Now playing! With the Golden Globes and Emmys, we’ve officially entered film and television awards season. Oscar nominees will be announced on January 31st and the 96th Oscars will air on March 10th. As lovers of stories, we are readers, listeners, watchers. Penguin Random House publishes a splendid array of books that have inspired filmmakers and been adapted to the big and small screen. For your consideration we offer the following tie-ins to this season’s most talked about movies:
AMERICAN PROMETHEUS by Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
The inspiration for the film “Oppenheimer” winner of five Golden Globes—including Best Motion Picture Drama.
“A riveting account of one of history’s most essential and paradoxical figures.”—Christopher Nolan
The definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. In this magisterial, acclaimed biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer’s life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. This is biography and history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative.
THE COLOR PURPLE: A NOVEL (MOVIE TIE-IN) by Alice Walker
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award
The inspiration for the new film adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical starring Taraji P. Henson, Halle Bailey, and Fantasia Barrino. A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early-twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance, and silence. Through a series of letters spanning nearly thirty years, first from Celie to God, then from the sisters to each other, the novel draws readers into a rich and memorable portrayal of Black women—their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery.
Click here for the Spanish Edition.
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT: NINE AMERICANS AND THEIR EPIC QUEST FOR GOLD AT THE 1936 BERLIN OLYMPICS (Movie Tie-In) by Daniel James Brown
The inspiration for the Major Motion Picture Directed by George Clooney—exclusively in theaters December 25, 2023! The #1 New York Times bestselling true story about the American rowing triumph of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.
Click here for the Young Readers adaptation.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: THE OSAGE MURDERS AND THE BIRTH OF THE FBI (movie tie-in edition) by David Grann
Now a Martin Scorsese picture!
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
Click here for the Spanish Edition. Click here for the Young Readers adaptation.
WONKA by Roald Dahl, Sibéal Pounder, Simon Farnaby, Paul King
Based on the major motion picture—an intoxicating mix of magic and music, mayhem and emotion, all told with fabulous heart and humor—Wonka introduces readers to a young Willy Wonka, chock-full of ideas and determined to change the world one delectable bite at a time . . . proving that the best things in life begin with a dream, and if you’re lucky enough to meet Willy Wonka, anything is possible.
Click here for the Spanish Edition.
DAISY JONES & THE SIX: A NOVEL (t.v. tie-in edition) by Taylor Jenkins Reid
an original streaming series executive produced by Reese Witherspoon starring Riley Keough
A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup. Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
Click here for the Spanish Edition.
FOOL ME ONCE (Netflix Tie-In): A Novel by Harlan Coben
A brand-new tie-in edition of Harlan Coben’s spine-chilling, #1 New York Times bestselling thriller to accompany the Netflix original series.
Former special ops pilot Maya, home from the war, sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya’s husband, Joe—who was brutally murdered two weeks earlier. The provocative question at the heart of the mystery: Can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to? To find the answer, Maya must finally come to terms with deep secrets and deceit in her own past before she can face the unbelievable truth about her husband—and herself.
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