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A list of lauded books that have been made into beloved films.
Updated September 19, 2022
Unbound Librarians
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Where the crawdads sing
Owens, Delia
In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a heartbreaking coming of age story and a surprising murder investigation. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens's debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were,...
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English patient
Ondaatje, Michael, 1943-
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The bestselling author of Warlight traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an abandoned Italian villa at the end of World War II. "A rare spellbinding web of dreams." --Time The nurse Hana, exhausted by...
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Bridget Jones's diary
Fielding, Helen, 1958-
"130 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds overnight? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier (repulsive, horrifying notion)); alcohol units 2 (excellent) cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow); number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but...
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To kill a mockingbird
Lee, Harper.
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made...
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Roots
Haley, Alex.
The monumental bestseller! Alex Haley recaptures his family's history in this drama of eighteenth-century slave Kunta Kinte and his descendants.
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Little women
Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888.
The beautiful Meg, artistic tomboy Jo, doomed Beth, and selfish Amy: since the publication of "Little Women in 1869, these four sisters have become America's most beloved literary siblings. Louisa May Alcott's rich and realistic portrait has inspired three movies and stirred the emotions of...
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Color purple
Walker, Alice, 1944-
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that tells the story of two sisters through their correspondence. With a new Preface by the author.
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Age of innocence
Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937.
Set in old New York, this novel details the thwarted romance between Newland Archer, a young dandy, and the beautiful, unconventional divorceee Countess Ellen Olenska. The cast of characters includes Newland's docile - and calculating - fiancee, May Welland and the lordly Mrs Manson Mingott.
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Doctor Zhivago
Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich, 1890-1960.
In the grand tradition of the epic novel, Boris Pasternak's masterpiece brings to life the drama and immensity of the Russian Revolution through the story of the gifted physician-poet, Zhivago; the revolutionary, Strelnikov; and Lara, the passionate woman they both love. Caught up...
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Anna Karenin
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
Anna is the gracious wife of Karenin, an ageing government official. She meets Count Vronsky through whom she rediscovers her passionate nature. Leaving her home and child to be with Vronsky, Anna defies society and convention. But as love dies away, suffering, and finally tragedy take its place.
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Atonement
McEwan, Ian.
On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her older sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching Cecilia is their housekeeper’s son Robbie Turner, a childhood friend who, along with Briony&...
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Big little lies
Moriarty, Liane
From the author of Here One Moment and The Husband's Secret comes the #1 New York Times bestselling novel about the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive. THE INSPIRATION FOR THE AWARD-WINNING HBO® SERIES STARRING REESE...
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Brokeback mountain
Proulx, Annie.
A stand alone edition of Annie Proulx's beloved story "Brokeback Mountain" (in the collection Close Range)--the basis for the major motion picture directed by Ang Lee, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, screenplay by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Annie Proulx...
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Dracula
Stoker, Bram, 1847-1912.
'The very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years' Arthur Conan Doyle A masterpiece of the horror genre, Dracula also probes identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. It begins when Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to...
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The Godfather
Puzo, Mario
The unforgettable saga of an American crime family that became a #1 bestseller and global phenomenon. Since its release in 1969, The Godfather has made an indelible mark on American crime fiction. From the mind of master storyteller Mario Puzo, it traces the Corleone...
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Hours
Cunningham, Michael, 1952-
A daring, deeply affecting third novel by the author ofA Home at the End of the WorldandFlesh and Blood. InThe Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation, draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia...
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Jane Eyre
Brontë, Charlotte
Orphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, where she endures loneliness and cruelty, and at a charity school with a harsh regime. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds a position as governess at...
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No country for old men
McCarthy, Cormac, 1933-
Set in our own time along the bloody frontier between Texas and Mexico, this is Cormac McCarthy’s first novel since Cities of the Plain completed his acclaimed, best-selling Border Trilogy. Llewelyn Moss, hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, instead finds men shot...
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One flew over the cuckoo's nest
Kesey, Ken.
An international bestseller and the basis for the hugely successful film, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of the defining works of the 1960s. In this classic novel, Ken Kesey's hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who...
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Practical magic
Hoffman, Alice.
For more than two hundred years, the Owens women had been blamed for everything that went wrong in their Massachusetts town. And Gillian and Sally endured that fate as well: As children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to...
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Princess bride S Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high adventure
Goldman, William, 1931-2018.
William Goldman's beloved story of Buttercup, Westley, and their fellow adventurers. This tale of true love, high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts was unforgettably depicted in the 1987 film directed by...
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Gone with the wind
Mitchell, Margaret, 1900-1949.
Since its original publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind--winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the bestselling novels of all time--has been heralded by readers everywhere as The Great American Novel. Widely considered The Great American Novel, and often remembered for...
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Shining
King, Stephen, 1947-
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME * Before Doctor Sleep, there was The Shining, a classic of modern American horror. Jack Torrance takes a job as the caretaker of the remote Overlook...
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Talented Mr Ripley
Highsmith, Patricia, 1921-1995.
In a chilling literary hall of mirrors, Patricia Highsmith introduces Tom Ripley. Like a hero in a latter-day Henry James novel, is sent to Italy with a commission to coax a prodigal young American back to his wealthy father. But Ripley finds himself very fond of Dickie Greenleaf. He wants to be...
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True grit
Portis, Charles.
A #1 New York Times bestseller, Charles Portis's True Grit is "an epic and a legend" (Washington Post), a story of danger and adventure in the Old West--the basis for two award-winning films, the first starring John Wayne in his only Oscar-winning role, as...
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Wild from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Strayed, Cheryl, 1968-
NATIONAL BEST SELLER * Oprah's Book Club 2.0 selection. * A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought...
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Virgin suicides
Eugenides, Jeffrey.
This beautiful and sad first novel, recently adapted for a major motion picture, tells of a band of teenage sleuths who piece together the story of a twenty-year old family tragedy begun by the youngest daughter's spectacular demise by self-defenstration, which inaugurates 'the year of the suicides....
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Schindler's list
Keneally, Thomas.
The acclaimed bestselling classic of Holocaust literature, winner of the Booker Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, and the inspiration for the classic film--"a masterful account of the growth of the human soul" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). A...
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Lord of the rings
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1892-1973.
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him....
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Fight Club
Palahniuk, Chuck.
The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club. In his debut novel, Chuck Palahniuk showed himself to be his generation's most visionary satirist. Fight Club's estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an...
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Room
Donoghue, Emma, 1969-
The award-winning bestseller that became one of the most talked about and memorable novels of the decade, Room is "utterly gripping...a heart-stopping novel" (San Francisco Chronicle). Held captive for years in a small shed, a woman and her...
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ティファニーで朝食を / (Japanese)
Capote, Truman
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American psycho
Ellis, Bret Easton.
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * In this modern classic, the acclaimed author of The Shards explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. "A seminal book." --The Washington Post
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Trainspotting
Welsh, Irvine.
It accomplished for its own time and place what Hubert Selby, Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn did for his. Rents, Sick Boy, Mother Superior, Swanney, Spuds, and Seeker are as unforgettable a clutch of junkies, rude boys, and psychos as readers will ever encounter. Trainspotting was made into the 1996...
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