You’ve heard about the Netflix Series or maybe you’ve already watched it, but you want to see how the book differs from the show? Did you finish Season 4 of Stranger Things and need something to tide you over until Season 5 is released? Maybe you watched that documentary and want to see if there is more information to be had on the topic. Here are some books that either inspired or were based on Netflix shows.
DANCING ON THE EDGE OF THE ROOF by Sheila Williams DBC 15917
Based on the Netflix movie, Juanita, forty-two-year-old Juanita Lewis leaves her dead-end life with her grown, deadbeat children in the Columbus, Ohio projects. Buying a one-way bus ticket to Montana, she finds a fulfilling life as a down-home cook in the Paper Moon diner.
DIAGNOSIS: SOLVING THE MOST BAFFLING MEDICAL MYSTERIES by Lisa Sanders DB 96900
Collection of more than fifty hard-to-crack medical quandaries from the physician-author’s “Diagnosis” column in the New York Times Magazine and now a Netflix series. In each case, the winding path to diagnosis and treatment shows how making the right diagnosis requires expertise, painstaking procedure, and sometimes a little luck. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.
DUKE AND I: A BRIDGERTON NOVEL by Julia Quinn DB 60504, BR 21413
Simon Basset, the new duke of Hastings, and Daphne Bridgerton stage a courtship to keep society matchmakers at bay. But when the charade becomes all too real for Daphne, Simon must either marry her or risk ruining her reputation and breaking her heart. Some explicit descriptions of sex. Inspiration for the Netflix series, Bridgerton. 2000.
INDEFENSIBLE by Michael Griesbach DBC 08252
A legal insider’s examination of the Steven Avery murder case in Wisconsin and response to Making a Murderer, the Netflix series about the trial. Some strong language, violence, and explicit descriptions of sex. 2016.
MEATEATER GUIDE TO WILDERNESS SKILLS AND SURVIVAL by Steven Rinella DB 102863
Outdoors expert and host of the Netflix show MeatEater provides advice on surviving in the wilderness. Includes tried-and-true tips, techniques, and gear recommendations from Rinella and his trusted crew of expert hunters, anglers, emergency room doctors, climbers, paddlers, and wilderness guides. Strong language. 2020.
NADIYA BAKES by Nadiya Hussain DB 104614; BR 23906
Host of the beloved Netflix series Time to Eat and Nadiya Bakes and 2015 winner of The Great British Baking Show presents a collection of recipes for baked goods. Categories include cakes, one-pan bakes, no-bake bakes, tarts and pies, desserts, celebration bakes, cookies and bites, breads and buns, and savory bakes. 2020.
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK: MY YEAR IN A WOMEN’S PRISON by Piper Kerman DB 77538; LB 09162
Upper-middle-class author chronicles her conviction and incarceration in 2003 for drug smuggling and money laundering—crimes she committed ten years earlier after graduating from Smith College. Kerman relates her immersion into prison culture at a minimum-security facility in Connecticut. Basis for the Netflix original series. Strong language. Bestseller. 2010.
QUEEN’S GAMBIT by Walter S. Tevis DBC 17656, En español: DB 105896
Shy, plain Beth Harmon loses her mother at age eight in Lexington, KY and is sent to an orphanage. Beth is lonely and unhappy, despite the medications given to the children to keep them manageable. One day she discovers the janitor playing a strange game in the basement and they gradually become friends as he teaches her the game of chess. Beth becomes obsessed with the game and at age 16 is competing in national chess competitions. But while she rises in the ranks of the professional circuit, her personal and emotional life suffer. Basis for the 2020 Netflix series. 1983.
STRANGER THINGS: SUSPICIOUS MINDS by Gwenda Bond DB 94103
In this novel based on the Netflix show Stranger Things, it is the summer of 1969 and Indiana college student Terry Ives wants to make a difference in the world. She volunteers to be a test subject for a secret government project, only to uncover a conspiracy. Some strong language. Commercial audiobook. 2019. Prequel to DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (DB 105858)
WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE?: A BIOGRAPHY by Alan Light DB 83699
Inspired by the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone, is an in-depth portrait from a music journalist of the singer and activist Nina Simone (1933-2003). Using archival footage, interviews, and Simone’s diaries, the author examines Simone’s youth in the Jim Crow South, her musical career and civil rights activism, and her reclusive later years in Liberia and Paris. Some strong language. Commercial audiobook 2016.
WHITE NOISE by Don DeLillo DB 23512
This black comedy zeroes in on the absurdities of life and the fear of death in contemporary America. Jack Gladney, professor at a small Midwestern college, created the discipline of “Hitler studies” despite the fact that he knows no German. He lives happily with his wife Babette and their assorted children from former marriages. Both share a pervasive dread of death that is justified when a cloud of lethal fumes threatens to engulf their quiet college town. Some strong language. National Book Award for Fiction. 1985.
YOU by Caroline Kepnes DB 80055
Clerk Joe Goldberg is immediately drawn to aspiring writer Beck when she enters his bookstore. He describes the increasingly dangerous steps he takes to get to know her, and to make her his own. Violence, strong language, and explicit descriptions of sex. 2014.