Glossy New Reads From One of Amsterdam's Coolest Bookstores

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Looking for some summer reading material? In Beach Reads, we're asking some of the city's top bookstores the age-old question: read any good books lately?

Every apartment needs at least one big, beautiful coffee table book, and the new Mendo bookstore is full of them. The shop, located inside the citizenM hotel in Times Square, is the first U.S. location for the Amsterdam-based bookstore that carries a carefully-selected array of photography, fashion, archietcure, and design books, plus limited editions and special signed copies.

For the first installment of Beach Reads, we asked Noreen Chadha, the USA Commercial Director of citizenM, to share two of her favorite picks. Fittingly, they're both very New York-centric.

J'aime New York by Alain Ducasse

Why It's Great: "One of my favorite things to do in New York is go out for dinner and try new restaurants, so it's interesting to read what a quintessential French chef has to say about New York spots. I discovered some great ones through this book."

The Summary: From the forward by Blue Hill Chef Dan Barber, "Ducasse introduces you to a gastronomic tour of New York that I'm willing to bet most native New Yorkers don't know (I am one of them). He also somehow makes you feel, with each turn of the page, that you are in the very best version of New York, smelling the just-baked baklava from an extraordinary little bakery in Queens, sipping a perfect, bracing espresso at an East Village cafe and hurrying along the avenue to get to the best arepas ever made."

The Big Book of the Hamptons by Michael Shnayerson

Why It's Great:"This book is really entertaining, as it showcases so many extravagant highlights of the Hamptons and its various taste levels."

The Summary:: "The Hamptons, one of the most iconic and extravagant neighborhoods in the world—a Disney World for adults—are celebrated in this Assouline publication, which brings to life the houses, gardens, architecture, interiors and sights that will make you understand why the elite loves to reside at America's Riviera. For ordinary folks like us, this Big Book is probably the closest we'll ever get to the Hamptons."
· Mendo [Official Site]