Here's this year's grand champion. "Great Cathedrals" has the most essential element of any coffee-

Here's this year's grand champion. "Great Cathedrals" has the most essential element of any coffee-table title. Its gorgeous photos and spare, evocative prose make you want to zip off to Paris or Chartres or Florence to see for yourself the magnificent structures reproduced on these pages. But if you can't do the travel thing, this magnificent volume is a fine substitute.
Anyone who scoffs that "cowboy art" is a contradiction in terms needs to see this book; anyone who loves Western themes needs to own it. The paintings and sculpture reproduced here are crisp, colorful images. The accompanying copy is equal to the art it describes.
As expected, there are lots of oversized books that recount in words and pictures the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001. This is the best of the lot, offering capsule obituaries of many victims -- an effective way of reminding us of individual as well as collective loss.