Check out these novels before their movie adaptations hit theaters this year:
A Dog’s Way Home by W. Bruce Cameron – Traces the story of Bella, a dog who is drawn to Lucas Ray, only to be separated from him by rules that disallow pitbulls in their community, a situation that compels the puppy to travel back to the person she loves.
Movie release date: January 11, 2019
Starring: Ashley Judd, Bryce Dallas Howard, Edward James Olmos
How to Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell – When Hiccup discovers Toothless isn’t the only Night Fury, he must seek “The Hidden World,” a secret Dragon Utopia before a hired tyrant named Grimmel finds it first.
Adapted movie title: The Hidden World
Movie release date: February 22, 2019
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, America Ferrara
The Rhythm Section by Mark Burnell – When Stephanie Patrick learns that a terrorist bomb was responsible for the plane crash that killed her family, she embarks on a plan for revenge that includes training to become a terrorist herself.
Movie release date: February 22, 2019
Starring: Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness – Todd and Viola are pursued by power-hungry Prentiss and mad minister Aaron as they set out across New World, searching for answers about their colony’s true past and seeking a way to warn the ship bringing settlers from Old World.
Movie release date: March 1, 2019
Starring: Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Nick Jonas
The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook – Assigned to oversee the reconstruction of Hamburg in the tumultuous year following World War II, Colonel Lewis Morgan grieves the loss of his son while living with his family in the home of a German widower, an arrangement that forces both families to confront their passions and true selves.
Movie release date: March 15, 2019
Starring: Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgård, Jason Clarke
The Good Shepherd by C.S. Forester – A gripping novel that details a perilous Atlantic convoy cruise during WWII.
Adapted movie title: Greyhound
Movie release date: March 22, 2019
Starring: Tom Hanks, Stephen Graham, Elisabeth Shue
Three Seconds by Anders Roslund & Borge Hellström – Ex-convict Piet Hoffman–a family man, a rising member of Stockholm’s Polish mafia, and an undercover police informant–is sent to a maximum security prison to make himself the boss of the amphetamine trade so the police can shut it down.
Adapted movie title: The Informer
Movie release date: March 22, 2019
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Rosamund Pike, Clive Owen
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple – When her notorious, hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled, and agoraphobic mother goes missing, teenage Bee begins a trip that takes her to the ends of the earth to find her.
Movie release date: March 22, 2019
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Emma Nelson, Kristen Wiig
The Best of Enemies by Osha Gray Davidson – Describes how C.P. Ellis grew up amid the racism and poverty of the South, his association with the Ku Klux Klan, and his first meeting and growing friendship with civil-rights activist Ann Atwater.
Movie release date: April 5, 2019
Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, Babou Ceesay
Pet Sematary by Stephen King – A pet cemetery in the Maine woods hides the horrifying secret of an ancient Indian burial ground from which the dead, animal or human, can be raised.
Movie release date: April 5, 2019
Starring: Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow
A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron – Believing that he has achieved his purpose throughout several eventful lives, Buddy the dog is drawn to a vibrant but troubled teen who he struggles to help until they are separated.
Movie release date: May 17, 2019
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Betty Gilpin, Josh Gad
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon – Natasha, whose family is hours away from being deported, and Daniel, a first generation Korean American who strives to live up to his parents’ expectations, unexpectedly fall in love and must determine which path they will choose in order to be together.
Movie release date: May 17, 2019
Starring: Yara Shahidi, Charles Melton, Jake Choi
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer – When a 12-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.
Movie release date: August 9, 2019
Starring: Ferdia Shaw, Lara McDonnell, Judi Dench
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz – A timeless collection of chillingly scary tales and legends, in which folklorist Alvin Schwartz offers up some of the most alarming tales of horror, dark revenge, and supernatural events of all time.
Movie release date: August 9, 2019
Starring: Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Austin Abrams
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein – Evaluating his life on the eve of his death, atypical canine Enzo considers the sacrifices his master, Denny Swift, has made in his pursuit of becoming a professional race car driver; the painful custody battle between Denny and his in-laws, and the dog’s own efforts to preserve the Swift family.
Movie release date: September 27, 2019
Starring: Milo Ventimiglia, Amanda Seyfried, Kevin Costner
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn – An agoraphobic recluse languishes in her New York City home, drinking wine and spying on her neighbors, before witnessing a terrible crime through her window that exposes her secrets and raises questions about her perceptions of reality.
Movie release date: October 4, 2019
Starring: Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Julianne Moore
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – Taken in by a wealthy family friend after surviving an accident that killed his mother, 13-year-old Theo Decker tries to adjust to life on Park Avenue.
Movie release date: October 11, 2019
Starring: Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson
The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle – Believing Betty, a wealthy widow, will be an easy mark, veteran con artist Roy sets in motion a scheme he believes will be a success, but there is reckoning to be made when the endgame of Roy’s crooked plot plays out.
Movie release date: November 15, 2019
Starring: Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Russell Tovey
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot – A collection of T. S. Eliot’s poems which concern cats including Mr. Mistoffelees, and Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat.
Adapted movie title: Cats (also a Broadway musical)
Movie release date: December 20, 2019
Starring: Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, James Corden
The Call of the Wild by Jack London – A young dog, abused by men and his hungry rivals on a Klondike dog team, escapes to the wilderness and joins a wolf pack.
Movie release date: December 25, 2019
Starring: Harrison Ford, Dan Stevens, Karen Gillan
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in mid-nineteenth-century New England.
Movie release date: December 25, 2019
Starring: Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson
Adaptations Slated for 2019, but Release Date TBD
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven – Meeting on the ledge of their school’s bell tower, misfit Theodore Finch and suicidal Violet Markey find acceptance and healing that are overshadowed by Finch’s fears about Violet’s growing social world.
Starring: Elle Fanning, Justice Smith, Luke Wilson
How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran – After she shames herself on local television, Johanna Morgan reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde – a fast-talking, hard-drinking Gothic hero – until two years later, while eviscerating bands as a music critic, she realizes she’s built Dolly with a fatal flaw.
Starring: Beanie Feldstein, Alfie Allen, Emma Thompson
I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt – A longtime mob associate relates his descent into a life of crime, his position as both a hit man and head of the Teamsters union in Wilmington, Delaware, and his inside knowledge of payoffs, mob hits, and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.
Adapted movie title: The Irishman
Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Anna Paquin
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem – Lionel Essrog has always respected Frank Minna, who helped him out when he was young, and when Frank is found dead, Lionel and his friends, the Minna Men, scour the streets of Brooklyn in search of the killer.
Starring: Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Willem Dafoe
Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell – Margo Crane, a beautiful and uncanny markswoman, takes to the Stark River after being complicit in the death of her father and embarks on an odyssey in search of her vanished mother.
Starring: Kenadi DelaCerna, John Ashton, Tatanka Means