04 - A book you think should be turned into a movie

[Joyce]

City of jasmine

[Rachelnyc]

I had some ideas from the suggestions made in this thread but I didn't really plan this category since IMHO you can't know it fits until you've read it and I didn't want to do another re-read.

Fortunately. I read The Italian Teacher and I think it would be a great film. I would love to see how the main characters are depicted and especially how the artwork and art scene is portrayed.

[Megan]

This was a hard one for me because I feel like most books I read should be turned into movies! So I used this as kind of a cheat Read and picked A Spark of Light.

[Valerie]

Is it safe to assume you think it would make a good movie because you liked the book? I read it and was disappointed. I thought it was too preach-ie

[Soph ♡]

I've just started to read The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I'm a fair few chapters in and already feel like this would make for an interesting film.

[teal]

I just finished "The Night Season" by Chelsea Cain and would absolutely love to see it made into a movie!

[Tytti]

Rose wrote: "@tyttiany good? I did not know that. have you watched it? Is it anygood?"

I don't think I actually watched it, it was just on TV and I might have seen parts of it. I guess it didn't interest me enough at the time.

[Sowmia]

Grand Avenue by Joy Fielding is an older book, but a great one!

[Alix]

DEFINITELY Verity IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT

[Alexis]

I love to watch lgbt* movies, so I think the world will always need more of those!

Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Although there is not technically a romance, I still love the beautiful friendship and message in this story. 5 Stars from me!

[Valerie]

Joey wrote: "For this prompt I'll be reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr mainly because I already have it. Have any of you read this book? What did you think?"

I started reading it and couldn't get through it. I heard it is an excellent book. Just not my kind of book

[Drakeryn]

Katy wrote: "What I don't understand is how we would know what book we would want turned into a movie before we actually read the book? This one is going to drive me nutsos."

For me, what makes a good movie is visual spectacle. So if a book has a cool concept that would play well visually (see Mortal Engines, featuring mobile cities that "devour" and dismantle each other) or a particularly aesthetic setting (see The Walled City, set in Kowloon Walled City), I can often guess it'll make a good movie.

(Mortal Engines probably doesn't count since it's actually been made a movie, but you get the idea)

But also, you could just read books for other prompts, and if one of them would make a good movie, add it for the movie prompt and then read another book for the original prompt.

Some personal recs:
- The Scar by China Mieville - takes place on a nomadic seaborne pirate city made of thousands of boats lashed together, and has tons of unique/inventive visuals
- Railsea by China Mieville - a Moby Dick spinoff where the "sea" is a vast morass of criss-crossing railroad tracks, and train captains hunt giant moles instead of whales
- Borne by Jeff VanderMeer - struggle for survival in a post-technological-collapse society. plenty of weird stuff, some horrifying, some uplifting
- Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman - IMO it's best to read this book blind (even the blurb gives away too much) but there's a ton of surreal/bizarre imagery

[L Y N N]

@Joey Lewis All the Light We Cannot See is one of my favorite books ever! All my fellow Book club members thought so, too! Hope it works for you...

[Jacqueline]

I read Still Lives by Maria Hummel. I thought this was a weird prompt to find a book for - How would I know it should be turned into a movie until after I've already read it? However, the blurb for this sounded like something that would be great on the big screen, and I was right. I could picture it as a film the whole way through. It is a fantastic book and I highly recommend it.

[L Y N N]

I’m definitely using Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing for this!

[Stephanie]

Just finished, The Silent Patient and immediately counted it as a book I'd like to see turned into a movie. Phenomenal, original, thriller!

[Chana]

Reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon for this prompt. Without having read a book to make the judgment about whether I think it should be made into a movie, I relied on a list of books that others felt would make good movies. Chose this one as it was on my shelf already.

[Mellissa]

For anyone looking for YA suggestions I think The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner would make a great tv series (and the sixth and final book comes out this year to hit the book published in 2019 prompt). I also really enjoyed The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud. The movie rights were bought years ago but I believe they were sold again to another company. The series is one of my favorites and I would love to see it made into a movie.

[Janet]

Also agree with others that this was an odd prompt. A book blurb can only tell you so much.

That said, I read If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio for this prompt, as well as the ATY "A book by Shakespeare or inspired by Shakespeare" prompt.

Wow wow wow wow wow. I don't give five star ratings very often. And...I have issues when fictional works try to be too 'clever' or gimmicky with structure. This book completely warranted the high rating - and successfully interwove actual language from Shakespeare's plays into the entire novel in a way that enhanced the plot and did not detract from the story itself.

Bonus points to the author for keeping me guessing throughout the entire book! That's all I'm saying, as this is a book that shouldn't be spoiled for others :)

[Shannon]

This was a strange prompt to me, simply because (like others have said) how will you know if you want it to be a movie until you've read it? However, I picked up The Glass Town Game thinking I'd use it as my story about a family, but honestly, I would LOVE to see a movie version (and books about families are easy to find).

All I kept thinking about while I was reading it was how great it would be as a stop-motion film, similar to The Box Trolls or James and the Giant Peach. The amount of whimsy and the creativity of all the beings in Glass Town just cry out for visual representation (the illustrations in the book are pretty great).

[Marlis]

I was having difficulty with this one also. I started reading one based on the description blurb but the writing was so poor I couldn’t get into it. On the previous recommendation, I started If We Were Villains on audiobook. WOW! Immediately sucked in!

[Ian]

I picked Iron Gold, a continuation of Pierce Brown's The Red Rising Saga.

