Amazon.com (ISBN 0870704907, Paperback)

One expects any museum to produce greatest hits package type books along with the t-shirts, postcards, and boxer shorts that make a gift shop the driving engine of any decent museum. And if you thought this surely must be one of these kind of books, you'd not be faulted for that. However, the newly-expanded and revised version of this book (which is slightly less White Male-centric than its predecessor) is something of a classic when it comes to writing about modern art in a way that's both accessible and informative. Not to say that it's a masterpiece of art history, but it is a rather marvelous look at 350 major works from the Museum of Modern Art's considerably deep collection. One wishes many of these items could be on permanent display, but of course MOMA would have to be 50 times its size to showcase all of its holdings. You'll find a huge variety of disciplines, including video and multimedia works, design and painting, spanning pretty much the entire gamut of art, making it a model gift for the art lover in your circle of friends. --Mike McGonigal