Books Made into Oscar-Nominated Films

Before they were nominated for Academy Awards, these stories were books. Which do you prefer, the book or the movie?

Updated March 17, 2025
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Twelve years a slave : narrative of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New-York, kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and rescued in 1853
Northup, Solomon 1808-1863?
Paper Book
The story that inspired the major motion picture, with an introduction by the bestselling author of Wench, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing, vividly detailed, and utterly unforgettable account of slavery. The story that inspired the major...

306.362 N819 2013

A long way home
Brierley, Saroo
Paper Book
First it was a media sensation. Then it became the New York Times bestseller and #1 international bestseller A Long Way Home. Now it's Lion, the major motion picture starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, and Rooney Mara--nominated for six Academy Awards! This is the...

362.734 B766 2014

Nomadland : surviving America in the twenty-first century
Bruder, Jessica
Paper Book
The inspiration for Chloé Zhao's 2020 Golden Globe award-winning film starring Frances McDormand. "People who thought the 2008 financial collapse was over a long time ago need to meet the people Jessica Bruder got to know in this scorching, beautifully written, vivid, disturbing...

331.398 Bruder 2017

Room [a novel]
Donoghue, Emma 1969-
Audiobook
Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.
Erasure : a novel
Everett, Percival
Paper Book
Percival Everett's blistering satire about race and publishing, now adapted for the screen as AMERICAN FICTION, directed by Cord Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright and Tracee Ellis Ross Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has...
The curious case of Benjamin Button
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott) 1896-1940
Paper Book
In his short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, F. Scott Fitzgerald provides a humorous and touching journey that reveals what it's like to be born old and age in reverse. With art by Calef Brown, this collector's edition presents this classic story in illustrated form for the...
Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI
Grann, David
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, "one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."--New York...

970.3 Osage Grann 2017

Les misérables
Hugo, Victor 1802-1885
Paper Book
Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful and tactile cloth. This beautiful clothbound edition of Victor Hugo's tale of injustice,...
Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race
Shetterly, Margot Lee
Paper Book
Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South and the civil rights movement, Hidden Figures is the never-before-told story of NASA's African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America's space program--and whose contributions have been unheralded, until now. Before...

510.92 L516 2016

The big short : inside the doomsday machine
Lewis, Michael
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller: a brilliant account--character-rich and darkly humorous--of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff. When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the...

330.973 L587

The blind side : evolution of a game
Lewis, Michael (Michael M.)
Paper Book
The Blind Side is a feature movie based on Michael's Lewis'sNew York Times bestseller, produced by Alcon Entertainmentand distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The Blind Sidetells the inspirational true story of Michael Oher, a homelessblack teen taken under the wing of the...
The King's speech
Logue, Mark.
Paper Book
It's the eve of World War II, and King Edward VIII has abdicated the throne of England to marry the woman he loves. Never has the nation needed a leader more. But the new monarch, George VI--father of today's Queen Elizabeth II--is painfully shy and cursed with a terrible stammer. How can he inspire...

941.084 L829yL 2010

Wicked : the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West :a novel
Maguire, Gregory
Paper Book
The New York Times bestseller and basis for the Tony Award-winning hit musical, soon to be a major motion picture starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. With millions of copies in print around the world, Gregory Maguire's Wicked is established not only...
Life of Pi : a novel
Martel, Yann.
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE The international bestseller and modern classic of adventure, survival, and the power of storytelling is now an award-winning play.  "A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction."--Los Angeles Times Book Review  ...
War horse
Morpurgo, Michael.
Paper Book
A new paperback with a gorgeous cover from the upcoming movie! In 1914, Joey, a beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the...
Desolation island
O'Brian, Patrick 1914-2000
Paper Book
"The relationship [between Aubrey and Maturin]...is about the best thing afloat....For Conradian power of description and sheer excitement there is nothing in naval fiction to beat the stern chase as the outgunned Leopard staggers through mountain waves i
True grit
Portis, Charles.
Paper Book
.".. published in the year 2010 by arrangement with Simon & Schuster"--T.p. verso.
The revenant : a novel of revenge
Punke, Michael
Paper Book
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge set against the nineteenth-century American frontier, Michael Punke's The Revenant is the astonishing story of real-life trapper and frontiersman Hugh...
All quiet on the western front : a novel
Remarque, Erich Maria 1898-1970
Paper Book
The masterpiece of the German experience during World War I, considered by many the greatest war novel of all time--with an Oscar-winning film adaptation now streaming on Netflix.   "[Erich Maria Remarque] is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank."--...
Push
Sapphire 1950-
Paper Book
The acclaimed book that inspired Precious, the Sundance Film Festival winner from Lee Daniels "Even though the film Precious packs quite a wallop, the gritty realism of the novel upon which the movie is based is even more intense." --NPR
The reader
Schlink, Bernhard.
Paper Book
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER *  Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany. "A formally beautiful...
The help
Stockett, Kathryn.
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestselling novel and basis for the Academy Award-winning film--a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't--nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read. Aibileen is a...
Women talking : a novel
Toews, Miriam 1964-
Paper Book
The internationally bestselling novel based on real events. Now a major motion picture from writer/director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, with Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand. "This amazing, sad, shocking, but touching novel, based on a real...
The fellowship of the ring : being the first part of The lord of the rings
Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel) 1892-1973
Paper Book
The opening novel of The Lord of the Rings--the greatest fantasy epic of all time--which continues in The Two Towers and The Return of the King.   Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read...
The return of the king (part 3, the lord of the rings) (PBK).
Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel) 1892-1973
Paper Book
The awesome conclusion to The Lord of the Rings--the greatest fantasy epic of all time--which began in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read ...
The Lord of the rings , : Part two : The Two Towers (pbk).
Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel) 1892-1973
Paper Book
The middle novel in The Lord of the Rings--the greatest fantasy epic of all time--which began in The Fellowship of the Ring, and which reaches its magnificent climax in The Return of the King. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The...
Brooklyn : a novel
Tóibín, Colm 1955-
Paper Book
Colm Tóibín's New York Times bestselling novel--now an acclaimed film starring Saoirse Ronan and Jim Broadbent nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture--is "a moving, deeply satisfying read" (Entertainment Weekly) about a young Irish immigrant in Brooklyn in the...
The Nickel boys : a novel
Whitehead, Colson 1969-
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. * "One of the most gifted novelists in...

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