April is Drop Everything and Read Month so that means the remote control too. With our selection of 6 books that have inspired a TV series you can immerse yourself in the original stories with no ads to skip through or annoying background music.
Daisy Jones & The Six
Everybody knows Daisy Jones and the Six. Their sound defined an era. Their albums were on every turntable. They sold out arenas from coast to coast. Then, on 12 July 1979, Daisy Jones walked barefoot onto the stage at Chicago Stadium. And it all came crashing down.
Everyone was there.
Everyone remembers it differently.
Nobody knew why they split. Until now . . .
This is an unusual book, written in the style of a series of interviews with band members. The Netflix TV series follows the same format but with some character changes.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid – buy your copy here
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The Lying Life of Adults
Giovanna’s pretty face has changed: it’s turning into the face of an ugly, spiteful adolescent. But is she seeing things as they really are? Where must she look to find her true reflection and a life she can claim as her own?
Giovanna’s search leads her to two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: the Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and the Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity. Adrift, she vacillates between these two cities, falling into one then climbing back to the other.
Set in a divided Naples, The Lying Life of Adults is a singular portrayal of the transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood.
The book has been adapted into a six part series by Netflix.
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante – buy your copy here
The Catch
She says he’s perfect. I know he’s lying . . .He caught me watching, and our eyes met. That was when it hit me. There was something not quite right about my daughter’s new boyfriend . . .
The doting father. Ed finally meets his daughter’s boyfriend for the first time. Smart, successful and handsome, Ryan appears to be a real catch. Then Abbie announces their plan to get married.
The perfect fiancé. There’s just one problem. Ed thinks Ryan is lying to them.
Who would you believe?
All of Ed’s instincts tell him his daughter is in terrible danger – but no-one else can see it. With the wedding date approaching fast, Ed sets out to uncover Ryan’s secrets, before it’s too late . . .
The book is the basis for a Channel 5 drama.
The Catch by T.M. Logan – buy your copy here
The Power
The world is a recognizable place: there’s a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family.
But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect.
All over the world women are discovering they have the power. With a flick of the fingers they can inflict terrible pain – even death. Suddenly, every man on the planet finds they’ve lost control.
The Day of the Girls has arrived – but where will it end?
The Power is a 9 part series on Amazon Prime.
The Power by Naomi Alderman – buy your copy here
Shadow and Bone
Enter the Grishaverse with book one of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by number one New York Times-bestselling author, Leigh Bardugo. Perfect for fans of Laini Taylor and Sarah J. Maas.
Now with a stunning new cover and exclusive bonus material: A lost letter from Mal, The Tailor (a Genya story) and a Q&A with Leigh Bardugo.
Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold – a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.
Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country’s magical military elite – and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.
As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.
This is book 1 of a trilogy that is on its second Netflix series.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo – buy your copy here
Great Expectations
Great Expectations, Dickens’s funny, frightening and tender portrayal of the orphan Pip’s journey of self-discovery, is one of his best-loved works. Showing how a young man’s life is transformed by a mysterious series of events – an encounter with an escaped prisoner; a visit to a black-hearted old woman and a beautiful girl; a fortune from a secret donor – Dickens’s late novel is a masterpiece of psychological and moral truth, and Pip among his greatest creations.
This Dickens classic has been reproduced in film and TV on numerous occasions but is currently a BBC drama starring Olivia Coleman.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens – buy your copy here