Our 2019 Christmas Gift Guide: The hard-to-buy-for grown-up edition
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be compiling a host of gift guides to help you with your Christmas shopping.
The friend who has everything…
- Your friend has everything huh? Well… We bet they don’t have An Underground Guide to Sewers! Featuring infographics and odd facts, this surprisingly beautiful book will transport them into the surreal world underneath our cities.
- If your friend is known for hosting killer dinner parties, a cookbook might be just the thing. In Food Artisans of Japan, Nancy Singleton Hachisu profiles Japan’s unique food landscape, featuring stories of and recipes from some of the nation’s most acclaimed chefs.
- For those who are always tinkering with their houses, redecorating and designing spaces to make them feel unique and lovely, we recommend The Maverick Soul from interior designer Miv Watts. This book takes you inside the homes of such notable figures as Wendy Whiteley, Martin Sharp and Griffin Dunne.
- Or perhaps your friend is hoping for an experience that takes them outside of their home and regular routine: Lonely Planet’s Dark Skies is a comprehensive and inspiring guide to the world’s top stargazing destinations including suggestions on where to see the aurora and how to view rocket launches.
- We love these artfully designed weather stations and we suspect your friend might too. Once used by seafarers to predict oncoming storms, this historical device responds to atmospheric fluctuations to forecast the weather.
The friend who’s read everything…
- Kathy O'Shaughnessy’s In Love with George Eliot is a terrific book for keen readers. Our reviewer describes this fictionalised account of novelist George Eliot (author of Middlemarch and other classics) as ‘feverishly intense and beautifully rendered’, and says it’s perfect for Eliot fans and newcomers alile.
- A book that may have slipped your friend’s notice this year is Lara Williams’ Supper Club, which was named the winner of the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize this year. This prize uses the same criteria as the official prize but invites the public to decide, usually leading to very different picks. Williams’ debut novel follows a secret society of hungry young women who meet after dark and feast to reclaim their appetites.
- If your friend is an avid reader, it’s highly probable they’ve read Elena Ferrante’s incredible Neapolitan novels some years ago. The first book has now been adapted into a stylish television series, the first season of which has only recently been made available on DVD in Australia.
- Our exclusive, limited-edition Readings 2020 diaries have been designed with booklovers in mind, featuring places to keep a record of the books being read and borrowed, as well as a space to list your reading goals for the new year. Find even more picks for word lovers here.
- Perhaps you want to buy them a fresh-off-the-press, just-released book? The Drover’s Wife, Leah Purcell’s reimagining of Henry Lawson’s famed story, and Dead Astronauts, Jeff VanderMeer’s strange and troubling new sci-fi novel, are both hotly anticipated reads due to arrive at bookshops in December.
The friend who doesn’t read (but you wish would)…
- We have a stack of great music books on offer this year and one of our favourites is Why Bowie Matters, in which academic and superfan Will Brooker investigates the many reasons why this versatile pop star has become beloved by so many.
- Set in late seventeenth century Paris, Melissa Ashley’s The Bee and the Orange Tree is a beautifully crafted work of historical fiction that explores creativity and imagination. This is the kind of novel that can gently draw a new reader, and then send them off on a quest of discovery to discover more stories.
- A true crime read that simultaneously explores a literary icon may seem an odd pick for a non-reader, but Casey Cep’s Furious Hours is so gripping your friend will simply not be able to put it down. Cep tells the story of Harper Lee’s attempts to write a true crime, detailing both the crime and exploring why the famed author never finished her work.
- If your friend likes to talk about ideas then we recommend Beauty, a slim and accessible book from an exciting young Australian voice. Author Bri Lee asks how an intrinsically unattainable standard of physical ‘perfection’ has become so crucial to so many.
- Help them fall in love (or at least in lust!) with literature by gifting them Desire – a handsome hardcover anthology containing 100 sexy stories. From romance and seduction to downright dirty deeds, this is a wide-ranging book that invites readers to sample different voices.
Your older relative…
- Lady in Waiting is the memoir from Anne Glenconne, Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret, and a compulsively readable work that will appeal to fans of The Crown and gossipy memoirs alike. That’s all of us right?
- Your more serious-minded relative may prefer Helen Ennis’ Olive Cotton. This is a moving biography of one of Australia’s pioneering modernist photographers, and a vivid depiction of a pertinent time in the nation’s history.
- We have plenty of suggestions for the armchair traveller, including Literary Paris. Turning her lens onto spots throughout the city both legendary and little-known, photographer Nichole Robertson has crafted a stunning and bookish-themed tour of the City of Light.
- If your relative likes gentle and whimsical books, try The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. Based on Charlie Mackesy’s popular Instagram feed, this book is a reminder of the most important things in life.
- If your book-loving relative is dealing with diminishing eyesight, an audiobook can be a good option for them to continue in their beloved pastime. Some recent Australian titles to be released in this format include Dervla McTiernan’s crime novel, The Scholar, Trent Dalton’s bestselling Boy Swallows Universe, and Vicki Laveau-Harvie’s award-winning memoir, The Erratics.
The highly opinionated relative…
- Is your relative the kind of person who always believes they can do things themselves and hates to take advice? Also, are they a secret prepper? In Primitive Technology, popular YouTuber John Plant demonstrates how readers can become skilled in the art of fire starting, pottery making, shelter building, spear throwing, basket crafting and much more.
- Perhaps your relative is a rabid sports fan who needs their perspective broadened…? Never Say Die tells the history of women’s football (soccer) in Australia over the last 100 years – from wartime workforce teams to the Matildas’ success on the world stage
- Megan Phelps-Roper was born into the infamous fringe Christian sect, Westboro Baptist Church, and grew up seeing nothing wrong with their behaviour – until online interactions with the outside world compelled her to reconsider her beliefs, eventually leading her to leave the church. Unfollow is her story and demonstrates that conversation and empathy have the power to change peoples’ minds.
- We’ll admit it’s a risk but Frank Dikötter’s How to Be a Dictator – a fascinating exploration of the strange power of personality cults – may be just what your relative secretly longs for Christmas this year, and at the very least, it’s certain to put you in their favour.
- If you wish this particular relative would see a therapist… Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is a thoughtful memoir from a practicing therapist on her own experiences of being a patient, and how it affects her professional approach. Also make sure to check out our passive-aggressive gift guide for more suggestions for those who do not inspire the most altruistic of thoughts…
A complete stranger…
- Christian White’s The Wife and the Widow is one of the biggest crime books of the year and comes highly recommended to one and all. Find our full list of best crime books of the year (as voted for by Readings booksellers) here.
- Alice Robinson’s award-winning novel, The Glad Shout, comes equally highly recommended. At once a pacey disaster thriller and a powerful examination of parenthood, this is a novel we want everyone to read.
- In 2017, more than 250 First Nations representatives gathered at Uluru and unanimously adopted the Uluru Statement from the Heart. In Finding the Heart of the Nation, convention delegate and Zenadth Kes man, Thomas Mayor, travels around the country talking to key people about the importance of the Statement and the growing movement of Australians who support constitutional change. This is a book that belongs in every home in Australia.
- Dorodango is a beautifully photographed and practical guide to the meditative Japanese art of making hikaru dorodango, or shiny mud balls. This is a pick that’s sure to surprise its giftee!
- We absolutely adore Lunch at 10 Pomegranate Street. Felicita Sala introduces readers to the different inhabitants of an apartment block and describes the meals they are all making, providing simple instructions for children (ages 10+) and adults to follow along with from home.
Still stumped? We also sell gift vouchers which can be used in-store and online.
