At Powell's, we feel the holidays are the perfect time to share our love of books with those close to us. For this special blog series, we reached out to authors featured in our Holiday Gift Guide to learn about their own experiences with book giving during this bountiful time of year.Today's featured giver is Mary Oliver, author of Blue Horses: Poems.
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What books are you giving to friends and family this holiday season and why?
Any volume of the Sufi poet Rumi translated by Coleman Barks. Additionally, The Gift by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky.
Is there a book you find yourself gifting year after year?
Perhaps not gifting every year, but I read every year Emerson: The Mind on Fire by Robert Richardson.
What books are you planning on reading over the holidays?
A good friend just gave me A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan which is next up on my list. Or maybe I will begin with Nadine Gordimer's Life Times: Stories, 1952-2007.
What type of book makes the best cold-weather reading?
In any weather, Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time is one. I like long books. I recently read Shelley: The Pursuit by Richard Holmes. 900 pages.
Do you have a favorite children's book to give budding readers?
Whatever else they get, every child should have a Mother Goose.