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BookBrowse Free Newsletter 09/15/2016

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Feel a movie can never do justice to a book? Or do you wait expectantly for your favorite books to be interpreted on the big screen? Whichever camp you belong to, it's always good to be in the know. With that in mind here are ten books to brush up on before the movies release this fall, and more than twenty others to keep an eye out for in 2017 and beyond.

Your editor,
Davina
Fall Books into Movies: Releasing Soon

The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen

A psychologist begins working with a young boy who has suffered a near-fatal fall, and finds himself drawn into a mystery that tests the boundaries of fantasy and reality. Releases Sept 2.
 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs

When Jacob discovers clues to a mystery that spans different worlds and times, he finds Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. But the mystery and danger deepen as he gets to know the residents and learns about their special powers. Directed by Tim Burton. Releases Sept 13.
 

A Man Called Ove
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Released in Sweden in late 2015, A Man Called Ove (originally titled En man som heter Ove) tells the story of Ove, an ill-tempered, isolated retiree who spends his days enforcing block association rules and visiting his wife's grave. Ove (rhymes with hoover) has finally given up on life just as an unlikely friendship develops with his boisterous new neighbors. Releases Sept 30.


The Queen of Katwe
The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster by Tim Crothers

The astonishing true story of Phiona Mutesi, a teenager from the slums of Kampala, Uganda, who becomes an international chess champion, based on the 2012 nonfiction book of the same name by Tim Crothers. Releases Sept 30.


The Girl on the Train
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The blockbuster first novel by Paula Hawkins will soon be one of the season's most talked about movies. Rachel takes the same train every day. Every day the train stops at the same spot overlooking a row of back gardens. She starts to feel she knows the residents of one of the houses, and their lives seem perfect, until something shocking happens. The train moves on but everything's changed. Releases Oct 7.


A Monster Calls
A Monster Calls by Siobhan Dowd and Patrick Ness

A boy seeks the help of a tree monster to cope with his single mom's terminal illness in this unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor. Releases Oct 21.
 
Inferno
Inferno: A Robert Langdon Novel by Dan Brown

When Robert Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Dr. Sienna Brooks, and together they race across Europe against the clock to foil a deadly global plot. This is the third Robert Langdon movie based on Dan Brown's fourth Robert Langdon book. If you enjoyed the first two films, this will be for you. Releases Oct 28.


Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
by J.K. Rowling

The adventures of writer Newt Scamander in New York's secret community of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts. The book behind this movie is not a novel but the textbook that Harry Potter and friends study at Hogwarts. In 2001, J.K. Rowling brought it to life in a 128 page small format book with 80% of the cover price of each book donated to Comic Relief. Sales from this, and the companion volume, Quidditch Through the Ages, had raised over £17 million as of 2009. Releases Nov 18.


Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

19-year-old Billy Lynn is brought home for a victory tour after a harrowing skirmish in Iraq. Through flashbacks the film shows what really happened to his squad - contrasting the realities of war with America's perceptions. Based on the novel by Ben Fountain that has been widely compared to Catch-22. Releases Nov 11.
 
A Long Way Home
A Long Way Home: A Memoir by Saroo Brierley

Movie titled: Saroo

A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family. Based on Saroo Brierly's 2014 memoir, the movie title was originally anounced as Lion, but now appears to be releasing as Saroo. Don't forget the Kleenex! Releases Nov 25.

