Bookends Christmas Gifting Guide

With Christmas approaching fast, the Bookends team have been brainstorming our best recommendations of what to gift your loved ones this holiday. If you know someone who loves books but unsure what to get them, take a look at our lists below!

FICTION

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

The Marriage Portrait is a dazzling evocation of the Italian Renaissance in all its beauty and brutality.

Winter, 1561.  Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, is taken on an unexpected visit to a country villa by her husband, Alfonso.  As they sit down to dinner it occurs to Lucrezia that Alfonso has a sinister purpose in bringing her here.  He intends to kill her.

Lucrezia is sixteen years old, and has led a sheltered life locked away inside Florence’s grandest palazzo.  Here, in this remote villa, she is entirely at the mercy of her increasingly erratic husband.

What is Lucrezia to do with this sudden knowledge?  What chance does she have against Alfonso, ruler of a province, and a trained soldier? How can she ensure her survival.

The Marriage Portrait is an unforgettable reimagining of the life of a young woman whose proximity to power places her in mortal danger.

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Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult

Olivia fled her abusive marriage to return to her hometown and take over the family beekeeping business when her son Asher was six. Now, impossibly, her baby is six feet tall and in his last year of high school, a kind, good-looking, popular ice hockey star with a tiny sprite of a new girlfriend.

Lily also knows what it feels like to start over – when she and her mother relocated to New Hampshire it was all about a fresh start. She and Asher couldn’t help falling for each other, and Lily feels happy for the first time. But can she trust him completely?

Then Olivia gets a phone call – Lily is dead, and Asher is arrested on a charge of murder. As the case against him unfolds, she realises he has hidden more than he’s shared with her. And Olivia knows firsthand that the secrets we keep reflect the past we want to leave behind ­­- and that we rarely know the people we love well as we think we do.

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The No-Show by Beth O’Leary

Three women. Three dates. One missing man…
*The instant Sunday Times Top 5 bestseller*

‘Ingenious, heartwarming and romantic’ SOPHIE KINSELLA

‘Surprising and deeply satisfying’ EMILY HENRY
8.52 a.m.Siobhan’s looking forward to her date with Joseph. Breakfast on Valentine’s Day surely means something … so where is he?

2.43 p.m.Miranda’s hoping that a Valentine’s Day lunch with Carter will be the perfect way to celebrate her new job. But why hasn’t he shown up?

6.30 p.m.Joseph Carter agreed to be Jane’s fake boyfriend at a dreaded engagement party tonight. But he’s not here…

Meet Joseph Carter. That is, if you can find him.
The No-Show is the brilliantly funny, heart-breaking and joyful new novel from Beth O’Leary about dating, and waiting, and the ways love can find us. An utterly extraordinary tearjerker of a book, this is O’Leary’s most ambitious novel yet.

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MEMOIR

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

‘Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.’

So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who travelled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.

In an extraordinary story that only he could tell – and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it – Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humour, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fuelled it despite seemingly having it all.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening – as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.

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Whatever Next by Anne Glenconner

Bracing honesty, rare insight and hilarious revelations from internationally bestselling author of LADY IN WAITING as she shares everything she’s learned from her extraordinary and unexpected life.

Anne Glenconner’s glittering life hasn’t always been golden. As she revealed in her astonishing bestselling memoir Lady in Waiting, it has been one of stark contrasts – from growing up in the splendour of Holkham Hall to living in a tent in the jungle of Mustique, from travelling the world with Princess Margaret to coping with her wildly unpredictable husband Lord Glenconner. Tragically, she has also survived the loss of two of her sons and nursed a third son back from a coma.

Now in her ninetieth year, and at her happiest, Anne brings her bracing honesty, characteristic wit and courage to reflect on and reveal more about her long and unexpected life, her extremely volatile marriage, and what it’s taught her.

As a wife, she became a master in the art of keeping the peace, knowing when to pick her battles, when she needed help – and when to take a lover. As a hostess, she acquired great practical skills in throwing marvellous parties and looking after magnificent homes, and, as a lady in waiting, became well versed in diplomacy and etiquette. It was as a mother she learnt the toughest lessons of all, and through them the value of friendship, family, and laughter to get her through the worst moments in life, as well as celebrate the best of them.

Anne Glenconner’s Whatever Next? is the richly entertaining proof that staying open to every new adventure and being ready for whatever happens sets an inspiring example for us all.

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STOCKING FILLERS

The Modern Bestiary by Joanna Bagniewska

From the familiar to the improbable, the gross to the endearing, The Modern Bestiary is a compendium of curious creatures. It includes both animals that have made headlines and those you’ve probably never heard of, such as skin-eating caecilians, harp sponges, or zombie worms – also known as bone-eating snot flowers.

Arranged by elements (Earth, Water, Air), The Modern Bestiary contains well-known species told from new, unexpected angles (rats that drive cars; fish that communicate by passing wind), as well as stranger and lesser-known creatures, including carnivorous mice that howl at the moon, cross-dressing cuttlefish, and antechinuses – small marsupials that literally mate themselves to death. Finally, there are the ‘aliens on Earth’ – the incredible, the surreal, the magical – such as tardigrades, tongue-eating lice and immortal jellyfish, creatures so astonishing that they make unicorns look rather commonplace.

Written by a zoologist with a flair for storytelling, this is a fascinating celebration of the animal kingdom.

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No F*cks Given: Life-Changing Words to Live By by Sarah Knight

A beautifully packaged collection of inspirational quotes with a hilariously explicit twist from Sarah Knight’s beloved No F*cks Given Guides series

In The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving A F*ck Sarah liberated you from people and things that don’t make you happy; with Get Your Sh*t Together she provided a tough-love push towards getting organized to achieve your goals; You Do You offered a roadmap to embracing your individuality; Calm the F*ck Down delivered practical solutions for managing ever-more stressful times; and F*ck No! taught you to set boundaries and stick to them with confidence and flair.

No F*cks Given: Life-Changing Words to Live By gathers the very best of this no-bullsh*t, life-changing advice into one must-have gift book that enlightens and entertains on every page.

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All on The Board: Your Daily Companion by All on the Board

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERS, ALL ON THE BOARD, COMES YOUR DAILY COMPANION – BRINGING YOU COMFORT AND INSPIRATION FROM MORNING THROUGH TO NIGHT, FOR YOUR EVERY MOOD, EMOTION AND EVENTUALITY.

All On The Board are continuing on their mission to lift spirits and spread happiness far and wide with their stunning new book, Your Daily Companion. With brand new, never-before-seen boards, poems, personal thoughts and stories, daily affirmations and much more, its positive messages offer comfort, reassurance and inspiration, celebrating the simple joys to be found on even the cloudiest of days.

A friend when you need it, turn its pages for a virtual hug, and join Ian and Jeremy on this magical journey through the colourful chapters of life.

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