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 81 - 100 of 102  There are a total of 208 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Southern Lady Code"
Star rating for Southern Lady Code
Author:
Average Rating:
3.1 stars
Description:
"A fiercely funny collection of essays on marriage and manners, thank you notes and three-ways, ghosts, gunshots, gynecology, and the Calgon-scented, onion-dipped, monogrammed art of living as a Southern Lady" --

82. 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 "A spindle splintered"
Star rating for A spindle splintered
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"It's Zinnia Gray's twenty-first birthday, which is extra-special because it's the last birthday she'll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no-one has lived past twenty-one. Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks...
Book cover for "Stiff"
Star rating for Stiff
Author:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:

A New York Times forensic science bestseller, "this quirky, funny read offers perspective and insight about life, death and the medical profession."* 

For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory

...
Book cover for "The stranger in the woods"
Star rating for The stranger in the woods
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"In 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later when he was arrested for stealing food. Living in a tent even in winter, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store food and water to avoid freezing to death ... Based on extensive interviews with Knight...
Book cover for "Such a fun age"
Star rating for Such a fun age
Author:
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar....
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 "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 "Truly devious"
Star rating for Truly devious
Series:
Truly Devious volume 1.
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
When Stevie Bell, an amateur detective, begins her first year at a famous private school in Vermont, she plans to solve the cold case involving the kidnapping of the founder's wife and daughter shortly after the school opened.
Book cover for "The turn of the key"
Star rating for The turn of the key
Author:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
The bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, and The Death of Mrs. Westaway delivers her highly anticipated fifth novel. "When she stumbles across the ad, she's looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss--a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten--by the luxurious "smart" home...
Book cover for "The twist of a knife"
Star rating for The twist of a knife
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"When the critic who gave his new play scathing reviews is murdered, stabbed in the heart with his ornamental dagger, author Anthony Horowitz is arrested by an old enemy out for revenge and the only man who can help him is his estranged partner in solving crime, Daniel Hawthorne."
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 "Who is Maud Dixon?"
Star rating for Who is Maud Dixon?
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Florence Darrow is a low-level publishing employee who believes that she's destined to be a famous writer. When she stumbles into a job the assistant to the brilliant, enigmatic novelist known as Maud Dixon -- whose true identity is a secret -- it appears that the universe is finally providing Florence's big chance. The arrangement seems perfect. Maud Dixon (whose real name, Florence discovers, is Helen Wilcox) can be prickly, but she is full of pointed...
Book cover for "The Windsor knot"
Star rating for The Windsor knot
Average Rating:
3.2 stars
Description:
"The first book in a ... crime series featuring Queen Elizabeth II as an amateur detective who solves crimes in secret and behind the scenes, in between her royal duties"--
Book cover for "Wintering"
Star rating for Wintering
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it...
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 is no man"
Star rating for A woman is no man
Author:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
Three generations of Palestinian-American women in contemporary Brooklyn are torn by individual desire, educational ambitions, a devastating tragedy, and the strict mores of traditional Arab culture.
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
...