Books Coming to the Big Screen in 2019

Two quintessential Seattle novels — Where’d You Go, Bernadette and The Art of Racing in the Rain — are coming to a movie theatre near you in 2019! Some scenes for Bernadette were filmed at our Central Library (and, yes, Cate Blanchette was there, AT OUR LIBRARY!). We can’t wait to see if we made the final cut.

Many other books have been adapted for the screen and will make their debut in 2019, and we’ve listed 10 here with links to the books that inspired them. Time to read and re-read some of these treasures:

The Rhythm Section (opening Feb. 22)
The Book: The Rhythm Section by Mark Burnell.
College student Stephanie Patrick’s life is destroyed after the crash of flight NEO027; her family was on board and there were no survivors. She spins out of control until a reporter discovers the crash was not an accident and Stephanie finds a new focus: revenge.
The Film: Directed by Reed Morano; stars Blake Lively, Jude Law.

Chaos Walking (Opening March 1)
The Book: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking trilogy, Book 1)
When this teen novel first debuted in 2014, The Guardian said in a review, “This novel is intelligent, fast paced, nerve-wracking and at times heart-breaking. This is an amazing opening to an unforgettable trilogy.”
The Film: Directed by Doug Liman; stars Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Nick Jonas

Where’d You Go, Bernadette (Opening March 22)
The Book: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
When brilliant and hilarious architect Bernadette has trouble acclimating to the Seattle culture—to the point of escaping to Antarctica—her daughter Bee is determined to find her and bring her home. If you know someone new to Seattle, this novel might be the quickest way to get a beat on local oddities and traffic. And did we mention that scenes were filmed at our Central Library???
The Film: Directed by Richard Linklater; stars Cate Blanchette, Billy Crudup, Emma Nelson, Kristen Wiig, Laurence Fishburne

The Best of Enemies (Opening April 5)
The Book: The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South by Osha Gray Davidson
Civil rights activist Ann Atwater faces off against a leader of the Ku Klux Klan about school integration in 1971 Durham, North Carolina.
The Film: Directed by Robin Bissel; stars Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, Babou Cessay, Anne Heche

The Aftermath (Opening April 26)
The Book: The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook
Assigned to oversee the reconstruction of Hamburg in the tumultuous year following World War II, Colonel Lewis Morgan grieves the loss of his son while living with his family in the home of a German widower, an arrangement that forces both families to confront their passions and true selves.
The Film: Directed by James Kent; stars Keira Knighitley, Alexander Skarsgard,

Artemis Fowl (Opening August 9)
The Book: The Aremis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl II, a young Irish criminal mastermind, kidnaps the fairy LEPrecon officer Holly Short for ransom to fund the search for his missing father in order to restore the family fortune. The first book in the middle grade series debuted in 2001.
The Film: Directed by Kenneth Branagh; stars Ferdia Shaw, Lara McDonnell, Tamara Smart, Nonso Anozie, Hong Chau, Judi Dench

The Kitchen (Opening Sept. 20)
The Book: The Kitchen comic book series by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle
The wives of New York gangsters in Hell’s Kitchen in the 1970s continue the family business after their racketeer husbands are locked up. When the graphic novel was published in 2014, The AV Club’s headline said it’s “a rare mob drama that puts women in power.”
The Film: Directed by Andrea Berloff; stars Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Elisabeth Moss

The Art of Racing in the Rain (Opening Sept. 27)
The Book: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
A dog named Enzo recalls the life lessons he has learned from, Denny, his race car driving owner. Enzo’s voice in the novel is unforgettable — and I’m not saying that just because I’m a dog lover. The Art of Racing in the Rain is a wonderfully written true character-driven novel, and Seattle has a starring role. See also Garth Stein’s picture books starring Enzo.
The Film: Directed by Simon Curtis; starring Milo Ventimiglia, Amanda Seyfried, and Kevin Costner as the voice Enzo (!)

The Woman in the Window (Opening Oct. 4)
The Book: The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
With its echo of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, references to other films, and a pacing that unfolds like a movie, it’s no surprise that Finn’s debut novel is being made into a movie. The set up is a woman whose world gets smaller and smaller as her anxiety keeps her inside her house, where she keeps a watchful eye on everything in the neighborhood. I have a friend who says she literally screamed at one scene towards the end. Be prepared: Read the book before seeing the movie.
The Film: Directed by Joe Wright; stars Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman,

The Goldfinch (Opening Oct. 11)
The Book: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
A boy in New York is taken in by a wealthy Upper East Side family after his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction in 2014.
The Film: Directed by John Crowley; stars Sarah Paulson, Nicole Kidman, Ansel Elgort

~ Posted by Linda J.

To Every Friendship There is a Season

One of the things I constantly try to remind myself and others is that expectations are a relationship killer. And while I was thinking of that in romantic terms, I should have also been looking at that in friendships too.

