At some point a few months ago, I decided—admittedly unwittingly—that I didn't really want to finish Art Deco 1910-1939, a dense coffee table book that accompanied an exhibit of the same name that I very much enjoyed at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. It wasn't that the book wasn't instructive or interesting—quite the opposite, in fact—but that a book like this isn't really meant to be read cover to cover; it's meant to sit out for guests and the owner to browse every so often at parties or at a moment when they want to explore the full litany of art deco pieces in the book.
Let me be clear: The artwork presented in Art Deco 1910-1939 is impressive and gorgeous, and the book definitely seems to be the definitive art-museum text on the subject of art deco. But as I said, it's a bit overkill when you read it cover to cover.
A large and weighty book full of interesting information and pictures. I would like to have read something more on Georges Barbier, however, what I did read was amazing. The genre that we know as Art Deco spanned a lot of countries and a lot of different styles. Certainly this book is a must read for anyone interested in Art in any degree.