TV Shows Based on Books
The TV Shows Based on Books Collection showcases binge-worthy titles that have been adapted into television series. This Collection includes nonfiction and fiction texts that sparked classic TV series, such as Carl Sagan's Cosmos and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie, as well as contemporary reads such as Orange Is the New Black.
1st to Die (2001), by bestselling author James Patterson, is the first novel in The Women’s Murder Club series. The club features four friends—San Francisco homicide detective Lindsay Boxer, medical examiner Claire Washburn, crime reporter Cindy Thomas, and assistant district attorney Jill Bernhardt—who work together, both professionally and personally, to solve crimes. In this first novel, the club works to solve the Honeymoon Murders, the killing of three couples just after their weddings. 1st to... Read 1st to Die Summary
About a Boy (1998), by English novelist Nick Hornby, is a coming-of-age, comedic novel. The story begins with 12-year-old Marcus Brewer moving to London in 1993 with his loving but suicidal mother, Fiona. He must adjust to a new school with strict social norms for behavior and appearance. Marcus doesn’t wear the right clothes; he talks or sings to himself when he’s stressed without being aware that he’s doing it; and he immediately becomes the... Read About a Boy Summary
A Discovery of Witches is a romantic fantasy by American historian, professor, and author, Deborah Harkness. Rocketing to popularity when first published in 2011, the novel receiving a starred review from Library Journal and became a New York Times Best Seller. The story follows Dr. Diana Bishop, a spellbound witch and scholar of 17th century chemistry, whose life changes when she calls a long-lost, enchanted manuscript from the Bodleian Library. The handsome vampire Matthew Clairmont... Read A Discovery of Witches Summary
Is Grace Marks a murderess or an innocent pawn? Is she an evil fiend or mentally ill? Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (1996) retells the story of Canada’s notorious nineteenth-century convicted murderess Grace Marks. Grounded in the historical record where available, Atwood’s novel probes issues of gender and class roles, identity, truth, and the nature of memory. Thomas Kinnear, a wealthy landowner, and Nancy Montgomery, his housekeeper and mistress, are murdered in July 1843. Grace, who... Read Alias Grace Summary
Published in 1939, And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, best-selling novelist of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. With over 100 million copies sold, And Then There Were None is the world’s best-selling crime novel as well as one of the best-selling books of all time. It has had more adaptations than any other work by Agatha Christie, including television programs, films, radio broadcasts, and most... Read And Then There Were None Summary
Behind Her Eyes, a psychological thriller, was written by Sarah Pinborough and published in 2017. The book has sold over 1 million copies worldwide and was adapted for a TV series by Netflix. While clearly a best seller, there is great divergence of opinion on the book’s very unexpected twist at the end, with the publishers using the hashtag #WTFThatEnding to promote the book.Plot SummaryLouise is a single mother living in London and working as... Read Behind Her Eyes Summary
Published in 2014, Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies is a work of contemporary fiction set in the Pirriwee Peninsula, located in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, Australia. Through the perspective of multiple characters, Big Little Lies addresses subjects including bullying, lying, parenting, friendship, and domestic violence. Big Little Lies was adapted into an award-winning television drama of the same name. Plot Summary The first chapter foreshadows a school trivia night gone awry. The details of... Read Big Little Lies Summary
James and Deborah Howe’s 1979 children’s novel Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery is the first book in a series of seven. The novel was written by the husband-and-wife duo, but Deborah Howe died before their work was published. Bunnicula has been adapted for the stage and turned into various animated series.Plot SummaryBunnicula follows the Monroe family, which consists of Mr. and Mrs. Monroe, their two sons Pete and Toby, Chester the cat, and Harold... Read Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery Summary
Defending Jacob is a 2012 crime novel by William Landay. The main character is Andy Barber, a Massachusetts assistant district attorney, who finds his personal and professional life thrown into turmoil when his son, Jacob Barber, is accused of murdering his classmate Ben Rifkin. Andy, a resident of Newton, Massachusetts, narrates the events of the 2007 murder and trial alongside the transcripts of a 2008 grand jury investigation whose subject remains unstated until the final... Read Defending Jacob Summary
