Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
Canongate, £8.99/offer £8.54
Obama tells an extraordinary story with extraordinary grace and honesty. Thoughtful, moving and shot through with sly humour.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Atlantic, £12.99/£11.69
The Man Booker winner is not one of those thoughtful epics about the India of history, but a brash, savagely funny exposure of a “new” India built on corruption and murder.

Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood
Bloomsbury, £9.99/£9.49
This fascinating, freewheeling nonfiction study of money, debt, balance and revenge in history, society and literature is perfect credit-crunch reading.

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
4th Estate, £14.99/£13.49
Who would have thought that a literary reflection on post-9/11 New York and cricket would have the critics drooling? But O'Neill pulled it off.

If you only buy one book this Christmas make sure it's...

Michael Parkinson, Sheila Hancock, Roger Moore, Elaine Paige and Andrew Castle pick out some perfect reading for the festive period

BACKGROUND

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Gifts

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Fiction

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Crime

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Biography and memoir

• Christmas bestsellers

BACKGROUND

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Art

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Food

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Music

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Travel

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Children's audiobooks

BACKGROUND

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Film & theatre

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Graphic Novels

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Back to basics

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Poetry

• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Children's 2-10

Nothing To Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes
Jonathan Cape, £16.99/£15.29
Through family anecdote and literary precedent, Barnes attempts to come to terms with mortality.

The Knife that Killed Me by Anthony McGowan
Definitions, £5.99/£5.69
Told in flashbacks as the narrator watches a knife descend on him in a fight, this novel for teens is tense, funny and topical.

The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
Fourth Estate, £25/£22.50
An audacious, pacy, thrilling survey of 20th-century composition by the classical music critic for The New Yorker.

Eunoia by Christian Bök
Canongate, £9.99/£9.49
Eunoia means “beautiful thinking” - an apt title for Bök's beguiling book, in which each chapter uses only one vowel. A work of compressed poetic power and a surprise Christmas bestseller.

In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor ed. Charlotte Mosley
John Murray, £25/£22.50
Take one Duchess. Add one great travel writer. Give them each pens, writing paper and stamps. The resulting confection is as tempting as Captain Hook's rich damp cake.

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
Jonathan Cape, £16.99/£15.29
With its mix of politics, humour, cats, sex and bookshops, Bechdel's long-running cartoon strip has won over readers of all persuasions (see page 2). This compendium is testament to a unique literary-graphic talent.

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