What To Read

Charles Dickens, Kristin Hannah, Julia Quinn: These authors are coming to a screen near you this spring. From thrillers to comedies to graphic novels, we've compiled a list of the best binge-worthy series on Netflix, Hulu and more that are adaptations of best-selling books.

1. Lucky Hank (AMC) - Premieres March 19

Following the final season of Better Call Saul, Bob Odenkirk returns to AMC as an executive producer and the star of this new comedy drama based on Richard Russo's novel Straight Man. The eight-episode season will follow Odenkirk's character, Hank, as he navigates his role as chair of the English department at a liberal arts college. George Saunders will appear as a guest star.

"I've started reading Richard Russo's Straight Man tonight. Already there have been multiple lolz." —Tom Mitchell, YA novelist, via Twitter

2. The Night Agent (Netflix) - Premieres March 23

This action thriller is based on the best-selling novel by Matthew Quirk. Peter, a low-level FBI agent, discovers a conspiracy that involves a Russian spy serving as a high-ranking official in the U.S. government.

"'The Night Agent' reads like an episode of Kiefer Sutherland’s '24'. The novel is a well-crafted and character-driven thriller with uninterrupted action from start to finish." —Thomas Grant Bruso, book critic, via Press Republican

3. Great Expectations (Hulu) - Premieres March 26

This six-part limited series is based on the classic novel by Charles Dickens. The showrunners, including Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, reimagine the famous work with an impressively star-studded cast, with Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) in the lead role as the orphan Pip and Olivia Coleman (Fleabag) in the role of Miss Havisham.

"The most studied and analysed Dickens novel is one of his last, Great Expectations...Though a celebrity by this time and far from the poverty that shaped him, Dickens still wrote with enormous empathy for the working class and disdain for the wealthy, painting a bleak picture of lives disfigured by the desire for money." —Robyn Vinter, journalist, via The Guardian

4. Tiny Beautiful Things (Hulu) - Premieres April 7

Kathryn Hahn stars in this series inspired by the best-selling collection of advice columns by Cheryl Strayed. Clare (played by Hahn) is a struggling writer in a struggling marriage, hoping to pick up the pieces in her new job writing an advice column called Dear Sugar. The show will be produced by Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine and ABC Signature.

"To read Tiny Beautiful Things is to immerse yourself in the beauty, complexity, ugly, and endearing aspects of the human experience. The unbridled honesty of the questions is in itself disarming, but it is Strayed’s thoughtful answers that shine light into the darkest depths of the reader’s emotional fortress." —Nikki Vargas, travel journalist, via Fodor's Travel

5. The Last Thing He Told Me (Apple TV+) - Premieres April 14

Another Hello Sunshine production coming this spring is this limited series based on Laura Dave's critically acclaimed novel of the same name. Jennifer Garner stars as a woman who has to build a relationship with her 16-year-old stepdaughter in order to find out what happened to her now missing husband.

"The story grabbed me from the prologue onward, and it had me wishing at 2:00 AM, when I absolutely, positively had to go to bed, that I would've been a fast enough reader to finish it in one night." —Marilyn Brant, author, via Savethecat.com

6. Firefly Lane (Netflix) - Season 2 Part 2 Releases April 27

The final seven episodes of the adaptation of Kristin Hannah's novel were originally slated to release in June, but the date has since been moved up! Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke star in this decades-long story of two best friends.

“Firefly Lane is a fat, juicy book filled with the stuff of women’s lives: mothers, daughters, triumphs, disappointments, illicit cigarettes and dancing to favorite songs.” —Beverly E. Close, writer, via The Oregonian

7. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Netflix) - Premieres May 4

Shonda Rhimes has created yet another series based in the Bridgerton universe. This historical drama will follow Queen Charlotte's (played by Golda Rosheuvel) rise to power. The book prequel of the same name by Bridgerton series author Julia Quinn comes out on May 9th.

"Yes!!!! Now it's officially a love story in the Bridgerton novel universe!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍" —@TheSimi5 via Twitter

8. City on Fire (Apple TV+) - Premieres May 12

This dramatic thriller based on Garth Risk Hallberg's novel tracks the story of an NYU student named Samantha (played by Chase Sui Wonders), who's shot and killed in Central Park one night on the way to meet her friends at a club.

"CITY ON FIRE, by Garth Risk Hallberg: Dickensian, massively entertaining, as close to a great American novel as this century has produced." —Stephen King, author, via Twitter

9. American Born Chinese (Disney+) - Premieres May 24

Recent Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh leads the star-studded cast of this action comedy based on the 2006 graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang. What may have begun as a coming-of-age story is transformed into a passionate superhero saga on screen, promising something enjoyable for every kind of viewer.

"I read American Born Chinese this year for mundane reasons: Yang is a Marvel author, and I enjoy comic books, so I bought his well-known older work. The braided parts aren't terribly complex, but they remind me how jarring it is that at several points in my life, I wished to be white when I wasn't. Separating your selves fools no one." —Shan Yang, programming director at The Atlantic, via The Atlantic