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Introduction

From Page to Screen 5

November 2019


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

Before I Fall

After she dies in a car crash, teenage Samantha relives the day of her death over and over again until, on the seventh day, she finally discovers a way to save herself.

Big Little Lies

The apparently perfect lives of three mothers of first graders unravel to the point of murder.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

A razor-sharp satire set in Texas during America's war in Iraq, it explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad and follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive "Victory Tour" at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.

The Bone Collector

A brilliant NYPD detective left paraplegic by an on-the-job accident agrees to help to solve a string of murders. He in turn recruits a new partner to serve as an extension of himself for investigating crime scenes.

The Circle

When Mae is hired to work for the world's largest and most powerful tech and social media company, she sees it as an opportunity. As she rises through the ranks, she is encouraged by the company's founder, Eamon Bailey, to engage in a groundbreaking experiment that pushes the boundaries of privacy, ethics and ultimately her personal freedom. Her participation in the experiment, and every decision she makes begin to affect the lives and future of her friends, family and that of humanity.

The Constant Gardener

A diplomat on the hunt for his wife's murderer uncovers a treacherous conspiracy that will destroy millions of innocent people -- unless he can reveal its sinister roots.

Eat Pray Love

A happily married woman who is trying to get pregnant realizes that her life needs to go in a new direction. After a very painful divorce, she risks everything and embarks on a journey around the world that becomes a quest for self-discovery.

Fallen

A young girl finds herself in a reform school after therapy since she was blamed for the death of a young boy. At the school she finds herself drawn to a fellow student, unaware that he is an angel, and has loved her for thousands of years.

The Girl on the Train

Rachel is unemployed and devastated by a recent divorce. She fills her time with drinking, riding the commuter train, and fantasizing about a seemingly perfect couple the train passes by every day. Then one morning, Rachel sees something shocking that unravels her and entangles her in an unfolding mystery.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found and her beloved uncle is convinced she was murdered and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced investigative journalist Mickael Blomkvist and the tattooed and troubled yet resourceful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate.

...with two movie versions!

The Girl who Played with Fire

Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. A researcher and a Millennium journalist about to expose the truth about the sex trade in Sweden are brutally murdered, and Salander's prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and violent behavior makes her an official danger to society. Digging deeper, Blomkvist unearths evidence implicating highly placed members of Swedish society, as well as shocking detailsabout Salander's past.

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The final installment of Stieg Larsson's 'Millennium' trilogy. Lisbeth Salander is fighting for her life in more ways than one. In an intensive care unit and charged with three murders, she will have to not only prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce the same corrupt government institutions that nearly destroyed her life. Once upon a time, she was a victim. Now, Lisbeth Salander is fighting back.

The Great Gilly Hopkins

Gilly Hopkins has seen more than her share of foster homes and has outwitted every family she has lived with. In an effort to escape her new foster mother Maime Trotter's endless loving care, Gilly concocts a plan that she believes will bring her mother running to her rescue. But when the ploy blows up in Gilly's face it threatens to ruin the only chance she's ever had to be part of a real family.

The Haunting of Hill House

The four visitors at Hill House-- some there for knowledge, others for adventure-- are unaware that the old mansion will soon choose one of them to make its own. The films The Haunting (1999) and The Haunting (2003) are also based on this book.

...and

(The Haunting)

Hearts in Atlantis

Five interconnected, sequential tales set in the years between 1960 and 1999 center around the Vietnam War and weave together innocence, experience, truth, deceit, loss, and recovery.

A Hologram for the King

In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter's college tuition, and finally do something great.

The Human Stain

Coleman Silk, a respected professor at a New England college suddenly finds his life unraveling after a comment he makes about some African-American students is misinterpreted as a racial slur. As the scandal heats up, Nathan Zuckerman, a writer researching a biography of Silk, begins to dig deeper and deeper into Silk's life. Eventually, matters are made worse when an affair with a young married janitor named Faunia Farley is exposed. But amid the controversy, Silk must struggle to keep his greatest secret, a secret he's held for the majority of his life, from becoming public.

