Been awhile since I posted my photo book purchases, and I've been pretty restrained in my buying lately, but here's the (short) list.
Lewis Baltz, The Prototype Works. Steidl. ISBN: 9783869302508
Elin Hoyland. The Brothers. Dewi Lewis Publishing. ISBN: 9781907893087
Joseph Koudelka. The Gypsies. aperture foundation. ISBN: 9781597111775
Liu Zheng. The Chinese. Steidl. ISBN: 9783865210371
Marc Feustel, ed. Japan, A Self-Portrait: photographs 1945-1964. Flammarion. ISBN: 9782080304636
Anne Wilkes Tucker, et al., eds. The History of Japanese Photography. Yale UP and MOFA, Houston. iSBN: 9780300099256
Terry Bennett, ed. Photography in Japan, 1853-1912. Tuttle. ISBN: 9780804836333
Zhongguo sheyingjia xiehui (中国摄影家协会 / Chinese Photographers Association) ed. Touguo xiaoyan de jingtou: Zhongguo zhandi sheyingshi fangtan (透过硝烟的镜头:中国战地摄影师访谈, Scenes Through Smoke: Interviews with Chinese War Photographers). Zhongguo sheying chubanshe (中国摄影出版社,Chinese Photography Press). ISBN: 9787802363700
All but the first three are fodder for a course I'm (all too slowly) developing on the history of Asian photography, so most include rather academic essays and are not really photobooks in the usual/artistic sense. Liu Zheng's is the exception here; it is an art book, but does double-duty for me. He finds some amazing marginal characters in China (wizened monks, transvestites, street performers, run-down opera singers, miners, etc.). Thoroughly enjoyable, though it rankles with some overly sensitive Chinese (who feel he has portrayed only the freaks and misshapen). The Chinese war photographers volume is fascinating, but for its words (in Chinese, of course) more than its images. (The reproductions are small, grainy, tonally flat, on poor paper, etc.)
The Koudelka re-issue has been discussed a bunch in earlier posts. And I agree that it is somewhat "chalk and soot", but I'm glad they re-issued it as it has some truly remarkable images and I can't afford the original edition. Hope they re-do Exiles too!
The Baltz is fantastic (if you enjoy his style), with wonderful tones on thick glossy paper. And I'm glad I picked up the Hoyland too -- first saw mention of it on several best of 2011 lists -- excellent, quiet photos of two elderly semi-recluse brothers.