The books behind 5 of the best picture Oscar nominees

Good morning and welcome back to the L.A. Times Book Club newsletter.

For the next few editions of the newsletter, you’ll be hearing directly from L.A.-based authors. First up …

I’m Jim Ruland, a novelist, punk historian and longtime contributor to The Los Angeles Times, and I’m very excited about tomorrow’s 96th Academy Awards. Why is that?

Because five of the 10 films nominated for best picture began their creative lives as books. These books range from the literary to the historical to the plain weird.

Here’s a look at the contenders:

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“The Zone of Interest” is based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis. Best known for his novels in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the son of Kingsley Amis was a leading light in London’s literary scene. His story about the horrors of the Holocaust was the second to last of his 15 novels. (My personal favorite is No. 7: “Time’s Arrow.”) Amis died last May. Find the novel here.

“American Fiction” was adapted from Percival Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasure.” The much-lauded writer has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a finalist for the Pulitzer and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Everett is the hometown selection here: He is a distinguished professor of English at USC. Find the novel here.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” started out as a book by David Grann. While Martin Scorsese’s movie was runner-up at the box office (behind Taylor Swift’s movie) on opening weekend, Grann’s account of the Osage murders and the origins of the FBI was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Award. Find the novel here.

“Oppenheimer” is based on the biography “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by the duo Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin. If you somehow missed Barbenheimer, we need to talk. (Seriously, please tell me how you did it.) “American Prometheus” took the authors 25 years to complete, which is just a bit longer than the film’s run time. Find the novel here.

‘American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer’ by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherman

(Vintage Books)

“Poor Things” is based on Alasdair Gray’s weird and titillating novel “Poor Things: Episodes From the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer.” (Good call on shortening the title.) Gray was a Scottish writer and a painter who died in 2019 and thus was unable to enjoy the movie’s lush cinematography and many orgasms. Find the novel here.

The next time someone tells you that Hollywood is only interested in making superhero movies, hit them with this list of books. (Or, possibly, the actual stack.)

No matter who wins tomorrow night, don’t forget: Hollywood’s biggest night wouldn’t be possible without writers, and, in the case of these adaptations, readers like you who championed the stories in their earliest incarnations.

For a deeper dive into these adaptations, Ryan Coleman broke it down at Literary Hub.

The L.A. Times Festival of Books is coming!

You don’t have to wait until next year’s Oscars to geek out over adaptations. Hollywood’s love affair with books will continue.

We’re celebrating the return of the L.A. Times Festival of Books with the launch of the Ultimate Hollywood Bookshelf. Keep an eye out for our special section on the greatest Hollywood books of all time, online April 8 and in a premium print edition April 14.

Although the focus of the festival is always on books, we’re bringing back the popular Book to Screen feature as well, with screenings of upcoming adaptations. Tune in to next week’s Book Club newsletter for more on the screenings.

The Week(s) in Books

(Photos by Ecco; Norton; FSG; Henry Holt; Dey Street; Knopf; Graywolf; Doubleday)

If you’d like to get a jump on your spring reading, Bethanne Patrick has you covered with some of the most intriguing titles of March, including new novels from Percival Everett, Tommy Orange and Marie Mutsuki Mockett.

“Tell all the truth but tell it … Swift?” Apparently, the famously terse poet Emily Dickinson and pop sensation Taylor Swift are distantly related. Naturally, the Swifties have thoughts on the matter.

Lauren LeBlanc reviews Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s new novel, “The American Daughters,” the story of a mother and her daughter who are sold to a wealthy landowner in antebellum Louisiana.

You can get a sneak peek at Katya Apekina’s new novel, “Mother Doll,” with this excerpt at Literary Hub. Why should you do that? My profile of Apekina is coming Tuesday and, more important, the author will be in conversation with Ottessa Moshfegh at Skylight Books at 7 p.m. on April 13.

Speaking of bookstores...

Bookstore Faves

Every couple of weeks, we ask an L.A. bookseller what they’re selling and what they’re loving. This time, it’s Jessica Amodeo, manager of Book Soup. Located on the Sunset Strip, Book Soup has been catering to its celebrity clientele since 1975. I was curious if the Oscar buzz translates to book sales so I asked Jessica who the booksellers were pulling for. Here’s what she wrote:

People walk past Book Soup Book Store on Thursday, February 6, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

When you step into Book Soup, we say hello and welcome. You might be a tourist pleased to find Camus, or Quentin Tarantino asking for the classics.

[Our employee] Sydney is predicting Greta Gerwig’s script will win and so is Dan, who believes, “It has to win something and this is their best shot.” Beneath these titles, the cover of “Erasure” by Percival Everett blends with the red carpet theme. Amy is pulling for its adaptation, “American Fiction.”

On the next shelf, another popular title, “Poor Things” by Alasdair Gray, stands next to a thermos that looks like a camera lens. Madeleine and Sean are hoping it will win adapted screenplay. Adam wants “anything but ‘Oppenheimer’” because he believes it will sweep.

Amelia, Book Soup’s longest-tenured employee, believes “The Zone of Interest” should win and I agree. I’m always focused on the telling and can never read or watch anything innocently. So I applaud this adaptation that has transformed the work of Martin Amis and elevated art so steeped in language, through cinematography and sound. It is a powerful and important film.

That’s a wrap!

Thanks for reading. I’ll leave you with a pro tip. One thing I’ve learned covering the arts in L.A. is never schedule an event on the night of the Academy Awards — unless it’s a watch party.

The L.A. Times Book Club newsletter will be back next week when Zan Romanoff takes the reins.