The Omnivore’s Last Minute Christmas List

Eek! It’s Christmas next week and we haven’t done any shopping. Thankfully, drones or no drones, Amazon promises to will get your books to you in time, so long as you order before Wednesday evening. After that you’ll probably have to organise a reconnaissance mission to find a real bookshop. If you’re as disorganised as us, and the broadsheets’ annual bout of yuletide log-rolling hasn’t given you any ideas, then our Last Minute Christmas List might come in useful:

For the son who needs to come out of the closet
The Charioteer by Mary Renault

For the nephew who loves the Coen brothers
The Son by Philip Meyer
Southern Cross the Dog by Bill Cheng

For the daughter who’s worried by the patriarchy
The Book of Jezebel by Anna Holmes

For the person who takes their fiction seriously
A Naked Singularity or Personae by Sergio de la Pava

For the person who doesn’t take their fiction seriously
Actors Anonymous by James Franco

For the person who thinks good things come in small packages
Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman

For the husband who won’t stop checking his email
Letters of Note by Shaun Usher

For the rebellious daughter
The Mystery of Princess Louise by Lucinda Hawksley
My Name is… by Alastair Campbell

For the armchair psychologist
The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz

For the sister with a weakness for alpha males
Josephine: Desire, Ambition, Napoleon by Kate Williams

For the retired thespian
Olivier by Philip Ziegler

For the niece who wishes it were the 1920s
Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell
Flappers: Women of a Dangerous Generation by Judith Mackrell

For the sister who still thinks she’ll end up with Paul
The Beatles – All These Years by Mark Lewishon

For the aunt who wonders if there is life over 50
Penelope Fitzgerald by Hermione Lee
The Mistress Contract by She and He
The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

For the daughter who dreams of a Daily Mail column
Girl Least Likely To by Liz Jones

For art lovers who have enough coffee table books
The Letters of Paul Cézanne by Alex Danchev

For the father who laments the state of modern football
Immortal: The Approved Biography of George Best by Duncan Hamilton
Red or Dead by David Peace

For feline fanciers
Cat Sense by John Bradshaw

For the wannabe(e) apiculturist
A Sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson

For the nephew planning a roadtrip across the USA
American Smoke by Iain Sinclair

For the aunt who puts an e on the end of Smith
What’s in a Surname by David McKie

For northerners who enjoy getting wound up
The North (And Almost Everything In It) by Paul Morley

For the uncle who appreciates a trip down memory lane
Modernity Britain by David Kynaston

For your unfaithful spouse
Our Cheating Hearts by Kate Figes
Worst. Person. Ever. by Douglas Coupland
Unfaithfully Yours by Nigel Williams

For the person who devoured the Booker longlist
The Interestings by Meg Wollitzer
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner