The Big Picture

Even the smart and educated like pretty pictures (and often have an unusual penchant for the not-so-pretty as well). Here’s a roundup of coffee table books for Opinion readers. Get them before some make their probable post-Christmas migration to the remainder bins.

Go Back to Kabul: “Return, Afghanistan” (Aperture) The first front of the post-9/11 “war on terror” is still a place where poverty and progress compete. Photographer and Afghan refugee Zalmai’s vision of his homeland is hopeful and haunting.

Get Over Brokaw: “The World War II Memorial: A Grateful Nation Remembers” (Smithsonian Books) “Greatest Generation” author Tom Brokaw hung up the mike this year. The Greatest Anchor’s away, but the much-anticipated National World War II Memorial, which opened in May, is here to stay.

Recount the Vote: “John Kerry: A Portrait” (Bulfinch) Before he voted against (or for) the $87 billion, John Kerry was just another aspiring legislator with a helmet of hair. A collection of photos dating from the presidential also-ran’s post-Vietnam days taken by Kerry friend George Butler.

Up-Armor the Humvee: “GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali, Champion’s Edition” (Taschen) Weighing in at 75 pounds and costing a cool $10,000, this autographed, silk-bound special edition could stop a bullet. Unfortunately, you go to war with the coffee table book you have, not the one you want. (GOAT note: It stands for Greatest of All Time.)

Remember the Unforgettable: “In the Shadow of No Towers” (Pantheon) Graphic novelist Art Spiegelman’s Sept. 11 album is both personal and polemical. Ultimately, it’s a call to memory. “The towers have come to loom far larger than life ... but they seem to get smaller every day,” he writes.