A Richard Linklater film: Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Based on the novel by Maria Sempleis 
Richard Linklater films is always an event for true movie buffs.
The Before Midnight/School of Rock/Boyhood director is taking on Semple’s funny, quirky novel about an agoraphobic mom who goes missing. Her daughter Bee, who had been preparing for a family trip to Antarctica, searches through documents and correspondence in order to figure out exactly what happened. Where'd You Go, Bernadette is tightly constructed and is written in many formats.

The Pitch: Bernadette Fox has vanished.
When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces.
Which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Courtesy of SupermariaSemple

The Pitch: Maria Semple pitched her novel to Seattle book folk with Tom Skerritt, Garth Stein and Ken Jennings weighing in. Where'd You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are, and the power of a daughter's love for her mother.  

Preview via NOOK

Timeline: May 21, 2012, A Wall Street Journal Interview with TV writer Maria Semple writes a satirical novel about an unhinged housewife in Seattle, taking shots at self-righteous private school mothers and Microsoft's corporate culture. Maria Semple is the author of the novels Today Will Be Different (2016), Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2012) and This One is Mine (2008), all published by Little, Brown and Co. Before writing fiction, she wrote for the TV shows 90210, Mad About You, Arrested Development and others.

Movie: Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2018)

Directed by Richard Linklater. With Cate Blanchett, Judy Greer, Kristen Wiig, Billy Crudup. After her anxiety-ridden mother disappears, 15-year-old Bee does everything she can to track her down, discovering her troubled past in the process.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette, an international bestseller, has been translated into 30 languages.
It spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and made over a dozen year-end best lists.
It was short-listed for the Women’s Prize and received the Alex Award from the American Library Association. It’s currently being made into a film starring Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig and Billy Crudup. Richard Linklater writes and directs. The movie is slated to open on October 19, 2018.

Today Will Be Different was an instant international bestseller and was featured on the cover of the New York Times book review. It, too, made over a dozen year-end best lists. It’s currently in development with Annapurna pictures as a limited TV series with Maria writing and executive producing.

Maria loves to teach.  She’s taught her popular writing workshop at Hugo House and the Cloud Room in Seattle, the Aspen Writers Conference, and Wordstock in Portland.

Books Have the Power to Bring People Together—

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows, an NYT bestselling novel adapts to the big screen.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding a connection in the most surprising ways.
“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.”

NOOK Preview

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb.

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.
The movie will premiere in the U.K. on April 20, 2018
Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways. Characters of importance to know about this new romance- and adventure-packed film.—

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

Directed by Mike Newell. With Lily James, Matthew Goode, Jessica Brown Findlay, Michiel Huisman. A writer forms an unexpected bond with the residents of Guernsey Island in the aftermath of World War II, when she decides to write a book about their experiences during the war.

 “Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.” ― Mary Ann Shaffer
Mary Ann Shaffer worked as an editor, a librarian, and in bookshops.
Her life-long dream was to someday write her own book and publish it.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was her first novel.
Unfortunately, she became very ill with cancer and so she asked her niece, Annie Barrows, the author of the children’s series Ivy and Bean, as well as The Magic Half, to help her finish the book. Mary Ann Shaffer died in February 2008, a few months before her first novel was published. Citation: Mary Ann Shaffer via Goodreads.

In the Year 2045, Reality is an Ugly Place—

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures 
 This bestselling cult classic is now a major motion picture directed by Spielberg
RPO Official Movie Site —In theaters: March 29, 2018

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place.
The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.  But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: Chapter 1
Ernest Cline is an American novelist, slam poet, and screenwriter.

Cline has confirmed that a sequel to Ready Player One is in the works, “ … and it is one of those great ideas that has endless possibilities,” he said. “And to a certain extent, the longer it exists and the more Ernie thinks about it, the more he comes up with.”  Cline didn’t reveal any other details about what the book would be about or when it would come out, other than to say that he had the chance to bounce some ideas off of Spielberg.
Source: The Verge

 Cline's first novel, Ready Player One, is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller, appeared on numerous “best of the year” lists.  His second novel, ARMADA, debuted at #4 on the NYT Bestseller list and is being made into a film by Universal Pictures. More Ernest Cline’s books:

Ernest Cline

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Worst film may become the most popular theatrical release of all time:

Oh, Hai! The Room:
 The best example of spectacularly awful filmmaking, which sparked a major following, worldwide screenings and reenactments of that ‘Oh hi, Mark’. James Franco’s Disaster Artist is chronicling the riotous behind-the-scenes, offering a portrait of the eccentric dreamer-turned-cult legend Tommy Wiseau. James Franco goes hard in his role as the cult enigma responsible for the world’s best bad movie-making. — DAZED Full Article.

