Our 2016 Christmas Gift Guide: What to buy your siblings (and other relatives)

7 Nov 2016

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be compiling a host of gift guides to help you with your Christmas shopping.

Adam Spencer’s Time Machine is 2016’s ultimate compendium for curious minds, packed with quizzes, anecdotes and trivia.
In Weird Dinosaurs, John Pickrell examines the latest breakthroughs and new technologies radically transforming our understanding of these creatures.
Featuring Wired writer Matt Simon’s signature blend of science smarts and humour, The Wasp That Brainwashed the Caterpillar explores the stranger side of evolution.
Helen Czerski’s The Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life demonstrates how the familiar (i.e. coffee stains), can shed light on the mysterious (i.e. Antarctic winds).
Forces of Nature is a bold, breathtaking series that takes viewers on a tour of our planet to explain what lies beneath Earth’s surface.

Nasty Galaxy is the new book from NastyGal founder Sophia Amoruso – part scrapbook, part inspo-journey and 100% #GIRLBOSS.
1000 Sneakers is a visual history of the world’s most coveted and popular footwear, from early Keds and Converse All Stars to the latest fashion and design icons.
Iris pairs legendary documentarian Albert Maysles with Iris Apfel – the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old New York style icon and muse. This documentary film is an ode to creativity and style.
Brit Bennett’s The Mothers is an urgent, provocative debut novel from a thrilling new voice. Help your sibling to be one of the first to start singing her praises.
Okay… It might just be us, but we think this Unicorn tape dispenser is pretty cool.

The Barefoot Investor has been billed as ‘the only money guide you’ll ever need’, and it’s filled with straight-forward useful advice for managing finances.
Annie Raser-Rowland and Abam Grubb are the duo behind the wonderful The Weed Forager’s Handbook, and their new book, The Art of Frugal Hedonism is all about learning to live frugally AND hedonistically.
In Kitchen Shelf, Rosie Reynolds and Eve O'Sullivan demonstrate their methods for expertly stocking your kitchen shelf in a way that allows you to take advantage of supermarket bargains.
If they’re trying to save money but are in serious need of a break, the Lonely Planet’s guide to Tasmania Road Trips offers lots of inspiration for affordable holidaying.
You may also like to gift them a new TV series, or TV series box-set for them to indulge in from the comfort of their own home.

Absolutely on Music features conversations on music between celebrated author Haruki Murakami and celebrated conductor Seiji Ozawa.
Dig is a comprehensive and highly readable history of the first quarter-century of Australian rock and pop music.
In Every Song Ever, Ben Ratliff reimagines the idea of music appreciation for our times, spanning the sounds of five continents and several centuries along the way.
Jessica Hopper is one of the most influential music critics writing today; The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic demonstrates why.
Hip Hop Raised Me is the definitive volume on the essence, experience and energy that is hip hop, and its enduring impact over the last 40 years.

Written by the most respected authorities on seafood in the country, the Australian Fish and Seafood Cookbook contains all you need to know about selecting and preparing fish and seafood.
Karen Martini is one of Australia’s most respected chefs and her latest cookbook, Salads & Vegetables, features yummy, nourishing vegetable-led recipes that will feed a crowd.
Drinks writer and bartender Luke McCarthy ranges from clandestine convict distilleries to today’s best whisky in The Australian Spirits Guide.
More than just a cocktail recipe book, A Spot At The Bar promotes good drinking, festive hosting and classic style.
Punderdome is a card game for pun lovers, and a fun way to enliven a dull dinner party.

Zoë Foster Blake is a role model for many young women. Amazinger Face is a fully revised and updated edition of her bestselling beauty book of 2011.
Japanophiles and budding comic artists may enjoy Diary of a Tokyo Teen, a sweet and funny travelogue written and drawn by Japanese-American teenager Christine Mari Inzer.
For something that will make them laugh, Dan and Phil Go Outside is the new book from the hilariously awkward YouTube duo, Dan Howell (danisnotonfire) and Phil Lester (AmazingPhil).
Clementine Ford’s Fight Like a Girl is an incidence and essential manifesto for feminists new, old and soon-to-be.
If your sibling is endlessly inventive and fantasy-obsessed, A Miscellany of Magical Beasts may just be exactly what they’re looking for.

Gary Younge’s Another Day in the Death of America is a powerful book that looks at the effect of gun crime on children in the US.
Peter Wadhams is the world’s leading expert on sea ice: A Farewell to Ice is his urgent report from the frontline of planetary change in the Arctic and Antarctic.
With Secondhand Time, Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich an oral history of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia.
Desert Writing presents a wide range perspectives on living in extreme geographical and climactic regions in Australia today.
In Notes on an Exodus, Man Booker Prize-winning author Richard Flanagan and Archibald Prize-winning artist Ben Quilty bear witness to the plight of refugees.

Adam Spencer

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