The Best Books to Buy This Holiday Season

A book is perhaps the most enduring gift we can offer the people in our lives: a source of entertainment or knowledge, recipes or reflections. A solace or an inside joke, a message that says “I know what you like” or “Here’s an interest we can share.” Once again, we’ve asked frequent contributors to these pages to help assemble a guide to gift-giving—for readers of all tastes and ages.