As the new year is come, we anxiously look forward to all the wonders 2016 will have in store, and that includes the following 8 amazing book-to-film adaptations. In 2015, we saw several successful adaptations come alive, including “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,” “Insurgent” and “The Scorch Trials,” and we expect nothing less from 2016. So, here are 8 fantastic books you should need to add to your reading list STAT, because their movie versions are about to become your newest obsession in this year. 2016 is going to be a good year for movies.
13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi, Mitchell Zuckoff
13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi is a 2014 non-fiction book by American author Mitchell Zuckoff, about the 2012 Benghazi attack by militants at the American diplomatic compound on September 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya. The book is an account from the point of view of the compound’s defenders, and does not address any of the political controversy surrounding the attacks.
Amazon review: 4.8/5 stars
Starring: John Krasinski, David Giuntoli, Pablo Schreiber
The Finest Hours: By Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman
The Finest Hours is the gripping, true story of the valiant attempt to rescue the souls huddling inside the broken halves of the two ships. Coast Guard cutters raced to the aid of those on the Fort Mercer, and when it became apparent that the halves of the Pendleton were in danger of capsizing, the Guard sent out two thirty-six-foot lifeboats as well. These wooden boats, manned by only four seamen, were dwarfed by the enormous seventy-foot seas. As the tiny rescue vessels set out from the coast of Cape Cod, the men aboard were all fully aware that they were embarking on what could easily become a suicide mission.
Amazon review: 4.8/5 stars
Starring: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Eric Bana
The Choice, Nicholas Sparks
Travis Parker is living his best life – hanging out with friends, playing water sports, traveling, and working a good job – but when Gabby Holland moves in next door, everything changes. Gabby herself is already in a relationship, but when she starts to have feelings for Travis, she must make a choice. This book is a typical Nicholas Sparks classic, and if you enjoy his previous work, there’s a good chance this book turned movie is up your alley!
Amazon review: 4.4/5 stars
Starring: Alexandra Daddario, Teresa Palmer, Maggie Grace, Benjamin Walker
Me Before You, Jojo Moyes
Will Traynor is a world traveler who loves extreme sports, but he becomes a moody and bossy man when he gets in an accident that makes him a quadriplegic. Louisa is an ordinary girl who loses her job in a tea shop, and so she gets a temporary position assisting Will. At first they nearly hate each other, but as time goes on, their friendship grows and they help each other in ways they didn’t know possible. Games of Thrones star Emilia Clarke and Hunger Games actor Sam Claflin come together in this heartbreaking adaptation.
Amazon review: 4.6/5 stars
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Matthew Lewis
The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling
Kipling tells the story of little Mowgli, a village boy who falls into the hands of a pack of wolves who raise him as their own in the Indian jungle. As he matures he starts to understand the ‘Law of the Jungle’ and the book follows his many adventures alongside the myriad creatures around him. Those include Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther, who become his tutors and protectors. As a child reader, one of the most disturbing parts of this relationship is the physical violence Baloo and Bagheera continuously seem to use against Mowgli as part of their teaching.
Amazon review: 4.8/5 stars
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba, Bill Murray, Neel Sethi
Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs
The novel is the coming-of-age story of John Clayton, born in the western coastal jungles of equatorial Africa to a marooned couple from England, John and Alice Clayton, Lord and Lady Greystoke. Adopted as an infant by the she-ape Kala after his parents are killed by the savage king ape Kerchak, Clayton is renamed Tarzan (‘White Skin’ in the ape language) and raised in ignorance of his human heritage.
Amazon review: 4.3/5 stars
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson, Margot Robbie
A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness
A little after midnight, 13-year-old Connor finds a monster outside his bedroom. But it is not the monster he expected – he expected the monster from his nightmare, the one he has almost every night, which started once his mother began cancer treatments. The monster in his backyard is ancient, wild, and in search of something dangerous – the truth.
Amazon review: 4.7/5 stars
Starring: Liam Neeson, Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Lewis MacDougall
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain
A ferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents at “the battle of Al-Ansakar Canal”-three minutes and forty-three seconds of intense warfare caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew-has transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America’s most sought-after heroes.
Amazon review: 4.1/5 stars
Starring: Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin, Chris Tucker