The Hunt for Red October

Soviet submarine commander Marko Ramius sets the plot in motion when he murders his political adviser, burns his orders, and steers his sub Red October towards American waters, hoping to defect. The CIA, aware that the Red October was about to embark on an evasive mission to demonstrate its ability to avoid detection and fire its nuclear missiles upon U.S. installations, believes that Ramius is insane, and that he plans to start World War III. To cover their own behinds, the Russians back up the CIA's suspicion. Only Jack Ryan believes that Ramius' mission is not as apocalyptic as it seems -- and it is Ryan who is assigned to infiltrate the Red October to prove his theory.

Inferno

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology, Robert Langdon, is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history's most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces... Dante's Inferno. Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante's dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust... before the world is irrevocably altered.

Into the Wild

A nonfiction account of the post-collegiate wanderings of a young Virginia man, who divorces himself from his friends, family, and possessions in search of a greater spiritual knowledge and communion with nature.

Into Thin Air

Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest. Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people -- including himself -- to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.

Jurassic Park

 

Jurassic Park

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam Jurassic Park, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goes wrong...and science proves a dangerous toy...

The Lost World

It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end--the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public.  There are rumors that something has survived...

Kiss the Girls

After his niece is abducted, forensic psychologist Alex Cross joins the hunt for a lunatic whose collection is young girls. When a young doctor escapes his dungeon, she helps Cross track him down.

The Little Drummer Girl

A pro-Palestinian actress gets recruited to impersonate an Israeli agent and gets caught in the world of terrorists.

The Lost City of Z

The incredible true story of British explorer Percy Fawcett, who journeys into the Amazon at the dawn of the twentieth century and discovers evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization that may have once inhabited the region.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Jacob discovers clues to a mystery and stumbles upon Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. However the mystery is deeper than he had thought, as he gets to know the residents and learn about their special powers. Jacob discovers that only his own special peculiarity can save his new friends.

A Monster Calls

Conor, dealing with his mother's illness, a less-than-sympathetic grandmother, and bullying classmates, finds a most unlikely ally when a monster appears at his bedroom window. Ancient, wild, and relentless, the monster guides Conor on a journey of courage, faith, and truth.

A Most Wanted Man

German intelligence agent Gunther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman, in his final starring role) must race against time to solve a perilous mystery: Is the half-Chechen, half-Russian Muslim who's surfaced in Hamburg a victim seeking refuge, or a terrorist seeking revenge?

A Murder of Quality

A woman writes to Alisa, predicting her own murder and naming her husband as the killer. When the woman is found dead, it is up to Alisa to discredit the husband's unbreakable alibi.

Murder on the Orient Express

While en route from Syria to Paris, in the middle of a freezing winter's night, the Orient Express is stopped dead in its tracks by a snowdrift. Passengers awake to find the train still stranded and to discover that a wealthy American has been brutally stabbed to death in his private compartment. Incredibly, that compartment is locked from the inside. With no escape into the wintry landscape the killer must still be on board. Fortunately, the brilliant Belgian inspector Hercule Poirot is also on board, having booked the last available berth.

Never Go Back

Former military cop Jack Reacher makes it all the way from snowbound South Dakota to his destination in northeastern Virginia, near Washington, D.C.: the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. The old stone building is the closest thing to a home he ever had. Reacher is there to meet--in person--the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner, so far just a warm, intriguing voice on the phone. But it isn't Turner behind the CO's desk. And Reacher is hit with two pieces of shocking news, one with serious criminal consequences, and one too personal to even think about. When threatened, you can run or fight. Reacher fights, aiming to find Turner and clear his name, barely a step ahead of the army, and the FBI, and the D.C. Metro police, and four unidentified thugs.

The Night Manager

Jonathan Pine is working as the night manager of a Cairo hotel. He gets involved with a local woman who is the girlfriend of a local gangster. Through her relationship with the gangster she has acquired information linking illegal international arms sales with an English billionaire.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

A free-spirited mental ward inmate's rebelliousness pits him against the repressive head nurse, and his charm wins him the loyalty of his fellow inmates.

Our Kind of Traitor

While on vacation, a married couple unwittingly befriends a flamboyant and charismatic Russian named Dima, who, unbeknownst to them, is a kingpin money launderer for the mafia. When Dima confides to his new friends that he plans to escape from the mob, they're quickly swept into the dangerous world of international espionage. The unlikely companions must undertake a perilous journey through Paris, Bern, and London in order to save Dima and his family.