This book was not as "fun" as the original trilogy, but I can't quit Brown's incredible characters or his master-craft of action writing. I know that a movie has been "in development" for quite a while and now there is talk about whether it should be a movie or a television show. So, basically, I'm not holding my breath.

[Sarah-Jane]

Alix wrote: "DEFINITELY Verity IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT"

Agreed, I chose Verity for this prompt too!!

[Melissa]

I read Trails of Apollo The Burning Maze for this prompt. I love all of Rick Riordan books but the Apollo series is my favorite since the Percy Jackson series.

[Chrissy]

I just finished Verify by Colleen Hoover earlier this week. I loved this book and definitely think it should be turned into a movie!Verity

[Cheryl]

Christina wrote: "I just finished Verify by Colleen Hoover earlier this week. I loved this book and definitely think it should be turned into a movie!Verity"
YES!

[Sue]

I just finished reading Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller, who attended our Writers Week last weekend. It is historical fiction set in 1809 and would make an excellent movie

[Erin]

The Water Cure This wasn't my favorite book, but I'd love to see a film adaptation.

[Edie]

Joey wrote: "For this prompt I'll be reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr mainly because I already have it. Have any of you read this book? What did you think?"

I loved this book. It had been highly recommended to me by friends... and I kept putting off reading it. They were right, it is great.

[Britany]

Finished Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Brandon]

For those wondering how you will know if a book would make a great movie before you read it, you can take inspiration from books that other people have read and recommended for the prompt.

I would love to see The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson made into a movie.

[Jessica]

I really enjoyed Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival from the Bottom of the Pile. We often see stories about the megastar athletes, but what about the guys that are good enough to be professionals but not good enough to be stars? Mr. Jackson is an eloquent writer, and I'm sure he'd be able to write a compelling screenplay.

[Eva]

Read Passenger for this one! Would love to see that one turned into a movie. Timetravel!

[Emma's Things to Read]

I've read through the recommendations on here for this n prompt and am going for Still Lives by Maria Hummel

[SadieReadsAgain]

I read The Tattooist of Auschwitz for this.

My rating (3/5) is for the book, and not for the story behind it. I feel bad for giving such a middle-of-the-road rating, but I really didn't feel that the book lived up to the story. This is based on the real story of Lale Sokolov, the Jewish prisoner held for three years in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the lengths he went to in order to survive and protect those he cared for in the camp whilst falling in love with a fellow prisoner.

Morris' writing is...spare. I wasn't surprised to find that this book started life as a screenplay, because honestly it didn't read much deeper than that even in novel form. I found it really lacked the emotion and atmosphere that this incredible story deserved. The writing left me feeling quite cold towards Lale, which was probably my biggest disappointment. This is very much his story and he is obviously the centre of it, but in the telling it made him come across as almost arrogant, as if he was the only person who was willing to strive and try for himself or others. But I think it only came across that way because the other characters were so underdeveloped.

This book is not all bad. The pace is really good, and there are moments which really grabbed me - such as when Lale is sent into the gas chamber to confirm the identity tattoo on one of the bodies. And nothing can detract from what it is at it's core - a survivor's account of staring into the abyss of human nature and using all his strength, courage and wit to survive, a love story against all odds, and a powerful reminder of the true evil which powers prejudice.

I can see why this has been such successful book, as this is a story that needs to be told. I just wish it had been told in a better way. I think as a screenplay for a film it would work much better.

[Noelle]

For this challenge I read Night Film by Marisha Pessl. More specifically I this would make for an excellent tv series.

[intoxicating_reads]

just finished The Traitor's Wife for this prompt such a great historical fiction novel..

[Sherri]

I read Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

[Grace]

The Invisible Library Series by Genevieve Cogman. They’re amazing. It has dragons, book loving covert libraries with the power of language, alternate realities and parallel dimensions, fae, Magic, futuristic technology, different time periods and an awesome heroine who is cool under pressure. (Probably better has a TV series that way it can be thorough and have multiple seasons.)

[Rebecca]

Lindi wrote: "This might be a little bit of a freebie prompt. Typically most books I really enjoy I'd like to see adapted (even though I don't want them ruined - masochist much?)

I agree with you Kerry, I would..."

For everyone who said All the Light We Cannot See, it's hitting the big screens this winter. :)

[Erica]

I picked Wires and Nerve. A graphic novel following a character from author Marissa Meyer's series. This follows an android who is more human than robot. I love sci-fi and fantasy books and movies so mixing both genres is great.

[Lacey (bookishlace)]

I’d love to see A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray on the big screen. Or perhaps a Netflix series?

[Cyndy]

I read The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley. Another wonderful Flavia story. I love these visits to the English countryside. Highly recommended for everyone.

[Rachel]

I read The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy for PopSugar's 2019 prompt #4, a book you think should be turned into a movie... in fact this one has been optioned and is supposed to starring Kerry Washington.

[Michelle]

So many good books I would put for this prompt, but I just finished one that I think would be wonderful if it were made into a movie. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente is such a fun book that I wish I would have heard of sooner. While reading it I could hear the narrator's voice over in the background of some scenes. Such vivid writing you could almost see playing in your mind while reading. It's not often a book can grab me as fully as that.

[Miss]

The Institute by Stephen King

[Joana]

O Retrato de Dorian Gray

[Hayley]

The Murderbot Diaries

[Julie]

I read I am a Truck by Michelle Winters and I think it would translate to film well. It has a Fargo feel without all the murder. Short fun book by a Canadian female author. I read it with a book club and we all enjoyed it.