The Portable Atheist, Christopher Hitchens

Given Christopher Hitchens’ ability to infuriate, befuddle and offend, you wonder who’s still buying his books. A strident proponent of the Iraq war, in print Hitchens has also scalped Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa and Henry Kissinger. Here he returns with his third book this year, a companion to his anti-religion polemic God Is Not Great.

Oprah’s favourites

Oprah is a woman who likes to share. We know how she votes, who she wears and her daily calcium update, thanks to the exhaustive oprah.com. You’ll probably be delighted to hear that “her diet is healthful but far from dull” and that she’s a “real fiber champion, too, averaging 34g a day”. While we wait for her to post her endoscopy video, amuse yourself with Oprah’s favourite things from this year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, food and cooking features heavily.

Catching her eye this year have been Perfect Endings cupcakes from celebrity cakemaker Sam Godfrey (previously responsible for Oprah’s 400lb 50th birthday cake) and gourment orange sorbet. In addition to this are mixing bowls and cake mixer, somewhat undermining those claims of Winfrey’s “healthful” diet.

Best of all is the panini maker which has revolutionised Oprah’s “love sandwich”. To the barbarians who don’t know of it, this is a weekly treat Ms O makes featuring hot pepper cheese, basil and smoked turkey. “It takes the ‘love sandwich’ to a whole new level,” she gushes.

Such is Oprah’s love for food, it seems she’ll do anything to delay leaving the kitchen. Her final favourite thing is a $4000 fridge complete with LCD TV, DVD player, Internet connection and the all important five-day weather forecast. How did the Von Trapps survive without it?