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 1 - 16 of 16  There are a total of 208 valid entries on the list.

1. All my knotted-up life: a memoir

Book cover for "All my knotted-up life"
Star rating for All my knotted-up life
Author:
Moore, Beth, 1957-
Average Rating:
4 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"Author, speaker, visionary, and founder of Living Proof Ministries Beth Moore has devoted her whole life to helping women across the globe come to know the transforming power of Jesus. An established writer of many acclaimed books and Bible studies for women on spiritual growth and personal development, Beth now unveils her own story"--

2. All the beauty in the world: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and me

Book cover for "All the beauty in the world"
Star rating for All the beauty in the world
Author:
Bringley, Patrick
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"A fascinating, revelatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard"--

3. Born a crime: stories from a South African childhood

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Author:
Noah, Trevor, 1984-
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than one million copies sold! A “brilliant” (Lupita Nyong’o, Time), “poignant” (Entertainment Weekly), “soul-nourishing” (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid
 
“Noah’s childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes...

4. Educated: a memoir

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Author:
Westover, Tara
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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.

5. The glass castle: a memoir

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Author:
Walls, Jeannette
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities. In the tradition of Mary Karr's "The Liars' Club" and Rick Bragg's "All Over But the Shouting," Jeannette Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric and...

6. I am Malala: the girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban

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Author:
Yousafzai, Malala, 1997-
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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...

7. I'm glad my mom died

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Author:
McCurdy, Jennette, 1992-
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor--including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother--and how she retook control of her life"--

8. Permanent record

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Author:
Snowden, Edward J., 1983-
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Choose a Format
On Shelf
Cary Regional - Biography
B SNOWDEN
Middlecreek Community - Biography
B SNOWDEN
Morrisville Community - Biography
B SNOWDEN

9. Prairie fires: the American dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

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Author:
Fraser, Caroline
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Formats:
Book, Large Print

10. Save me the plums: my Gourmet memoir

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Author:
Reichl, Ruth
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Formats:
Book, Large Print, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America's oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone's boss. Yet Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no? This is the story of a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul. It is the story of the moment restaurants became...

11. Spare

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Author:
Harry, Prince, Duke of Sussex, 1984-
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Formats:
Book, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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...

12. The stranger in the woods: the extraordinary story of the last true hermit

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Author:
Finkel, Michael
Average Rating:
4 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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...

13. Taste: my life through food

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Author:
Tucci, Stanley
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate ... memoir of life in and out of the kitchen"--

14. This is the story of a happy marriage

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Author:
Patchett, Ann
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, OverDrive eAudiobook
Description:

A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

"I had been so engaged by Ann Patchett's multifaceted story, so lured in by her confiding voice, that I forgot I was on the job. [...] As the best personal essays often do, Patchett's is a two-way mirror, reflecting both the author and her readers." — New York Times Book Review

Blending literature and memoir, New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett,

...

15. Uncanny valley: a memoir

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Author:
Wiener, Anna, 1987-
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook
Description:
"The story of Anna Wiener's time spent working in Silicon Valley as the tech industry went through monumental changes"--

16. A woman of no importance: the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II

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Star rating for A woman of no importance
Author:
Purnell, Sonia
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Formats:
Book, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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...