Books

Will Smith launches ‘Fresh Princess’ kids' books, flipping the script on his ’90s show

The books will be written by Denene Millner, a journalist and author who collaborated with comedian Steve Harvey on the books "Straight Talk, No Chaser" and "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man." Illustrating the books will be Orlando, Fla., artist Gladys Jose.

02

Books at the Box Office

Dear Match Book,

I like to read nonfiction books that have been turned into movies. I don’t care which order I encounter them in: If I read the book first, I like to follow up with the movie to see how the filmmakers streamlined the plot, but I’ll also go from movie to book. (I recently watched “A Civil Action,” then found the book by Jonathan Harr at a used-book store.)

I’m rarely disappointed by the literary counterparts, one exception being “Julie and Julia,” by Julie Powell — I far preferred the film.

I’ve read Terry Ryan’s memoir, “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,” which I thought was superb, but I haven’t seen the movie yet. I enjoyed both versions of Erich von Däniken’s classic “Chariots of the Gods” (I watched the movie first).

I recently picked up “The Monuments Men,” by Robert M. Edsel, since I have already seen the film. I’m also looking forward to reading and watching “The Radium Girls,” by Kate Moore, as well as to tackling both page and screen versions of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” by Rebecca Skloot.

Can you recommend any other nonfiction books that have been made into movies?

KRISTINE KADLECMILWAUKEE

Dear Kristine,

The mind’s eye of a reader — what allows you to picture, say, the views from the Pacific Crest Trail as conjured by Cheryl Strayed in “Wild,” or the graffitied walls of the bus-turned-shelter described by Jon Krakauer in “Into the Wild” (both ideal adds to your page-to-screen list) — might also hold some back from appreciating adaptations: Once built, the sets readers have constructed in their minds can be hard to strike. Your unique flexibility, though — a kind of double vision — allows you to see the distinct strengths and architectures of each form.

Now Playing

Given Hollywood’s penchant for recycling narratives, examples that fit your search abound. I’ll mention just a couple of handfuls. Start with two 2018 big-screen adaptations with excellent source material and Academy Award nominations. Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” sprang from Ron Stallworth’s “Black Klansman,” a memoir as lean and brisk as a screenplay. In it the first black cadet to become a police officer in Colorado Springs, in 1974, details his strange and dangerous undercover investigation of the Ku Klux Klan. Identity, as seen from the opposite side of the law, also plays a part in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” the delectable autobiography by a literary biographer turned literary forger, Lee Israel, adapted into a movie of the same name directed by Marielle Heller.

Self, Made

Skillful adaptations of (still more) personal narratives, which provide rich source material for filmmakers, can link the two types of storytelling inextricably. I still hold a grudge against Robert De Niro for the way he treated Leonardo DiCaprio, as Tobias Wolff, while playing his stepfather in the adaptation of Wolff’s memoir, “This Boy’s Life.” And just as Penny Marshall’s movie version of “Awakenings” led to a wider appreciation of Oliver Sacks’s writing, I wish that the director Jane Campion’s intimate “An Angel at My Table,” an adaptation of three volumes of the New Zealander Janet Frame’s memoirs (including scenes from her time in a psychiatric hospital), had led to a broader and more sustained readerly embrace of all of Frame’s vibrant and contemplative work.

And in another cinematic take on a young woman’s personal account of her stay in a psychiatric institution — Susanna Kaysen’s “Girl, Interrupted” — Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of one of Kaysen’s fellow patients won her an Academy Award.

An even more extreme confinement marks “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” Jean-Dominique Bauby’s slim book, which he composed post-stroke by blinking his words to an assistant, one letter at a time. The visually arresting movie, directed by the painter Julian Schnabel, shifts the key characters in Bauby’s life, making for interesting contrast.

The Big Picture

Finally, the narrative sweep of books on history, space, sports, etc. have led to a string of big-budget feature film successes: Laura Hillenbrand’s “Seabiscuit” and “Unbroken,” Margot Lee Shetterly’s “Hidden Figures,” and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals,” which became Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln.” This category also includes two books that made the most surprising (to me anyway) and smooth transitions to film: Michael Lewis’s “Moneyball” and “The Big Short.” Chalk it up to movie magic.

