What books are you asking for this Christmas?

[Unbridezilla]

Usually a substantial part of my Christmas wish list is books. Predominantly fiction, but this year I am struggling for ideas. So, for inspiration, what is on your lists?

I get moaned at by how many books are on my wish list (but I do also have a December birthday)
River Cottage Good Comfort
Taste by Stanley Tucci
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnett
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Forever Home by Graham Norton
Bournville by Jonathan Coe
The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

I was brought up to think it was very tacky and ill-bred to ask for any specific gift.

Well dh did specifically ask me for book suggestions.. he will add some ideas of his own.

However, I am ill-bred and tacky.

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller. Saw it on the shelf in Waterstones and it sounds right up my street so pointed DP in its direction.

(I am also tacky - but I get things I actually want and not mindless crap, so there's that)

The world has changed. Families live far apart and don't know each other as well as they used to, Christmas is increasingly consumerist, many of us already have more than we need and don't want to waste more of the world's resources giving and receiving gifts that are not wanted and won't be appreciated. Yet others are struggling and would rather get something they need than a luxury they don't.

So different families approach this in different ways,some have 'no gifts for adults' (always rather unfair for those who don't have children), some have secret santa and a budget limit and some of us with families who refuse to do either of those we have wish lists of books so we get a token gift we actually want.

I was brought up to consider it tacky and ill bred to go out of my way to criticise people who are just minding their own business.

I would love to ask my husband for Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men, but I don't think he'll be impressed.

I will buy it for myself lol

The raven's nest by Sarah Thomas
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Tomorrow and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Lost & Found: Reflections on Grief, Gratitude and Happiness by Kathryn Schulz
Hagitude by Sharon Blackie
41-love a memoir by Scarlett Thomas
Thunderstone by Nancy Campbell
Once upon a tome by Oliver Darkshire
Bibliomania by Robin Ince

My husband will pick a few and which ones will be the surprise.

The Fall of Boris Johnson, Sebastián Payne.
The Prosecutor, Nazir Afzal
Never Too Late, Sally Rigby. The next in a series I’ve been reading. I love a PI.

I think you may be in the minority

Ah I always like threads like this at Christmas!

I can't think of a specific book this year, and always hope someone will come up with a brilliant choice I've never heard of!

I had a massive nostalgia rush the other day. Haven't thought about this in ages but remember (the very occasional) of getting a box set of books, when I was a child. Especially liking the box cover design and loving the way the volumes would fit (glide) perfectly into the box !

pleasure. The very occasional pleasure that should have said

Yeah, box sets are fab. I got DD1 a box set of all the Famous Five books because I was so envious of my cousin having them!

I keep forgetting what's on my list, but one is The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

And another is,

The Ink Black Heart by JK Rowling

On my list I put:

The Seven Moons of Mali Almeida
Shehan Karunatilaka
Any Ian Mcewan books I haven't yet read & the books by Gaby Logan & Gary Neville.

I've just finished The Inkblack Heart. Fabulous.

When Women Were Dragons - Kelly Barnhill
The Sixth Extinction- Elizabeth Kolbert
Woman Eating - Claire Kohda
The Decade in Tory - Russell Jones
The Love Songs of W E B Du Bois - Honoree Fannone Jeffers
The Bullet That Missed - Richard Osman
Hagitude - Sharon Blackie
Wrong Place, Wrong Time - Gillian McAllister
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
This Time Tomorrow - Emma Straub

I would be delighted with any of these.

Alice in wonderland.

I'd love a few of the titles from the recent British Library Women Writers series. These are forgotten works of significance from the 1910s to the 60s, representing what their curators think is some of the best middlebrow fiction of the period. This point is irrelevant really, but they're in very attractive binding too!

I've found a wonderful second-hand bookshop which is a real treasure trove of finds: amongst them a full set of George Eliot in Blackwoods Edinburgh binding. As expected, this is worth quite a sum but they also have some amazing, obscure works of philosophy, mysticism and history as well as fiction. I need a whole day to get round it!

Ive asked for book tokens rather than specific books because part of the pleasure for me is browsing the bookshops. Peter Swanson, Lisa Jewell and Richard Osman all have books coming out next year so i would rather save my money for these and prolong the pleasure, meaning i get presents in march, july and september instead of just this December.

Ambertronix I always feel like a book token is a two fold pleasure. The pleasure you get when receiving it and think about what to buy, and then the pleasure of spending it.

I've asked for the lovely illustrated editions of

HP Order of the Phoenix
The Northern Lights
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass

The Ink Black Heart for me, too. I love Cormoran Strike 💗