It's barely over a month until The Fault in Our Stars premieres on the big screen! The film, slated for release on June 6th, is based on the phenomenal young adult novel
of the same name by John Green. Since its release in January of 2012 it has enjoyed a coveted spot on the New York Times best seller list for an astounding 119 consecutive weeks, 46 of them at #1.
The story is narrated by a sixteen-year-old cancer patient named Hazel (played by Shailene Woodley), who is forced by her parents to attend a support group, where she subsequently meets and falls in love with the seventeen-year-old Augustus Waters (played by Ansel Elgort), an ex-basketball player and amputee.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.
Have you seen the trailer? Oh. My. Gosh. Here it is in case you haven't.
The film's soundtrack is pretty great as well and will be released May 19th, but is available for pre-order now.
I found a Spotify playlist from the soundtrack that I've embedded below for your listening pleasure. It doesn't include all 16 tracks, but it's a fantastic start.
If you aren't logged into your Spotify account, you'll be prompted to do so. If you don't yet have an account, you'll be sent to a sign-up page in a new window. It's free.
Have a terrific week, and I'll talk to you soon.
Angela
It seems like only yesterday Angelina Jolie was in talks to direct the film adaptation of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. The talks, which she tells Tom Brokaw in an interview for the Today Show, included her "pitching her butt off" with a homemade poster board presentation.
Hillenbrand's book chronicles the story of 1936 Olympic distance runner Louis Zamperini's experience as a prisoner of war during WWII. While sitting next to the now 97-year-old, you can feel the love and reverence Jolie has for him.
"The resilience of the human spirit is an extraordinary thing." ~ Angelina JolieShare on Twitter
The film is scheduled to hit theaters on December 25th.
I'm still wondering how well Jolie will do in her direction of this adaptation? Do you think she'll stay true to the book? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Book-to-film adaptations did amazing this year at the Oscars, but now that the coveted golden statues have been handed out, we can look forward to the new crop of adaptations coming to the big screen in the coming year.
I was going to list all of the adaptations in one post, but it would have been ridiculously long, so here are the books-to-the big screen from January and February.
Nicholas Sparks has had an amazing career that I'm sure many writers dream about. All of his books have been on the New York Times bestseller list, and now the eighth adaptation of his beloved novels is in theaters. In November of 2012, The Hollywood Reporter named Sparks in spot number 3 as one of Hollywood's 25 Most Powerful Authors. Stephen King, of course, took the number one spot.
The true, declassified account of CIA operative Tony Mendez's
daring rescue of American hostages from Iran that inspired the
critically-acclaimed film directed by and starring Ben Affleck, and
co-starring John Goodman, Alan Arkin, and Bryan Cranston.
In book news, Angelina Jolie is in talks to direct the film version of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand for Universal Pictures and Walden Media.
Hillenbrand, the author of the bestseller Seabiscuit knocked it out of the park again in 2010 with Unbroken which enjoyed a secure spot for 108 straight weeks high on the New York Times bestseller list.
The biography chronicles the story of 1936 Olympic distance runner Louis Zamperini's experience as a Japanese prisoner of war during WWII. Here's the full synopsis and some readalikes.
This will be Jolie's second time wearing the Director Hat. She directed her first, In the Land of Blood and Honey last year.
"I read Laura Hillenbrand's brilliant book, and I was so moved by Louis Zamperini's heroic story, I immediately began to fight for the opportunity to make this film," she said in a statement. (Where does she find time to read, I wonder?)
How well do you think Jolie will do in her direction of this adaptation? Do you think she'll stay true to the book? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, released just last month, has enjoyed it's secure spot on the New York Times Best Seller list for four weeks now. It's in the number four spot, just beneath the Fifty Shades trilogy.
And for some other exciting news for fans, 20th Century Fox has acquired the movie rights. The film will be produced by Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea, and Leslie Dixon. Gillian Flynn will write the screenplay. You can read all the juicy details at deadline.com.
Read, and loved it? You could read one of the other two suspenseful titles written by Flynn: Sharp Objects or Dark Places. Here's the synopsis for Gone Girl from Gillian's website:
Marriage can be a real killer. One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn, takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. As The Washington Post proclaimed, her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit with deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick Dunne’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick Dunne isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but hearing from Amy through flashbacks in her diary reveal the perky perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister Margo at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was left in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
Here's are some choices for readalikes of Gone Girl.
Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered—a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her dirt-poor friend Del—shunned and derided by classmates as "Potato Girl"—was brutally slain. Del's killer was never found, while the victim has since achieved immortality in local legends and ghost stories. Now, as this new murder investigation draws Kate irresistibly in, her past and present collide in terrifying, unexpected ways. Because nothing is quite what it seems . . . and the grim specters of her youth are far from forgotten.
More than just a murder mystery, Jennifer McMahon's extraordinary debut novel, Promise Not to Tell, is a story of friendship and family, devotion and betrayal—tautly written, deeply insightful, beautifully evocative, and utterly unforgettable.
As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.
Richly atmospheric, stunning in its complexity, and utterly convincing and surprising to the end, In the Woods is sure to enthrall fans of Mystic River and The Lovely Bones. And look for French's new mystery, Broken Harbor, for more of the Dublin Murder Squad.
"A shattering first novel... You can't look away from it."--New York Times Book Review
Maureen O'Donnell wakes up one morning to find her therapist boyfriend murdered in the middle of her living room and herself a prime suspect in a murder case. Desperate to clear her name and to get at the truth, Maureen traces rumors about a similar murder at a local psychiatric hospital, uncovering a trail of deception and repressed scandal that could exonerate her - or make her the next victim.
"I can't think of a more interesting - and less likely - crime hero than Maureen O'Donnell, the damaged but determined center of Denise Mina's marvelous debut mystery. . . . The book bristles with angry energy and the spare urban poetry of its unique language." -Chicago Tribune
"A groundbreaking book...its emotional rawness and visceral honesty pack a punch more potent than any boxer-turned-PI could provide."--Washington Post Book World
"This raw, powerful story is an exceptional debut." -Kansas City Star
"A compelling story. . . . This is the reason we read mysteries." -Rocky Mountain News
In a quiet London suburb, a group of mothers relies on each other for friendship, favors, and gossip. But some of them shouldn’t be trusted, and others have dark secrets.
When Callie moved into her new neighborhood, she thought it would be easy to fit in. The other parents have been strangely hostile, though, and her frail daughter Rae is finding it impossible to make friends. Suzy, with her rich husband and her three energetic children, has been the only one to reach out, although their friendship has recently felt inexplicably strained. Now the police have suggested that someone dangerous may be living in their neighborhood, and the atmosphere feels even more toxic. Then there’s the matter of Callie’s ex-husband, and the shocking truth behind their divorce . . . a truth that she would do anything to hide.
On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a thirty-two-year-old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she’s about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.
Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent captive in a remote mountain cabin—which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist—is the second narrative recounting the nightmare that follows her escape: her struggle to piece her shattered life back together, the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor, and the disturbing sense that things are far from over.
From the back cover: Christie knew she would have to fight him with what she did best. Her only defense against the madman was her psychological training and skill, her knowledge of the motivations and behaviors of the criminally insane. Tied and wounded, hidden where no one would think to look for her, outwitting her tormentor was her only hope for survival.
Dr. Christine McMorrow dedicates her life to helping victims of trauma, in private practice and as a consultant to the Maine State Task Force on Violence. She believes that truth will prevail, bringing healing and justice.
Stephen Scott dedicates his life to bringing his perverted truth to the world. Tortured and programmed as a child to believe that the ritualistic murder of women will expose them as innately evil, his mission is to encourage others to follow his path.
When Christie disappears, her colleague, Detective Bill Drummond, and housemate, Alex Harris, do all they can to find the woman they both love.
Can Christie save herself? Will Bill or Alex find her in time? Or will Stephen's twisted truth triumph over an innocent woman once again?
Well, six is all I got this week. Here are a couple more readalike lists from my archives:
A new film adaptation of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is slated for release in theaters on December 25, 2012. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway and Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan. Baz Luhrmann directed. Other films to his credit are Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!
The trailer was released this week, and features Jay-Z and Kanye West's No Church in the Wild and Jack White's cover of U2's Love is Blindness.