Yours truly, Match Book

Check out Match Book’s earlier recommendations here.

03

Bookmark: 12 cheery books to bring you out of the winter doldrums

February got you down? February’s got me down. The polar vortex cold. The endless snow. (And I like snow.) The long commutes. Shoveling at 9 p.m. Shoveling again at 5 a.m. Plus if, like me, you’re doing the Star Tribune 28-Day Sugar-Free Challenge, you can’t even have chocolate to console you. We need something to lift our spirits.

Books. Books can do this.

The amazing power of books — they can crush us, devastate us, make us cry, make us laugh. At the end of one of the longest Februaries ever (despite only 28 days), here are some books to not crush you, to not devastate you, but to bring you cheer.

“Greenwillow,” by B.J. Chute. This is the book that I send to friends who are down in the dumps. Written by Minnesota-born Chute and a finalist for a 1957 National Book Award, it’s the story of the village of Greenwillow and the utterly charming people who live there: the two rival pastors (one cheerful and fat, the other dour and thin), the hired girl, Dorrie, and Gideon, the cursed boy who loves her. I have read this book many times, and it never loses its charm.

“Less,” by Andrew Sean Greer. Dark-horse winner of last year’s Pulitzer Prize, this is the rare comic novel to be so honored. It’s the story of a writer on the cusp of middle age who finds out that his former lover is getting married, so he takes off on a round-the-world book tour, eventually finding the meaning of love.

“Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” by Maria Semple. Semple skewers Microsoft employees, yuppies and the granola-crunchiness of Seattle in this comic novel about a mother who disappears just as her family is planning a trip to Antarctica. (Equally funny is Semple’s second book, “Today Will Be Different.”)

“The Misfortune of Marion Palm,” by Emily Culliton. The unlikely protagonist is dowdy, boring and a master at embezzlement. And embezzle she does — and then disappears, deserting her job and her odious family.

“The Diary of a Bookseller,” by Shaun Bythell. The dark humor in this memoir comes from the crankiness of Bythell, who runs a bookstore in Scotland and who is famous for putting Kindles out of their misery in various ways. Also funny: the cluelessness of his customers, who sometimes stand in his store and look up books on Amazon, hoping for a better price. And then there’s the wackiness of his staff. Through it all glows the charm of the bookstore and the love of books.

“Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine,” by Gail Honeyman. It’s clear to every reader that Eleanor Oliphant is, in fact, not completely fine, is actually barely holding things together. But Eleanor doesn’t know this. As you read you will understand her better and better, and root for her more and more.

“Magpie Murders,” by Anthony Horowitz Yes, there are dead bodies, but no, they won’t make you feel sad. Horowitz (creator of the BBC show “Foyle’s War” and author of myriad books for kids and adults) has cleverly tucked a pseudo Agatha Christie novel inside this murder mystery. Two books in one, and both quite fun.

“Hotel Silence,” by Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir, translated from the Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon. This novel starts with grimness — the protagonist is trying to figure out where and how he can kill himself without bothering anyone — and ends with community and hope.

“Vinegar Girl,” by Anne Tyler. Tyler’s retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” is told with a feminist slant. Sly and funny, with vintage Tyler characters.

“The Good Lord Bird,” by James McBride. The funniest book you’ll ever read about the Civil War. Featuring a boy named Onion, and John Brown. It’s dark, but it’s very funny, and it won the National Book Award for fiction.

“I Want My Hat Back,” by Jon Klassen. It’s a picture book. It will take you 45 seconds to read. It will make you laugh and laugh.

What books do you pick up when you’re feeling blue? Write me at books@startribune.com and I’ll include your suggestions sometime in March (another glorious month).

Laurie Hertzel is the Star Tribune senior editor for books. On Twitter: @StribBooks. On Facebook: facebook.com/startribunebooks.