A book is a gift for life

It’s a safe bet that you will find a gladdening present for every single person on your shopping list in your local bookstore. Only one quibble – why don’t bookstores here sell piles of imported chocolate next to their tills, like they do in the US? A yummy partnership, books and choccies! Just asking.

Family favourites

If it’s a good deck-chair read you’re searching for, then JK Rowling’s pseudonymous book, The Cuckoo’s Calling (written under the name Robert Galbraith), is a strong contender .… it’s one of those novels that reminds us of pleasure of page-turning.

Another winner is Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. It’s a witty, clever, speed-along literary fun-fest, taking you almost to the edge of weird, and then hoicking you right back from the brink. I think younger adults will love it, and I happily confess that I did too.

The Narrow Dog books hold irresistable appeal especially to armchair travellers. The retired Darlingtons first had the daft idea of taking their narrow boat and their very thin whippet, Jim, across the English Channel in Narrow Dog to Carcassone, followed by a second adventure, told in Narrow Dog to Indian River, through the American southern states where they were nearly killed by kindness.

Now there’s a third, Narrow Dog to Wigan Pier, back in Blighty with Terry, Monica, Jim and a new and even madder thin dog. Best to start with the first one, but even better to buy all three at once. They are genuine treasures.

An absolutely must for old and young codgers is The Great Escaper by Simon Pearson. Turns out that Roger Bushell, the leader of the most famous escape story of World War II, was born in South Africa and holidayed in Hermanus and has relatives in Cape Town. It’s as gripping as his remarkable legacy.

There are several new thrillers out, including the rather butch new Frederick Forsyth, The Kill List, an early Harry Hole case by best-selling Jo Nesbo, and a dark but oddly compelling story of what the grief of loss does to otherwise decent people, PD Viner’s, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing.

In a rather lighter vein is Trevor Romain’s Random Kak I Remember About Growing Up in South Africa (startling to see how much of this I remember), and The Unauthorised History of South Africa – 10 percent Totally True by “Dr Stienie Dikderm” and “Prof Herodotus Hlope” – full of actual facts and lively, funny fantasies. (Yes, I know who authors really are!)

And there’s Terry Prachett’s Dodger’s Guide to London, a miscellany about that great city’s weird historical past: the actual notes of the Artful Dodger were used as a basis for the contents.

Did you know, for example, that the Houses of Parliament are considered a royal palace and it is illegal to die in them? If you’re inconsiderate enough to do so, you are, however, entitled to a state funeral. (Don’t give this book to narcissists.)

Clever cousins

You may be lucky enough to have good DNA and therefore cousins (or progeny) with brains.

Malcolm Gladwell’s latest, David and Goliath, is possibly the most interesting book I read this year.

Bill Bryson comes up trumps in his latest, One Summer: America 1927, the year Charles Lindbergh flew across the sea, and a host of characters who made the world a more interesting place for one summer.

Children’s Classics

I’m still entranced by the classic books I knew and loved as a child..

If you remember How the Camel got his Hump and other Wonders by Rudyard Kipling, then you’ll know that the Just So Stories never lose their appeal – especially when charmingly illustrated by Alex Latimer in this lovely latest edition.

And that perenial aunty, Enid Blyton, reappears in a new, hardcover “Heritage” version of The Enchanted Wood.

Your children will keep it to read to their children.

Its sequel is The Magic Faraway Tree; I can still recall the bliss of getting the set for Christmas.

Happy holidays to you all – enjoy the books (and chocolates)!