Books to bulge Christmas stockings

Publishers and booksellers are off at a sprint for Christmas, striving for a place up front, if not actually first, in the till tally.
Top seller for this year's final quarter, says Booktaste, is obviously going to be Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. This thriller is so over-marketed that its momentum will continue well into the new year. Yet thrillers are not to every reader's taste, and Man Booker nominees - quite apart from the winner - have had great recent publicity. Take your pick.
In the shortlist alone were A.S. Byatt (The Children's Book), Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall, the winner), Adam Foulds (The Quickening Maze), J.M. Coetzee (Summertime), Sarah Waters (The Little Stranger), and Simon Mawer (The Glass Room).
Mystery, sci-fi and fantasy addicts get slim pickings in the Man Booker contest, but each of these genres has its own top-raters.
For Scots the world over, however, the kinghit title has just gone paperback. Murder Piping Hot by Ann Morven is a whodunit linking present-day killings to the poetry of Robert Burns. Read a sample at Booktaste, or buy publisher direct.
The paperback edition follows the novel's first release as an ebook.
"We found this idea a big success," said publishing executive Charles Bryce, "and I recommend the strategy to any publisher whose promotional kitty is miniscule. Of course, the online version retails at a price ($7.95) well below the paperback, but that way we were able to gauge worldwide interest. We released this murder mystery to coincide with the 250th anniversary of Rabbie's birth. I'll just add that you don't need to be Scottish to enjoy this story."
Since Cathy Macleod is a Scotttish namne, I now hasten to assure readers that I am not racially biased. There's a very English title I'm recommending for Christmas too. This is Rebels and Traitors by Lindsey Davis. Her tale of England's Civil War has all the charm and readability familiar to her Falco ancient Rome series.
And for a marvellous Irish novel, the best in many years is Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. Too bad the title is so off-putting. It should have been The Irish Girl or something similar.
In the splurge of Christmas goodies, mind you, each of us has a personal preference. My advice is to browse the web for titles and samples. There's no scarcity of good reads with booksellers and publishers pushing their wares this Christmas. Happy hunting!