giftpplgrandma If your grandma is the type to spoil you rotten, whether with food or care or gifts, then now is the time to get her something special in return. In the next part of our gift ideas series, we've asked Readings Monthly Editor Jo Case to select some of her favourite fiction and non-fiction titles for gran to make the job a little easier.

9781921518751 Lola’s Secret
Monica McInerney

Every grandma I know loves Monica McInerney. My husband and I recently squabbled over whose grandma to give my copy of Lola’s Secret to. (I won: it was my book.) McInerney writes warm, exuberant novels rich with love, friendships and family. They’re also laced with humour – and often involve food and exotic locations. Lola’s Secret is set in the Clare Valley (a famed Australian food and wine region) and centres around an unusual Christmas dinner. It’s a sure-fire win for a grandma gift.

9781408702321 Red Mist
Patricia Cornwell

Is your grandma addicted to all those BBC crime dramas they show on the ABC? Then she probably loves Patricia Cornwell. Good news: there’s a new Kay Scarpetta adventure out. (You don’t need to know what this means if you’re not a fan – just know that it’s very exciting news and your grandma will love you if you can make sure she gets it before her friends do.) In Red Mist, Scarpetta learns that the killings she thought were over with the death of her deputy chief, Jack Fielding, are the precursor to something much larger.

book_pemberley Death Comes to Pemberley
P.D. James

This has got to be the Holy Grail for the crime-loving, literature-loving grandma: much-loved crime queen P.D. James has set a murder mystery in the world of Jane Austen! My grandma is getting this one for Christmas. Lydia Wickham, sister of Elizabeth Darcy (swoon at that surname) turns up, distraught and uninvited, to an already eventful Autumn Ball, reporting that her husband has been murdered. Both relationships and lives are at risk ...

HousewifeSuperstar_sml_large_cover Housewife Superstar
Danielle Wood

Tasmanian domestic goddess Marjorie Bligh is a cult heroine who counts Barry Humphries among her fans. Your grandma might well be amused and inspired by her life story, told by acclaimed novelist Danielle Wood. She’s written advice books on household management, beauty, gardening and recycling and is famous for her cakes and her thrift (she uses corset brassieres as plant protectors in the garden).

9780224093903 Mary Boleyn
Alison Weir

Alison Weir’s historical biographies of Britain’s royals are hugely popular and highly readable; she has been writing and publishing them, with great success, for many years. Weir brings her historical characters vividly to life, making them live on the page. This is the first full-scale biography of Mary Boleyn: the ‘other’ Boleyn girl. Weir works to dismantle the mythology that dubbed her ‘the great and infamous whore’ and restore her reputation.

978-0-522-86125-9 Notebooks
Betty Churcher

Art-loving grandmas are sure to be charmed by Betty Churcher’s intimate guide through some of the great art galleries of Europe and the United States. Churcher was director of the National Gallery of Australia (and before that, a painter); now she is losing her sight, so she’s embarked on a tour of her favourite galleries and captured the experience here, in exquisite sketches as well as commentary. It’s an enticing window into the pleasures of viewing great art, with an accomplished and amiable guide. Our art and design buyer, Margaret Snowdon, said reading it was 'the next-best thing to visiting great galleries and viewing a masterpiece'.

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jo-case Jo Case is the editor of Readings Monthly and associate editor of Kill Your Darlings journal. You can follow her on Twiiter - @jocaseau.