Your Summer Reading List: 6 Books to Check Out Ahead of the Fall TV Season (PHOTOS)

arrow - left
arrow - right
summer reading
19-24-4245

The Secret of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew, Book 1) by Carolyn Keene

The famous sleuth heads to The CW this fall, with Kennedy McMann as the clever teen chasing clues in a murder mystery with a supernatural twist. There are about 200 Nancy Drew books to date (the series launched in 1930!), so start at the beginning.

Nancy Drew, Fall 2019, The CW

19-24-4241

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

Set in 19th-century Kansas, on the brink of the Civil War, the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction winner is told from the perspective of a teenage slave called Onion who is brought into the family of abolitionist John Brown (Ethan Hawke).

The Good Lord Bird, 2020, Showtime

19-24-4243

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Miles (Charlie Plummer) is a poetic teen who, upon transferring to boarding school, falls for the destructive Alaska (Kristine Froseth) in the first novel by the YA author (The Fault in Our Stars). This Is Us‘s Ron Cephas Jones plays wise religion teacher Dr. Hyde in Hulu’s fall series.

Looking for Alaska, Friday, October 18, Hulu

19-24-4242

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Three families — two wealthy, one working-class — are brought together and then torn apart in 1990s Ohio. Kerry Washington, Reese Witherspoon, Joshua Jackson, and Rosemarie DeWitt star in the eight-episode 2020 Hulu limited series exploring issues of race, class and adoption.

Little Fires Everywhere, 2020, Hulu

19-24-4244

The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver

Russell Hornsby (Grimm) leads NBC’s winter drama Lincoln, based on the crime series about quadriplegic forensic expert Lincoln Rhyme (played by Denzel Washington in a 1999 flick). Rhyme teams with the NYPD (including Michael Imperioli’s Detective Sellitto) on big cases.

Lincoln, Coming Soon, NBC

19-24-4240

Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta

HBO has picked up another Perrotta novel — but this fall comedy is nothing like The Leftovers. Empty-nester and divorcée Eve Fletcher (Transparent‘s Kathryn Hahn) finds herself immersed in the erotic side of the internet after an anonymous text makes her rethink her unexciting life.

Mrs. Fletcher, Coming Soon, HBO

upcoming books

Still to Come

These titles are also in the works for 2020 and beyond: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (USA), The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (Prime Video), The Stand by Stephen King (CBS All Access), Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty (Hulu), His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (HBO), The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss (Showtime), and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (Prime Video).

1 of

Excited about the new TV series coming next season?

Well, you don’t have to wait to see how all of the stories unfold. Grab a copy of the novels that some of the shows are based on and share them with your book club.

Click through the gallery above to see six coming to TV soon and seven more in the works.