Books make the best gifts — they're personal, they last, and they say something about how much you know the person. Here are the picks that will actually get read.
Four retirees solving murders — funny, warm, and genuinely clever. Dads who say they don't read fiction read this one.
The big ideas book — history, anthropology, philosophy, told at pace. Dads who read nonfiction have probably heard of this; dads who haven't will love it.
A scientist must save Earth from extinction — alone in space with no memory of how he got there. Pure adventure and puzzle-solving. Works for dads who liked The Martian or who just like good stories.
Practical, readable, instantly applicable. The book dads who want to change something about their routine actually finish.
Female Vietnam veterans, finally given their story. Hannah at her most ambitious. The book Mum's book club will spend three months discussing.
A Hollywood legend tells her true story. Glamorous, heartbreaking, and completely absorbing. Perfect for mums who loved Daisy Jones.
Two grieving brothers in Dublin, navigating love and loss in very different ways. Rooney's most emotionally open novel. For mums who read literary fiction.
A chemist becomes a cooking show host in the 1960s. Smart, funny, and quietly furious about everything that was unfair. The book club read of the decade.
A broke teenager is left a billionaire's fortune — with no explanation — and must solve a puzzle left by the man who barely knew her. Compulsive, clever YA thriller. Teens who liked Knives Out will devour this.
Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. A man escapes on a spaceship. One of the funniest books ever written — perfect for teens who haven't found "their" author yet.
Dragon riders and forbidden romance. The fantasy romance phenomenon — if the teen you're buying for is interested in the genre, this is what they're already talking about.
A student reinvestigates a closed murder case for her school project — and finds the official version is wrong. Perfect YA thriller: clever protagonist, twisty plot, completely un-put-downable.
A man lives in a House of infinite halls and tides. Unlike anything else — strange, beautiful, and short. The reader who has read everything hasn't read this, and they'll thank you.
Two time-travelling agents on opposite sides of a war exchange letters across time. A novella that won the Hugo and Nebula. Reads in two hours; stays for much longer.
The Devil visits Soviet Moscow. A darkly comic, satirical fantasy classic — the kind of book serious readers love to discover they haven't read yet.
A Russian count is sentenced to house arrest in a luxury hotel for the rest of his life — and proceeds to live one of literature's most satisfying existences. For readers who love beautiful prose and a certain quality of quiet.