Books Made into Movies

My Sister’s Keeper is a 2004 novel by bestselling author Jodi Picoult centered on the controversy of savior siblings. In the novel, Anna Fitzgerald fights for medical emancipation in order to have a choice in whether or not she will donate a kidney to her sister, Kate, who has leukemia. In 2009, the novel was adapted into a feature film released by New Line Cinema. The movie was directed by Nick Cassavetes and starred Cameron... Read My Sister's Keeper Summary

Naked Lunch is a 1959 novel by American author William. S. Burroughs. In it, Lee, a heroin user, looks to escape New York to avoid arrest by the police. He thus embarks on a journey through Philadelphia and Mexico before arriving in the fictional state of Freeland, where all life is well-ordered and hygienic. Following a riot in a Freeland psychological reconditioning center, however, Lee flees to the strange and fantastical city of Interzone. There... Read Naked Lunch Summary

Nine Perfect Strangers is a 2018 novel by Liane Moriarty. Set in Sydney, Australia, the novel follows a group of strangers who gather at a wellness retreat to receive treatment from a mysterious health guru. The novel was adapted for a 2021 television series starring Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, and Michael Shannon.Other works by this author include Apples Never Fall, What Alice Forgot, and Here One Moment.This guide uses an eBook copy of the text... Read Nine Perfect Strangers Summary

In No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell investigates a sudden spate of murders in his typically quiet corner of the Texas borderlands. Llewelyn Moss, a Vietnam vet and hunter, gets caught up in the aftermath of a drug-deal gone wrong, and soon both Sheriff Bell and a mysterious hit-man race to be the first to track Moss down: one with the intention of saving his life and the other... Read No Country for Old Men Summary

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Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff is the first installment of a historical fiction trilogy originally published in 1990 that explores the lives of a Māori family in early 1990s New Zealand. In the first year of its publication, it won the PEN Best First Book award and was the runner-up for the Goodman Fielder Wattie Award. In 1994, Once Were Warriors was optioned and made into a movie of the same name, which won... Read Once Were Warriors Summary

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Pay It Forward is a novel that centers on the lives of three individuals in Atascadero, California, a California city roughly equidistant from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Reuben, a middle school social studies teacher, has recently moved to the area. Reuben is disfigured and one of the few black people in Atascadero. The second character, Arlene, is a single mother who struggles with alcoholism and her poor taste in men, namely Ricky, her son’s... Read Pay It Forward Summary

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic memoir and coming-of-age tale about Satrapi’s experiences growing up in Tehran, Iran, before and after the revolution in 1979. Originally published in France to critical acclaim in four volumes between 2000-2003, it was translated into English in two volumes in 2003 and 2004 and explores themes of Coming of Age During Revolution, Civil Unrest, and War, Family Resistance and Heroism, Joy in Wartimen... Read Persepolis Summary

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return is the sequel to Marjane Satrapi’s bestselling graphic memoir, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, which was published in four volumes between 2000 and 2003. The early memoir documents Marjane’s childhood in Iran during the transition to fundamentalist Islamic control and concludes in her departure at age 14 in 1984. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return was released in 2004 and documents the author’s teenage years in... Read Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return Summary

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Play It as It Lays is a novel by Joan Didion published in 1970. It was named one of TIME’s 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923-2005, cementing its status as one of the greatest works of American literature. In 1972, the novel was adapted for film, and Didion and her husband co-wrote the screenplay.Joan Didion is known for her fiction and nonfiction as well as for screenplays and a memoir entitled The Year of Magical Thinking. She has received... Read Play It As It Lays Summary

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The novel Q & A, by Vikas Swarup, chronicles the various misadventures of protagonist Ram Mohammad Thomas, a penniless teenager who has been arrested for answering twelve questions correctly on the TV quiz show Who Will Win a Billion? Defying conventional temporal chronologies, each chapter, connected to a question from the quiz show, helps to explain how Thomas knew the correct answer, while alsoserving as a vignette of Thomas’s life. Q & A is a... Read Q & A Summary

Red Dragon is a 1986 crime novel by Thomas Harris. The story follows the psychological profiler Will Graham, who comes out of retirement to track down a serial killer. The novel is famous for introducing the character of Hannibal Lecter, who would play an expanded role in the novel’s sequels. Red Dragon has been adapted for film and television.This guide is written using the eBook version of the 2000 Penguin edition of the novel.Content Warning:... Read Red Dragon Summary

Jonathan Larson, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics, began working on the American rock opera Rent in 1989, when playwright Billy Aronson sought a collaborator for an adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème (1896) set in contemporary New York City. Later, Larson completed the project on his own with Aronson’s blessing and credited him for his contributions.Rent was an immediate hit, lauded for broaching the issue of HIV/AIDS, depicting LGBTQ+ identities, and including... Read Rent Summary

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Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy by the English playwright William Shakespeare. It is among Shakespeare’s best-known plays and, like its author, has been highly influential in shaping the course of English-language literature. First performed before 1597 (the date of its earliest known printing), it has been popular ever since. Like most of Shakespeare’s plays, it employs a combination of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) and prose, with occasional deviations in form; for example, Shakespeare... Read Romeo and Juliet Summary

Rosemary’s Baby is a Gothic horror novel by American writer Ira Levin. Published in 1967, it was a bestseller that was adapted into a critically acclaimed 1968 film starring Mia Farrow and directed by her husband, Roman Polanski. The novel is known for its focus on themes like women’s liberation and reproductive freedom, urban paranoia and fears of surveillance, and the relationship between conservative Christianity and the occult in the 20th century. Critics have also... Read Rosemary's Baby Summary