Book group secret Santa

[Bookishnerd]

Can anyone recommend a good Secret Santa for my book group?

There are six of us, with lots of different tastes. It's a sort of pot luck, so I won't know which one is getting it!

We're very informal (euphemism for 'we meet to drink')and have never taken ourselves too seriously, but secret Santa is the highlight of the year so I need to knock it out of the park.

We're women in our mid-late 30s/early 40s. Some have kids, some don't. All of us work, but we have very varied jobs.

Doesn't have to be a recent book, anything good, and obscure is fine, as long as it comes with a good rationale.

Any ideas?

David Sedaris The Santaland Diaries

Seasonal and humorous - not heavy going, just what is needed this year

Or his latest which is a best of compilation (called Best Of Me) - no good for someone like me, who has all his books, but good for anyone in the group who has never read him. Are you allowed to swap once you have unwrapped?

Actually scrap last one, it is in hardback only so kerching.

@MistletoeandMoccasins

Or his latest which is a best of compilation (called Best Of Me) - no good for someone like me, who has all his books, but good for anyone in the group who has never read him. Are you allowed to swap once you have unwrapped?

In normal circumstances we can swap, but it's a zoom thing (with a partner running round acting as Santa and delivering presents to doorsteps)

@MistletoeandMoccasins

David Sedaris The Santaland Diaries

Seasonal and humorous - not heavy going, just what is needed this year

Thank you for this - I'd not heard of him, so this is something for my list too!

Lady in Waiting - Anne Glenconner - real life modern Downton Abbey

Heatwave - Kate Riodan - good book

Seven Sisters - Lucinda Riley - well written and interesting

The boy, horse, mole - one of the top selling book of 2019, modern Winnie the Pooh type book

Does it have to be a book? The Literary Gift Company has nice things.

One of my favourite books of the year was Barbara O’Neal’s The Art of Inheriting Secrets. I suppose it’s chick lit, but in the hands of an experienced writer and it’s a perfect holiday read.

A woman inherits vast (but previously unknown) acres; thwarts a greedy ex and a swindler; adopts a cat; takes a young lover; solves a family secret; eats wonderful food and mourns her mother. It’s a read all at once, curled up with a cup of tea kind of book.