While perusing the stacks at the Strand Bookstore this week I found Privet Lives. It is easily one of the nicest books I’ve seen. It has dozens of large, beautiful, imaginative illustrations and underneath the dusk jacket is a sleek book of a unique size.

The book is a collection of watercolors by Perry Guillot with short descriptions below each piece. The book tells of how the privet shrub has grown from designating boundary lines to becoming metaphors for the residents and fate of Southampton, the books setting. The book comically addresses the takeover of a natural setting and envisions its demise as well.

Don’t let the price scare you away. What the publisher lists as 95 dollars, the strand lists and 40 and amazon.com lists “New” for under two dollars plus shipping. It could be the cheapest coffee-table-worthy book you buy.