Word & Film

How often do you read a book and think, “that would be a good movie”? Have you noticed when a movie, series, or mini-series was taken from a book? Bosch, on Amazon Prime, taken from Michael Connelly books, for example. We are big fans of using books to create quality content on film. Hopefully posts in this category will continue to grow. By no means do these posts represent the only books taken to the screen. Just a sampling to put it on the radar.

On the Bookshelf – Recent Reads

On the Bookshelf – Recent Reads

Authors, many without websites, from and about locations around the world.

What happened when Dorothy returned to Kansas? – Gordon McAlpineAfter Oz

With the release of “Wicked” on film, Dorothy is once again topical and Oz again a fantasy destination. This novel, the authors last before his untimely passing, suggests what may have happened in the days and months after the tornado that whisked the young girl away and back again.

Fantasy author delivers a terrific crime thriller – Dave DobsonWhat Grows From the Dead

North Carolina college professor, improv comic, and writer provides an ensemble cast supporting an unlikely hero who has hit bottom in life and career, only to find he had inherited little from his mom except trouble.

New book about an old cityRuth ReichlThe Paris Novel

Novelist and food writer takes us to Paris in the 1980’s with a young woman needing to find herself (not a cliche, but a charming rendition and tour guide.) Book Club book, gourmet treat, and travel instigator. Already looking at flights.

American Literary Icon who passed away in 2023 – Russell BanksAmerican Spirits

An American treasure whose stories focus on the locales and people in the Adirondacks of upstate New York.  Check out this recent PBS video tribute and a 1995 feature on CBS Sunday Morning which gives an interesting perspective on what young people cared about…30 years ago.

From the 1990’sHenning MankellFaceless Killers

Terrific series taking place in Southern Sweden and featuring Wallender, a main character played deftly on the PBS series by Kenenth Branaugh.

New book from old favorite – Tim O’BrienAmerica Fantastica 

An American Master returns: the author of The Things They Carried and In the Lake of the Woods delivers his first new novel in two decades.

First time author – Nilima RoaA Disappearance in Fiji

What is told as a mystery is really an amazing history lesson of British colonialism, and Indian and native culture in the Fiji Islands off the coast of Australia in 1914.

William Landay

William Landay

Latest work has arrived in 2023 – All That Is Mine I Carry With Me.

 

A tale about family — family secrets and vengeance, but also family love — All That Is Mine I Carry With Me masterfully grapples with a primal question: When does loyalty reach its limit?

After reading this book, not only can I say it is an engaging, hard to put down, story, but it takes a very unusual approach in the telling. Not the usual thriller/crime novel format by any means. Highly recommed.-ed.

William Landay’s previous novel is the New York Times bestseller Defending Jacob. His previous novels are Mission Flats, which won the Dagger Award as best debut crime novel of 2003, and The Strangler, which was an L.A. Times favorite crime novel and was nominated for the Strand Magazine Critics Award as best crime novel of 2007.

Defending Jacob is also a film available on AppleTV.

 

Hello, Bookstore

Hello, Bookstore – Lenox, Massachusetts

As Roaming the Arts reflects on the last year or so, the most heartwarming story about books and the people who love them is the story of a small New England bookstore, on the verge of closing due to the pandemic, and the documentary film made to tell the story of survival.

In 2020, on the verge of closing down, a GoFundMe was started and the owner’s friends, the town, and many others stepped up to save this independent bookstore. It’s a great story, and for this website, at the heart of why our passion for authors and books is a sharing experience.

Check out some of what was said in Print:

In the Local paper.

What Variety said.

(also find stories in the NY Times, the Boston Globe, and many others.)

visit site

Robert Galbraith

Location – London and elsewhere in Great Britain

Robert Galbraith a.k.a. J.K. Rowling

When you browse Roaming the Arts you may note that the mission is to drive web traffic to known artists who may be familiar, but not “household names.” Thus you won’t find Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, or authors whose reach is worldwide such as James Patterson or, in this case, J.K. Rowling. They don’t need this post to send fans to their web presence.

You will also note the Word and Film connection, where it is found to be exciting when a great book has been turned into good film or television. That, in our opinion, is not easy, and is a bit rare and extremely exciting when located.

Ms. Rowling, writing as Robert Galbraith, had ducked under our radar, and in all honesty was found by taking note of the HBO series C.B. Strike, where the first four books in the series have been presented with book five, Troubled Blood, in production. Whether looking for a good read or the next show to stream, Galbraith has created characters in Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott who will live in your consciousness for some time.

