, a cultural icon of a different sort and one of the most beloved stories of our time, is lovingly and thoroughly celebrated in Laurence Maslon’s The Sound of Music Companion. With a heartfelt foreword by Andrew Lloyd Webber (who recently brought the show back to the stage), this captivating, joyful book bursts with history, artwork and mementos, production still photography, song lyrics and stories all devoted to the musical and cinematic productions of the Von Trapp family story.

Maslon starts his tribute at the very beginning, introducing us to the indomitable, irrepressible Maria and her adopted family, and intersperses their saga (from Salzburg to the States) with Oscar Hammerstein’s memorable song lyrics and production shots from both movie and musical versions. The book segues almost seamlessly into a thoughtful and entertaining history of the show’s genesis, from its very first production with Mary Martin, to the movie version with Julie Andrews and all the variant productions since and in between (including the Sound of Music sing-along phenomenon), ending with the recent Lloyd Webber stage revival.

With its history of the rise of the Third Reich, a wealth of behind-the-scenes production anecdotes and a fascinating look at the creative processes of Rodgers and Hammerstein, The Sound of Music Companion is thoughtfully conceived, beautifully written and well-researched a guaranteed candidate for any fan’s shortlist of favorite things.

If you adore Wookiees and droids, long for a lightsaber of your own, or are eager to explore faraway galaxies, then The Star Wars Vault: Thirty Years of Treasures from the Lucasfilm Archives, is your go-to cache of intergalactic goodies. Brought to you by two of George Lucas’ employees, Stephen J. Sansweet and Peter Vilmur, this collection of Star Wars memorabilia and (removable) ephemera is a one-of-a-kind paean to the creative fertility of Lucas and the cast of thousands who contributed to this massive franchise.

The Star Wars Vault includes hundreds of photos and pieces of art; 50 items of memorabilia (notably, reproductions of Lucas’ handwritten scripts); and two CDs featuring cast interviews, radio spots and a song or two from Princess Leia! With this scrapbook to end all scrapbooks, the authors have also framed a mind-bending, exacting prose history of the Star Wars saga, from its early days to the final Episode III; the book is a testament to moviemaking and the complex science of special effects. The imagined world of George Lucas has become a global cultural icon, with characters and dialogue inextricably sunk into our collective psyches. The Star Wars Vault reveals the complete genesis of Luke, Leia, Han and the Dark Lord, and is a must-have for all fans of The Force.

100 Days in Photographs: Pivotal Events that Changed the World, by Nick Yapp, Douglas Brinkley and Chris Johns, is a powerhouse blend of image and story. Photographs selected from the historic collections of the National Geographic Society and Getty Images show us our world, from 1851 to the present day, with both elevating and awful truth. Photography, says historian Brinkley in the book’s foreword, is a window onto our collective souls and struggles. This book, without a surfeit of unnecessary words, inarguably illustrates our human sufferings, but also our triumphs, curiosities and joys.

Presented in chronological order and accompanied by brief, succinct histories written by London-based journalist Yapp, the photographs reflect a gamut of ground-breaking and mind-boggling events, from the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, the fall of Saigon and the tumbling of the Berlin Wall, to a placid portrait of Dolly, the infamous cloned sheep. Photo captions give information about the photographers, their equipment and technique, and historic quotes round out the history behind each photograph.

Many of the images included here are disturbing; they remind of us our most terrible capabilities. But they are, says Brinkley, testimonials to an ever-evolving art form that teaches about ourselves. . . . And all we can do is be grateful for the discovery and recognition.

Annie Leibovitz has photographed some of the most famous faces of our time, creating iconic portraits in her work for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Gap, American Express and others. The images in A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005 go from color to black-and-white, landscape to portraiture, artists (Baryshnikov, Welty, Avedon) to revolutionaries (Mandela, Bill Gates), Hollywood to war-torn Sarajevo. Leibovitz makes frequent use of four-panel spreads, especially when documenting her family. Sometimes, however, one photograph is enough: waves crashing into the Havana shore; Philip Johnson at his Glass House; a portrait of Susan Sontag, Leibovitz’s companion, with cropped white hair melting into a thick black turtleneck. Intimate photos of Sontag working, breakfasting in Venice, coping with and finally succumbing to cancer punctuate the years chronicled in A Photographer’s Life.

