 | The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Buy new: £5.49 / Used from: £2.39 Bennet on the Queen. Give to any over-40 who likes a chuckle. Charming, short and funny.
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 | On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Buy new: £6.81 / Used from: £0.94 Give to any over-50 who still fancies an occasional legover. A short book about sexual awkwardness.
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 | The Ghost by Robert Harris
Buy new: £10.40 / Used from: £2.82 Give to any male (40+ again, probably) who is interested in British politics and light thrillers
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 | Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Buy new: £4.07 / Used from: £0.32 Good book for any female friend or relative with interest in Africa and its troubles.
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 | The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Buy new: £3.15 / Used from: £2.45 The better of the two Hosseini books. Preferred by female readers, but a safe bet for all under-50s.
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 | The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Buy new: £2.97 / Used from: £0.01 Great gift for anyone who likes Woody Allen movies or Gabriel Garcia Marquez novels.
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 | Zoia's Gold by Philip Sington
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01 A very upmarket Da Vinci Code, based on fact. Ideal for anyone who likes 'Doctor Zhivago', Julie Christie or Omar Sharif - and who demands excellent writing.
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 | Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Buy new: £4.90 / Used from: £0.09 Another fine gift for the more discerning reader who can handle the tragedies of 20th century history.
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 | The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Buy new: £3.82 / Used from: £0.01 Good gift for anyone who liked 'The Remains of the Day' or 'Gosford Park'
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 | Aliens Love Underpants! by Claire Freedman
Buy new: £3.59 / Used from: £1.27 Fun gift about knicker-pinching aliens. Ideal for any child between 5 and 8 (roughly). A recent hit they may even have heard about.
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 | The Night Pirates by Peter Harris
Buy new: £3.54 / Used from: £1.72 Lovely picture book about girl pirates: great gift for any intrepid young ladies under 7.
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 | The World According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney
Buy new: £1.13 / Used from: £0.01 Brilliant hamster adventures for any child who's ever owned one (around 6 years) or even thought about it.
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 | The Whaleboat House by Mark Mills
Buy new: £2.96 / Used from: £0.01 Superior period crime thriller (1940s Long Island) for any fan of the genre.
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 | Borat: Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan/Minor Nation of U.S. and A. by Borat Sagdiyev
Buy new: £7.37 / Used from: £0.18 Borat in print. Give to anyone with an unnatural liking for goats or paint stripper.
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 | The Rose Of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
Buy new: £4.31 / Used from: £0.01 Sarah Waters meets Florence Nightingale in this cleverly constructed, somewhat post-modern historical novel.
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 | Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann
Buy new: £3.86 / Used from: £0.01 Strong echoes of "The History of Love" (see above) in this double-barrelled tale of lost love: very enjoyable, but could have been better written.
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