DMPL closed Sunday, March 31

All locations of the Des Moines Public Library will be closed Sunday, March 31 for the Easter holiday.

Binge-then-Read: Golden Globes Edition

And the award goes to...cue dramatic pause. The Golden Globes are Sunday, and to help you prepare, we put together a reading list of books that inspired some of the nominees.

The Queen's Gambit book cover and movie poster side by side

The Queen's Gambit

Show: The Queen's Gambit

Award Nominations: Best Television Motion Picture/Limited Series, and Best Actress - Television Motion Picture/Limited Series

Based on the Book: The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis

The Queen's Gambit took the world by storm in the fall of 2020, when the eight part limited series premiered on Netflix

The book and show follow the story of Beth, a chess prodigy who first learns to play in the basement of an orphanage. Fast-paced and elegantly written, The Queen's Gambit is a thriller masquerading as a chess novel—one that's sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. If you haven't already read it or binged the show, this a a book to add to your TBR.

Lovecraft Country Book Cover and Show Poster side by side

Lovecraft Country

Show: Lovecraft Country

Award Nominations: Best Drama Series

Based on the Book: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

In a hit HBO series, J.J. Abrams brought the visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects. from Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country, to the screen.

Set in Chicago, 1954, Army veteran Atticus Turner and his Uncle George embark on a road trip to New England to find Atticus' missing father. A blend of magic, power, hope, and freedom that stretches across time, Lovecraft Country is a devastating portrait of the racism that continues to haunt us today.

Guantánamo Diary book cover and movie cover side by side

The Mauritanian/Guantánamo Diary

Movie: The Mauritanian

Award Nominations: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Drama

Based on the Book: Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi

The Mauritanian is based on the 2015 memoir Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi about his wrongful detention at the infamous U.S. prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The first, and only, diary written by a still-imprisoned Guantánamo detainee is now adapted as a major motion, and offers a rare look at what life there is like.

News of the World book  cover and movie poster side by side

News of the World

Movie: News of the World

Award Nominations: Best Score - Motion Picture, Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture

Based on the Book: News of the World by Paulette Jiles

In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. He is tasked with delivering a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Over the treacherous 400-mile journey he bonds with the girl. Arriving in San Antonio, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate with a family who does not want her or become—in the eyes of the law—a kidnapper himself.

Hillbilly elegy book cover and movie cover side by side

Hillbilly Elegy

Movie: Hillbilly Elegy

Award Nominations: Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture

Based on the Book: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

Hillbilly Elegy explores the loss of the American Dream in Appalachia. In his critically acclaimed and polarizing memoir, Vance shares the story of his own family's legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma. A thought provoking and touching book you won't want to put down.

Nomadland book cover and movie cover side by side

Nomadland

Movie: Nomadland

Award Nominations: Best Director Motion Picture, Best Picture Drama, Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, Best Screenplay Motion Picture

Based on the Book: Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder

The story follows a new community of nomads in the vanlifers, RV dwellers or "workampers." From the beet fields of North Dakota to the wilderness campgrounds of California to an Amazon warehouse in Texas, people who once might have kicked back to enjoy their sunset years are hard at work. Underwater on mortgages or finding that Social Security comes up short, they're hitting the road in astonishing numbers. 

The Flight Attendant book cover and movie cover side by side

The Flight Attendant

Show: The Flight Attendant

Award Nominations: Best Musical/Comedy Series, Best Television Actress  - Musical/Comedy Series.

Based on the Book: The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian

A flight attendant wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man — and no idea what happened. Follow the story of Cassandra Bowden as she navigates deception, lies, and wondering if she is a killer or if the real killer is still on the loose. This thriller is one you won't want to put down, and a TV show that you are sure to binge.

The Good Lord Bird book cover and movie cover side by side

The Good Lord Bird

Show: The Good Lord Bird

Award Nominations: Best Actor - Television Motion Picture

Based on the Book: The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

The winner of the National Book Award for Fiction now adapted as an HBO Limited Series. A young boy born a slave joins John Brown's antislavery crusade—and who must pass as a girl to survive. An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, and told with McBride's meticulous eye for detail and character, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing adventure and a moving exploration of identity and survival.

Emma book cover and movie cover side by side

Emma

Movie: Emma

Award Nominations: Best Actress - Motion Picture

Based on the Book: Emma by Jane Austen

In this reimagining of Jane Austen's classic satire on what it means to find love, Emma Woodhouse is a selfish young woman who meddles in the love lives of her friends. The story follows her misguided matches, romantic missteps, and how she eventually finds the love that's been there all along.

Normal People book cover and movie cover side by side

Normal People

Show: Normal People

Award Nominations: Best Television Motion Picture/Limited Series, and Best Actress - Television Motion Picture/Limited Series

Based on the Book: Normal People by Sally Rooney

Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Normal People is the story of mutual fascination, friendship and love and tells the story of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t.

Book Bundles We pick them you read them

Fiction to Screen Book Bundles

Want to read more books that have been turned into movies or television shows? Check out one of the Fiction to Screen Book Bundles

Published on February 23, 2021
Last Modified March 29, 2024