Café chef Ruthie Rogers and artist Ed Ruscha, celebrating the lemon. This guide transformes the citrus into a star ingredient with Ruscha’s unmistakable visual language elevating every page — $45 at Rizzoli.
For Young Adventurers
Stories that spark curiosity, courage, and discovery. These books introduce young readers to big ideas and bigger worlds through warmth, color, and imagination.
An energetic illustrated biography following Carmen Jorda’s journey from determined young racer to becoming the 11th woman ever signed to an F1 team. Her career spans Spanish Formula 3, GP3, Indy Lights, and Lotus F1, showing young readers how many routes can lead to the grid — $22.00 at Amazon.
When a Maine moose crosses paths with a long-haul trucker, an unexpected friendship sparks a cross-country adventure. From navigating highways to tasting his first slice of pizza, Moose discovers life beyond the forest in this warm, wonderfully illustrated story about curiosity, courage, and companionship — $19.95 at Restless Books.
The Met Gala remains a meticulously staged cultural event and one of fashion’s most definitive spectacles. Now, questions around sponsorship and values are increasingly reshaping the narrative. The Interior Review takes a closer look at how influence, capital, and image converge on fashion’s biggest night.