Five Books to Read Before Watching the Adaptation

After more than two years since the release of its Oscar-winning predecessor, Dune: Part Two will finally be arriving to theaters on March 1. We cannot wait to see this star-studded cast, which includes Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Florench Pugh, and Christopher Walker, return to the inhospitable terrain of Arrakis. But before they do, we recommend catching up on Frank Herbert’s 1965 award-winning sci-fi classic which first introduced the world to this remarkably rich and complicated universe.

The second season of the adaptation of Rick Riordan’s adored Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is sourced from the second book in the series, The Sea of Monsters. Having already rescued Camp Half-Blood from ruin once, Percy is once again called upon to save the day again. This time, however, he must venture to the Sea of Monsters where countless Greek heroes of old have sailed, only today it’s called the Bermuda Triangle.

Before you watch the show, which also features Saltburn star Barry Keoghan, check out the book it's based on: Donald L. Miller’s sweeping history of the 100th Bomb Group, an American Air Force unit which fought the Nazis across England and Germany in World War II. The New York Times called it “thoroughly engrossing” and says “vividly recreates the day-to-day life of the men who flew the missions and their comrades on the ground.”

Set amidst the affluent splendor of one Hong Kong community of expats, with the 2014 Umbrella Movement as an unsettling backdrop, Janice Y.K. Lee’s 2016 novel was called “an exquisite novel of everyday lives in extraordinary circumstances” by critic Terry Hong. The story rotates around the relationship between three women as each navigates their own fraught situation.

The Taste of Things is based on the life of French author, Marcel Rouff’s character the gourmet, Dodin-Bouffant. Rouff’s classic novel, follows the gourmet as he grapples with the loss of his cook, and infrequent lover, Eugenie. The void that Eugenie leaves, he fills with good food and a select circle of friends with whom he shares his dishes with. Because the film focuses on the 20 year relationship between Dodin-Bouffant and Eugenie, which precedes the book, which you begin with is up to you!