Each year, dozens of the publishing industry's most dazzling art and photography titles pile up in my home; almost all of them are worthy candidates for this list and welcome additions to any bookshelf. And yet, the year-end package I most look forward to receiving holds only a handful of paperbacks — books I, paradoxically, never thought to suggest for giving until now.

Published annually by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt since 1915, the Best American series packs so much greatness into

—John McAlley