Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Which do you consume first – the book or the movie? I like to read the book first, and I don’t get too picky if some details don’t make it to the screen – as long as they don’t completely change the plot. Many purists claim that the book is always better, but sometimes the screen adaptation is pretty good too! Here are some books coming to big and small screens in 2022.

 

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

The tranquility of a lovely cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful, a girl who had everything — until she lost her life. Who’s also on board? The great detective Hercule Poirot. The movie adaptation is currently in theaters, and is scheduled to play at Tryon Theatre March 9th-13th. 

 

No Exit by Taylor Adams

On her way to Utah, Darby gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop with four complete strangers. Then Darby makes a horrifying discovery. A girl is locked in the back of a van at the rest stop. There is no cell phone reception and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one? Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, Darby must find a way to break the girl out and escape.The film adaptation is currently streaming on Hulu.

 

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter 

Andrea’s mother, Laura, is the perfect small-town mom who lives a quiet but happy life in sleepy beachside Belle Isle. She’s a pillar of the community: a speech therapist, business owner, and everybody’s friend. When Andrea is caught in a random violent attack at a shopping mall, Laura intervenes and acts in a way that is unrecognizable to her daughter. It’s like Laura is a completely different person — and that’s because she was. This thriller novel has been adapted into a TV show, which premieres on Netflix this Friday, March 4th.

 

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

In the early 1900s, teenage Sunja falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant — and that her lover is married — she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son’s powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. The television series adaptation premieres March 25th on Apple TV+.

 

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her. But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life’s lessons from the land. The film is expected to be released on July 22nd.

 

Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

Thousands of miles away from the small township of  Salem’s Lot, two terrified people, a man and a boy, still share the secrets of those clapboard houses and tree-lined streets. They must return to Salem’s Lot for a final confrontation with the unspeakable evil that lives on in the town. The latest movie adaptation (there are two others, which were released in 1979 and 2004) is expected to hit theaters on September 9th.

 

Jen Pace Dickenson is the youth services librarian for Polk County Public Libraries. For information about the library’s resources, programs, and other services, visit polklibrary.org or call 828-894-8721.