So instead of a neverending story, here's a list of books you might buy for the difficult to buy for, drawn from my reading this year. It's not too late to pop into your local bookshop.
The world traveller you wish would come home
We all have one – the family member who makes their way somewhere else in the world and you wish you could tempt them home. Send them Nigel Featherstone’s novella, The Beach Volcano. It will remind your traveller of hot coastal nights, wintery Tasmanian days, and the powerful ties of family that never ever let go. It’s a slim volume, which means it will be cheaper to post than the latest volume of Thomas Keneally’s Australians series.
The family historian
I will love Lloyd Jones forever for writing Mr Pip, a gutwrenching ode to the power of literature in the most unlikely place but his recent memoir, A History of Silence. A story of Christchurch as it struggles to heal after the earthquakes, it is also the story of writing across the silences in a family’s history to reveal the heartbreak at its core. It’s sad but exquisite – and anyone interested in family history will love sharing the research process with Lloyd Jones.
The new arrival
It's baby's first Christmas and baby already has everything: stuffed toys, rattles he can't hold, more clothes than anyone could possibly wear. The answer? Australia's children's classic, Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek. It only has just over 100 words but it will last for years. It will be one of the first books read to baby, read with baby and read by baby. And one day, it will be the first book baby will read to another new baby.
The 'creative'
I struggle with 'creative' being used as a noun but I'm ignoring that because 'entrepreneur' or 'thought leader' seemed even worse. This is the person in your life who wants to make a living out of their passion, and who may or may not work in the arts or hospitality or museums or online or in design (fashion, graphic) or who writes or draws or makes music or theatre around the edges of their day job. Encourage them to follow the dream and have an inspired, glossy 2015 with a subscription to Renegade Collective.
You know that if she could just make it to the end of the book, she would fall in love with reading for the rest of her life. But books have so many words, she's terrified. Give her The 13 Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton, a book (and sequels) where words and pictures combine to reveal the powerful effects of imagination on the lives to Andy and Terry, who don't have very long to finish writing and drawing their next book.
The sister or bff
Anita Heiss' Tiddas is my pick in this category this year - and I've already gifted it to one of my sisters. It offers best friends, book talk, secrets, messy lives and one of the most engaging depictions of Brisbane I've ever read. Made me want to hop on the plane with Tiddas as my guidebook. Perfect for book clubs too, it challenges how Indigenous Australians are depicted in much of our fiction.
The political junkie
You don't agree with their politics. You don't know what political memoirs they have recently read. And sometimes they take their politics so damn seriously. Lighten them up with Behind the Lines; The Best Political Cartoons of 2014, published by the National Museum of Australia.
The lover of tales
Kate Forsyth writes across genres but until this year I hadn’t read any of her work. Then I read Bitter Greens, her reimagining of Rapunzel, and followed it quickly with The Wild Girl, a novel based on the story of Dortchen Wild who lived next door to the Brothers Grimm and was the teller of many of the tales they made famous. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, its romantic and passionate and heartbreaking – and it puts a wonderful woman back into the picture.
The Rebus fan
He says he loves crime but only ever talks about Rebus. Introduce him to Cormoran Strike, a wounded war veteran and his sidekick Robin (couldn't help myself). Strke is the creation of JK Rowling's alter ego, Robert Galbraith, and in his first outing, The Cuckoo's Calling, I fell hard. He's a tortured soul (not unlike Rebus), the streets of London leap off the page, the crime is intriguing, and Robin holds Strike and the book together. The second book in the series, The Silkworm, is on my summer reading list.
The dreamer
Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a dream of a book for the dreamer in all of us. A contemporary fairytale, it’s a story about a young reader for readers everywhere. As the narrator says: ''I liked myths. They weren't adults' stories and they weren't children's stories. They were better than that. They just were.'' Buy a copy for your dreamer and one for yourself as well.
