Our 2017 Christmas Gift Guide: What to buy your significant other
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be compiling a host of gift guides to help you with your Christmas shopping.
If they enjoy throwing dinner parties…
- For comforting, delicious and heartwarming try Ostro by Julia Busuttil Nishimura. This one is especially great if your significant other (S.O.) has a pasta machine gathering dust in their cupboard as Julia demonstrates how to make a wide range of different pasta shapes.
- The Little Library Cookbook is ideal for those who love food and books. Kate Young shares 100 recipes inspired by her favourite books (including Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels!) making it perfect for a combined book club/dinner party.
- If S.O. has a sweet tooth, we’re big fans of A Piece of Cake, the gorgeous, award-winning cookbook from Melbourne blogger Sophia Purvis.
- Australian Bush Superfoods will appeal to the home cook who likes to think outside the box. Lily Alice and Thomas O'Quinn run through Australia’s most interesting and beneficial bush superfoods, along with advice on how to incorporate them in recipes.
- We put forth that a piñata is sure to improve ANY dinner party. Professional crafter Kitiya Palaskas explains the basics of how to make your own, as well as some fun designs in Piñata Party.
If they like to think about the world around them…
- The Trauma Cleaner is the story of Sandra Pankhurst’s extraordinary life with an emphasis on her work as a trauma cleaner. This is a deeply empathic and astonishing work of creative non-fiction.
- A landmark in science writing, The Quantum Astrologer’s Handbook resurrects the ideas of polymath Jerome Cardano, a Milanese of the sixteenth century, in an exciting exploration of quantum physics.
- Belle Gibson was an Instafamous ‘wellness warrior’ who built an empire on her claim to have treated her brain cancer (which she didn’t have) with diet and lifestyle. In The Woman Who Fooled the World, Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano look at how such a thing was allowed to happened, and investigate the industry flourishing behind the wellness and ‘clean eating’ movements.
- Adult Fantasy is a witty and topical inquiry into how we respond when our cultural clock starts ticking. In a rapidly-changing world, Briohny Doyle asks what is an adult, and how do you become one?
- Part memoir, part science writing and part cultural essay, Anaesthesia investigates what exactly happens when we go under general anaesthetic.
If they’re on the hunt for a new hobby…
- Does your S.O. want to try their hand at preserving or fermenting? We have a selection of cookbooks to get them started including P.J. Booth’s excellent A Charcuterie Diary.
- In The Wild Dyer, Abigail Booth demystifies the ‘magic’ of natural dyeing and shows how to use the results to stunning effect in 15 projects
- Perhaps your S.O. is an aspiring twitcher, so why not gift them The Australian Bird Guide – an indispensable reference book for Australia’s avifauna.
- For an S.O. with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour and a desire to relax, have a look at Kilted Yoga which is exactly what it sounds like.
- Help them to start their own veggie patch with Grow Your Own, featuring expert information and techniques you need to grow your own edible plants in the city.
If they’re pop culture devotees…
- For fans of comics – Slugfest is the story of the greatest corporate rivalry never told. Reed Tucker digs into the 50-year battle between Marvel and DC.
- You Play The Girl by Carina Chocano or Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen are two fantastic, juicy and candid essay collections about women in popular culture.
- For the Twin Peaks obsessee Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier is a deep dive into the mysterious world of the show.
- If your S.O. just binged Netflix’s new series, Mindhunter, why not buy them the book the show is based on? For further inspiration… one of our colleagues is a fellow fan and shared her best picks on what to read next here.
- Does your S.O. love Pusheen? Find some rad gift ideas here.
If they’ve been feeling fatigued by the news…
- Help them relax by preparing a home-cooked meal and then inviting them to stay in with the first season of This Is Us. This is a smart, poignant dramedy about what makes a family.
- Drawn from John Clarke’s and Bryan Dawe’s weekly broadcasts, A Pleasure to be Here will delight readers as they revisit the scandals and stuff-ups of our lifetimes.
- Shaun Bythell is the owner of The Bookshop, Wigtown – Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop – and in The Diary of a Bookseller, he reflects on the trials and tribulations of his work. This is a very funny and delightful read that will appeal to fans of Black Books.
- Help your S.O. step inside a world that is nothing like their own with Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians trilogy. Mostly set in present-day Singapore, this is a delicious gossipy soap opera-esque series that follows the lives of a group of super-rich, pedigreed Chinese families.
- Insomniac City is a gorgeous, romantic story that’s guaranteed to make you cry even as it reminds you of the goodness in people. Bill Hayes writes movingly about New York and the final days in the life of his partner, the neurologist Oliver Sacks.
If they’re always planning their next adventure…
- If your S.O. has an adventurous spirit, check out Homecamp a collection of stories and images from people who have found ways to experience and embrace the outdoors on their own terms.
- Speaking of adventures… Melbourne’s own Michael Smith was named the 2016 Adventurer of the Year by Australian National Geographic for becoming the first person to solo navigate the world in a single-engine flying boat. Voyage of the Southern Sun is his fascinating life story.
- Based on the New York Times travel column, Footsteps is an anthology of literary pilgrimages, exploring the geographic muses behind some of history’s greatest writers. A fantastic pick for the sophisticated traveller.
- Does your S.O. love visiting amazing buildings when they travel? Destination Architecture is architecture travel guide that presents 1,000 of today’s must-see contemporary buildings. Ideal for planning a trip, or just to dip into and dream.
- Having great music to listen to while you travel around is essential. You can find some of our summer music picks here, and we’re especially loving Paul Kelly’s latest album, Life is Fine, which fully attests to singular songwriting skills.
If they want a big, meaty novel to sink their teeth into…
- Min Jin Lee’s National Book Award shortlisted novel, Pachinko, is described as a Victorian epic transplanted to Japan, following a Korean family of immigrants through eight decades and four generations. It’s been a staff favourite this year.
- Ann Leckie provokes and thrills in her new sci-fi adventure. Provenance opens with the foster-daughter of a high-ranking politician selling everything she owns to break a notorious thief out of prison, setting a diplomatic disaster into motion.
- Michelle De Kretser’s sprawling new novel, The Life to Come, is a dazzling meditation on intimacy, loneliness and our flawed perception of other people.
- Brendan Matthews’s much-hyped debut, The World of Tomorrow, is a rollicking tale of love, blackmail and betrayal, set in 1930s New York.
- Taking place over the course of several decades The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is a multi-layered love story that plays out against the kaleidoscopic backdrop of India. It’s the second novel from Man Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy.
- Find more recommendations for BIG books here.
If you want to spoil them…
- Help them build up their vinyl collection with one of these essential albums. Staff favourites include music from Prince, Patti Smith, Courtney Barnett, William Onyeabor, Nick Cave and more.
- This year we’re offering a specially priced bundle containing the collected Stories and True Stories from Helen Garner. These two handsome hardcover books are ones to treasure and revisit.
- Vitamin C is a lush, gorgeous and vibrant art book that celebrates the revival of clay as a material for contemporary visual artists.
- Kazuo Ishiguro won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature – much to our delight. If your S.O. is also a fan, they will likely be blown away by this incredibly special and limited edition of his latest novel, The Buried Giant.
- Alexandra Carroll’s Paris is a lovingly curated guide to the City of Light that will enthral readers. For an extra special treat, you might even like to pair with a French meal, or even tickets to Paris…
