books to movie

From Page to Screen: Spring Releases

MelindaLeave a comment

Spring has sprung, which means it’s time for another round of upcoming book to film adaptations. Literary adaptations are hitting the streaming services and theaters again!

The season is starting off with the NYT bestseller Daisy Jones & The Six, but thrills and romantic moments abound as the months go on. Whether you’re a member of “The Book Was Better” club or enjoy the film version, there is something for everyone. If you want to compare and contrast or just love a good spoiler, pick up the book to read before you start watching!

March

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now. Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ‘n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Coming to Prime Video on March 3.

The Power by Naomi Alderman

The world is a recognizable place: there’s a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power: they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets.

Coming to Prime Video on March 31.

April

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers–Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother. As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a US marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity–and why he really disappeared.

Coming to Apple TV+ on April 14.

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling by Henry Fielding

Both a picaresque and Bildungsroman, The History of Tom Jones follows the life of its hero from his discovery as a foundling on the property of Squire Allworthy in England’s West Country to his banishment from the estate and subsequent journey to London to escape an arranged marriage. Tom’s many dalliances and misadventures throughout add to the charm of this bawdy romantic comedy. The famous characters -Squire Western, the chaplain Thwackum, the scheming Blifil, seductive Molly Seagrim, and Sophia, Tom’s true love–have come to represent Augustan society in all its loquacious, turbulent, comic variety.

Coming to PBS on April 30.

May

Text for You by Sofie Cramer

After a heated argument, Clara’s fiance stormed out of their apartment, but before they have a chance to reconcile, he died in a tragic accident. It has been two years, but she’s still paralyzed with grief, and her friends are worried about her. So, to try to say what was left unsaid, she starts texting his old phone. What she doesn’t realize is that the number has been reassigned. Across town, Sven’s phone begins receiving mysterious but heartfelt text messages. He doesn’t respond, but he is captivated by the sender. His own relationship has been on the rocks, and when it ends he sets out to find the person who has been texting him. Neither Sven nor Clara knew what they were setting out to find, but it would change both of their lives forever.

Coming to theaters on May 12 titled as Love Again.

City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg

New York City, 1976. Meet Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, estranged heirs to one of the city’s great fortunes; Keith and Mercer, the men who, for better or worse, love them; Charlie and Samantha, two suburban teenagers seduced by downtown’s punk scene; an obsessive magazine reporter and his idealistic neighbor–and the detective trying to figure out what any of them have to do with a shooting in Central Park on New Year’s Eve.

Coming to Apple TV+ on May 12.

-Melinda

From Page to Screen: Winter Releases

MelindaLeave a comment

Time for another round of upcoming book to film adaptations. Whether you’re looking for shows involving witches, time travel, or murder, you may find a new favorite show to binge watch this winter. If you want to compare and contrast or just love a good spoiler, pick up the book to read before you start watching!

December

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present.

Coming to Hulu on December 13

The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet’s body swinging from a rope. The next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has removed the dead man’s heart. Augustus Landor–who acquired some renown in his years as a New York City police detective–is called in to discreetly investigate. It’s a baffling case Landor must pursue in secret, for the scandal could do irreparable damage to the fledgling institution. But he finds help from an unexpected ally–a moody, young cadet with a penchant for drink, two volumes of poetry to his name, and a murky past that changes from telling to telling. 

Coming to Netflix on December 23

January

Will Trent

Based on the Will Trent series by Karin Slaughter, Book 1 is Triptych

In the city of Atlanta, young women are dying—at the hands of a killer who signs his work with a single, chilling act of mutilation. Leaving behind enough evidence to fuel a frenzied police hunt, this cunning madman is bringing together dozens of lives, crossing the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries too. Among them is Michael Ormewood, a veteran detective whose marriage is hanging by a thread—and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career. And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael’s lover before she became his enemy.

Coming to ABC on January 3

Mayfair Witches

Based on the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series by Anne Rice, Book 1 is The Witching Hour

On the veranda of a great New Orleans house, now faded, a mute and fragile woman sits rocking . . . and The Witching Hour begins. It begins in our time with a rescue at sea.  Rowan Mayfair, a beautiful woman, a brilliant practitioner of neurosurgery–aware that she has special powers but unaware that she comes from an ancient line of witches–finds the drowned body of a man off the coast of California and brings him to life.  He is Michael Curry, who was born in New Orleans and orphaned in childhood by fire on Christmas Eve, who pulled himself up from poverty, and who now, in his brief interval of death, has acquired a sensory power that mystifies and frightens him.

Coming to AMC and AMC+ on January 8

February

Not Dead Yet

Based on Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up by Alexandra Potter

When her business goes bust and her fiancé with it, Nell’s happy ever after in California falls apart and she moves back to London to start over. But a lot has changed since she’s been gone. All her single friends are now married with children, sky-high rents force her to rent a room in a stranger’s house and in a world of perfect Instagram lives, she feels like a f**k up. Even worse, a forty-something f**k up.

Coming to ABC on February 8

You Season 4

Based on the You series by Caroline Kepnes

There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight–the perfect place for a “chance” meeting. As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way–even if it means murder.

Coming to Netflix on February 9

-Melinda