Been a while since we had an FMBD post. As I washed my beard on Saturday I found myself wondering whether The Boss’ POTUS biography journey has made it into the hirsute Chief Executive era.
We’ve had some CoC chatter about the new Dune film adaptation. I’ve been watching & enjoying Foundation on Apple TV+, but I’m not familiar with Asimov’s series. The same was true for The Expanse (final season drops on Prime in December) and James A. Corey’s novels. I’ve been meaning to start reading those.
What previously-unadapted* novel or series would you like to see get the (home) cinema treatment? On my film list are: Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, J. M. G. Le Clézio’s Désert, & Vonnegut’s Player Piano. Eugene Vodolazkin‘s Laurus, Richard Ford’s Canada, & Richard Powers’ The Overstory all seem ripe for a high-quality miniseries treatment.
My current read is Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Committed, which is a follow-up to The Sympathizer.
* We can hold ourselves to English-language adaptations.
Beat me to it CH. I was planning a book post too. Probably a good thing, your topic is a fun one. I'm gonna give it some thought.
On a recommendation from this site, I picked up The Thursday Murder Club, since I dig mysteries. I cannot similarly recommend it. I finished it, since it wasn't bad enough to quit on, but it really wasn't that exciting. And for me, the cardinal sin of a mystery story is if there is just no way for the reader/viewer to put together clues in any sort of usable fashion, and this book was basically that.
for some reason, I am re-reading (for the 6th or 7th or 8th time) Dune. So much detail that I had forgotten.
We saw Dune last night. I liked it. Obviously more polished than the original. I loved the original despite it's flaws. This version was different, but I enjoyed it. They sure got a lot of big names in the cast. I thought Lady Jessica was possibly a miss in terms of casting, but we will see how she does in the second movie. My wife and son were pretty disappointed with the ending of this first installment, but I am unsure how else they could have finished it. My one other thought was the Baron Harkonnen portrayal was very similar to Brando's performance in Apocalypse Now. Obviously, not the same level as Brando, but so similar that it was almost distracting.
Looking forward to the Wheel of Time series on Amazon. I don't subscribe to Amazon, so I have to do a bit of research to see if I can watch it once it is released, or wait until I have other options. The trailers look pretty good. Not sure how well this subject matter will translate to the screen, but looks promising... I think? I have read the books countless times, so it is a world I am familiar with and am curious to see what they do with it.
Likewise, optimistic about the Wheel. Hoping they have enough budget so that the CGI doesn't suck.
https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily-cartoon/monday-november-1st-pumpkin-spice
I jotted down my top five, then double checked on IMDb to see if they had ever been made into movies without my knowledge. I had The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinsky on the list but it turns out it was made into a (foreign language) film by a Czech director in 2019. It was critically acclaimed, the trailer looks intriguing, and it's available to view on Hulu, so I'm going to watch it sometime this week. Otherwise, my top five are:
1. Grand Opening - Jon Hassler (a limited series, please)
2. Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein (reportedly in development by SyFy since 2016)
3. The First Man in Rome - Colleen McCullough (the entire series, it would be a massive undertaking)
4. The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien (reportedly in production)
5. American Rust - Philipp Meyer (reportedly in development)
I read The Painted Bird sometime around 30 years ago (I think? I have learned my memories of such things can be different than reality). I still think about that book quite often. I will have to check out the film on Hulu as well.
Series/books that I would like to see an adaption for:
* Culture series by Iain Banks. From Wikipedia's description of the series:
* Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Maybe with the success of Good Omens, it could happen.
* Pretty much any Neil Stephenson book. Snow Crash or The Diamond Age shouldn't be too long or hard. Later books get real deep in esoteric topics that adapting them would lose the charm.
* The first Mistborn trilogy by the absurdly prolific Brandon Sanderson. Looks like someone has already bought the rights for his entire works so it could happen.
Terry Pratchett is where my head went as well. Could be a lot of fun.
Neither are film adaptions or probably ever be, but I read two excellent non-fictions this fall.
Shakespeare in a Divided America This is tells how Shakespeare's books have been used an related to big issues in American History from Manifest Destiny to Lincoln's Assassination to the Civil Rights movement. It's a relatively easy read too and highly recommended for anyone interested in Shakespeare and American History.
The other was the Reason for Darkness at Night. It's basically a biography of Edgar Allen Poe but focusing on his science writings as the United States (and the world) was entering into a new era of scientific discovery. This one is a little more niche-y but still a fun read, plus you get to learn more about EAP.
