Patch Picks: Top Shelf Choices

South Pasadena City Librarian Steve Fjeldsted lets South Pasadena Patch in on his selections for riveting reads for this week's edition of Patch Picks.

1. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner

Fjeldsted calls Wild Parrots, upon which one of the "most successful animal documentaries of all time" was based, "very entertaining and educational." Click for more information about the upcoming screening of the film.

2. Thinking in Pictures: My Life With Autism by Temple Grandin

This memoir is another text-turned-Golden Globe award-winning film that Fjeldsted gushes is "endlessly fascinating." Grandin, he says, is "brilliant in her own ways, but not in traditional ways. She describes her life growing up in a time when there was very little understanding of autism."

3. Most Evil: Avenger, Zodiac, and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel by Steve Hodel
Author Steve Hodel is a retired LAPD homicide investigator who unearths the truth of his father, serial murderer Dr. George Hill Hodel. Hodel is also author of Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story.

4. Cowboy and Wills: A Love Story by Monica Holloway
In a novel not unlike Marley and Me, author Holloway recounts the  special relationship her son, Wills, has with family dog, Cowboy. "The dog," Fjelsted explains, "helps Wills grow up as a young autistic boy."

5. Captive: a Novel by Megan Lisa Jones

This thriller provides the narrative of "a terrorism plot taking place in various spots around the world including California," and leaves "readers guessing the whole way until the surprising conclusion." Click to read a recent Patch story about Megan Lisa Jones and her novel.