In Phaidon’s new mini edition of the 2015 photo book “Brick,” author and editor William Hall pays homage to “the humblest thing imaginable … [a] brick is after all just earth.”

In Taschen’s titanic tome, “The NASA Archives: 60 Years in Space,” Verne’s tale serves as a gateway to a galaxy of lavish images, essays and actual mission transcripts that trace our trips to the moon and beyond.