Foundation, like Martian Chronicles or I, Robot, are not really good candidates for movie treatments - more workable would be "inspired by" films (the Will Smith "I, Robot" wasn't bad, 'cept for Shia LaBeouf's unnecessary character). Much of Foundation isn't actually found in the books, from what I've heard.
I'm looking forward to seeing how they do with The Three Body Problem; I'm not sure that they've started filming yet.
I always thought that The World According to Garp was fairly faithful to the book, despite leaving out the last quarter of the book's long wrap up.
I've started Three Body recently, and am interesed in how that one will adapt, based on what I've read so far. I feel like an adaptation is going to need to move more threads at the same time than the book is reading, otherwise the episodes would really just follow a single character, and could grow a bit monotone.
I'd love to see an adaptation of Red Rising by Pierce Brown. The main issue I see in that one is that the first book is very different from the second and third (and I haven't read the 4th or 5th to know how those are), that I could see it struggling to find an audience.
I've recently read Mistborn and The Well of Ascension. Wouldn't mind seeing that in movie/tv form. However, I fear it would suffer from having exciting premiers and finales and not much in the middle.
Currently reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. While The Martian translated well into a movie, I'm not sure this would. Jury's still out. I'm only about 2/3 through it though.
PHM would be a tough one.
The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorites. I agree it would be cool to see on the big screen, and I have the same reservations as you do.
My kids would love a Wings of Fire series. And probably a Percy Jackson series that wasn't awful like the two movies.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane could be an amazing movie, and given Gaiman's stuff all seems to be getting picked up, that might well happen someday.
I'd think a world based on Haroun & The Sea of Stories or a few other of Rushdie's realistic-magic worlds would be things I'd get wrapped up in pretty easily.
I think a Exit West by Mohsin Hamid would make an enjoyable movie. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart could be an great, season 4 of The Wire-esque soul-crushing miniseries.
Lots of recent reads:
I finished J.R. months ago and the absurdity was fantastic. Philo, did you get through it?
Much more recently, I just finished At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (translated by Anna Moschovakis). The story was pretty straight-forward, but I appreciated that it was a completely different way to share both a WWI story and a story regarding local storytelling.
Megan Kate Nelson's The Three-Cornered War about the battles between the Union, the Confederates, and then the Union and Apaches and Navajos after the Confederates were defeated in New Mexico and Arizona. It was richly researched, but the (understandable focus given the dearth of primary source material) on a few people just didn't quite work for me. Still, it's always good to get exposure to a different take on the Civil War.
Les Payne's The Dead Are ARising was a strangely organized Malcolm X "biography." I found Manning Marable's recent biography to be a little more coherent. Still, the long section about the meeting with the head of the Atlanta Klan in 1960 was fascinating.
I read William Manchester's Death of a President in pieces in between other books over the course of several months, and it was excellent. Manchester is such a great storyteller, and it helped that Jackie Kennedy got him unfettered access to pretty much everyone even tangentially related to November 22, 1963. I believe I heard that Lee Harvey Oswald's widow was the only person among more than a 1,000 asked who refused an interview request. The part I found most fascinating was the wrangling to get Sarah Hughes to the airport to administer an oath to LBJ on Air Force One. Not only does Manchester detail all the logistics of finding a federal judge and getting her to the airport (and figure out the text for her to use), but Manchester also noted that LBJ already took the oath an oath to uphold the Constitution on January 20, 1961, so the entire process was unnecessary because LBJ automatically became President the moment JFK died (although the tradition of administering a new oath to an ascending Vice President had started with Tyler).
Luke Epplin's Our Team was a very good look at the 1948 Cleveland team through the lens of Bill Veeck, Satchel Paige, Bob Feller, and Larry Doby. It's one of the best baseball books I've read in awhile.
Patrick Radden Keefe's Empire of Pain sure makes you hate the Sackler Family. I finished the book a few weeks before the judge approved the bankruptcy proceeding that shielded most of their billions. A really good book about an infuriating story. His The Snakehead about the underground immigration of 1000's from Hunan Province in China was not quiet as compelling.
Marcia Chatelain's Franchise: the Golden Arches in Black America could have been really, really good, but it seemed like a series of related short stories rather than a wholly coherent book.
Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre was a wacky, Coen Brothersesque story. It definitely could come from the Raising Arizona universe.
David Zucchino's Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy was a fantastically written history of a story I knew little about. I'm sure the anti-CRT folks won't want people to know about this horrific moment in our Nation's history.
I don't know why, but Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet did nothing for me.
Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending, however, was fantastic. I was impressed at how much depth was packed in such a short, tight story.
