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From Page to Screen: 12 Must-Read Books Before Watching the Screen Adaptation


3 men holding a movie camera on a street surrounded with buildings and vehicles

From the popular It Ends With Us to the upcoming season of The Umbrella Academy, there are several adaptations from books to screen that will be released soon. Check out these 12 adaptations and find out how you can grab the book version before catching the adaptation on the big screen! It's safe to assume that "The Book Was Better."



 

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson



Book cover for A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson that features red string and push pins on a background of grid paper

Everyone in Fairview knows the story.


Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.


But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?


Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.


In August, the book "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" featuring Emma Myers, Zain Iqbal, and Asha Backs will go from page to screen in a Netflix series.



 

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson


Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson book cover with a cartoon young boy in a blue onesie drawing with a purple crayon

In this children's book, Harold decides to go for a walk one evening and as he goes he fills in the scene using his purple crayon. Adventure goes hand in hand with imagination to create this charming classic story.



Going from page to screen, Harold and the Purple Crayon, starring Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, and Jemaine Clement, comes to theaters in August.





 

The Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba


The Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba featuring a drawing of a woman playing the violin

In an inexplicable worldwide event, forty-seven extraordinary children were spontaneously born to women who'd previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of the children; when asked why, his only explanation was, "To save the world."


These seven children form the Umbrella Academy, a dysfunctional family of superheroes with bizarre powers. Their first adventure at the age of ten pits them against an erratic and deadly Eiffel Tower, piloted by the fearsome zombie-robot Gustave Eiffel. Nearly a decade later, the team disbands, but when Hargreeves unexpectedly dies, these disgruntled siblings reunite just in time to save the world once again.


In August, Netflix will premiere Season 4 of The Umbrella Academy, featuring Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, and David Castaneda in this page to screen adaptation.



 

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover



It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover book cover featuring a bouquet of crushed pink flowers

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.


Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.


Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.


As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.


It Ends With Us, featuring Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, and Jenny Slate, will be shown in cinemas in August, transitioning from the page to the screen.



 

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen


Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen book cover with a cartoon monkey with his mouth open wearing a pirate hat

Andrew Yancy--late of the Miami Police, soon-to-be-late of the Key West Police--has a human arm in his freezer. There's a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, his commander might relieve him of Health Inspector duties, aka Roach Patrol. But first Yancy will negotiate an ever-surprising course of events--from the Keys to Miami to a Bahamian out island--with a crew of equally ever-surprising characters, including: the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; an avariciously idiotic real estate developer; a voodoo witch whose lovers are blinded-unto-death by her particularly peculiar charms; Yancy's new love, a kinky medical examiner; and the eponymous Bad Monkey, who earns his place among Hiaasen's greatest characters with hilariously wicked aplomb. 


The page to screen adaptation of Bad Monkey, starring Vince Vaughn, Michelle Monaghan, and Jodie Turner-Smith premieres on Apple TV+ in August.



 

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs



The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs book cover featuring a young black man on the front porch of his apartment with his packed bags

What does the untimely death of one man mean?


Robert Peace was born outside Newark in a ghetto known as "Illtown." His unwed mother worked long hours in a kitchen. His charismatic father was later convicted of a double murder. Peace's intellectual brilliance and hard-won determination earned him a full scholarship to Yale University. At college, while majoring in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, he straddled the world of academia and the world of the street, never revealing his full self in either place. Upon graduation from Yale, he went home to teach at the Catholic high school he'd attended, slid into the drug trade, and was brutally murdered at age thirty.


That's the short version of Robert Peace's life. The long version, the complete version, is this remarkable tour de force by Jeff Hobbs, a talented young novelist who was Peace's college roommate. Hobbs attended Peace's funeral, reached out to his friends from both Yale and Newark, and ultimately decided to write this harrowing and beautiful account of his life.


What does the haunting, untimely death of one man mean? Robert Peace's life doesn't reduce to easy sociological constructions. Through Hobbs's relentless research and remarkable writing, we learn the cost of living between the world Peace was born into and the one his potential allowed him to enter. We see him work, love, fail, succeed, give to others, care for his mother, travel, and dream. We witness the decisions he made for himself and the ones that life forced upon him. But most importantly, we come to understand the sheer complexity of his existence and are irrevocably changed by the fascinating, devastating, and unforgettable life of Robert Peace.


