*To place an order with Serena just email her here…

More images of Serena’s work continue after the jump…

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I love books. I have a master’s degree in library science, spent eight years at the New York Public Library before joining Design*Sponge and have a relatively large collection of books at home. So each fall, I anxiously await the moment I can begin work on this guide. This year while traveling around the country, Grace would catch me sneaking off in bookstores, writing down titles to share, and I spent many a late night online looking at publisher’s catalogs. The great thing about books as gifts is that they ship quickly (making them the perfect last-minute gift), are easy to wrap and when you find the perfect title for the perfect person, there is nothing more personal. The downside is that it can be difficult to pick a book for someone else, and finding that perfect title can be a challenge. I’ve tried to help matters by only picking books that came out this year (most this fall), so there is a good chance your recipient doesn’t have these titles yet. There are 42 books on this list, so you should be able to match at least one title to a person. And if you can’t, there are now lots of options for your own wish list. Happy reading! — Amy Azzarito

Image above: 1. Nomad: A Global Approach to Interior Style by Sibella Court — One of the treats of this summer was tagging along on a walking tour of SoHo with Sibella Court. She is such a huge talent. 2. Design*Sponge at Home — OK. I have to admit momentary hesitation when it came to including the Design*Sponge book on the list. I didn’t want to play favorites, but then I had an internal discussion and realized that there is no book that I believe in more, and I’m proud to have been a tiny part of it. It is by far my favorite book of the year. 3. Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden — I wrote earlier this year about this book, and it is definitely one of my top picks for any garden enthusiast on your list. 4. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel — Diana Vreeland shaped American fashion and American taste; this book chronicles that journey. There were a couple fashion-magazine books this year: 5. Vogue: The Covers, perfect for studying the evolution of American fashion, and 6. Bazaar: Greatest Hits, perfect for a fashion or photography enthusiast. This book provides an insider look at some of the most memorable Bazaar photoshoots from the past 10 years. 7. Exotic Taste: Orientalist Interiors — Every year I keep my eye open for books that I think are must-haves for my design history library. This is one of my favorites this year.

Image above: 1. Cyclepedia: A Century of Iconic Bicycle Design — A sure-win for any cyclist on your gift list. This book is basically a tour through bike collector Michael Embacher’s 100 favorite bicycles. 2. The Pirate Handbook: A Rogue’s Guide to Pillage, Plunder, Chaos & Conquest — ‘Nuff said. 3. Pantone: The 20th Century in Color — From Harvest Gold and Avocado in the 1970s to colors inspired by Martha Stewart and Kurt Cobain, this book is a fascinating look at 20th-century color. 4. Farm Anatomy — I’m pretty much sold on anything to do with animals. A book that lets me fantasize about having a farm from the comfort of my urban sofa has my name all over it. 5. The World of Department Stores traces the history of department store shopping, beginning with 19th-century Paris shopping. 6. Money: Everything You Never Knew about Your Favorite Thing to Find, Save, Spend & Covet; 7. The Ceramics Bible; 8. Walls: The Best of Decorative Treatments — Learn how decorative wall treatment evolved from murals to wood paneling and stencils.

Image above: 1. The Toaster Project or a Heroic Attempt to Build a Simple Electric Appliance from Scratch — Thomas Thwaites sets out to build this kitchen staple by hand. 2. Wildwood by Colin Meloy (author) and Carson Ellis (illustrator) — This was Grace’s favorite fall read, sustaining her through many plane rides. 3. The Wilder Life — For all those Little House on the Prairie fans. Wendy McClure sets out to discover the real world of Laura Ingalls Wilder. 4. Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms; 5. The Swerve: How the World Became Modern — How the discovery of one ancient manuscript changed the course of the world. 6. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman — Last year, my favorite book was Cleopatra. This year, I’m completely engrossed by Catherine the Great, and realizing that I knew so little about her. 7. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On — I LOVE Marcel. It might not take as long to get through as some others on the list, but I was so excited to discover Marcel in this book by Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp.

More books (including crafting & cooking!) continue after the jump!

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Oakland has a vibrant, tight-knit cycling community, and I’ve seen first-hand how passionately people can feel about their bikes. Sadly, I’m still too much of a novice to feel the same. These illustrations and images are part of new project by Stan Engelbrecht & Nic Grobler titled Bicycle Portraits. It’s a study of South African commuter culture: the people, their bikes and the ground they travel every day. Stan & Nic have culled the best 165 portraits to be part of a series of three books, which will also include stories, essays and hand-painted watercolor maps (shown above) to indicate the location of each portrait. I’ve already spent some time enjoying the photographs on the site, and from what I can tell, the books, designed by Gabrielle Guy, will be beautiful objects in their own right. It’s an inspiring project, and I hope to see it in print! You can learn more about it here, and if you’d like to help fund this project, you can visit their Kickstarter page. — Kate

The projects in the book share a rough, sculptural style that I find extremely appealing; you could easily outfit an arty loft with all the projects, or just choose one or two per room to inject a jolt of industrial chic into your current furnishings. The projects are medium and large in scale, but do not seem overly complicated or intimidating. If you need a gift for the DIY or design-loving people on your list, I highly recommend checking out this book. If it were me, I’d wrap the gift in bubble wrap and finish it off with some sort of bow made from neon zip-ties . . . but I’m crazy like that :) — Kate

Click here to purchase a copy (metric version available here) and here to find out more about the book.

*UPDATE: The Farm Book winners have been notified via email. Thank you to everyone who entered!

Image above: This book took almost a year to create between gathering content, making the drawings, handwriting the titles and text, painting the drawings and arranging the layouts. Today, I wanted to share what some of that process was like for creating the finished layouts you see in Farm Anatomy. — Julia Rothman

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