Discoveries: D-Day (Discoveries (Harry Abrams))
Abrams' Discovery series, now numbering 40 compact primers on the arts and sciences, relies on a winning package of text fused with photomontages on glossy paper, followed by contemporary documents on, say, Degas or Newton. As applied to D-Day, the formula opens with the famously surreal Capa pictures; Kemp's succinct narrative then wends its way around silhouettes of soldiers, commanders, their equipment, and newspaper headlines; and eyewitness excerpts round out this basic introduction. With a high density of visuals, this should certainly snare any reader just stumbling onto the wave of 50th anniversary titles. (See also the D-Day Focus .)Gilbert Taylor