Of the books that have come across my desk recently, I began to realize at least a few of them had a theme going.

And it’s nostalgia.

And if you know me, you know I’m loving that.

The books are different in topic, to be sure, but they each serve to put a spotlight on a different way of life.

First up is the “Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalogue & Buyers’ Guide 1895” (Skyhorse Publishing, $17.95).

The giant paperback is more than 600 pages of shopping options, from three-button cutaway frock suits to shell hair pins with solid gold, silver and plated tops (the one I liked best was $1.75).

There are crimping irons, hack saws, double-link chest locks, pistol holsters, milk cans and doll hammocks.

It’s pretty fun to flip through the pages and see how much has changed — and how much hasn’t.

…

“Vanishing America: The End of Main Street, Diners, Drive-Ins, Donut Shops and Other Everyday Monuments” (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., $39.95) is also a fun “read,” though it really is more of a photo essay.

The book is filled with evocative photographs by Michael Eastman, who has been shooting rural America for nearly 30 years.

The work here, supplemented by text by William H. Gass, represents a bit of an Eastman “road trip” as he travels from his St. Louis base across the country dozens of times to chronicle things that are slipping away.

The book is divided by topic, so we get to follow along as he charts old theaters and churches, hangouts and doors — along with signs, stores, services, automobiles, hotels and restaurants.

Eastman has a great eye for the quirky, the neglected and the things that too often are thought of as plain-old junk.

My only complaint, I had to say, was that I didn’t see too much from our region in the book beyond a token nod to Coney Island — but that could fill another volume, I’m sure.

…

I had never heard of Harbor Hill until I was contacted about the book, “Harbor Hill: Portrait of a House” (W.W. Norton & Company, $60).

The book by Richard Guy Wilson, produced in association with the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, is devoted to “one of the most lavish country houses in the United States in an age of opulence.”

Indeed, Harbor Hill was set on 648 acres in Roslyn, Long Island, a creation of famed architect Stanford White for its owner, Clarence Mackay, at the turn of the 20th century.

The book delves into its creation, its owner and family, its place in society — and so much more.

Sadly, we learn it was demolished in 1947 for a housing development.

Wow. What a loss — and what a worthy history of a place we can only imagine.

…

Finally, I had time to look through “Manhttan in Detail: An Intimate Portrait in Watercolor” (Universe, $17.95).

The book, by artist Robert L. Bowden, is to be published next month.

The artist’s style has a captivating quality, one that makes you think you’re looking at the city during another time.

The paintings, though, were all completed between 1995 and last year. Sure, there are the expected “sites,” from Rockefeller Center to the Brooklyn Bridge, but the book is most moving when a work captures a more quiet moment, such as the scene of the buildings along St. Luke’s Place in Greenwich Village.

It’s a chance to savor a view of the city that these days we tend to just rush through.

Talk about feeling nostalgic.