Friendships have been on my mind a lot lately —friendships lost, tested, stretched, made, molded —and what it all becomes. I’ve been looking back at my friendships over the years and some really hard friendship breaks…almost worse than a break up really. That anxiety that builds up and you feel like you’re drowning and don’t know what to do to save it. I found some advice recently that really empowered me:

1. Take what people have to offer and forgive the rest.

2. Give only what you can.

3. Keep the memories close.

Sometimes a friend feels like a constant in life and you think that that reassuring hand is always going to be there, but sometimes those expectations set you both up to fail. One person can’t be everything —there will be moments of time that your friends will occupy, but it ebbs and flows. And same goes for you! You can’t always be there for someone else or be expected to be. It’s a truly beautiful thing when friends have a life without you and vice versa, and even though you miss that contact you once had, it doesn’t make that time any less important or valuable.

Here are several reads in our collection that touch on just that:

Friendship by Emily Gould

“Two young women try to create the glamorous lives they’ve imagined for themselves while talking on Gchat from their desks at their less-than-ideal jobs. Bev left her cool-sounding but dispiriting entry-level position at a Manhattan publishing house to follow her boyfriend to the Midwest. Bad move. Now she’s back in New York, single again, and temping. Amy’s been working for three years at Yidster, “the third-most-popular online destination for cultural coverage with a modern Jewish angle,” but is basically just floating through life on a diet of clicks and tweets, hoping her boyfriend will move in with her so she’ll be able to keep paying the rent on her lovely brownstone apartment in Brooklyn. When Bev gets pregnant on a hilariously dreadful first date, the women are forced to confront their differing dreams and priorities.” -Publisher’s Weekly

The Cast by Amy Blumenfeld

“A reunion of old friends reveals the cracks in their perfect facades in this promising  novel. Becca, Jordana, Lex, Seth, and Holly are all about 40 years of age. They’ve been friends since childhood, and they all banded together when Becca was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a teenager, and they stayed connected through her treatment and into adulthood. As the 25th anniversary of Becca’s cancer remission approaches, Jordana decides to get the gang back together and throw a reunion party. What’s supposed to be a lighthearted weekend of reconnection, however, quickly goes off the rails. In the end, the members of the group must decide if their friendship is still strong enough to keep them together.” -Publisher’s Weekly

Invincible Summer by Alice Adams

“Adams’ novel follows a tightknit quartet of college friends as they navigate their shifting relationships—and evolving identities—over the course of two decades. After graduating from university in Bristol, Benedict, Eva, Sylvie, and Sylvie’s brother, Lucien, are on the cusp of their futures.  The world seems alight with possibility; their bond feels unshakable. But as the years pass, and the disappointments of adulthood accumulate, the ties that once bound them begin to fray.” -Publisher’s Weekly

Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley

“The 30-year bond between a quartet of close friends—two couples—comes unglued when one of them dies unexpectedly. Christine and Alex and Lydia and Zachary have been close since their early 20s; now in their 50s, they’re still close, the friendships among them still anchoring their lives. And then one night, Christine and Alex are listening to music when the telephone rings. It’s Lydia, from the hospital. Zachary is dead.  In the immediate aftermath of his death, the families band together: Alex goes to collect Lydia and Zachary’s daughter from college; Lydia comes to live, for a while, with her best friends. The women have been close since childhood, Lydia theatrical and romantic and borderline frivolous; Christine serious and artistic, the practical one of the pair. For three decades, they remained close, the history between them no threat to the happy present. But after Zachary’s death, their pleasant equilibrium is thrown forever off-kilter, as remnants from the past bubble up to the surface.” -Publisher’s Weekly

~posted by Kara P.

Seattle Rep’s LAST OF THE BOYS: Beyond the Theatre

Seattle Repertory Theatre presents LAST OF THE BOYS by Steven Dietz, directed by Braden Abraham, from January 18 to February 10, 2019. Librarians at Seattle Public Library created this list of books, films, and music to enhance your experience of the show.

Seattle’s prolific and industrious playwright Steven Dietz received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for LAST OF THE BOYS, which was written and first produced in 2004.

For Your Listening Pleasure: Always Available Audiobooks

Are you looking for a digital audiobook to listen to while you’re waiting for Becoming to become available? Are you dreading the Seattle Squeeze and wondering how you’ll pass the time on those long commutes? We’ve got a solution for you. Fifty of them, actually.

The Seattle Public Library is happy to provide 50 Always Available Audiobooks through OverDrive! You can access them through OverDrive’s Libby app or stream them from your desktop computer, and they are available immediately. No holds, no wait, no worries!

Bus Reads for January

Commuting to Seattle by bus five days a week gives me a lot of reading time.

Here’s what I read on the bus in January:

The River at Night by Erica Ferenik. Every year four friends, Wini, Pia, Sandra, and Rachel plan a trip, to spend time together and get away from everyday life. This year it’s a five day white water rafting trip in the Maine wilderness. Wini is not too keen on the idea and everything is telling her not to go, but these are her best friends. Together these women set off on this once in a lifetime adventure; however, all does not go as planned and it will take everything they have to try to survive. A fun read, quick and exciting. It had moments of predictability, but the language and writing was fantastic. She really captured place and setting well. While the narrator Wini, was definitely my gal, I would have liked to hear more from the other women, maybe chapters back and forth. However, you get their stories throughout so they become known to you.