Top Five: Best Gifts For The Well-Read Fashionista

Whether your friend is a style junkie or full-fledged bookworm, here’s your no-fail guide to the best fashion books around (all new this year). From glossy photography to a hilarious memoir about life in the not-so-glamorous fashion industry, you’ll have her coffee table covered in no time–and most are under $40.

We’ve been dutifully following the impeccable style choices of our First Lady all year, and so has Mrs. O ($18.71) author Mary Tomer; anyone into fashion, politics or history will appreciate flipping through these gorgeous photos and fun interviews with style icon, Michelle Obama.

Follow the career of famed fashion photographer Richard Avedon in this essential coffee table book, Avedon Fashion: 1944-2000 ($67.50). If you’re not familiar with Avedon’s work, he’s one of the influential fashion photographers of the 20th century, best known for collaborations with Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue.

Slightly off the beaten track in terms of style books, fashion mastermind Simon Doonan’s latest, Beautiful People ($10.80) is a hilarious, David Sedaris-esque account of the author’s early life.

Scott Schuman is the ultimate people watcher–his photographs of inspiring street fashion in his book, The Sartorialist are always breathtaking. As avid fans of Scott Schuman’s blog, thesartorialist.com, we were thrilled to get our hands on this one ($18).

Love the show or hate it, you can’t deny the characters on Gossip Girl have enviable clothes. The shows ‘s costume designer knows it: his book, You Know You Want It, ($20.24) is filled with hundreds of looks to inspire your inner Upper East Side-fashionista. (For pre-order now, but can still make it in time for the holidays.)

For more present ideas, check out our guides to the best in cheap jewelry, fragrances, and the top 21 gifts that will surely sell out this year.