Ellen Foster is a work of adult fiction by US novelist Kaye Gibbons, first published by Algonquin Books in 1987. The novel was Gibbons’s debut, and it won the Sue Kaufman Prize for literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a notable citation from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation. Critics praised the novel for its unsentimental outlook and the wry, distinct voice of its protagonist. Ellen, a young girl living in the American... Read Ellen Foster Summary
Swiss author Johanna Spyri originally published the middle-grade fiction novel Heidi in German in two volumes in 1880. The novel quickly became a beloved classic children’s book that has since been adapted into 25 film and television versions, including a 1968 made-for-TV movie and a very popular anime series in 1974. It has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. Spyri was born in Hirzel, a Zurich village that shares a border with the German... Read Heidi Summary
E. M. Forster’s Howards End (1910) tells the story of two families, the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes, who represent different aspects of society in Edwardian England. Specifically, it follows the Margaret Schlegel, the novel’s protagonist, amid her attempts to manage her own family as she becomes engaged to and marries the widowed Mr. Wilcox. In 1992 it was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film, directed by James Ivory, and in 2017 it was adapted into... Read Howards End Summary
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is a true crime book written by Michelle McNamara about the Golden State Killer (GSK). The GSK committed his crimes—a series of rapes escalating to homicides—in Northern and Southern California during the 1970s and 80s. McNamara’s book describes both the GSK’s crimes and her own pursuit of the criminal some 30 years later. The book was published posthumously in 2018, nearly two years after McNamara’s death. The narrative describes how... Read I'll Be Gone in the Dark Summary
Little Fires Everywhere is a New York Times bestselling novel by Celeste Ng published in 2017. In the town of Shaker Heights, Ohio, Elena Richardson rents her family’s property on Winslow Road to Mia and Pearl Warren, a mother and daughter duo who inspire her sense of charity. Mia is an artist, and her lack of rootedness and intense focus on her art unnerve Mrs. Richardson, who lives an orderly life. Their lives become further... Read Little Fires Everywhere Summary
Little House in the Big Woods was published in 1932 by American author Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first in a nine-book series, the autobiographical narrative relates the story of a family of homesteading pioneers living and laboring in Wisconsin. The story is illustrated by Garth Williams, whose drawings of the Ingalls family are often considered iconic and an integral part of the reading experience.This is a classic children’s tale set during an era of western... Read Little House in the Big Woods Summary
The Ingalls family—parents Charles and Caroline, known as “Pa” and “Ma” in the book, and daughters Mary (age seven), Laura (age six) and Carrie (a baby)—live in Wisconsin in the late 1800s near their extended families. Pa hears that Native American territory on the prairies of Kansas will soon open up to settlement by whites and decides to move there to claim a good plot of land before the selection gets too competitive. The family... Read Little House on the Prairie Summary
Dava Sobel’s best-selling book Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time tells the story of the 18th-century contest to find a precise way to locate a ship at sea, the clockmaker who built the first timepiece that could do so, and his battle with the astronomers whose alternate method competed for the winning prize. Replete with sea disasters, brilliant scientists, and scheming politicians, Longitude won... Read Longitude Summary
Looking for Alaska is narrated by a sixteen-year-old boy, Miles Halter, who leaves behind his mundane life in Florida to attend a boarding school called Culver Creek. He is inspired by biographies detailing the adventures of notable figures during their days at boarding school. Most of all, he is motivated by the notion of a “Great Perhaps”. Miles has a fascination with famous last words, and particularly with the last words of the poet Francois... Read Looking for Alaska Summary
Mrs. Fletcher is a 2017 comic novel by American author Tom Perrotta. It follows the sexual reawakening of middle-aged divorcée Eve Fletcher after her son, Brendan Fletcher, departs for college. Meanwhile, Brendan finds the campus environment inhospitable to his unthinking “lacrosse bro” misogyny. Mrs. Fletcher is the seventh novel by Perrotta, best known for 1998’s Election (adapted into a movie of the same name, starring Reese Witherspoon) and 2011’s The Leftovers, which was adapted into... Read Mrs. Fletcher Summary
