The Book of Negroes and other novels destined for film

Last night was the much anticipated television movie version of Lawrence Hill's best selling novel The Book of Negroes. It's always exciting to see our own province featured in film and also to see Canadian actors like Allan Hawco of Republic of Doyle along side actors like Cuba Gooding Jr and Lou Gossett Jr. The Book of Negroes tells the story of Aminata Diallo who was kidnapped from her home in Africa and had to endure slavery, revolution, exhilarating highs and despairing lows while attempting to secure her freedom.

Keep an eye out over the next few weeks for other films based on novels.

The Mortdecai trilogy by Kyril Bonfiglioli

Booklist wrote of the third book in the trilogy Something Nasty in the Woodshed, "Straight from the era of joke cocktail napkins, this 1972 Brit-farce mystery marks the end of a trilogy featuring "degenerate aristocrat" Charlie Mortdecai. This outing finds Mortdecai having a jolly time tracking down a masked serial rapist near his home on Jersey with the assistance of lusty wife Johanna and insolent manservant Jock Strapp, hasn't quite aged like fine cheese. And yet, this reprobate's rapier running commentary on all things debauched, debased, and dunderheaded is not without its aggressively tasteless charms. Anyone who fails to suppress a smile at arch zingers such as "Never let a day go by without making an enemy, is what I say, even if it's only a woman" might find Mortdecai a boon companion all the way through to the mystery's surprisingly dark and sober resolution."

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

"Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away. In turns heartbreaking, inspiring, and terrifying, Still Alice captures in remarkable detail what it’s like to literally lose your mind... " publisher

And, of course, the long anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

"When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview the young, enigmatic entrepreneur Christian Grey she encounters a man who is brilliant, beautiful, and deeply flawed. Lured by her looks, stung by her wit, and challenged by her independent spirit, Grey is determined to make Ana his sexual possession -- and what Grey wants he gets. But can their relationship ever go deeper than that? Will Ana ever penetrate Grey's cold armour, and if she does, will she still love what she finds? Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever." Discover