East End Books for Last Minute Happy Holiday Gift Giving

You can never have enough books. But some people don’t have access to books and some have no books at all. And that’s not right. So while you’re holiday book shopping, think about donating books, either to make way for new ones, or just because. Check out unitedthroughreading.org, which connects military families physical separated and facilitates the bonding experience of reading aloud together; or prisonbookprogram.org, a grassroots organization operating since 1972 that exists for one purpose—to send free books to prisoners. One book can go a long way.

And while doing your last-minute shopping, try these East End-related titles.

Did you know the original Polaroid Original OneStep cameras are back? Yup, Polaroid Originals is selling the OneStep 2, but also some older, vintage cameras, like the 600 Series, the SX-70 and the Spectra. Did you also know that former Montauker Andy Warhol was rarely without his own SX-70? Or that he was a chronic documenter of his surroundings? In Andy Warhol. Polaroids 1958-1987 (Taschen, $59.99) you can see for yourself the hundreds of shots he snapped several generations before Instagram. From self-portraits to still lifes, anonymous nudes to New York high society, from Cabbage Patch Kids dolls to Dolly Parton, Keith Haring to Audrey Hepburn, these impromptu images offer a unique record of the Pop Art maestro’s world.

Beat the cold weather blues and plan for spring and summer with The Garden of Peter Marino (Rizzoli, $85). Marino’s Hamptons estate covers 12 acres and is a stark contrast to his Harley-riding persona, what with all the leather and tattoos. The first three-quarters of the book presents photographer Jason Schmidt’s photos of Marino’s contemporary landscapes over all seasons and many years, capturing a rainbow of color in his images, which are presented in a variety of sizes on the page. Before renowned Spanish interior photographer Manolo Yllera took the photos for the final quarter of the book, a steady rain turned into a furious downpour. The result is pure artistry. The paper changes to a more textured, matte paper, which only adds to the sepia–toned, now truly saturated, landscapes. The images themselves are just as exquisite, but in a more haunting, less traditional garden-photo way. “The French use gardens to show grandeur,” Marino says. “The English to show how things have endured for hundreds of years, but for me they’re all about fantasy.” If you fantasize about magisterial gardens, expertly curated, this is the book for you—or someone on your list.

The Arctic Melt: Images of a Disappearing Landscape (Assouline, $95), is a brilliant monograph showcasing Water Mill resident Diane Tuft’s breathtaking and visually astounding journey to places throughout the Arctic Circle—including the North Pole—to capture the ice before the constant melt renders the once-frozen landscape unrecognizable. The book contains more than 50 photos of the North Pole, the mountain glaciers of Norway and the icebergs and ice sheet of Greenland chronicling Tuft’s passage through the waning tundra as millennia of ice thaw at a faster rate than ever before.

We’ll always remember December 16, 2016 was cold, dry and windy. That was the day we lost the Sag Harbor Cinema, the 1936 Art Deco theater, the last in a line of theaters to occupy the spot on Main Street. The recently published Sag Harbor: 100 Years of Film in the Village by Annette Hinkle (illustrated at top of page), is an invaluable history of the cinema—and a perfect gift for anyone who’s ever been to the village. The book includes photos of old movie posters, lobby cards, press clippings, the cinema throughout the years, the original blueprints and so much more. Hinkle has certainly put together the book about the Sag Harbor Cinema.

Try finding these titles at your local bookstore before looking online!