Normal People is a novel by Sally Rooney, published by Faber & Faber in 2018. Rooney is also the author of the novel Conversations With Friends, and the winner of the 2017 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Normal People is set in the author’s native Ireland. The two main characters are Connell Waldron, a boy from a lower-middle-class background, and Marianne Sheridan, who comes from a wealthy family. As disparate as their socioeconomic... Read Normal People Summary
Piper Kerman’s 2010 memoir, Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, chronicles the 13 months she spent in a federal women’s prison in Danbury, Connecticut. In 2013, Netflix adapted the memoir into an original series featuring the experiences of fictional character Piper Chapman. The memoir follows a linear timeline, starting with the crime Kerman unknowingly commits right after college, the process leading up to the sentencing, and her time in Danbury... Read Orange Is The New Black Summary
Published anonymously in 1813 by English author Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice is an example of a “novel of manners,” which presents a realistic picture of society through the customs and manners of everyday life. By depicting complex relationships between landowners and tradesmen, those with old money and the nouveaux riche, and men and women, Pride and Prejudice offers a glimpse into the social structures of early 19th-century England. The novel’s primary focus is marriage... Read Pride and Prejudice Summary
Rebecca, a bestselling novel by famed English writer Daphne du Maurier, was published in 1938, and has never gone out of print. The winner of the National Book Award for favorite novel of 1938, Rebecca has been adapted numerous times, including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film version, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and a 1997 television miniseries. It was most recently adapted for a Netflix film in 2020 by the same name. Rebecca... Read Rebecca Summary
Ruin and Rising is the third and final book in Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy of young adult fantasy adventure/romance novels. Ruin and Rising was originally published in 2014. Bardugo has written 12 novels as of 2021, many of which are set in the “GrishaVerse” world first portrayed in the novel Shadow and Bone. The Shadow and Bone trilogy, combined with Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology, has been adapted as a television miniseries. Before... Read Ruin and Rising Summary
Sense and Sensibility (1811) was the first published novel of British writer Jane Austen (1775-1817). Still a widely read author today, Austen published six complete novels and became famous for documenting the interior lives of young women in addition to the social mores of her time. She developed a distinctive form of narrative voice that oscillated between omniscient narration and free indirect discourse, which employs a third-person perspective but closely mirrors the consciousness of individual... Read Sense and Sensibility Summary
Shadow and Bone (2012) by Leigh Bardugo is a young adult fantasy adventure and romance novel. It is Bardugo’s debut novel and the first book in her Shadow and Bone trilogy, also called the Grisha trilogy. Inspired by 19th-century Tsarist Russia, Bardugo creates a darkly magical world characterized by strange armies, extreme wealth and poverty, and personifications of light and shadow. The novel was a New York Times best seller, a Los Angeles Times best... Read Shadow and Bone Summary
Shantaram is a 2003 novel by Gregory David Roberts. Written as a semi-autobiographical telling of his adventures as one of the most wanted men in 1980s Australia, Shantaram tells the story of Lindsay Ford (who usually goes by “Lin”), who, after fleeing from an Australian prison, escapes to Mumbai. He falls in love with the country and rises through the ranks of a criminal organization led by Abdel Khader Khan.At the time of its publication... Read Shantaram Summary
Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects tells the story of Camille, a crime reporter living in Chicago. After a little girl goes missing in Camille’s hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, Camille’s boss talks her into going home to report on the disappearance. Although she is reluctant to revisit her hometown, a place she hasn’t seen in over ten years, she is eager to please her boss and gives in to his pleas. Most the novel takes place... Read Sharp Objects Summary
