I have a confession to make: I’m in an end-of-year slump. My brain, which whirred eagerly in January, has wound to a crawl. I don’t think I’m alone, either. Every second message in my inbox signals a blend of exhaustion (due to a full year of work) and hope… because summer holidays are on their way.

But before we hit the beach, or a sunny poolside – or slump under the air-conditioner in front of the cricket, if that’s more your style – there’s one last task to be done. Before we can start our summer reading, there’s Christmas shopping.

And that’s where I and my tired brain can help! After more than 25 years of Christmas retail, I believe there’s a book for everyone (well… except that brother who insists he really, TRULY does not like books, and so gets an unimaginative carton of beer). So, here are some suggestions.

If you have a historical fiction lover in your family, there are a few highly acclaimed new reads you might like to reach for. Jock Serong’s The Settlement (Text Publishing) delves into the true story of the establishment of the Wybalenna mission (or prison) on Flinders Island in Tasmania, and the misguided exploits of George Augustus Robinson – who has gathered together the so-called “last of the Tasmanians”. In the Age, Michael Winkler called it “a novel of empathy and intelligence, jolted by the occasional efflorescence of sickening violence”.

Serong is a wonderful writer who has shifted genres, in recent years, from crime to historical fiction. He retains the gift of propulsive plots and gripping narratives. And readers interested in stories that face the complexity and complicity of our colonial past – paired with beautiful writing – will be intrigued by his latest novel.

Fiona McFarlane’s The Sun Walks Down (Allen & Unwin) is set in the failing wheat districts of South Australia’s Flinders Ranges in 1883. It follows a varied cast of characters – including a small town’s just-married policeman and his besotted society wife, the matriarch of the nearby station who is used to getting her way, a handsome Swedish painter and his seemingly practical wife, and an Aboriginal worker who lives between worlds – in the seven days that a small boy is missing, having wandered off in a dust storm.

This novel, too, explores the complexities of our colonial past, through the classic Australian trope of the lost child, swallowed up by an alien wilderness. But it questions that trope, too, and draws vivid characters. The Sun Walks Down has attracted raves from Ann Patchett, Michelle de Kretser and others. South Australian readers will get an extra level of satisfaction from the local setting.

Readers who like big, fat history books might be very happy to open renowned historian Max Hastings’ account of the Cuban missile crisis, Abyss (HarperCollins), on Christmas Day. While set over 13 pivotal days in 1962, it seems piercingly relevant to revisit it in 2022, when Russia’s assault on Ukraine has rebooted Cold War tensions.

Hastings tells the story from the viewpoints of national leaders, Russian officers, Cuban peasants, American pilots and British disarmers, using sources that span eyewitness interviews, the archives and White House recordings. This may sound cliched, but this is one I would have given my grandfather – who loved American history, and used to assign me points for finding him very specific books on aircraft when I was a baby bookseller, aged 17 – if he were still around.

For a big-picture view of world history, there’s Simon Sebag Montefiore’s wide-ranging The World: A Family History of Humanity (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), which narrates the history of the world through family dynasties. Of course, Montefiore is famous for one big book about a very famous family: The Romanovs. Here, he ranges from rulers and conquerors to scientists, artists and tycoons. There’s Hongwu, the beggar who founded the Ming dynasty; Zenobia, the Arab empress who defied Rome. Indira Gandhi, Vladimir Putin, the Bonapartes, the Rothschilds, the Nehrus, the Rockefellers. Succession battles, conspiracies, megalomania and enlightened benevolence… you get the picture. This is a book to settle into an armchair with on Boxing Day, perhaps with a piece of leftover pie or pavlova.

Coming closer to home, and moving to current affairs, there’s journalist Paddy Manning’s close-up on the world of one family whose succession battles have inspired an HBO show (next season coming in autumn 2023). The Successor (Black Inc) is the inside story of the enigmatic Lachlan Murdoch, who looks set to inherit the Murdoch empire. (Though recent media stories, in the wake of this book, suggest it may be more complicated than it appears. The book is sure to give more insight into this.)

