Food writers for the New York Times selected a baker’s dozen top cookbooks of the fall season, perfect for holiday giving. They represent culinary styles from around the world, and cooking styles from simple to gourmet.

“365: A Year of Everyday Cooking & Baking”

Meike Peters (Prestel, $40)

To live a year in Meike Peters’ life! In “365,” Peters, who won a James Beard Foundation award for her 2016 book, “Eat in My Kitchen,” offers a meal for every night from January to December. The recipes are largely European in focus (Peters lives in Berlin and Malta), skew seasonal and, rare for a cookbook, tend to serve two.

There’s some repetition, but isn’t that real life, where sometimes you’re eating alone, or making variations on a favorite dish? Weekends are earmarked for more time-consuming recipes: cakes and tarts, cookies and jam. Dinner, they’re not. But sustenance for the week ahead? Definitely.

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“Amá: A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen”

Josef Centeno (Chronicle, $29.95)

What happens when Tex-Mex finds a home in Southern California? In Josef Centeno’s “Amá,” the results are sunny and delicious, from a vegan, cashew-based “queso” built on the flavors of charred onion, garlic and green chili, to a simple halved ruby red grapefruit, broiled with a topping of butter and sugar, just like his auntie used to do. Centeno and writer Betty Hallock have published a rare cheffy cookbook, with approachable recipes a home cook might want to try — even if they’ve never had the chance to eat at his excellent Los Angeles restaurants.

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“American Sfoglino: A Master Class in Handmade Pasta”

Evan Funke (Chronicle, $35)

Like any proper sfoglino — the Italian term for a person dedicated to the art of fresh pasta making — Evan Funke has mastered the craft of making fresh pasta to the point at which he can cook by his senses. Thanks to his pasta manual, “American Sfoglino,” written with Katie Parla, you can, too — but first, expect lots of talk about the “ideal gluten network,” “level of salinity” and “pursuit of perfection.”

Funke studied in Bologna, Italy, before opening Felix Trattoria in Los Angeles, and while his recipes for handmade pastas are involved, no machine is required. The finished dishes are mostly streamlined, in keeping with his observation that “80% of Italian cooking is about getting the best ingredients.” The rest revolves around treating them right, which you’ll do with ease thanks to his careful instruction and step-by-step photography.

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“Canal House: Cook Something”

Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer (Voracious, $35)

The writers are home cooks first, even as they run a food magazine (Canal House Cooking), a photography studio and a restaurant in rural New Jersey. All that experience makes their second book an ideal manual for modern cooks, often revisiting a basic formula (like deviled eggs) and amplifying it (with inventive toppings or quick sauces). Beyond cooking, the longtime collaborators have worked out how to eat, shop, drink and live in ways that wring the most satisfaction from the least work. Many of the best recipes from the magazine are here, so subscribers won’t need it. But anyone else, especially starter cooks, should gobble it up.

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“Cooking for Good Times: Super Delicious, Super Simple”

Paul Kahan (Lorena Jones, $35)

When most chefs tell you something is simple, it’s safe to assume the opposite. But Paul Kahan demonstrates uncomplicated cooking at its finest in his book, written with Perry Hendrix and Rachel Holtzman. The Chicago restauranteur has figured out how to feed guests without fuss, by breaking down recipes — like steak with charred radicchio — into make-ahead components for easy last-minute assembly. Dish it up in whatever order works, with whatever wine, and guarantee a good time for the cook and the company.

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“From the Oven to the Table: Simple Dishes That Look After Themselves”

Diana Henry (Mitchell Beazley, $29.99)

The award-winning cookbook author Diana Henry has the busy but aspirational home cook in mind with her latest, “From the Oven to the Table.” Her aim was to create a collection of recipes that can be quickly prepped and then slid into the oven, so you can get on with other things.

While most of the recipes aren’t breezy, many are one-pot, and ideal for a Tuesday night that you want to make more special — like a chicken, black bean and rice wonder, in which the rice soaks up the juices from the chicken thighs as they cook together.

Most of the side dishes are meant to cook on the rack beneath a main dish so they emerge simultaneously, and desserts are simple yet sophisticated: A chocolate and red wine cake glossed with ganache looks like far more work than it is.

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“The Gaijin Cookbook: Japanese Recipes From a Chef, Father, Eater, and Lifelong Outsider”

Ivan Orkin and Chris Ying (Rux Martin, $30)

Many cookbooks out there try to fully capture a culture’s cuisine. This is not one of them. “The Gaijin Cookbook” is full of Japanese and Japanese-inspired recipes that reflect what the authors want to cook and eat, and that you’ll want to cook and eat, too. Gaijin (gai-​jin) means “foreigner” or “outsider”; although Orkin, the chef and owner of Ivan Ramen in New York, lived in Japan for years, speaks the language fluently, and even opened successful ramen shops in Tokyo. Yet he is still considered an outsider, and so is Ying. Their perspective makes Japanese food feel more attainable than a typical cookbook on the cuisine. With classics like gyoza, and additions like miso mushroom chili, this book is a guide on how to love another culture while respecting it at the same time.

