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 - 20 of 42  There are a total of 208 valid entries on the list.

1. All the light we cannot see: a novel

Book cover for "All the light we cannot see"
Star rating for All the light we cannot see
Author:
Doerr, Anthony, 1973-
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six,...

2. At home: a short history of private life

Book cover for "At home"
Star rating for At home
Author:
Bryson, Bill
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
Bryson (A Short History of Nearly Everything) takes readers on a tour of his house, a rural English parsonage, showing how each room has figured in the evolution of private life. Bryson takes readers on a tour of his house, a rural English parsonage, showing how each room has figured in changes in private life.

3. Bel canto: a novel

Book cover for "Bel canto"
Star rating for Bel canto
Author:
Patchett, Ann
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gun-wielding terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked,...

4. Between the world and me

Book cover for "Between the world and me"
Star rating for Between the world and me
Author:
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT
Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary...

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

Book cover for "Born a crime"
Star rating for Born a crime
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...

6. Catch and kill: lies, spies, and a conspiracy to protect predators

Book cover for "Catch and kill"
Star rating for Catch and kill
Author:
Farrow, Ronan, 1987-
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
Now an HBO documentary series streaming on HBO Max. 
One of the Best Books of the Year  Time * NPR * Washington Post * Bloomberg News * Chicago Tribune * Chicago Public Library * Fortune * Los Angeles Times * E! News * The Telegraph * Apple * Library Journal  In...

7. The Chilbury Ladies' Choir: a novel

Book cover for "The Chilbury Ladies' Choir"
Star rating for The Chilbury Ladies' Choir
Author:
Ryan, Jennifer (Jennifer L.)
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook
Description:
"Through letters and journals, [this novel] unfolds the struggles, affairs, deceptions, and triumphs of a village choir during World War II [in England]"--Dust jacket flap.

8. Commonwealth: a novel

Book cover for "Commonwealth"
Star rating for Commonwealth
Author:
Patchett, Ann
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"The acclaimed, bestselling author--winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize--tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families' lives. One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly--thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining...

9. Dead wake: the last crossing of the Lusitania

Book cover for "Dead wake"
Star rating for Dead wake
Author:
Larson, Erik, 1954-
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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...

10. The dry

Book cover for "The dry"
Star rating for The dry
Author:
Harper, Jane (Jane Elizabeth)
Series:
Aaron Falk novels volume 1.
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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...

11. The Dutch house: a novel

Book cover for "The Dutch house"
Star rating for The Dutch house
Author:
Patchett, Ann
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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...

12. Educated: a memoir

Book cover for "Educated"
Star rating for Educated
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.

13. Emma

Book cover for "Emma"
Star rating for Emma
Author:
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
Content with her life and not interested in marriage, Emma Woodhouse, a rich and beautiful heiress, causes complications with her matchmaking schemes.

14. The glass castle: a memoir

Book cover for "The glass castle"
Star rating for The glass castle
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...

15. The goldfinch

Book cover for "The goldfinch"
Star rating for The goldfinch
Author:
Tartt, Donna
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"A young boy in New York City, Theo Decker, miraculously survives an accident that takes the life of his mother. Alone and abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by a friend's family and struggles to make sense of his new life. In the years that follow, he becomes entranced by one of the few things that reminds him of his mother: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the art underworld. Composed with the skills...

16. The gown: a novel of the royal wedding

Book cover for "The gown"
Star rating for The gown
Author:
Robson, Jennifer, 1970-
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook
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...

17. Grit: the power of passion and perseverance

Book cover for "Grit"
Star rating for Grit
Author:
Duckworth, Angela
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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...

18. The handmaid's tale

Book cover for "The handmaid's tale"
Star rating for The handmaid's tale
Author:
Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
Series:
Handmaid's tale volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"This visionary novel. in which God and Government are joined, and America is run as a Puritanical Theoracy, can be read as a companion volume to Orwell's 1984-its verso, in fact. It gives you the same degree of chill, even as it suggests the varieties of tyrannical experience; it evokes the same kind of horror even as its mordant wit makes you smile." --E.L.Doctorow.

19. The huntress: a novel

Book cover for "The huntress"
Star rating for The huntress
Author:
Quinn, Kate
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eBook
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.

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

Book cover for "I am Malala"
Star rating for I am Malala
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...