Good news for fans : Book six in the series, The Ink Black Heart, available August 30, 2022

visit site

Robert B. Parker’s Beloved Characters

Location – Boston Area

Spenser / Jesse Stone / Sunny Randall

and the old west with – Cole and Hitch

With the passing of Robert B. Parker, now over ten years ago, his estate has engaged numerous authors to continue his legacy, but more so, to satisfy the longing his readers have for these characters. Throughout, television has engaged these characters. Spenser for Hire as a series, Jesse Stone in regularly released TV movies and a Cole & Hitch western – Appaloosa.

Now, Ace Atkins continues the Spenser series, Michael Brandman, (3) and Reed Farrell Coleman (5) added Jesse Stone stories from 2012-2019, Robert Knott contributed five Cole & Hitch westerns and most recently Mike Lupica, known for his books and sports commentary, has brought back Sunny Randall in three books and is about to publish his second novel in continuation of the Jesse Stone saga.

In this editor’s opinion, they are all gifts and well worthy of keeping these iconic characters alive in fiction. Having only recently finding out about Mike Lupica’s four entries in the mix, I read them all and will continue to do so. What fun to hang out in Boston with Sunny and Jesse. Thank you all.

visit site

C.J. Box

Location – Montana/Wyoming

C. J. Box

C. J. Box is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 27 novels including the Joe Pickett series. He won the Edgar Alan Poe Award for Best Novel (Blue Heaven, 2009) as well as the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, two Barry Awards, and the 2010 Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Award for fiction.  He was recently awarded the 2016 Western Heritage Award for Literature by the National Cowboy Museum as well as the Spur Award for Best Contemporary Novel by the Western Writers of America in 2017.  Over six million copies of his books have been sold in the U.S. and abroad and they’ve been translated into 27 languages.  Two television series based on his novels are currently in development.

Watch “Big Sky” on ABC & Joe Pickett on Paramount+

Robyn Carr

Robyn Carr

Virgin River – on Netflix

Robyn Carr is a RITA® Award-winning, eleven-time #1 New York Times bestselling author of almost sixty novels, including the critically acclaimed Virgin River series. The fourth novel, THE BEST OF US, in her fan-favorite Sullivan’s Crossing Series was released in Jan. 2019. Robyn’s new women’s fiction novel THE VIEW FROM ALAMEDA ISLAND, released in April 2019, deputed on four bestseller lists: The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Publisher’s Weekly! Robyn is a recipient of the Romance Writers of America Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award 2016, and in 2017, VIRGIN RIVER was named one of the HarperCollins 200 Iconic Books of the past 200 years. The Virgin River Netflix Series season 2 is now streaming on Netflix (Nov. 2020) with season 3 amd more coming soon. Robyn currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.

visit site

 

David Mitchell

David Mitchell

Location – London (Soho) and around the world.

Check out the 2012 film version of Cloud Atlas on Netflix.

Extended Interview – w/ Neil Gaiman @ virtual Politics & Prose Bookstore

David Mitchell was born in Southport, Merseyside, in England, raised in Malvern, Worcestershire, and educated at the University of Kent, studying for a degree in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature. He lived for a year in Sicily, then moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England. After another stint in Japan, he currently lives in Ireland with his wife Keiko and their two children. In an essay for Random House, Mitchell wrote: “I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, but until I came to Japan to live in 1994 I was too easily distracted to do much about it. I would probably have become a writer wherever I lived, but would I have become the same writer if I’d spent the last 6 years in London, or Cape Town, or Moose Jaw, on an oil rig or in the circus? This is my answer to myself.” Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten (1999), moves around the globe, from Okinawa to Mongolia to pre-Millennial New York City, as nine narrators tell stories that interlock and intersect. The novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His two subsequent novels, number9dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004), were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2003, he was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. In 2007, Mitchell was listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in The World. Mitchell’s American editor at Random House is novelist David Ebershoff. (Goodreads)

His latest novel (July 2020) Utopia Avenue tells the fictional story of a British band of the same name, who emerged from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, against the backdrop of real world characters and events.

Check it out on Goodreads (Click cover below)

 

Caleb Carr

Caleb Carr 

is the critically acclaimed author of The Alienist, The Angel of Darkness, The Lessons of Terror, Killing Time, The Devil Soldier, The Italian Secretary, The Legend of Broken, and Surrender, New York. He has taught military history at Bard College, and worked extensively in film, television, and the theater. His military and political writings have appeared in numerous magazines and periodicals, among them The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in upstate New York. (Penguin/Random House)

The Alienist – Season 2 now streaming

 

Craig Johnson

Location – Wyoming

Craig Johnson/Longmire

Craig Allen Johnson is an American author who writes mystery novels. He is best known for his Sheriff Walt Longmire novel series. The books are set in northern Wyoming, where Longmire is sheriff of the fictional county of Absaroka. Wikipedia

For fans of the Netflix series (Longmire,) if you have watched the six seasons, grab a book. Walt, Vicki, Ruby and the gang live on…

Scroll to top