Gift Guide Part 2: Books (plus a couple of games)

2024 edition

Before I dive into this, I want to share

Ella Risbridger

‘s fantastic gift guides for this year: Parts One and Two. They’ve helped me with a few last people on my list (and some January birthdays which I shop for at the same time as Christmas) and are gorgeous to read.

This is a long, full-of-links, email which will get cut-off by some email providers - I can recommend downloading the Substack App, which puts all your Substack newsletters in one place. I use it myself and really enjoy it.

Alternatively, you can read on my Substack webpage; Substack is the service I use to send out these emails; think of it as a blogging platform hosting my one-woman magazine.

I love to give books and socks.

This year’s socks are all going to come from Darn Tough Vermont (maybe as an excuse to get myself some…?) - the books are much more interesting to get into. I’m sharing this today because Waterstones are doing their big Black Friday double/triple loyalty stamps offer - so I’ll put both a Waterstones and an Amazon link for each item.

As ever, the Amazon links will have little * asterisks on them (maybe we can think of them as snowflakes, you know, because it’s Christmas) which means that they’re ‘affiliate links’ on which I get a small amount of commission without it costing you anything. I’m always grateful when people use those links ❤️.

Let’s get cracking.

For the Dad-Book reader in your life.
As the team at BookRiot say, ‘dad’ is a state of mind, not an age, or a gender, or a status.

• Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World - Helen Czerski (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps - Jonn Elledge (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• James - Percival Everett (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Prisoners of Geography, The Quiz Book: How Much Do You Really Know About the World? - Tim Marshall (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• How To Win an Information War - Peter Pomerantsev (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• The Showman - Simon Shuster (Waterstones | Amazon*)
  NB: this one comes out in paperback in January, so that could be ideal for any Spring birthdays of people in this category.

• Crook Manifesto - Colson Whitehead (Waterstones | Amazon*)

For your Mum or Aunt, whether by birth or by choice

• Wise Women: Myths and stories for midlife and beyond - Sharon Blackie (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Lies and Weddings - Kevin Kwan (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• All You Have To Do Is Call - Kerri Maher (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• The Siren of Sussex - Mimi Matthews (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• The Phoenix Crown - Kate Quinn & Janie Chang (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Daughters of Bronze: A Novel of Troy - A. D. Rhine (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• What I Ate In One Year - Stanley Tucci (Waterstones | Amazon*)

For your Uncle or Friend who likes the finer things in life

• Great Expectations - Vinson Cunningham (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Consider the Oyster - MFK Fisher (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Orbital - Samantha Harvey (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Vines in a Cold Climate: The People Behind the English Wine Revolution - Henry Jeffreys (Waterstones | Amazon*)

For your Aunt or Friend who likes the more elegant things in life
(Basically the same person as the above, but with a signature red lip)

• Cloistered - Catherine Coldstream (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself - Glynnis MacNicol (Waterstones | Amazon*) which again, comes out in paperback in January.
  Pair this with The Paris Novel - Ruth Reichl (Waterstones | Amazon*) and a Nuxe lip balm for extra luxury.

• The Seventh Veil of Salome - Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfeld (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Magical / Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders - Vanessa Angélica Villarreal (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• The Truants - Kate Weinberg (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Die Hot With A Vengeance: Essays on Vanity - Sable Yong (Waterstones | Amazon*)

For your foodie sibling, especially if they’ve just moved in with a significant other

• Pizza Night - Alexandra Stafford (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• The Art of Friday Night Dinner: Recipes for the Best Night of the Week - Eleanor Steafel (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese Pizza (Waterstones | Amazon*)

For your sporty sibling

• There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension - Hanif Abdurraqib (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World’s Fastest-Growing Sport - Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg (Waterstones | Amazon*)

For your computer-game-mad (but grown-up) brother or cousin

• I Was a Teenage Slasher - Stephen Graham Jones (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin (Waterstones | Amazon*)

For your cousin who wants to be Greta Thunberg

• The Language Of Climate Politics - Genevieve Guenther (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Bite by Bite - Aimee Nezhukamatathil (Waterstones | Amazon*)- or her earlier World of Wonders if you want a paperback

• Tiny Beautiful Things - Cheryl Strayed (Waterstones | Amazon*)

For your cousin or sister who maybe feels a bit bored with life as it is

• Happiness For Beginners - Katherine Center (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• How to End a Love Story - Yulin Kuang (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Enchantment: Reawakening Wonder in an Exhausted Age - Katherine May (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• Sex, Lies and Sensibility - Nikki Payne (Waterstones | Amazon*)

• America the Beautiful? - Blythe Roberson (Amazon*)

• Rewitched - Lucy Jane Wood (Waterstones | Amazon*)

For the family (whether they’re yours or not) you’re staying with

That Escalated Quickly - because you probably don’t want to play Cards Against Humanity with in-laws… (maybe you do! I don’t judge). Waterstones | Amazon*

Speak soon,

Lily