Book Club - 2022 Gift Guide

This year we're reviving an old tradition; the Final Draft Xmas Gift Guide. Got a hard to buy for person in your life? Hoping a slightly sardonic radio segment has the answers? You're in luck then because this year we are selecting the perfect book to give to your loved ones. How do we know what to pick? The Final Draft team has trolled* the research searching for probing psychological insights into who we are and what we want. The last few years has really changed us, sometimes in ways we weren't expecting. So based on deeply insightful data and a meme about the ways we wear our masks, here are our picks for Xmas with different Covid personality types... (Hopefully there's a banner directing you to reliable data about Covid-19 somewhere around because this is satire!) For The Person Who Believes in the Science ‘Hogfather’ by Terry Pratchett The Hogfather is the Discworld’s Santa, or as Pratchett would probably explain it; the manifestation of belief made corporeal. When a mysterious group of celestial bureaucrats known as the Auditors of Reality decide that the Hogfather must die it’s up to DEATH to save the day. As DEATH’s Granddaughter races to the Tooth Fairies realm to stop the plot, DEATH dons a festive red suit and fake beard to make sure that children do not awake to no presents on Hogswatch. I chose Terry Pratchett for the Believes in Science crowd because at its heart Hogfather, like so many of Pratchett’s works, explores the nature of belief and its power to unite us. For The Person Who Denies the Science ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens  I’m not entirely certain this book needs an introduction but here goes; A curmudgeonly old money lender discovers the heart of Xmas after being visited by the ghost of his old business partner and the anthropomorphised spirits of Xmas. I chose it for the deniers of science because it’s a tangibly, intangible example of someone changing their mind in the face of evidence. It’s Xmas, we can only hope… For The Person Who Doesn’t Understand the Science ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ by Roderick Thorp Nothing Lasts Forever is the story of NYPD Detective Joe Leland flying out to LA on Xmas Eve to visit his daughter. As he waits for his daughter’s work Xmas party to end the building she works in is overtaken by terrorists. The terrorists are protesting the big corporations corrupt dealings and attempting to siphon off the profits of said corruption. Joe’s not having any of it and goes in wearing no shoes and armed only with his service revolver. He proceeds to kill a whole lot of terrorists and foils their plan only to see his daughter die as the lead terrorist drags her off the building with him. If this is sounding all too familiar, that’s because Nothing Lasts Forever is the novel which was later adapted into the greatest Xmas film of all time (arguably, by other people, not me) Die Hard. I chose this for the Doesn’t Understand the Science crowd because much like them, our hero Joe Leland doesn’t fulling understand what’s going on and despite his best intentions his actions lead to a fair amount of damage and heartache. For The Person Who Believes in Magic ‘A Merry Little Meet Cute’ by Julie Murphy Full disclosure, I have not read this book. The synopsis sounds fun though; with an adult movie star being cast in a family Xmas movie opposite her childhood crush (a former boy band star).  The title literally has ‘Meet Cute’ in it. A meet cute is a literary trope where the two main characters are thrown together in a way where the reader knows they will end up together even though they are oblivious, even hostile to each other. Really any meet cute set at Xmas will do because you know this is going to be a fairly preposterous story of two people getting together (and staying together) in a way that’s not particularly realistic. Perfect for the Believes in Magic crowd because you know what sometimes you really just want to hold on to the beautiful lie. *No, we mean trolled. Not trawled.