Hugh Newell Jacobson, the legendary architect and late co-founder with his son, Simon, of Jacobsen Architecture, once famously said the best house is polite to her neighbours and never shouts. This statement is a key to the philosophy of the firm, whose much loved houses are suffused with a kind of quiet sophistication that mingle elegant, subtle modernism, with great respect for local vernacular traditions. Featured here are exemplars of the firm s work, from Harbor Hill a cluster of 12 small structures, appearing at first as a group of smallish classic shingled Nantucket cottages, that reveals itself as a single serene residence overlooking Nantucket Harbor to Windsor, an award-winning Florida Colonial abstraction in Vero Beach. Featuring inviting interiors, exteriors, and gardens, the book is an expression of eloquent design.

The photo book Like Birds by photographer Sven Jacobsen takes us back to a carefree time of youthful self-awareness, to a summer full of adventure. In their immediacy, a timeless dimension develops in his photographs of youngsters experimenting; exuberantly jumping into the water; clambering around on fences, poles, and dunes; being silly; kissing; skateboarding; or simply lying in the tall grass. In this way, the lakes, dunes, or apartments depicted become places in a collective memory. The spherical landscapes captured in this way-the snapshots of free youth with its beauty, its chaos, its silence, and its loudness-quickly develop a narrative pull. What looks like a light-hearted summer snapshot on the surface may suddenly touch deeper layers of the subconscious.