A companion exhibition to the book opened at the Brooklyn Museum in October and a documentary about Leibovitz (directed by her sister Barbara) will air on PBS’ American Masters series in January. After emotionally draining years during which Leibovitz lost both her father and Sontag and then celebrated the birth of twins, it’s a particularly apt time for a retrospective of her life and career.

The vast spaces and close confines of the Grand Canyon, from rim to canyon floor, are given their due in Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography. This book, made all the more beautiful by author Stephen Trimble’s words, is an homage complet to a much-loved space one that is imperiled by an excess of visitation and environmental pollution.

The Grand Canyon has been explored and photographed since the mid-19th century. Lasting Light faithfully chronicles the photographers, their photographic technologies and their artistic visions from the early expeditionary years to the middle, more iconic (in terms of photographic innovation) times, through to the large field of contemporary photographers still mesmerized by this mysterious and challenging geography. From the Kolb Brothers to Eliot Porter to Jack Dykinga, each photographer and their unique interpretation of the canyon’s features are included. This collection is a superlative explication of America’s very own world wonder. Alison Hood was formerly a National Park Service Ranger at Muir Woods and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Frenchman and award-winning photographer Philippe Bourseiller explored many of America’s famous and lesser known national and state parks for an entire year. The result, America’s Parks, is a heady and dramatic volume of his photographs, bookended by a triad of provocative essays (two by fellow countrymen, one by an American), that give both European and American perspectives on the origins, history and development of America’s parks, as well as a thought-provoking look at the future of national parks worldwide.

The photography in America’s Parks is almost over the top; photographic artistry, in the form of extreme technical manipulation, reigns supreme in this collection. We see mind-blowing sunsets, almost unreal close-ups of flowers in a cracked desert and the minute gradations of feathered texture found in a bird’s wing. While Bourseiller’s photographs are masterful, they are not fully representative of the parks they are supposed to depict; Niagara Falls is given short shrift, shown in a single photo of powerfully flowing waters, with no background perspective or setting. Bourseiller’s work, though beautiful, is somewhat inaccessible: there is no elucidation of his motivation and vision, and his photos are not captioned; the reader must take their location and meaning from an appendix that gives a general description of the park in which they were shot.

Alison Hood was formerly a National Park Service Ranger at Muir Woods and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Galen Rowell: A Retrospective is a loving tribute compiled by Sierra Club editors a grand collection of Rowell’s exquisite images, accompanied by nine thoughtful essays and short remembrances written by friends, family and colleagues. According to colleague Frans Lanting, Rowell was a photographic pioneer, ever searching to capture the dynamic landscape. Says Lanting, What this meant to Galen personally was: Travel light, anticipate opportunities, shoot fast, keep moving, and enjoy yourself. Alison Hood was formerly a National Park Service Ranger at Muir Woods and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Would you like to delight your resident horse-lover this Christmas with something other than another item from her State Line Tack wish list? Widely acclaimed photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand has culled 15 years of pictures and selected his favorites for a new collection, Horses. From the lens of a master who is at ease whether working from a bird’s-eye view or up close in the studio, these pictures convey a depth that is rarely seen in standard horse photography. Focusing on the complex relationship between his equine subjects and their caretakers, Arthus-Bertrand’s photographs reveal almost as much about horse-lovers as they do about the horses themselves.

Starting with photos taken in Eurasia, where the horse’s ancestors developed into the present day species Equus, representatives of many breeds are shown against the backdrop of Arthus-Bertrand’s signature brown tarp canvas. Befitting an artist who has spent a significant portion of his career photographing the earth from the air, Arthus-Bertrand includes several beautifully composed shots in which the canvas is a small element of a wider, lush scene. Thoughtful commentary by Jean-Louis Gouraud enhances the photos and focuses on how the various breeds have evolved in response to regional cultures. This armchair tour of the horse world is a captivating journey.