I have about two chapters left of William Manchester's The Glory and the Dream, William Manchester's history of the US from 1932-72, and it's another spectacularly-written read. I know some of his later stuff become a bit of a mess, but boy was he great (almost Robert Caro!) at the peak of his powers.
I did not get through J.R.. What I read was hilarious and enjoyable, but I just needed something more obviously plot-driven at the time. I'll almost certainly try it again in the future, since what I read was fantastic.
"The Burning God" by R.F. Kuang - The third in the Poppy War trilogy. The ending was...unsatisfying. But I'm also not an author so I don't know what I would have done differently. The world is very fascinating as it's built though.
"The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier" by Ian Urbina - A chronicle of all the lawlessness that is the open ocean. Poaching, human trafficking, smuggling, pollution - it's all there along with the efforts to fight it.
"Dune" by Frank Herbert - I've heard of "Dune" for years, but never had that spaced marked on my nerd Bingo card. When the trailers started coming out I finally thought "Well, that looks awesome, I should probably read it" I came down on "It's fine, will see the movie, probably won't re-read it or any of the others in the universe"
"Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar" by Simon Sebag Montefiore - A very through account of Stalin's time in power. It got a little over-long at times, but all in all very informative.
"The Man Who Died Twice" by Richard Osman - The follow up to "The Thursday Murder Club" I had a very different reaction to these as Philo. I loved them, thought their pacing was good, and weren't overly complex like some spy/murder mysteries can be.
"Old Man's War" by John Scalzi - This would probably be my vote for an adaptaion. It was pretty good and I can see it translating to a TV mini-series well. I would probably read at least the next one in the series.
In terms of other adaptations, I cannot wait for the the last of The Expanse books to come out. I'm a little behind on the show too, but that can always wait.
Totally agree on Old Man's War, and the next books in the series were also good. I didn't bother with Zoe's Tale, as "parallel books" don't get my interest.
Co-sign on Old Man’s War. How the characters experience time as a result of FTL travel is one of the better literary metaphors for what it’s like to return to society after a tour.
Toat's McGoats on Old Man's War.
But I will echo on Julian Barnes' The Sense of An Ending, but even moreso on his Shostakovich The Noise of Time.
I ship Old Man’s War as well. I read it somewhat near when Avatar came out and realized the tech existed for an older person to play a young version of themselves on screen. Ever since I’ve been wishing for it.
I’m in the middle of The Fifth Season and that would seem pretty compelling.
I’ve always wanted an adaptation of Stephen R. Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant books, but (a) I haven’t read them for 25 years and (b) that means I totally forgot how problematic the first 100 pages or so are.
I've read the entire Fifth Season trilogy. I am excited to see how the adaptation come out.
I did not know that was coming. Awesome!
I'm not so sure about the Thomas Covenant books -- I remember them as being more angsty than much in the way of action. But it's been 40 years or so since I read them.
I'd like to see Jack Chalker's Well of Souls books in mini-series form, certainly Midnight at the Well of Souls at least. I'd probably have to be animated.
Remind me, Mags — have you watched The Death of Stalin? It’s based on a French graphic novel and drifts into satire, but the satire is heavily couched in truths about political corruption (in both the USSR, and generally). I enjoyed it quite a bit, both for that and for several of the performances.
A definite favorite. The casting from it was what I used mentally while reading the book.
DOS uses an old Monty Python device the Killer Joke
I just thought of the book I want developed as a series: 100 Years Of Solitude. Then I went and looked it up, and apparently Netflix is developing it. Sweet.
Also I'd love some Pynchon-verse stuff. Against The Day could be outright amazing.
I don't know if film could handle Gravity's Rainbow. Paper barely can.
I feel like anything Pynchon would absolutely need to be a multi-season TV show.
Loved Zamyatin’s We but there's a lot of Orwell's 1984 in there, at whose trough we've all drank plenty from.
Okay, I thought of another one. City of Thieves by David Benioff. He was one of the show runners for Game of Thrones. The novel is about a young Russian boy trying to survive the siege of Leningrad.
Benioff's City of Thieves highly recommended.
I read that somewhere around 2013 or so, I think my few months in VA.
I really enjoyed it.
Edit Hey I found it! https://wgom.org/2013/12/02/first-monday-book-day-a-pox-on-me/#comment-176782
I'm about halfway through new book Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson, and it's a page turner.
I read Rosewater on DG's suggestion a few years back, and enjoyed that one. Maybe I'll check this one out too.
Rosewater could probably make for an interesting adaption too.