When recommended books become movies
It seems 2014 is a huge year for movies based on best-selling books. Catch up with your book club before having a girls’ night out to see one of the movies and decide if the film measures up to the book. Recommended books being made into movies this year range from a harrowing memoir to young adult classics, so all readers — and viewers — will be able to compare some favorite reads to their corresponding movies this year.
Thrillers keep you up at night
Best-selling thrillers keep you reading late into the night, the nightstand light the only thing protecting you from what lurks in the darkest parts of your imagination. Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl took the reading world by storm, and the page-turner caused readers to backtrack to her first two books. Hollywood took note, and two of Flynn’s books are coming to movie theaters this year. Dark Places is slated to release in September and Gone Girl in October, and movie-goers will be on the edge of their seats if the movies are nearly as chilling as the books (available on Amazon, $9).
Tackle tough subjects with your kids
When it comes to talking about tough subjects with your kids, books can truly open a door to conversations. John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars is a book about kids with cancer that’s about so much more than cancer (Amazon, $8). Let Hazel and Gus, the novel’s main characters, help you discuss being different, feeling alone and hope that blossoms through pain. The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is a children’s lit classic that can help parents and children talk about death, memory and the connection between joy and pain. Read the books with your kids, or read them on your own and take them to the movies, letting the fictional characters lead your very real conversations.
Anglophiles will love this dramatic comedy
When three Brits and one American — all suicidal — connect on New Year’s Eve, their conversations cut to the marrow of the twists and turns of life. In Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down, four compelling first-person narratives draw in the reader (Amazon, $11). The movie will attempt to entertain in the same way this spring.
A day out with your teens
Divergent (Veronica Roth) and Vampire Academy (Richelle Mead) are both voraciously-read book series whose first movies arrive in theaters this year (Amazon, $5). Your teens will likely want to see these movies — and you will, too, after reading the fun, quick-paced books. Whether or not they’re going to share their popcorn with you might depend on their moods, but you’ll definitely have something to discuss at dinner for a few nights.
The eleven-hundred mile memoir
Wild, by Cheryl Strayd, is a memoir made for book clubs (Amazon, $7). The overarching theme through the book is the question of how to rebuild your life when you’ve lost everything that meant anything. With Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon lacing up Strayd’s shoes for the movie version of Wild, the film promises to deliver the emotional journey within the pages of the book.