In Astronomy: A Visual Guide, British science writer Mark A. Garlick offers us the reassuring news that the sun has enough fuel to last another 5,000 to 8,500 million years. Of course, this is but one little info bite in his fact- and theory-packed, visually stimulating excursion through the night skies. Garlick first takes readers through humankind’s historical fascination with space, with quick-take lists and chronological rundowns concerning archaeoastronomy, early and later astronomical tools, the scientific discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo and others, manned spacecraft, space disasters and the various unmanned probes that have been charting deep space for the past 30 years. The heart of the book is a star-gazer’s wonderland, offering a trove of hard data and interesting speculation on the Solar System, stars and galaxies, and the further reaches of the as-yet-unknown universe. Despite some spotted typographical errors, the text is otherwise eminently readable. But best of all are the stunning photos, taken from the world’s important observatories and from space-based cameras. Attractive and imaginative artist’s renderings, including star maps, fill out this intriguing astronomical tour.

Even if we allow New Yorkers a little slack for their endearing nearsightedness, we’d probably have to admit some truth to their contention that Madison Square Garden is the world’s most famous arena. George Kalinsky has been the Garden’s official photographer since 1966, and his nearly 40 years of work are the basis for Garden of Dreams: Madison Square Garden 125 Years, which uses stirring pictures to tell a story of international sports, politics, entertainment and celebrity. The volume benefits from a terrific introduction by journalist Pete Hamill, who takes the Garden through its various structural and site changes since the 19th century, complete with illustrative anecdotes that capture the distinctively New York mindset. Other brief essays are contributed by personalities for whom the Garden brings fond memories, including Bill Cosby, John McEnroe, Bill Bradley, Robert Klein and Spike Lee. Kalinsky’s photos supplemented by some black-and-white archival shots are by turns colorful and fraught with history. Subjects include New York Knicks basketball greats, world-class animal tamer Gunther Gebel-Williams, Muhammad Ali, Nadia Comaneci, Pope John Paul II, Peggy Fleming and Clinton/Gore together at the 1992 Democratic Convention.

Sisters: Tenth Anniversary Edition revisits 13 sets of sisters originally featured in Sisters, the sleeper New York Times bestseller of the early 1990s, along with some new siblings. Surprising, difficult and touching sentiments are revealed in Sharon J. Wohlmuth’s updated photos and Carol Saline’s interviews: aging, illness, disillusionment and death have caught up with some of the women, while affection and deep emotional bonds are more pervasive than ever. Famous sister reunions include the stunning trio of supermodel Christy Turlington, now a mother, and sisters Erin and Kelly; Coretta Scott King and Edythe Scott; musical sisters Irline, Louise and Barbara Mandrell; and Clare, Jeanne and Chris Evert. But some of the most moving reunions include the Green sisters, now in their 90s and separated for the first time in their lives; Janice Coffey, whose brother is now her sister, Elizabeth; and Julie Johnson, who happily gave birth to a baby boy, now 10 years old, for her sister Janet. Deanna Larson is a writer in Nashville.

Many of the images from the pages of LIFE magazine are iconic: the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square on V-J Day by Alfred Eisenstaedt, the aerial shot of a near drowning on Coney Island by Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks’ “American Gothic” portrait of cleaner Ella Watson, Larry Burrow’s photo of a GI shot dead onboard the Yankee Papa 13 in Vietnam, Phillipe Halsman’s swirling composite of artist Salvador Dali in “Dali Atomicus” and Milton Greene’s photo of Marilyn Monroe. The Great LIFE Photographers eatures pictures by more than 200 of the century’s best photojournalists on staff at the magazine throughout its history. But lesser-known works still retain enormous storytelling power decades later, attesting to the skill and artistry of photographers who placed themselves mere feet from the action to frame the shot. George Strock was following troops in New Guinea when he discovered the bodies of three U.S. soldiers half-buried in the sand of Buna Beach in 1943. Carl Mydans caught the faces of terrified young children huddled in the snow hiding from a Russian air raid in 1940s Finland, and George Roger snapped a young German boy walking past hundreds of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp corpses in 1945. Some works such as Lennart Nilsson’s microphotography of the moment of conception; William Vandivert’s photo of young Welsh girl badly injured in the Blitz; W. Eugene Smith’s picture of a mother bathing her deformed daughter, a victim of mercury poisoning, in Japan in 1971; and Michael Rougier’s portrait of a Korean boy found orphaned by his mother’s dead body made the world wonder and inspired change. And some, like the picture of Joseph Goebbels’ cold, hard stare taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1933, prove that immutable truths can be caught forever by a lens in a box. Deanna Larson is a writer in Nashville.