Photographs by Roberto Schezen
Text by Michael Webb

The only ocean view many of us can enjoy is on reruns of Baywatch. But a lucky few wake up daily to the soothing sound of the surf kissing the shore. Photographer Schezen and Architectural Digest contributor Webb provide more than just a landlubber's peek at 21 waterfront homes in the four corners of the U.S. From a Depression-era cottage in Montauk, Long Island, to a Southern California stucco where Mae West once lived, the views of the houses and their surroundings are spectacular, but it's the attention to detail that makes this coffee-table book eye-opening. In designing a sinuous Caspar, Calif., structure dubbed the Wave, for instance, Bart Prince was inspired by Debussy's "La Mer." Music, he says, "soars free of gravity...it's an idea I try to express in my work." A few homes are so poorly decorated that it's hard to see the ocean through the tchotchkes, but most are awe-inspiring. Don't be too envious, though: As many as one quarter of waterfront homes could be washed away within 60 years. (HarperCollins, $49.95)

Bottom Line: See-worthy