House Cat: Inspirational Interiors and the Elegant Felines Who Call Them Home

This amusing coffee-table book from lifestyle photographer Barbera (Where They Purr) takes a look inside luxury homes through the eyes of the cats who live in them. A three-story Manhattan apartment’s exposed structure is described as “a boundless jungle gym” for Alice, a two-year-old Bengal who “can usually be found balancing on cantilevers” or “tiptoeing on the grill floor of open balconies.” In a baroque Sharon, Conn., house, an American shorthair tabby named Betty (who “wants nothing more than some sunlight and a good scratch, which she demands with raspy meows”) perches on an armchair in a living room decorated with large French mirrors and “Swatow plates salvaged from a shipwreck.” Much of the book’s joy derives from the cats’ apparent indifference to their wildly opulent surroundings. In an apartment in Manhattan’s Financial District, Lady Penelope, a European Burmese, is photographed walking under what appears to be a Sputnik satellite and lying in a sunny spot beneath “a twenty-four metre, adult-sized stainless-steel slide.” Barbera’s skillful photography captures the felines’ personalities and the artful interiors they roam. For instance, an image of a Miami Beach apartment shows a shy Siamese peeking out from behind a seat in a futuristic living room featuring metal wall art and a gold-colored coffee table. Cat lovers will dig this. (Jan.)