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Introduction

From Page to Screen 4

October 2018


Books that made it to the movies! Is the book always better? You decide. If you loved the book, check out how Hollywood brought it to the big screen.

Recommended Titles

Alan Turing: the Enigma (The Imitation Game)

The story of Alan Turing, the revolutionary inventor of computer science. The film The Imitation Game is based on this book.

American Sniper

The astonishing autobiography of SEAL Chief Chris Kyle, whose record 150 confirmed kills make him the most deadly sniper in U.S. military history.

Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina seems to have everything. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike and soon brings jealously and bitterness in its wake. Contrasting with this tale of love and self-destruction is the vividly observed story of Levin, a man striving to find contentment and a meaning to his life.

Beautiful Creatures

In a small South Carolina town, where it seems little has changed since the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Ethan is powerfully drawn to Lena, a new classmate with whom he shares a psychic connection and whose family hides a dark secret that may be revealed on her sixteenth birthday.

Black Mass

The chilling true story of what happened between FBI agent John Connolly and Irish mobster James "Whitey" Bulger; a dark deal that spiraled out of control, leading to drug dealing, racketeering, and murder.

Brooklyn

A hauntingly compelling novel set in Brooklyn and Ireland in the early 1950s about a young woman torn between her family in Ireland and the American who wins her heart.   

Child 44

A propulsive, relentless page-turner, a terrifying evocation of a paranoid world where no one can be trusted, and a surprising, unexpected story of love and family, of hope and resilience.

City of Bones

Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizarre world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster.

The Danish Girl

Inspired by the true story of Danish painter Einar Wegener and his California-born wife, it starts with a question: a simple favor asked of a husband by his wife on an afternoon chilled by the Baltic wind while both are painting in their studio. Her portrait model has cancelled. Would he slip into a pair of women's shoes and stockings for a few moments so she can finish the painting on time? With that, one of the most passionate and unusual love stories of the twentieth century begins.

Dark Places

Libby Day was only seven years old when her mother and two sisters were murdered and her brother Ben was jailed for the crime. Now, twenty-five years later, Libby discovers shocking evidence that Ben may be innocent, and the real killer still at large.

Divergent Trilogy

 

Divergent

In a future Chicago, Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she does not fit into any one group.

Insurgent

As war surges in the dystopian society around her, sixteen-year-old Divergent Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Allegiant

Told from a riveting dual perspective, this third installment in the series follows Tris and Tobias as they battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and their selves—while facing impossible choices of courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

Every Secret Thing

A powerful, disturbing, and riveting story of love and murder, guilt and innocence, adult sins and childhood darkness.

Far From the Madding Crowd 

A passionate tale of the beautiful, headstrong farmer Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors: a sheep farmer; a dashing soldier; and a prosperous, older bachelor.

Fifty Shades Trilogy

 

Fifty Shades of Grey

When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind--until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time.

Fifty Shades Darker

After a brief break-up, Anastasia and Christian change their arrangement and both wrestle with their inner demons, as Anastasia tries to make an important decision.

Fifty Shades Freed

Even though Christian and Anastasia are now a proper couple, they still have many obstacles to overcome, including Christian's past coming back to haunt Anastasia.

The Golden Compass

A young girl embarks on a perilous journey to rescue her best friend and fight the forces of darkness.

Gone Girl

On the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick's wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they aren't his. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?

The Great Gatsby

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing, and debating his mysterious character. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

 

The Hunger Games

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.

Catching Fire

By winning the annual Hunger Games, District 12 tributes Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have secured a life of safety and plenty for themselves and their families, but because they won by defying the rules, they unwittingly become the faces of an impending rebellion.

Mockingjay

With the games destroyed and Peeta captured, Katniss becomes the symbol of rebellion while trying to rescue Peeta from the capitol.

Inherent Vice

Private eye Doc Sportello's ex-old lady shows up with a story about her current billionaire land developer boyfriend whom she just happens to be in love with, and a plot by his wife and her boyfriend to kidnap that billionaire and throw him in a loony bin.

Inkheart

After a man with the power to bring books to life by reading out loud finds himself trapped in a story with his daughter, he must use his power to get them out of danger.

The Last Apprentice Series (Seventh Son)

Young Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son, starts work as an apprentice for the village spook, whose job is to protect ordinary folk from "ghouls, boggarts, and all manner of wicked beasties." The film Seventh Son is based on this series.

Left for Dead (Everest)

A survivor of the doomed 1996 Everest expedition recalls the daring rescue that brought him home alive and his subsequent physical and psychological recovery. The film Everest is based on this book.

The Longest Ride

An elderly man's dead wife helps him remain alert after a car crash by recounting the stories of their lifetime together. And a few miles away, a college woman is falling in love with a young cowboy. The lives of these two disparate couples will converge with unexpected poignancy. A remarkable story of four people whose parallel love stories intersect in profound and surprising ways.

