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 21 - 40 of 106  There are a total of 208 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Cozy minimalist home"
Star rating for Cozy minimalist home
Average Rating:
3.3 stars
Book cover for "Crazy rich Asians"
Star rating for Crazy rich Asians
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be the country's most eligible bachelor. On Nick's arm,...
Book cover for "The cuckoo's calling"
Star rating for The cuckoo's calling
Series:
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier....
Book cover for "Dead wake"
Star rating for Dead wake
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania
“Both terrifying and enthralling.”—Entertainment Weekly
Thrilling, dramatic and powerful.—NPR
Thoroughly engrossing.—George R.R. Martin

On May 1, 1915, with...
Book cover for "The devil and the dark water"
Star rating for The devil and the dark water
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"Samuel Pipps is the greatest detective of his day--but now he's a prisoner, accused of an unknown crime by one of the world's most powerful men. Along with his faithful sidekick Arent Hayes, they're sailing back to Amsterdam from the East Indies, where he'll stand trial. But no sooner are they out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage"--
Book cover for "Digital minimalism"
Star rating for Digital minimalism
Author:
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestseller
"Newport is making a bid to be the Marie Kondo of technology: someone with an actual plan for helping you realize the digital pursuits that do, and don't, bring value to your life."—Ezra Klein, Vox
Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living
...

27. The dry

Book cover for "The dry"
Star rating for The dry
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Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"A small town hides big secrets in The Dry. After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke's steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the...
Book cover for "The Dutch house"
Star rating for The Dutch house
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril's son Danny, as he and his older...
Book cover for "Educated"
Star rating for Educated
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University"--Amazon.com.
Book cover for "Eight perfect murders"
Star rating for Eight perfect murders
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre's most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack--which he titled "Eight Perfect Murders"--chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie's A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin's Deathtrap, A. A. Milne's The Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double...

31. Emma

Book cover for "Emma"
Star rating for Emma
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Content with her life and not interested in marriage, Emma Woodhouse, a rich and beautiful heiress, causes complications with her matchmaking schemes.
Book cover for "Every last fear"
Star rating for Every last fear
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Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
"In one of the year's most anticipated debut psychological thrillers, a family made infamous by a true crime documentary is found dead, leaving their surviving son to uncover the truth about their final days. "They found the bodies on a Tuesday." So begins this twisty and breathtaking novel that traces the fate of the Pine family, a thriller that will both leave you on the edge of your seat and move you to tears. After a late night of partying, NYU...

33. Exiles

Book cover for "Exiles"
Star rating for Exiles
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Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"At a busy festival site on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in her stroller, her mother vanishing into the crowds. A year on, Kim Gillespie's absence casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather deep in the heart of South Australian wine country to welcome a new addition to the family. Joining the celebrations is federal investigator Aaron Falk. But as he soaks up life in the lush valley, he begins to suspect this tight-knit group...
Book cover for "Felicity"
Star rating for Felicity
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
"Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, celebrates love in her new collection of poems."--Amazon.com.
Book cover for "Furious hours"
Star rating for Furious hours
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
"The stunning true story of an Alabama serial killer, and the trial that obsessed the author of To Kill a Mockingbird in the years after the publication of her classic novel--a complicated and difficult time in her life that, until now, has been very little examined. Willie Maxwell was a Baptist reverend in Alabama; he also happened to be a serial killer. Between 1970 and 1977, his two wives and brother all died under suspicious circumstances -- each...
Book cover for "Go to sleep (I miss you)"
Star rating for Go to sleep (I miss you)
Average Rating:
5 stars
Book cover for "The gown"
Star rating for The gown
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
London, 1947: Besieged by the harshest winter in living memory, burdened by onerous shortages and rationing, the people of postwar Britain are enduring lives of quiet desperation despite their nation's recent victory. Among them are Ann Hughes and Miriam Dassin, embroiderers at the famed Mayfair fashion house of Norman Hartnell. Together they forge an unlikely friendship, but their nascent hopes for a brighter future are tested when they are chosen...
Book cover for "Grit"
Star rating for Grit
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, athletes, students, and business people--both seasoned and new--that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called "grit." Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur "genius" Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly...
Book cover for "The huntress"
Star rating for The huntress
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Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Stranded behind enemy lines, brave bomber pilot Nina Markova becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress and joins forces with a Nazi hunter and British war correspondent to find her before she finds them.
Book cover for "I am Malala"
Star rating for I am Malala
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday October 9, 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price. When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the...