Five Books to Read Before the Movies

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It’s a polarizing debate: read the book or see the movie first? Here are five titles coming to the big screen in the next few months – we say read them in their original form and then go watch them at the theatre. Great books make great movies.

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
After The Notebook came out in theatres in 2004, Sparks was crowned the undisputed king of the tearjerker, and Safe Haven promises to deliver another emotional punch. The story revolves around a woman with a mysterious past who tries to start a new reclusive life in a small town but gets involved with a widower and his two young children. The movie, which opens on Valentine’s Day, stares Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel.

Watch the trailer here.

B-AdmissionAdmission by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Published in 2008, the book was praised by the New Yorker for its insights into the college admission process. In it, a Princeton admissions officer is completely dedicated to her job but finds her life thrown off track when she meets a gifted and troubled young man. The movie version opens in March, with Tina Fey as the admissions officer and Paul Rudd as a man trying to help her work it all out.

Watch the trailer here.

B_CarrieCarrie by Stephen King
Before it was the celebrated movie with Sissy Spacek, it was a hide-under-the-covers thriller from Stephen King. Revisit why he is considered the master of the genre in this frightening tale of a high-school girl who gets bullied and uses her telekinetic powers to fight back. Chloë Moretz plays the title role, with Julianne Moore as her mother in the film coming out in March.

Watch the trailer here.

B-The-Company-You-KeepCompany You Keep by Neil Gordon
In Gordon’s novel, a former Weather Underground activist’s identity is uncovered by a young newspaper reporter, and he must abandon his life living underground to try to exonerate himself. The film version (which appeared at TIFF and will be out in April) is directed by Robert Redford, whose stellar cast includes himself, Shia LaBeoug, Anna Kendrick, Susan Sarandon and Terrence Howard.

Watch the trailer here.

B-The-Great-GatsbyThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald’s classic tale of love and excess in the 1920s is being brought to the big screen again, this time by Baz Luhrmann, and it promises to be an over-the-top extravaganza. Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan star as Gatsby and Daisy. If you haven’t read the novel since school, be sure to pick it up again – it’s a quick read and a tour de force from one of the last century’s most celebrated writers.