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Marquette Reads: The holiday edition

Looking for a good holiday book — or the perfect Christmas present for the avid reader in your life? We checked in with the professional bookworms at Marquette's Raynor Memorial Libraries to get their top picks for the season. You can find even more staff recommendations in the Raynor's occasional newsletter, Ex Libris.

1. A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. This now-classic short story, first published by Random House in 1966, is widely anthologized. "I have my own personal tradition of reading this story every year after Thanksgiving to put me in the mood for the holidays. It's just a perfect story (autobiographical) of how two friends celebrate the holidays. Beautiful." — Leslie Quade, Processing Technician/Student Supervisor

2. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. This book of short stories and personal essays is now available in both paperback and audiobook editions. "I reread it every year for his wry, incredibly funny, slightly warped perspective on the holiday season." — Christopher Daniel, Technical Services/Ordering and Receiving

3. My Antonia by Willa Cather. First published in 1918, this is the current choice of the Waukesha Reads community program. "It is a well-written classic about life on the American prairie with an emphasis on women's issues. While it's not strictly a Christmas book, it features a vignette about a hard winter when the family was snowed-in and made their own gifts." — Tracey Kalin, Database Management Technician/Ordering and Receiving

4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. This award-winning book is about a cancer patient in 1951 whose cells were collected by Johns Hopkins doctors and reproduced over the decades to aid important research, including polio vaccine and AIDS and cancer research. "This very readable book is a fascinating look at medicine, medical research and industry, ethics, poverty and race." —Rose Trupiano, Research and Instructional Services Librarian

5. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. "Easy to read, yet rich with scientific surveys and evidence, The Shallows explores how the way we use the Web is altering our brain and reducing our capacity to absorb and retain what we read. But it isn't all doom and gloom as the book also chronicles how other technological changes, such as the explosion of reading after the printing press, also impacted our brains. So is the Internet making us shallower? So long as we aren't stupid enough to stop cultivating our minds, media itself will not make us stupid." — Eric Kowalik, Instructional Designer