This is the sixth film adaptation of Gatsby. The first, a silent movie by Herbert Brenon stars Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson, and William Powell. Reviews suggest that it may have been the most faithful adaptation of the novel, but a trailer of the film at National Archives is all that is known to exist. The 1974 version by Jack Clayton is the most famous screen version (so far) which stars Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, Mia Farrow as Daisy, and Robert Redford as Gatsby. The script was done by Francis Ford Coppola.
Francis Cugat was commissioned to illustrate the cover of Gatsby. It has become one of the most celebrated jacket art in American literature. Fitzgerald was still writing the novel at the time, but he liked the cover so darn much, that he wrote it into the story. But there are differing views on where it is written in. It has been alleged that Fitzgerald's symbolic billboard eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg derived from the cover. An alternative recently proposed is Nick Carraway's image of Daisy as the "girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs" of New York at night which appears at the close of chapter four.
While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci -- clues visible for all to see -- yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.
Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion -- an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.
In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's ancient secret -- and an explosive historical truth -- will be lost forever.
The film: I thought the film stayed pretty darn true to the book. It stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, and Jean Reno. Directed by Ron Howard.
Try me...Test me...Taste me. When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock - especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial. War is declared as the priest denounces the newcomer's wares as instruments of murder. Suddenly Vianne's shop-cum-cafe means that there is somewhere for secrets to be whispered, grievances to be aired, dreams to be tested. But Vianne's plans for an Easter Chocolate Festival divide the whole community in a conflict that escalates into a 'Church not Chocolate' battle. As mouths water in anticipation, can the solemnity of the Church compare with the pagan passion of a chocolate eclair? For the first time here is a novel in which chocolate enjoys its true importance, emerging as a moral issue, as an agent of transformation - as well as a pleasure bordering on obsession. Rich, clever and mischievous, this is a triumphant read.
The film: I first saw this film while visiting my parents. I think my Mom and I watched it no less than ten times. While eating chocolate, of course! Ahhh. Good times. It stars Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, and Alfred Molina.
A beloved, bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana, reissued in a strikingly designed paperback edition.
Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant--and utterly hilarious--works of comic art. In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash represents one of the peaks of his achievement, a compound of irony, affection, and perfect detail that speaks across generations.
In God We Trust, Shepherd's wildly witty reunion with his Indiana hometown, disproves the adage "You can never go back." Bending the ear of Flick, his childhood-buddy-turned-bartender, Shepherd recalls passionately his genuine Red Ryder BB gun, confesses adolescent failure in the arms of Junie Jo Prewitt, and relives a story of man against fish that not even Hemingway could rival. From pop art to the World's Fair, Shepherd's subjects speak with a universal irony and are deeply and unabashedly grounded in American Midwestern life, together rendering a wonderfully nostalgic impression of a more innocent era when life was good, fun was clean, and station wagons roamed the earth.
A comic genius who bridged the gap between James Thurber and David Sedaris, Shepherd may have accomplished for Holden, Indiana, what Mark Twain did for Hannibal, Missouri.
The film: A Christmas Story. "You'll shoot your eye out." Poor Ralphie. This is my brother-in-law's fave Christmas flick. His kids all chipped in to get him a full size leg lamp. It even came in the crate marked FRAGILE ("fraagillie, must be Italian") with the official paperwork...He cried. It was great. The movie stars Peter Billingsly, Melinda Dillon, and Darren McGavin.
Set in the 1930s at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary's death-row facility, The Green Mile is the riveting and tragic story of John Coffey, a giant, preternaturally gentle inmate condemned to death for the rape and murder of twin nine-year-old girls. It is a story narrated years later by Paul Edgecomb, the ward superintendent compelled to help every prisoner spend his last days peacefully and every man walk the green mile to execution with his humanity intact.
Edgecomb has sent seventy-eight inmates to their date with "old sparky," but he's never encountered one like Coffey -- a man who wants to die, yet has the power to heal. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecomb discovers the terrible truth about Coffey's gift, a truth that challenges his most cherished beliefs -- and ours.