Madame Bovary

Emma Bovary, a doctor's wife, seeks to escape her dull life through having extra-marital affairs. Little does she know that her search for the glamour and romance which her provincial life cannot afford will ultimately lead to her personal corruption and downfall.

The Martian

Mark Watney was nearly killed by a dust storm on Mars and was abandoned by his crew who thought him dead. Now he's all alone with no way of letting Earth know he's alive, which doesn't matter because his supplies would run out before they'd get there. Either way, the environment or human error will likely kill him first. Not giving in, Mark works to survive, battling obstacle after obstacle, but will it be enough?

The Maze Runner Series

 

The Maze Runner

Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

The Scorch Trials

After surviving horrific conditions in the Maze, Thomas is entrapped, along with nineteen other boys, in a scientific experiment designed to observe their responses and gather data believed to be essential for the survival of the human race.

The Death Cure

As the third Trial draws to a close, Thomas and some of his cohorts manage to escape from WICKED, their memories having been restored, only to face new dangers as WICKED claims to be trying to protect the human race from the deadly FLARE virus.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.

Odd Thomas

Odd Thomas is a short-order cook in a small desert town and also the reluctant confidant of dead people. The dead can communicate with Odd Thomas, which makes his life a little complicated. But when a stranger surrounded by evil comes to town, everything gets much, much worse.

Paper Towns

One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.

The Price of Salt (Carol)

Trapped in a boring, dead-end day job in a department store, stage designer Therese Belivet finds her life forever changed when she encounters--and falls in love with--Carol Aird, an alluring suburban housewife in the midst of a divorce. The film Carol is based on this novel.

Prince Caspian

Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie help Prince Caspian and his army of Talking Beasts to free Narnia from evil.

The Revenant

In this story of survival, Hugh Glass is an expert trapper and frontiersman. After being viciously mauled by a massive grizzly bear and abandoned and left for dead by his fellow trappers, Hugh is pushed to survive by one thing --revenge.

Room

Held captive for years in a small shed, a woman and her precocious young son finally gain their freedom, and the boy experiences the outside world for the first time.

The Secret in Their Eyes

Benjamín Chaparro is a retired detective still obsessed by the brutal, decades-old rape and murder of a young married woman in her own bedroom. While attempting to write a book about the case, he revisits the details of the investigation. As he reaches into the past, Chaparro also recalls the beginning of his long, unrequited love for Irene Hornos, then just an intern, now a respected judge. The film Secret in Their Eyes is a remake of the 2009 Argentine film that was based on the novel El secreto de sus Ojos, which this book is a translation of.

Serena

Traveling to the mountains of 1929 North Carolina to forge a timber business with her new husband, Serena Pemberton champions her mastery of harsh natural and working conditions but turns murderous when she learns she cannot bear children.

Still Alice

Feeling at the top of her game when she is suddenly diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease, Harvard psychologist Alice Howland struggles to find meaning and purpose in her life as her concept of self gradually slips away.

Strangers on a Bridge (Bridge of Spies)

On February 10, 1962, James B. Donovan, the lead prosecutor in the Nuremburg Trials, walked toward the center of the Glienicke Bridge, the famous “Bridge of Spies”. With him, in chains, was Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, the chief of Soviet espionage in the United States. Approaching them from the other side, also heavily guarded, was Francis Gary Powers, the American U-2 spy plane pilot famously shot down by the Soviets. These were the strangers on a bridge, whose exchange Donovan negotiated, and whose story he recounts in this memoir. The film Bridge of Spies is based on this book.

True Story

Follows the experiences of a journalist who, after fabricating part of a story and losing his job, was mistaken for a murderer and fled to Cancun, where he lived under an assumed identity and forged a complex relationship with the real killer.

War and Peace

Pierre Bezukhov is the illegitimate son of a count, who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky leaves behind his family to fight in the war against Napoleon, and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman, intrigues both men. As Napoleon's army invades, peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers, all struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture.

Where Rainbows End (Love, Rosie)

Rosie and Alex are destined for each other, and everyone seems to know it but them. Best friends since childhood, they are separated as teenagers when Alex and his family relocate from Dublin to Boston. Rosie and Alex stay friends, and though years pass, the two remain firmly attached via emails and letters. Heartbroken, they learn to live without each other. But destiny is a funny thing, and Rosie and Alex learn that fate isn't quite done with them yet. The film Love, Rosie is based on this novel.

Wild

A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.

Wuthering Heights

The all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff results in an unresolved passion that eventually destroys them and the people around them.

Z for Zachariah

Seemingly the only person left alive after a nuclear war, a sixteen-year-old girl is relieved to see a man arrive into her valley until she realizes that he is a tyrant and she must somehow escape.

List Created By

Amanda Griffin

Head of Circulation, Carlstadt's William E. Dermody Free Public Library

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