Sunshine Girl, by Julianna Margulies ( Ballantine)

Margulies is so closely associated with the characters she played ( on ER and The Good Wife) that it can be jarring to encounter her distinctive, personable voice as she describes her nomadic childhood bouncing between a hippie mother and a detached ad-exec father, waitressing at the “world’s most glamorous” restaurant, and the fateful audition (involving a surprise call from George Clooney) that led to her role as Nurse Hathaway. A celebrity memoir with a humble core, this is more about the process of becoming a beloved actress than the spoils such recognition affords.—