Originally published in 1996 in six self-contained monthly installments, The Green Mile is an astonishingly rich and complex novel that delivers over and over again. Each individual volume became a huge success when first published, and all six were on the New York Times bestseller list simultaneously. Three years later, when Frank Darabont made The Green Mile into an award-winning movie starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan, the book returned to the bestseller list -- and stayed there for months.
The film:I mentioned this book last week for John Coffey being one of my favorite literary characters.And Michael Clarke Duncan plays the part to perfection. It also stars Tom Hanks. I must have a thing for Tom Hanks...
Straight from the front line of urban America, the inspiring story of one fiercely determined teacher and her remarkable students.
As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”
With funds raised by a “Read-a-thon for Tolerance,” they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California, where she declared that Erin Gruwell’s students were “the real heroes.” Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition—appearances on “Prime Time Live” and “All Things Considered,” coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley—and educationally. All 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from high school and are now attending college.
With powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an uplifting, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students.
The authors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition. Erin Gruwell is now a visiting professor at California State University, Long Beach, where some of her students are Freedom Writers.
The film: Stars Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, and Imelda Staunton.
Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love—a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.
The film: Great movie. It stars Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys and Queen Latifah
The Outsiders is a book that delves deeply into the hearts, minds, and stories of a group that had no voice before S. E. Hinton gave them one. She began writing the book at age 15, spurred on by the disturbing trend she saw growing in her high school towards division between groups. "I was worried and angered by the social situation," Hinton writes. "I saw two groups at the extreme ends of the social scale behaving in an idiotic fashion -- one group was being condemned and one wasn't.... When a friend of mine was beaten up for no other reason than that some people didn't like the way he combed his hair, I took my anger out by writing about it."
Thirty years after it was first published, ...
The film: This amazing movie was directed by the incomparable Francis Ford Coppola. An all-star cast includes C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swaze, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, and Leif Garrett.
Maclean writes “in my family, there is no clear line between religion and fly-fishing.” Nor is there a clear line between family and fly-fishing. It is the one activity where brother can connect with brother and father with son. In Maclean’s autobiographical novella, it is the river that makes them realize that life continues and all things are related.
The film: Stars Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt, and Tom Skerritt. Robert Redford directed.
Natty Gann is a twelve year old Depression era girl whose single-parent father leaves her behind in Chicago while he goes to Washington State to look for work in the timber industry. Natty runs away from the guardian she was left with to follow Dad. She befriends and is befriended by a wolf that has been abused in dog fights, hops a freight train west, and is presumed dead when her wallet is found after the train crashes. Dad gets bitter and endangers himself in his new job. Meanwhile Natty has a series of adventures and mis- adventures in various farmhouses, police stations, hobo camps, reform schools, and boxcars.
The film: I chose this one because I vividly remember reading the book when I was twelve.
Sometimes on Sundays, after church, my parents would take us to a movie. At the theater. It was such a treat! Popcorn drenched in butter...Mmmm. Well, it was one of those Sundays, and I had just finished the book so I suggested we go see that one. I learned quickly that nobody likes to have the movie spoiled by the twelve year old sitting next to them, who keeps piping up as to what will happen next. Ugh, I would have had to kick my own ass!
The movie which stars Meredith Salenger, John Cusack, and Ray Wise was fabulously close to the book.
I'm nowhere near done! I haven't mentioned The Help, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Wizard of Oz...But I have to call it quits for now :)Thanks for coming by.
Talk to you soon,
Angela
of the same name by John Green. Since its release in January of 2012 it has enjoyed a coveted spot on the New York Times best seller list for an astounding 119 consecutive weeks, 46 of them at #1.
. 
by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio
by Gillian Flynn, released just last month, has enjoyed it's secure spot on the New York Times Best Seller list for four weeks now. It's in the number four spot, just beneath the Fifty Shades trilogy.
or 
. Here's the synopsis for Gone Girl from Gillian's 
by Jennifer McMahon
by Tana French
, for more of the Dublin Murder Squad.
by Denise Mina
by Louise Millar
by Chevy Stevens
by Joanne Clarey
by Dan Brown.
by Joanne Harris
by Jean Shepherd
by Stephen King
by Erin Gruwell
by Sue Monk Kidd
by S.E. Hinton
by Norman McClean
by Ann Matthews