Melissa's Staff Picks

I'm a librarian at Southeast Regional Library, and these are some of my favorite reads! Feel free to email me at melissa.schultz@wakegov.com if you enjoyed one of these books!

Showing 61 - 78 of 78  There are a total of 208 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "She said"
Star rating for She said
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
From the reporters who broke the news of Harvey Weinstein's sexual harassment and abuse comes the untold story of their investigation and their involvement in reporting on the Christine Blasey Ford allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, and their consequences for the #MeToo movement.

62. Spare

Book cover for "Spare"
Star rating for Spare
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother's coffin as the world watched in sorrow and horror. As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling, and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. With its raw, unflinching honesty, Prince Harry shares a landmark publication...
Book cover for "The stranger diaries"
Star rating for The stranger diaries
Series:
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R.M. Holland, she teaches a course on it every year. But when one of Clare's colleagues and closest friends is found dead, with a line from R.M. Holland's most famous story, 'The stranger,' left by her body. Clare is horrified to see her life collide with the storylines of her favorite literature. To make matters worse, the police suspect the killer...
Book cover for "Talking to strangers"
Star rating for Talking to strangers
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
The popular podcast host and author explores how people interact with strangers and why these exchanges often go wrong, offering strategic tips for more accurate and productive interactions.
Book cover for "Taste"
Star rating for Taste
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate ... memoir of life in and out of the kitchen"--
Book cover for "Tell me everything"
Star rating for Tell me everything
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"Part memoir and part literary true crime, Tell Me Everything is the mesmerizing story of a landmark sexual assault investigation and the female private investigator who helped crack it open. Erika Krouse has one of those faces. "I don't know why I'm telling you this," people say, spilling confessions. In fall 2002, Erika accepts a new contract job investigating lawsuits as a private investigator. The role seems perfect for her, but she quickly realizes...
Book cover for "The thirteenth tale"
Star rating for The thirteenth tale
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
When her health begins failing, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides to let Margaret Lea, a biographer, write the truth about her life, but Margaret needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish tales.
Book cover for "This must be the place"
Star rating for This must be the place
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Daniel Sullivan, a young American professor reeling from a failed marriage and a brutal custody battle, is on holiday in Ireland when he falls in love with Claudette, a world famous sexual icon and actress who fled fame for a reclusive life in a rural village. Together, they make an idyllic life in the country, raising two more children in blissful seclusion until a secret from Daniel's past threatens to destroy their meticulously constructed and...
Book cover for "A tree grows in Brooklyn"
Star rating for A tree grows in Brooklyn
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
An autobiographical novel concerning a young daughter of German immigrants growing up in the slums of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the early 20th century.
Book cover for "Uncanny valley"
Star rating for Uncanny valley
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"The story of Anna Wiener's time spent working in Silicon Valley as the tech industry went through monumental changes"--
Book cover for "Vanderbilt"
Star rating for Vanderbilt
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
Anderson Cooper chronicles the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty--his mother's family--the Vanderbilts.
Book cover for "The Wager"
Star rating for The Wager
Author:
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, a mesmerizing story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's...
Book cover for "White fragility"
Star rating for White fragility
Average Rating:
2 stars
Description:
Explores counterproductive reactions white people have when discussing racism that serve to protect their positions and maintain racial inequality
Book cover for "The woman in the library"
Star rating for The woman in the library
Average Rating:
3.1 stars
Description:
"The beautifully ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is completely silent one weekday morning, until a woman's terrified scream echoes through the room. Security guards immediately appear and instruct everyone inside to stay put until they determine there is no threat. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers who had been sitting in the reading room get to chatting and quickly become friendly. Harriet, Marigold, Whit, and Caine...
Book cover for "A woman of no importance"
Star rating for A woman of no importance
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Chosen as a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR, the New York Public Library, Amazon, the Seattle Times, the Washington Independent Review of Books, PopSugar, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, BookBrowse, the Spectator, and the Times of London
Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography

“Excellent…This book is as riveting as any
...
Book cover for "The word is murder"
Star rating for The word is murder
Series:
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
One bright spring morning in London, Diana Cowper -- the wealthy mother of a famous actor -- enters a funeral parlor. She is there to plan her own service. Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home. Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator who's as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life; a Watson to his Holmes....
Book cover for "A world of curiosities"
Star rating for A world of curiosities
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
"Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns in the eighteenth book in Penny's series. It's spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge. But something has. As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the Sûreté du Québec...
Book cover for "Young Jane Young"
Star rating for Young Jane Young
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"Aviva Grossman [is] an ambitious Congressional intern in Florida who makes the life-changing mistake of having an affair with her boss, who is beloved, admired, successful, and very married--and blogging about it. When the affair comes to light, the Congressman doesn't take the fall, but Aviva does, and her life is over before it hardly begins. She becomes a late night talk show punchline; she is slut-shamed, labeled as fat and ugly, and considered...