Shogun is a 1975 novel by American author James Clavell. It is one of six books in Clavell’s Asian Saga, which chronicles the ways Europeans interacted with countries in Asia from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The novel tells the story of English ship pilot John Blackthorne, loosely based on the real life navigator William Adams, who becomes intimately involved in the rise to power of Yoshi Toranaga, a fictionalized version of Tokugawa Ieyasu... Read Shogun Summary
Originally published in 1978 by American author Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City is the first installment in a nine-book series of the same name published between 1978 and 2014. The novel takes place in San Francisco in 1976, as a young woman named Mary Ann Singleton, seeking a change in her life, moves to the city and resides at 28 Barbary Lane. There, she finds herself intertwined with her neighbors and their complex lives... Read Tales of the City Summary
The Andromeda Strain is a 1969 science fiction novel by Michael Crichton. The book tells the story of the Wildfire Project, an initiative to investigate a mysterious alien organism discovered in Arizona. The Andromeda Strain has been adapted for film and television. It was highly praised by critics on release and credited with creating the techno-thriller genre.Plot SummaryA military team is dispatched to recover a satellite that unexpectedly crashed to Earth near Piedmont, Arizona. Everyone... Read The Andromeda Strain Summary
Walter Farley was only 26 years old when he published The Black Stallion, the fictional adventure story of the friendship between a boy and a majestic, powerful horse. Farley’s book, first available in 1941, was an instant bestseller. The Black Stallion and its 20 sequels have sold more than 12 million copies. The novel won the 1944 Young Reader’s Choice Award and inspired three Black Stallion movies and a TV series. At the heart of... Read The Black Stallion Summary
China Miéville’s The City and the City, originally published in 2009, is a hybrid of two distinct genres—speculative fiction and detective fiction—that explores the human susceptibility to fear and the erection of borders as a response to that fear. Other themes examined in the novel are political corruption, violence inspired by far-right politics, and the allure of myths. The City and the City is the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the World Fantasy... Read The City and the City Summary
The Firm is a legal thriller by author John Grisham. The Firm is Grisham’s second novel, and the first to bring him widespread fame as the number one novel of 1991 on the New York Times bestseller list. The novel was made into a feature film in 1993 directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Tom Cruise. In 2012, The Firm was made into a television series that enjoyed a single season on NBC that portrayed... Read The Firm Summary
The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a novel by best-selling writer Mitch Albom. Published in 2003, it sold more than 10 million copies and appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2004, the story was adapted into a made-for-television movie starring Jon Voight. The novel follows the story of Eddie, a man who believes his life was unfulfilling until his death brings him answers to the key events in his life... Read The Five People You Meet In Heaven Summary
First published in 1985, Margaret Atwood’s sixth novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, has received numerous accolades and prizes and remains widely critically celebrated. Set in what used to be the United States but is now a repressive theocracy called the Republic of Gilead, it is narrated by the protagonist, Offred, who recounts her daily experiences intercut with memories of her life before the revolution and during her training to become a “Handmaid.”Handmaids are fertile women who... Read The Handmaid's Tale Summary
Published in 1959, The Haunting of Hill House, a Gothic novel by Shirley Jackson, was a 1960 finalist for the National Book Award. The protagonist is Eleanor Vance, a young woman with a troubled past who, along with two other guests, is invited to spend three months in a haunted house to take part in research gathered by Dr. John Montague. Like other Gothic novels, The Haunting of Hill House takes place in an old... Read The Haunting Of Hill House Summary
The Magicians is a 2009 fantasy novel by Lev Grossman. It tells the story of Quentin Coldwater, a 17-year-old high school student living in Brooklyn, New York. Despite coming from a solid, middle-class home, having good friends, and doing well at school, Quentin is unhappy with his life. As a boy, he read a series of fictional fantasy books, the Fillory and Further series, by fictional author Christopher Plover. These books have led Quentin to... Read The Magicians Summary
