Our choice for the fail-safe holiday present" A beautifully photographed cookbook, appealing to both the aesthetically- and culinarily-oriented set. Here is our edit of the latest crop of cookbooks for the holiday season.
(Please note that we?re fans of local bookstores, but for the sake of convenience, we?ve linked to Amazon here.)

Above: Not just for the vegetarian, Alice Hart’s vegetable-forward cookbook The New Vegetarian is currently available through Amazon UK for £10 ($12).

Above: Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes delves into the cuisine of the mountain South; $21.56 at Amazon.

Above: Everything I Want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking is a new cookbook from Jessica Koslow of LA restaurant Sqirl. It includes the restaurant’s cult dishes, including the life-changing sorrel rice bowl, as well as jam-making and butchering instructions (plus some of the best art direction we’ve seen in a cookbook yet); $27.74 at Amazon.
Above: A cookbook centered on the abundance of farmers’ market vegetables, Dandelion & Quince: Exploring the Wide World of Unusual Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs offers guidance, tips, and advice on cooking with less common produce varieties; $21.79 on Amazon.

Above: From Clare Lattin and Tom Hill of Ducksoup, a happening restaurant in Soho, London, the Ducksoup Cookbook is all about the details that make each dish: burned lemon, toasted nuts, larder specialties, and more. It’s...