Sure, you may be reading most of your books on iPads and Kindles these days, but a few tomes (of the coffee-table variety) are worth picking up in paper.

The Aesthete's
Fall Reading List

A testament to the great studio system of Hollywood, these rarely-seen shots were meant to showcase the 'ordinary lives' of iconic stars, like Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe. But in reality, they were as carefully constructed as any official portrait.

•  
  Before he was assigned to JFK, Stanley Tretick photographed combat during the Korean War. 

Photojournalist Stanley Tretick started covering the Kennedy campaign of 1960 and soon befriended JFK. He ended up taking many of the President Kennedy's best pictures during this time, including many stylish, off-duty shots.

From the blogosphere to the bookshelf. The razor-sharp, tongue-in-cheek tone of the popular Tumblr succinctly captures the self-deprecating voice of a style- and social-media-obsessed generation in this handsome book.

Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer founded Roman and Williams in 2002 and quickly garnered a following with the fashion set for their stylish, understated sensibility. This book surveys their most prestigious projects, from furniture design to the interiors of Manhattan's Ace Hotel and The Dutch.

Divided into three sections—sports and leisure, military and workwear—this handsome reference showcases the vast collection of rare 20th-century pieces that fashion designers and stylists pay to view at the authors' half-museum, half-retail space in London called The Vintage Showroom.