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 - 15 of 15  There are a total of 209 valid entries on the list.

1. As you wish: inconceivable tales from the making of The princess bride

Book cover for "As you wish"
Star rating for As you wish
Author:
Elwes, Cary, 1962-
Average Rating:
4 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook
Description:
From actor Cary Elwes, who played the iconic role of Westley in The Princess Bride, comes the New York Times bestselling account of the making of the cult classic film filled with never-before-told stories, exclusive photographs, and interviews with costars Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Mandy Patinkin, as well as author and screenwriter William Goldman, producer Norman Lear, and director Rob Reiner.
The...

2. 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...

3. Caste: the origins of our discontents

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Author:
Wilkerson, Isabel
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Formats:
Book, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"In this ... Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate....

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

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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...

5. The coddling of the American mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure

Book cover for "The coddling of the American mind"
Star rating for The coddling of the American mind
Author:
Lukianoff, Greg
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"Something has been going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and are afraid to speak honestly. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising--on campus as well as nationally. How did this happen? First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible...

6. Cultish: the language of fanaticism

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Author:
Montell, Amanda
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"From SoulCycle to Scientology, we're all obsessed with cults. Linguist Amanda Montell examines the language cults use to draw us in"--

7. Evicted: poverty and profit in the American city

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Author:
Desmond, Matthew
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers ... [In this book], Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear...

8. I'm still here: black dignity in a world made for whiteness

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Author:
Brown, Austin Channing
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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.

9. The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

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Author:
Skloot, Rebecca, 1972-
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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.

10. Jesus and John Wayne: how white evangelicals corrupted a faith and fractured a nation

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Author:
Du Mez, Kristin Kobes
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"A scholar of American Christianity answers perhaps the most bewildering question of our time: Why are evangelicals "the Donald's" most fervent supporters? Donald Trump is a libertine who lacks even basic knowledge of the Christian faith. Yet in 2016 he won 81 percent of the white evangelical vote, and continues to rely on white evangelicals as his base of support. While we assume the religious right has pragmatic reasons for backing Trump, in truth...

11. Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI

Book cover for "Killers of the Flower Moon"
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Author:
Grann, David
Average Rating:
4 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, “one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."—New York Magazine • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NOW A MARTIN SCORSESE PICTURE
“A shocking whodunit…What...

12. The nineties: a book

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Author:
Klosterman, Chuck, 1972-
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
"Essays about 1990s popular culture, politics, sports, literature, music"--

13. She said: breaking the sexual harassment story that helped ignite a movement

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Star rating for She said
Author:
Kantor, Jodi, 1975-
Average Rating:
5 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook
Description:
From the reporters who broke the news of Harvey Weinstein's sexual harassment and abuse comes the untold story of their investigation and their involvement in reporting on the Christine Blasey Ford allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, and their consequences for the #MeToo movement.

14. Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers

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Author:
Roach, Mary
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:

Beloved, best-selling science writer Mary Roach’s “acutely entertaining, morbidly fascinating” (Susan Adams, Forbes) classic, now with a new epilogue.

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

...

15. Talking to strangers: what we should know about the people we don't know

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Author:
Gladwell, Malcolm, 1963-
Average Rating:
4 stars
Formats:
Book, Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
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.