Here is the next installment of "Book Briefs," the series of occasional posts featuring short first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that publishers send to me for consideration on this blog. Obviously, these briefs are not full-blown reviews, but they are a way to share more books worthy of attention than those that end up as long reviews. This installment features three books put out by Altrim Publishers: one case study and two travel guides.

H?thigaon: A Settlement of Elephants and Mahouts by Sanjeev Vidyarthi, Megha Bhatnagar, Gaurav Bhatnagar and Rajan Bhatt | Altrim Publishers | 2022 | 10 x 10 inches | 124 pages | ?32 | Amazon
A couple of years ago I learned about RMA Architects' H?thigaon Housing in Working in Mumbai, the 2020 monograph on Rahul Mehrotra's firm. In that book the housing project for elephants and their caretakers (mahouts) near Jaipur, India, is documented across fourteen pages. While that length is sufficient for conveying the important aspects of RMA's design and presenting it in charts, drawings, and photographs, the unique nature of the project ? how many other architects, except perhaps Boonserm Premthada, can boast they designed housing ... for elephants"! ? a book-length case study on H?thigaon is understandable. Written by Sanjeev Vidyarthi, Megha Bhatnagar, and Gaurav Bhatnagar, with photographs by Rajan Bhatt, and featuring an interview with Mehrotra and an epilogue by him, the book is as th...