Recently Released

The Light Between Oceans
The Light Between Oceans by Margot L. Stedman

Paperback Apr 2013. 384 pages. Published by Scribner

A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from an adrift rowboat. Released in the US on Sept 2, 2016.
More about this book


Movies Coming in 2017

Live by Night
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane

Starring Ben Affleck, this movie is also written and directed by him. Set in the Prohibition era, this is a riveting epic, based on Lehane's novel of the same name. The plot is layered with a diverse cast of loyal friends and callous enemies, tough rumrunners and sultry femmes fatales, Bible-quoting evangelists and cruel Klansmen, all battling for survival and their piece of the American dream. Releases Jan 13, 2017


The Zookeeper's Wife
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
by Diane Ackerman


The Zookeeper's Wife based on the true story of the same name by Diane Ackerman accounts the true tales of the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who saved hundreds of people during the Nazi occupation by hiding them in the animals' cages. Active in the Polish resistance, they also kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Releases March 31, 2017


A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time: Book 1 of the Time Quintet Series by Madeleine L'Engle

After the disappearance of her scientist father, three peculiar beings send Meg, her brother, and her friend to space in order to find him. Based on the 1962 story by Madeleine L'Engle and starring Oprah Winfrey. Releases July 28, 2017.

Limited Release in 2016 (General Release 2017?)

  • The Lost City of Z by David Grann. Based on Grann's 2009 nonfiction book and starring, among others, Robert Pattinson, is releasing at the New York Film Festival in Oct 2016, presumably in time to be eligible for Oscar consideration, but no general release date is shown.
     
  • Silence by Shusaku Endo. The film of Endo's 1996 book about two seventeenth century Jesuit priests in Japan is slated to be on limited release in the USA from November, presumably also aiming for Oscar eligibility. It stars Liam Neeson and is directed by Martin Scorsese (and apparently has been a "passion project" of Scorsese's since 1991). No general release date has been announced.
In Production

In addition, film adaptations are in the works for these books:

In Post Production

  • HHhH by Laurent Binet In Laurent Binet's mesmerizing debut, we follow Jozef Gabcík and Jan Kubis from their dramatic escape from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to their fatal attack on Reinhard Heydrich, the most lethal man in Hitler's cabinet.
  • The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Filming began in May 2016 and is expected for release in 2017, but a date has not been confirmed.
     
  • The Circle by Dave Eggers. This sci-fi movie based on Eggers' 2013 book is to star Tom Hanks and Emma Watson. Filming began in September 2015 and it is expected to release in 2017.
     
  • The Long Home by William Gay. Directed by and starring James Franco this indie movie is expected to release in 2017.
     
  • The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. The movie adaptation of Powers' 2012 book about two young American soldiers in Iraq finished filming in January 2016 and is expected to release in 2017.
     
  • Thank You For Your Service. Based on the nonfiction work by David Finkel which offers an unflinching but deeply humane look inside the heads of those who must live the rest of their lives with the chilling realities of war.


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In Development

  • Looking for Alaska by John Green. Optioned by Paramount a decade ago, but still "in development" (much to the frustration of the author), so don't expect anything anytime soon.
     
  • The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. With director and producer in place, the movie adaptation of Tartt's 2013 novel would seem to be moving in the right direction, but no cast has been announced as yet.
     
  • Matched by Ally Condie. Production seems to have stalled on Condie's YA trilogy.
     
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Optioned in 2015 but little in the way of news since.
     
  • Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick. Channing Tatum is due to make his directorial debut with the movie adaptation of this 2013 young adult novel by Quick, also the author of  The Silver Linings Playbook.
     
  • Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. Dreamworks Studios have the rights to Rainbow Rowell's charming 2013 novel for young adults, and apparently Rowell is writing the screenplay.
     
  • Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Marie Semple. Cate Blanchett is set to star in the movie adaptation of Semple's 2012 novel, but filming is yet to start.
     
  • The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Summit Entertainment and David Heyman (producers of the Harry Potter films) have the rights to adapt Morgenstern's 2011 novel.
     
  • The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star as the torture-loving 19th century serial killer at the heart of The Devil in the White City based on Larson's 2003 nonfiction work. It will be his sixth collaboration with Martin Scorsese. This movie has been in development for a long time but industry buzz seems to indicate that it actually might happen now.
     
  • The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud. The word in early 2015 was that Jeff Bridges was to star in The Emperor's Children, but information has been scant since then.
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