Manning explores Murdoch’s upbringing, political beliefs and role as head of Fox Corporation – the man ultimately responsible for Fox News. The Successor is a book about media, power and politics in the age of Trump and Biden.

Russell Marks’ Black Lives, White Law: Locked Up and Locked Out in Australia (Black Inc) is a complex, intriguing look at how and why Indigenous Australians are the most incarcerated people on the planet. Marks, a political researcher and criminal defence lawyer who has worked with Aboriginal legal services in the Northern Territory and Victoria, draws on his experience and employs his expertise to explore this question. The blame falls squarely on our criminal justice system, which does not serve Aboriginal people and often works against them.

Marks is a terrific journalist (who regularly writes for The Monthly) and this is engagingly written, in a way that emotionally and intellectually engages the reader. Of course, he’s a white man writing about the topic – but he openly draws on a wealth of Indigenous scholarship, bringing in these voices and perspectives. I found this to be a compelling book, and I keep thinking about it, months after I read it (and passed on my copy). I’d like to buy another copy as a Christmas present.

And I must quickly recommend (again) a book by an Indigenous writer who reflects on cycles of disadvantage (including her dad’s imprisonment) from a very personal angle – Amy Thunig’s memoir, Tell Me Again (UQP), which I raved about last month. It’s well worth gifting to anyone who loves a good memoir of resilience, family and love.

What about those readers who aren’t especially big readers? Sometimes I reach for a sports book or a celebrity memoir. Geena Davis’s Dying of Politeness (HarperCollins) tells the story of an eccentric childhood, Hollywood adventures, and becoming an advocate for women and girls. Richard E Grant’s A Pocketful of Happiness (Simon & Schuster) is structured around his recent loss of his beloved wife and companion of nearly 40 years – but while it includes memories of Nigella Lawson delivering suppers to his wife’s sick bed, and the now King Charles bringing mangoes to their door, it’s also studded with poignant happy memories and everyday observations. Grant has produced two previous memoirs-of-sorts, Withnail and I and The Wah-Wah Diaries – and their combination of wit and candour promise good things for this one.

Or if you’re looking for a more highbrow celebrity book, there’s Nobel Prize for Literature winner Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Song: more than 60 essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between – ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. In a similar vein, there’s Cinema Speculation (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), by the world’s most famous film nerd: Quentin Tarantino. It’s another book in which a master of his art passionately engages with his favourite things, as a connoisseur. Tarantino explores the ’70s films of his childhood that influenced him, combining film criticism, film theory, reporting and personal history.

Or for the artist in the family, two terrific books focus on women in art. Great Women Painters (Phaidon) is a big, beautiful illustrated book featuring the work of more than 300 artists from around the world, across centuries. Artists include Hilma af Klint, Leona Carrington, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keefe, among many others. And Katy Hessel’s stunning hardcover The Story of Art Without Men (Hutchinson Heinemann) overturns the history of art, speaking back to the way women were written out and overlooked for so long. “Brilliantly readable… outraged and celebratory, it’s chock-full of female trail-blazers,” says Jennifer Higgie, author of The Mirror and the Palette.

So, from one end-of-year, exhausted brain to… yours, here’s a hopefully helpful start to your Christmas shopping. And remember – us booksellers actually love to hear your curly questions at this time of year. It’s like the best kind of literary trivia: a quiz with a purpose. So if you’re wondering what to buy your uncle who loves history, but only if it’s a bit socialist (but not communist), or how to get something for your teenage niece who’s into books on TikTok… take it to your friendly neighbourhood bookseller!

Jo Case is a monthly columnist for InReview and deputy editor, books & ideas, at The Conversation. She is an occasional bookseller at Imprints on Hindley Street and former associate publisher of Wakefield Press.