Rob Peace, featuring Jay Will, Mary J. Blige, and Chiwetel Ejiofo, is set to premiere as a page to screen adaptation in August.



 

The Crow by James O'Barr



The Crow by J. O'barr book cover featuring a man dressed in black with a white face standing in front of train wheels

Eric has returned from the dead, driven only by hate and the need to wreak revenge on those who killed him and raped and then killed his beloved Shelly.


The Crow, starring Bill Skarsgard, FKA Twigs, and Danny Huston, is set for release in August as page to screen adaptation.





 

The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat by Edward Kelsey Moore



The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat by Edward Kelsey Moore book cover featuring a diner ticket with the lit up exterior storefront of a diner in the background

Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat diner in Plainview, Indiana is home away from home for Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean. Dubbed "The Supremes" by high school pals in the tumultuous 1960s, they’ve weathered life’s storms for over four decades and counseled one another through marriage and children, happiness and the blues.


Now, however, they’re about to face their most challenging year yet. Proud, talented Clarice is struggling to keep up appearances as she deals with her husband’s humiliating infidelities; beautiful Barbara Jean is rocked by the tragic reverberations of a youthful love affair; and fearless Odette is about to embark on the most terrifying battle of her life. With wit, style and sublime talent, Edward Kelsey Moore brings together three devoted allies in a warmhearted novel that celebrates female friendship and second chances.


Streaming on Hulu in August as another page to screen adaptation is The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, featuring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Sanaa Lathan, and Uzo Aduba.



 

Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien



Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien book cover featuring a drawing of Middle-Earth with a dragon in the front

The fascinating collection of stories, which continues the tales of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and contains an alternative version of The Children of Hurin.

Unfinished Tales is a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth to the end of the War of the Ring, and provides those who have read The Lord of the Rings with a whole collection of background and new stories from the twentieth century’s most acclaimed popular author.


The book concentrates on the realm of Middle-earth and comprises such elements as Gandalf’s lively account of how it was that he came to send the Dwarves to the celebrated party at Bag-End, the emergence of the sea-god Ulmo before the eyes of Tuor on the coast of Beleriand, and an exact description of the military organization of the Riders of Rohan.


Unfinished Tales also contains the only story about the long ages of Numenor before its downfall, and all that is known about such matters as the Five Wizards, the Palantiri and the legend of Amroth. The tales were collated and edited by JRR Tolkien’s son and literary heir, Christopher Tolkien, who provides a short commentary on each story, helping the reader to fill in the gaps and put each story into the context of the rest of his father’s writings.


The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, featuring Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, and Owain Arthur, will be available for streaming on Prime Video in August, transitioning from the page to the screen.



 

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

by Gregory Maguire



Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire book cover featuring a green witch dressed in a black cape and hat with a frame created out of bare trees

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?


Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.


Wicked, featuring Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and Michelle Yeoh, will be released in theaters in November as it transitions from page to screen.



 

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld



Uglies by Scott Westerfeld book cover featuring half a woman's face covered in a green scarf

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. In just a few weeks she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty. And as a pretty, she'll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.


But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world—and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally's choice will change her world forever....


Uglies is set to arrive on Netflix in September, transitioning from book to screen and featuring Joey King and Laverne Cox. 



 

The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand


The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand book cover featuring a yellow beach umbrella with two peoples' feet sticking out into the sand along the ocean's edge

It's Nantucket wedding season, also known as summer-the sight of a bride racing down Main Street is as common as the sun setting at Madaket Beach. The Otis-Winbury wedding promises to be an event to remember: the groom's wealthy parents have spared no expense to host a lavish ceremony at their oceanfront estate.


But it's going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes: a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony-and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, the groom's famous mystery-novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield-and no couple is perfect. Featuring beloved characters from The Castaways, Beautiful Day, and A Summer Affair, The Perfect Couple proves once again that Elin Hilderbrand is the queen of the summer beach read.


A page to screen adaptation as a limited series featuring Dakota Fanning and Nicole Kidman is set to arrive on Netflix in September.





Happy reading library friends and remember...

almost always, the book was better!



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