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 Treehouse Living: 50 Innovative Designs
by Alaine Laurens, Danile Dufour, Ghislain Andre, and La Cabane Perchee.
Photographs by Vincent Thfoin.
Abrams, hardcover, $40.00.
All of us at the store have fallen to the day-dreamy lure of paging through this book of photos and designs from Europe's leading treehouse architectural firm. Who even knew there was such a thing as "treehouse architects?" Except for 12 year olds. And if there's a leading treehouse firm, that must mean there are competitors! But no, these are grown-ups, and their breathtaking designs, some of them with bathrooms, and wine fridges built in, (your arch-enemy Kenny Johnson would be so jealous) will make you long for a treehouse of your own, and about a bajillion dollars with which to built it. Crappy scrap-lumber treehouses are so 1980.
 American Photobooth
by Nakki Goranin.
Norton, paperback, $29.95.
Goran, herself a photographer, has assembled an amazing and captivating collection of vintage and contemporary images from photobooths across North America. This is another book we here at Unabridged have fallen for. Fast and hard we fell. In the forward, photo curator David Haberstich says, "That a perceptive, dedicated, sensitive artist like Nakki Goranin has rescued from oblivion so many amazing self-portraits created by amateurs confronting themselves in the fleeting privacy of a humble, sometimes tacky photobooth is yet another miracle for which we can be grateful." An excellent volume for photo buffs, history nerds, kitch lovers and eternal students of popular culture.
 Superbad: The Drawings Illustrationa by David Goldberg, forward by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
Newmarket, mini-hardcover, $15.00.
Ok, if you have seen the movie "Superbad" (and if you haven't, update your Netflix queue immediately) then you cannot have forgotten the images from the end credits, from when Seth was obsessed with drawing, well, phalluses. (phalli?) Here, in book form, in all their penile glory, are the movie images and many more: a penis talking on its cellphone, poolside, a penis erupting, Alien-style, from a man's chest, a penisaurus, a penis playing the bagpipes, the way penises will. Most of the drawings are done on notebook paper, giving the book, despite it's subject matter, a rather innocent, D.I.Y. vibe. A silly little book that will bring out your inner 7th grader and give the kid a laugh.
 Life. Get One. (It's Happy Bunny) by Jim Benton, paperback, $5.99.
It's hard to deny the wisdom of our pal Happy Bunny, delivered in this guide for the graduate. "If life give you lemons, squirt lemon juice in the eyes of your enemies," for example. Or eternal truths such as, "All problems can be solved by having a bear eat them." Tough, no-nonsense advice for people getting ready for the real world, and all of it delivered by adorable bunnies, so it must be worthwhile. And if we abide by Happy Bunny's idea of "Don't judge a book by its cover; judge it by how many pictures it has" we're in luck, because each and every page of this slim tome is illustrated, with bunnies, chickens, bears, and more, all so cute it'll make you throw up in your mouth a little.
 Great Houses of Chicago, 1871-1921 by Susan Benjamin and Stuart Cohen.
Acanthus, hardcover, $75.00.
In just the first week of publication, this volume detailing Chicago stately homes, most of them now lost to history, has become far and away our best-selling art or architecture book, despite its admittedly hefty price. Interior Design magazine gave it a rave review, calling it a "delicious feast of a book," and going on to say, "The book examines 34 Chicago houses in detail and appends a portfolio of single images of 40 or more. Of the whole group, 45 have been destroyed and only 12 are still private residences, so the emphasis is necessarily - and nostalgically - on what once was. Just as informative and interesting as the images, the text tells us much about why the owners lived as they did.
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