Books have long provided stories for movies, television and streaming services to adapt, and their adaptations only seem to be accelerating. Read on for a just a few (very few) of the titles that have been turned into shows:
- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – Taken in by a wealthy family friend after surviving an accident that killed his mother, thirteen-year-old Theo Decker tries to adjust to life on Park Avenue.
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – Just after midnight, a snowdrift stopped the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train was surprisingly full for the time of the year. But by the morning there was one passenger fewer. An American lay dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. With tension mounting, detective Hercule Poirot comes up with not one, but two solutions to the crime.
- Stumptown by Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, Lee Loughridge, Rico Renzi – Volume 1: Join the investigation on Dex Parios’s first case for just $10! Dex is the proprietor of Stumptown Investigations, and a fairly talented P.I. Unfortunately, she’s less adept at throwing dice than solving cases. Her recent streak has left her beyond broke―she’s into the Confederated Tribes of the Wind Coast for 18 large. But maybe Dex’s luck is about to change. Sue-Lynne, head of the Wind Coast’s casino operation, will clear Dex’ debt if she can locate Sue-Lynne’s missing granddaughter. Is this job Dex’s way out of the hole or a shove down one much much deeper?
- Hair Love written by Matthew A. Cherry & illustrated by Vashti Harrison – A little girl’s daddy steps in to help her arrange her curly, coiling, wild hair into styles that allow her to be her natural, beautiful self. (Streaming on YouTube!)
- Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer – The twelfth expedition arrives expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything. First book in the Southern Reach trilogy.
- The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters – One postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive and handsome, is now in decline. Its owners are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as with conflicts of their own. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become intimately entwined with his.
- Every Day by David Levithan – Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.
- If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin – Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncerain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions—affection, despair, and hope.
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in mid-nineteenth-century New England.
- The House With a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs -When Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan, comes to stay with his uncle Jonathan, he expects to meet an ordinary person. But he is wrong. Uncle Jonathan and his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmermann, are both magicians! Lewis is thrilled. At first, watching magic is enough. Then Lewis experiments with magic himself and unknowingly resurrects the former owner of the house: a woman named Serenna Izard. It seems that Serenna and her husband built a timepiece into the walls—a clock that could obliterate humankind. And only the Barnavelts can stop it!
- Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski – The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, becomes the guardian of Ciri, surviving heiress of a bloody revolution and prophesied savior of the world, in the first novel of the New York Times bestselling series that inspired the Netflix series and the blockbuster video games.
- Stories of Your Life and Others (Arrival) by Ted Chiang – Stories of your life and others delivers dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar, often presenting characters who must confront sudden change—the inevitable rise of automations or the appearance of aliens—while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy.
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – In the Republic of Gilead, a Handmaid named Offred lives in the home of the Commander, to the purpose that she become pregnant with his child. Stripped of her most basic freedoms, (work, property, her own name), Offred remembers a different time, not so long ago, when she was valuable for more than her viable ovaries, when she was mother to a daughter she could keep, and when she and her husband lived and loved as equals. (This has also been adapted into a graphic novel by Renee Nault.)
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne reports that his wife, Amy, has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick’s portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question. Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?
- Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman – The sudden and powerful attraction between a teenage boy and a summer guest at his parents’ house on the Italian Riviera has a profound and lasting influence that will mark them both for a lifetime.
- Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem – Lionel Essrog has always respected Frank Minna, who helped him out when he was young, and when Frank is found dead, Lionel and his friends, the Minna Men, scour the streets of Brooklyn in search of the killer.
- The Sun is also a Star by Nicola Yoon – Natasha, whose family is hours away from being deported, and Daniel, a first generation Korean American who strives to live up to his parents’ expectations, unexpectedly fall in love and must determine which path they will choose in order to be together.