A Perfect Spy

Over the course of his seemingly irreproachable life, Magnus Pym has been all things to all people: a devoted family man, a trusted colleague, a loyal friend--and the perfect spy. But in the wake of his estranged father's death, Magnus vanishes, and the British Secret Service is up in arms. Is it grief, or is the reason for his disappearance more sinister? And who is the mysterious man with the sad moustache who also seems to be looking for Magnus?

The Princess Bride

As Florin and Guilder teeter on the verge of war, the reluctant Princess Buttercup is devastated by the loss of her true love, kidnapped by a mercenary and his henchman, rescued by a pirate, forced to marry Prince Humperdinck, and rescued once again by the very crew who absconded with her in the first place. In the course of this dazzling adventure, she'll meet Vizzini--the criminal philosopher who'll do anything for a bag of gold; Fezzik--the gentle giant; Inigo--the Spaniard whose steel thirsts for revenge; and Count Rugen--the evil mastermind behind it all. Foiling all their plans and jumping into their stories is Westley, Princess Buttercup's one true love and a very good friend of a very dangerous pirate.

The Princess Diaries

Fourteen-year-old Mia, who is trying to lead a normal life as a teenage girl in New York City, is shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she is a princess and the heir to the throne.

The Russia House

In Moscow, a sheaf of military secrets changes hands. If it arrives at its destination, and if its import is understood, the consequences could be cataclysmic. Along the way it has an explosive impact on the lives of three people: a Soviet physicist burdened with secrets; a beautiful young Russian woman to whom the papers are entrusted; and Barley Blair, a bewildered English publisher pressed into service by British Intelligence to ferret out the document's source. As the Iron Curtain begins to rust and crumble, Blair is left to sound a battle cry that may fall on deaf ears.

The Shining

Jack Torrance makes a fresh start with a new job at the Overlook Hotel, but as the harsh winter sets in, the idyllic location begins to feel more sinister. The only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

Smiley's People

In London at dead of night, George Smiley, sometime acting Chief of the Circus (aka the British Secret Service), is summoned from his lonely bed by news of the murder of an ex-agent. Lured back to active service, Smiley skillfully maneuvers his people -- "the no-men of no-man's land" -- into crisscrossing Paris, London, Germany, and Switzerland as he prepares for his own final, inevitable duel on the Berlin border with his Soviet counterpart and archenemy, Karla.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Secret agent Alec Leamas is on a dangerous mission in East Berlin, but he has doubts about the organization he serves.

The Tailor of Panama

Harry Pendel, a tailor in Panama City who can claim politicians, presidents, crooks, and conmen among his customers, becomes an unlikely spy for British intelligence.

The Taliban Shuffle (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot)

A wisecracking foreign correspondent recounts her experiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan while sharing cautionary observations about the region in its first post-Taliban years and the responsibilities of the U.S. and NATO. The film Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is based on this book.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

British agent George Smiley hunts for a mole in the Secret Service and begins his epic game of international chess with his Soviet counterpart, an agent named Karla.

 

...with two movie versions!

Twilight Saga

 

Twilight

When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.

New Moon

When the Cullens, including her beloved Edward, leave Forks rather than risk revealing that they are vampires, it is almost too much for eighteen-year-old Bella to bear, but she finds solace in her friend Jacob until he is drawn into a "cult" and changes in terrible ways.

Eclipse

Bella must choose between her friendship with Jacob, a werewolf, and her relationship with Edward, a vampire, but when Seattle is ravaged by a mysterious string of killings, the three of them need to decide whether their personal lives are more important than the well-being of an entire city.

Breaking Dawn

Having made her choice between living a fully human life or joining the world of immortals to be with her beloved Edward, Bella finds her future threatened by a series of events with potentially disastrous consequences.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

A king and some unexpected companions embark on a voyage that will take them beyond all known lands. As they sail farther and farther from charted waters, they discover that their quest is more than they imagined and that the world's end is only the beginning.

World War Z

We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand "World War Z" is the only record of the "apocalyptic" years. The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity.

List Created By

Margaret Rose O'Keefe

Cataloging & Collection Development Librarian, BCCLS

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