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Reading lists

Best books for your Secret Santa and stocking filler gifts

From the best funny books to the ultimate puzzles and brainteasers, here are the perfect books for your Secret Santa.

Kat Brown and Katie Russell

We’ve all been there: drawing the Secret Santa short straw of a distant relative or colleague you know nothing about beyond the fact they exist. Don’t worry. Every one of these books hits the sweet spot of appearing thoughtful and interesting, and making the recipient feel culturally in the know. The biggest bonus is that they’re all wonderful books and great gifts for Christmas. The drawback is that you might decide just to keep them for yourself and get them a giant Toblerone instead.

Think Twice by Alex Bellos (2024) 

There’s something irresistible about a puzzle – especially one that, on the surface, looks simple. In Think Twice, Alex Bellos, creator of the Guardian’s Monday Puzzle, has created 70 confounding puzzles that are guaranteed to catch even the brainiest of puzzlers off guard. Drawing on problems across mathematics, physics, geography, psychology and more, there’s a brainteaser for everyone in this collection. 

Is it the holidays if there hasn’t been a quiz? If you said no, then take two points and order a copy of this bumper book of Christmas quizzing. It’s got plenty of festive-themed questions to keep the family on side during that dangerous period when everyone’s too full to move, but not quite full enough not to argue.

Illustrator and designer Lucy Claire Dunbar has been long been sprinkling joy on our Instagram feeds with her intricate, inspirational art. Now, in her debut collection, she has created a range of uplifting drawings to celebrate the joy of the everyday, while also giving hope in times of need. If you’re looking for the book equivalent of a warm hug, this is it.  

This delicious compendium of all things Christmas is cosier than a blanket and hot chocolate. Stone has packed this with sensible, low-cost tips and treats aimed at creating new traditions to bring back year after year, rather than attempting them all in one go.

It’s not big and it’s not clever, but it is extremely funny. Packed with cros-swear-ds, along with variants of every word game you could imagine, this immature book for grown-ups is just the release valve that’s needed to fend off swears in everyday life. Line it up for someone who is foul-mouthed or you think could really do with letting off some steam.

Jump then fall into the world of musician and self-proclaimed mastermind Taylor Swift, with this pocket-sized book that charts her life through her songwriting. Into the Taylor-verse is a deep dive into the musical influences and personal experiences that have shaped each era of Swift’s work. This is the perfect stocking filler or Secret Santa present for the Swiftie who’s still mentally on The Eras Tour.  

While most cat owners will already know the answer to this, usually to cries of “He’s a great big softie, really,” Wildish’s book is great fun. Forget Myers-Briggs, he has designed 16 personality profiles to ascertain where your cat lies along the psychopathy scale. Cat books are always a wonderful gift for cat owners who treasure anything even vaguely linked to their beloved.

Family game time is an essential Christmas tradition for many of us. But if you want a break from Monopoly, charades or Scrabble this year, we suggest the new puzzle game book, The Traitors. Inspired by the hit BBC show, put your sleuthing skills to the test in this collection of 20 standalone games, where you’ll have to figure out if the characters before you are “100% Faithful” or secret Traitors… 

If you’re buying for someone who wishes their life were a Richard Curtis movie, look no further. Sleepless in Sangria brings the magic of romantic comedies to your next cocktail night, with 60 recipes inspired by the most iconic and comforting romances. From ‘When Harry Met Daquiri’ to ’10 Things I Hate About Woo Woo’, each concoction captures the fun, fruity essence of your favourite rom-com. I’m just a girl, standing in front of my friends, asking them to buy me this book.  

‘Tis the season for a cosy murder mystery. In Denzil Meyrick’s latest, the year is 1953 and Inspector Frank Grasby is spending Christmas in a remote village when a fisherman washes up on the shore, a stocking wound tightly around his throat. As hundreds of stockings start to wash up on the shore, and another murder takes place, Grasby realises everyone in the village is a suspect… This darkly comic mystery is the perfect read for the awkward lull between Christmas and New Year.  

Why We Read by Josephine Greywoode (ed.) (2022)

This deceptively academic-looking book is in fact just the sort of delightful read for the post-Christmas, pre-New Year period when you’re feeling thoughtful. Seventy significant writers share their thoughts on what makes reading non-fiction so compelling. Whether it is, as Malcolm Gladwell suggests, the joy of finding out what makes people tick, or Michael Lewis’s thought of books as secret discoveries, this is a lovely gift for the passionate reader.

The ideal stocking stuffer for someone who’s coming around to the joys of horticulture, this is a great introduction to planning, planting, and enjoying a garden, whatever the size or season. Monty Don gives clear, easy-to-follow tips on how to grow a hundred different plants, including ones for the home, so that once the winter sludge clears you can really get things going.

Devastating news for those hoping to fund their retirement by finding the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow: rainbows are actually circular. And did you know that New York was once called New Orange? Or why? This book of trivia is packed full of genuinely surprising facts – plus a section of little-known ones that could one day save your life.

One for nostalgics but not just for Londoners, this lovely guide ambles along the winding banks of the Thames with stops for folkloric stories and interesting landmarks along the way. From the real-life inspiration for Toad Hall in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, to the world’s largest pleasure pier, this will inspire you to explore more widely in the New Year.

This latest collection of challenges shows the good humour and lightly-worn intelligence fielded by Britain’s greatest (and anonymous) brains, bringing together both modern puzzles and cyphers from the past 100 years, so ideal for anyone who’s started getting a bit too smug about finishing the crossword.

Who said having your head in the clouds was a bad thing? Cloudspotting for Beginners is a beautifully illustrated introduction to the different types of clouds, where you can find them, and how they shape the world around them. Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, teams up with prize-winning illustrator William Grill to create a beautiful gift for any bookshelf. This is a great read for curious minds who are fascinated by nature, or for those looking for wonder in the everyday.  

This is perfect for the novice plant parent, who might be staring at a new parlour palm and wondering nervously how they’re inevitably going to kill it. Bailey’s book covers 80 types of plants and how to keep them alive (and thriving) and even how to eventually divide them up to share with friends.

Emma Young seriously knows her cheese, being a cheesemonger, cheese maker, and the judge of cheese awards. From finding the perfect drink to pair your cheeses with, to designing your own cheeseboard and finding new types to try, this book is a true dream for anyone who goes misty-eyed over Stichelton or Y Fenni.

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