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“Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking”

Toni Tipton-Martin (Clarkson Potter, $35)

“Jubilee” is Toni Tipton-Martin’s follow-up to “The Jemima Code,” an annotated bibliography of African American cookbooks. Alongside recipes for pork chops smothered in caper-lemon sauce and hot toddies, Tipton-Martin often provides a vintage version clipped from an old cookbook. Though few writers are better at using recipes as a way to look at the past, “Jubilee” isn’t a history lesson. It’s a celebration of African American cuisine right now, in all of its abundance and variety, and a vital reminder that creative cooks are constantly adapting and updating it.

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“Maangchi’s Big Book of Korean Cooking: From Everyday Meals to Celebration Cuisine”

Emily Kim (Rux Martin, $35)

The YouTube cooking star known as Maangchi, who wrote this book with Martha Rose Shulman — presents her recipes with encouragement that radiates off the page. Tofu stews are weeknight saviors; dosirak (lunch box meals) are perfect for children; and the section on Korean Buddhist temple cuisine, with recipes learned from nuns at a mountain temple, will delight vegans. Practical tips abound — cleaning shellfish, shelling chestnuts, reusing leftovers — and Maangchi even prepares you for grocery shopping in her upbeat, reassuring way: “The staff may not speak perfect English, but I guarantee they will be happy to see you and will assist you the best they can.”

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“Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over”

Alison Roman (Clarkson Potter, $32.50)

With the first line of her new book — “This is not a book about entertaining” — Alison Roman announces her break with model hostesses like Martha Stewart and others who keep things pretty and polite. Enemy of the mild, champion of the bold, Roman offers recipes in “Nothing Fancy” that are crunchy, cheesy, tangy, citrusy, fishy, smoky and spicy, just like the ones she regularly contributes to The New York Times. They work, and not only for company: Labneh with sizzled scallions, squash scattered with spiced pistachios or pasta with chorizo breadcrumbs and broccoli raab could appear anytime. For dinner parties, she provides cocktail recipes, extra snacks and pep talks so urgent and encouraging that having people over for leg of lamb and tiramisu suddenly seems like a bucket-list event.

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“Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors From My Israeli Kitchen”

Adeena Sussman (Avery, $35)

Sababa, Hebrew slang for “it’s all good” or “everything is awesome,” is an apt title for Adeena Sussman’s new cookbook. Sussman, an American food writer who moved from New York to Tel Aviv in 2015, adores the cuisine of her adopted city. All 125 of the vegetable-rich, herb-strewn recipes were inspired by her trips to the shuk (market), with its bins of olives, tubs of tahini and bunches of lemon verbena. An experienced cookbook author, Sussman’s recipes are thoughtfully written and thoroughly tested. And dishes like roasted carrots glazed with tahini and date syrup, labneh with caramelized pineapple and sumac, and seared baby lamb chops marinated in shug (green chili, cardamom and cilantro sauce) capture the exuberant spirit of her new home.

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“South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations”

Sean Brock (Artisan, $40)

The Southern chef Sean Brock is prone to diving deep into culinary rabbit holes, and thank God. His latest cookbook, written with Lucas Weir and Marion Sullivan, builds on the intellectual, culinary and historical work of his 2014 book, “Heritage,” but widens the lens from the Lowcountry to the Appalachian Mountains, where he grew up. Some recipes, like a pan-seared chicken breast with pepper and peanut butter gravy, are a snap to make but deliver outsized results. Others, like tomato- okra stew and sour corn chowchow, sound simple, but require making other recipes or investing weeks of time. Even banana pudding, with its roasted banana milk, pawpaws and homemade Cool Whip, is not safe in his hands. Still, this book is worth keeping forever in your collection, because no one cooking today is doing more to help the Southern culinary flame burn brighter.

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“Tartine: A Classic Revisited”

Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson (Chronicle, $40)

The writers have grown their famed San Francisco bakery Tartine into a small empire, with branches in Los Angeles and Seoul, and have written four cookbooks between them. Now, 13 years after the release of their celebrated first book, “Tartine,” they’ve gone back to their roots with this new edition. It features 68 new recipes, including their beloved morning buns (a sweet roll made with croissant dough and filled with orange-scented cinnamon sugar), as well as updates to older ones to reflect current tastes. Alternative flours abound (Prueitt is gluten intolerant), and more modern flavors run through traditional pastries. The recipes can be involved, and produce absolute showstoppers, but the book is also full of more accessible classics like shortbread and brownies.

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>> READ MORE: Recipes from this season’s top cookbooks

Krysten Chambrot, Melissa Clark, Margaux Laskey, Julia Moskin, Tejal Rao, Kim Severson, Alexa Weibel and Kiera Wright-Ruiz, New York Times

Krysten Chambrot, Melissa Clark, Margaux Laskey, Julia Moskin, Tejal Rao, Kim Severson, Alexa Weibel and Kiera Wright-Ruiz, New York Times.