Julianna Margulies Reveals Her Favorite Authors in 'Shelf Portrait'

From Ann Patchett to Wallace Shawn.

Julianna Margulies, actress and author of the newly-released memoir Sunshine Girl: An Unexpected Life (opens in new tab), has an eclectic book collection throughout her home, as seen in Marie Claire’s latest episode of Shelf Portrait (opens in new tab), in which celebrities, influencers, and famous bookworms show off their personal libraries.

In the video, Margulies shares that two people who helped her write her book without knowing it are Mary Karr (opens in new tab) and Stephen King (opens in new tab). The Good Wife actress loves Ann Patchett (she's read every book she's ever written!) and says her "dear friend Reese Witherspoon" happens to know Patchett, so she autographed a few of her books for Margulies: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage (opens in new tab)The Dutch House (opens in new tab), and Bel Canto (opens in new tab)She also loves Walter Issacson's The Innovators (opens in new tab) (where she learned the first people to program computers were women!), art books (like this one (opens in new tab) from Marc Chagall), and memoirs (two she refuses to give away are Gabriel Byrne's Walking with Ghosts (opens in new tab) and Toni Morrison's Love (opens in new tab)).

Margulies says she has read Oliver Sacks's Gratitude (opens in new tab) 15–20 times to remind herself that "life is much richer when gratitude is practiced." Her bookshelf also has several collections of plays and a book that's traveled with her since high school: Dante's Inferno (opens in new tab). Naturally, she also has a copy of Emily Dickinson's poems, Final Harvest (opens in new tab), and Glennon Doyle's Untamed (opens in new tab). Margulies reveals she read Peter Evans and Ava Gardner's Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations (opens in new tab) whenever she had a 10-minute break on set of The Good Wife, and one of her favorite books of all time is Wallace Shawn's Essays (opens in new tab). She recommends people keep books on their shelves that remind them of certain times in their lives.

Watch Margulies's full Shelf Portrait video, above, then order some of her favorite books for yourself, below.

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(Image credit: Design by Morgan McMullen)