The Mosquito Coast, published in 1981 by Paul Theroux, is an adventure story narrated by 13-year-old Charlie Fox, the son of a brilliant inventor who uproots his family to establish a self-sustaining settlement in the jungles of Honduras. Writing in the tradition of novels like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Robinson Crusoe, The Swiss Family Robinson, and Lord of the Flies, Theroux cited the Jonestown Massacre and the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith as influences in... Read The Mosquito Coast Summary
The Passage is a 2010 novel by Justin Cronin. It is the first novel in a post-apocalyptic horror series that includes The Twelve and City of Mirrors. The Passage is Cronin’s take on the vampire genre. He uses world-building to examine themes of Passages and Transitions, Vampirism as a Metaphor, and The Value of Life. The Passage was well-received and was adapted into a television series for the Fox Network, which aired its final episode... Read The Passage Summary
The Right Stuff is a lively account of the early American space program and its roots in the subculture of military test pilots that developed after World War II. Wolfe’s eclectic, wide-ranging narrative combines numerous elements: technological advancements in mid-20th-century flight; the generation of daring pilots who pushed innovations to their limits; and reflections on the moral, cultural, and political significance of the first astronauts at the height of the Cold War. Taken together, these... Read The Right Stuff Summary
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a 1963 novel by John le Carré, the pen name of the English author David Cornwell (1931-2020). Le Carré worked for British Intelligence, including a brief period as a secret agent in Germany. He also began writing novels during this time, and chose a pseudonym to preserve his cover. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, his third novel, achieved widespread popularity, allowing Le Carré... Read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Summary
The Thorn Birds, a novel by Colleen McCullough, was first published in 1977 by Avon Books. A sweeping, romantic epic that spans nearly sixty years, The Thorn Birds became an international best-seller; the novel was adapted for the screen as an incredibly popular mini-series in 1983. Eventually, The Thorn Birds would become one of the most highly rated programs in American television history. This text uses the pagination of the Avon Books 2010 paperback edition. Plot... Read The Thorn Birds Summary
The Three Musketeers (1844), by French novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas, is a novel that borrows tropes from the swashbuckling genre, historical fiction, and romance to recount the adventures of a group of king’s guard who face off against the machinations of nefarious political factions set on destabilizing the monarchy. It was first published through serialization in 1844 to great popularity. Though set in the mid-1600s, the novel connected with the philosophical underpinnings of the... Read The Three Musketeers Summary
First published in 1908, The Wind in the Willows by Scottish writer Kenneth Grahame is a story for young readers that recounts the adventures of three animals: Mole, Rat, and Badger. In the woodlands where they live, the trio must deal with various problems—which include frequently rescuing their friend Mr. Toad, who loves thrills and often causes trouble.Widely considered one of the greatest literary works for children, The Wind in the Willows has been reprinted... Read The Wind in the Willows Summary
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a science fiction adventure novel by French author Jules Verne. It was originally published in serialized form in 1869 under the title Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, and later as a book in 1870. In 1873, the first English-language translation was released. The book was highly acclaimed at the time of its publication and was one of several successful novels by Verne. Others include Journey to the... Read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Summary
Written in 2014 and published by Delacorte Press, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood is the eighth book in the Outlander saga by author Diana Gabaldon. The series follows Claire Fraser, a time-traveling World War II nurse who married Jamie Fraser, an 18th-century Highlander and insurrectionist against the British crown. The Fraser family occupies multiple timelines in the series, which celebrates family and romantic love. The novel spans colonial America to the Highlands of Scotland... Read Written in My Own Heart's Blood Summary
You is a 2014 thriller novel written by New York Times bestselling author Caroline Kepnes. The story is narrated by Joe Goldberg, a bookstore employee who develops an obsession with an aspiring writer named Beck. The title, You, alludes to the narrator’s obsession; the entire narrative is addressed to Beck in the second person. The novel and its sequels were adapted into a television series of the same name. This guide uses the 2014 Atria... Read You Summary