This time of year, whether you're writing a letter to Santa, sending (or receiving) one of those catch-all family newsletters, or mailing out holiday cards, one thing is clear--'tis the season for letters. Perhaps you'd like to catch up on a little bookish correspondence, and in that case, let this book recommended by our poetry editor Carrie Olivia Adams be your guide.

Correspondence by Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan (Seagull Books)

Though not a poetry book per se, this collection of love letters between Bachmann and Celan is as intense, beautiful, and lyrical as any of the poems that either Bachmann or Celan produced. The letters themselves incorporate some of their poems and many thoughts on their work, which makes this book both a wonderful source of insight into their writings as well as a fraught and powerful look at love in a Europe repairing and healing from World War II and the holocaust.