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 22  There are a total of 209 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "All my knotted-up life"
Star rating for All my knotted-up life
Average Rating:
4 stars
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"--
Book cover for "All the beauty in the world"
Star rating for All the beauty in the world
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
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"--
Book cover for "The almost legendary Morris sisters"
Star rating for The almost legendary Morris sisters
Author:
Description:
"Ever since she was young, Julie Klam has been fascinated by the Morris sisters, cousins of her grandmother. According to family lore, early in the 20th century the sisters' parents decided to move the family from Eastern Europe to Los Angeles so their father could become a movie director. On the way, their pregnant mother went into labor in St. Louis, where the baby was born and where their mother died. The father left the children in an orphanage...
Book cover for "Born a crime"
Star rating for Born a crime
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
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
...
Book cover for "Brain on fire"
Star rating for Brain on fire
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
An account of the author's struggle with a rare brain-attacking autoimmune disease traces how she woke up in a hospital room with no memory of baffling psychotic symptoms, describing the last-minute intervention by a doctor who identified the source of her illness.
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 "The glass castle"
Star rating for The glass castle
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
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...
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...
Book cover for "I'm glad my mom died"
Star rating for I'm glad my mom died
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
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"--
Book cover for "I'm still here"
Star rating for I'm still here
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
An "account of growing up Black, Christian, and female in middle-class white America ... [that looks] at how white, middle-class, evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the reader to confront apathy, recognize God's ongoing work in the world, and discover how blackness--if we let it--can save us all"--Amazon.com.
Book cover for "The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks"
Star rating for The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
Documents the story of how scientists took cells from an unsuspecting descendant of freed slaves and created a human cell line that has been kept alive indefinitely, enabling discoveries in such areas as cancer research, in vitro fertilization, and gene mapping.
Book cover for "Just mercy"
Star rating for Just mercy
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice.
Book cover for "Prairie fires"
Star rating for Prairie fires
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Book cover for "Save me the plums"
Star rating for Save me the plums
Author:
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
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...

15. 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 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 "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 "This is the story of a happy marriage"
Star rating for This is the story of a happy marriage
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
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,

...
Book cover for "Unbroken"
Star rating for Unbroken
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared--Lt. Louis Zamperini. Captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor.
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.