TDA based on Greg Sestero’s best-selling tell-all about the making of Tommy Wiseau's cult-classic disasterpiece The Room (“The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”).

From the actor who somehow lived through it all.

 In 2003, The Room, an independent film starring and written, produced, and directed by a mysteriously wealthy social misfit named Tommy Wiseau—made its disastrous debut in Los Angeles. The $6 million film earned a grand total of $1,800 at the box office and closed after two weeks. Ten years later, it’s an international cult phenomenon, whose legions of fans attend screenings featuring costumes, audience rituals, merchandising, and thousands of plastic spoons. The Disaster Artist is the hilarious, behind-the-scenes story of a deliciously awful cinematic phenomenon as well as the story of an odd and inspiring Hollywood friendship. Greg Sestero, Tommy’s costar, recounts the film’s bizarre journey to infamy, explaining how the movie’s many nonsensical scenes and bits of dialogue came to be and unraveling the mystery of Tommy Wiseau himself.

The Disaster Artist

A24 and New Line present James Franco's THE DISASTER ARTIST. Starring James Franco, Dave Franco, and Seth Rogen. In Theaters December 1.

The Child in Time is an astonishing novel by one of the finest writers —

Ian McEwan, the winner of the Whitbread Prize

The Child in Time is an award-winning novel, the adaptation set to air on MASTERPIECE/ PBS in 2018. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kelly Macdonald. The Child in Time tells the story of the grieving parents of a child who goes missing.
Stephen Lewis, a successful writer of children's books, is confronted with the unthinkable:
his only child, three-year-old Kate, is snatched from him in a supermarket.

In one horrifying moment that replays itself over the years that follow,
Stephen realizes his daughter is gone. With extraordinary tenderness and insight,
Booker Prize-winning author Ian McEwan takes us into the dark territory of a marriage devastated by the loss of a child. Kate's absence sets Stephen and his wife, Julie, on diverging paths as they each struggle with a grief that only seems to intensify with the passage of time.
Eloquent and passionate, the novel concludes in a triumphant scene of love and hope that gives full rein to the author's remarkable gifts.

 “For children, childhood is timeless. It is always the present. Everything is in the present tense. Of course, they have memories. Today is what they feel, and when they say ‘When I grow up,’ there is always an edge of disbelief—how could they ever be other than what they are?”  McEwan's works have earned him worldwide critical acclaim.

Ian McEwan Website

A selection of interviews and videos in which Ian McEwan discusses his writing, science, and other issues.

Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie

The story has been adapted any number of times for film and television, but Agatha Christie’s (maybe) most famous novel (with the second most famous twist) always makes for cracking good viewing. Kenneth Branagh directs this version and stars as persnickety Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot, leading an appropriately all-star cast of suspects. Sounds like it’ll be a bloody good way to kick off the holiday season. Courtesy of 20th Century FOX: WEBSITE
What starts out as a lavish train ride through Europe quickly unfolds into one of the most stylish, suspenseful and thrilling mysteries ever told. From the novel by best-selling author Agatha Christie, “Murder on the Orient Express” tells the tale of thirteen strangers stranded on a train, where everyone’s a suspect. One man must race against time to solve the puzzle before the murderer strikes again. In Theaters November 10, 2017, Director: Kenneth Branagh Screenplay by Michael Green

Based on the Novel by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie Books, eBooks, Audiobooks, Biography

Visit Agatha Christie's page at Barnes & Noble® and shop all Agatha Christie books. Explore books by author, series, or genre today and receive FREE Shipping on orders $25 & up.

The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

Has become a major motion picture,
from the author of Where the River Ends, comes this page-turning story of love and survival.

 On a stormy winter night, two strangers wait for a flight at the Salt Lake City airport.  Ashley Knox is an attractive, successful writer, who is flying East for her much-anticipated wedding.  Dr. Ben Payne has just wrapped up a medical conference and is also eager to get back East for a slate of surgeries he has scheduled for the following day.

When the last outgoing flight is canceled due to a broken de-icer and a forthcoming storm, Ben finds a charter plane that can take him around the storm and drop him in Denver to catch a connection.   And when the pilot says the single-engine prop plane can fit one more, if barely, Ben offers the seat to Ashley knowing that she needs to get back just as urgently.   And then the unthinkable happens.  The pilot has a heart attack mid-flight and the plane crashes into the High Uintas Wilderness— one of the largest stretches of harsh and remote land in the United States.  Starring:  Kate Winslet and Idris Elba As the days on the mountains become weeks,
their survival becomes increasingly perilous.
How will they make it out of the wilderness and if they do,
how will this experience change them forever?

 Movie Release Date: 10/6/2017

The Mountain Between Us

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba. An atmospheric, suspenseful and gripping story of two people finding love while...