There are plenty of book-to-screen adaptations premiering by the end of 2023. Check out this list and read the book or listen to the audiobook before seeing it on film.

-After Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist, is fired from her position in a patriarchal lab, she is given the opportunity to host a TV cooking show in the 1950s.

-On Apple TV+ on October 13, 2023

-Follows historical events in the 1920s surrounding the murders of the wealthy Osage people in California after oil was found in their territory.

-The book was a bestseller in 2017, winner of the Edgar Award and National Book Award nominee

-Film release will be in theaters on October 20, 2023

All the Light We Cannot See

-World War II novel that alternates between the viewpoints of Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind French girl, and Werner Pfennig, a German boy in military school.

The Color Purple

-This adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel produced by Oprah will be musical this time around.

-The original novel was the Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

-The theatrical release date will be December 25, 2023

–Post by Susie Rivera, Adult Services Specialist

#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.

Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning With the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule

Reviewed by: Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist

Genre: American History (Civil War), Memoir

Suggested Age: Adult, Teen

What is the book about? The myth of the “Lost Cause” is an interpretation of the events before, during, and after the Civil War that portrays the South in the best possible light. It claims slavery was benign or beneficial to those enslaved. It glorifies Robert E. Lee to a point beyond hero-worship, almost as if he was god-like. Belief in it facilitated reconciliation between whites from the North and South during the 19^th and 20^th centuries, at the cost of racial equity and civil rights. The author, a career military officer in the Army as well as a historian, explains how, as an adult, he came to terms with his own indoctrination into these racist ideas by examining his upbringing in Virginia and throughout the South.

My Review: I listened to the audiobook read by the author and thought it was an impressively-researched dissection of the myth of the “Lost Cause.” Seidule is clear-eyed and forthright about the fact that his old belief system was racist and how the Southern culture that he was raised in fostered and nurtured these beliefs into his adulthood. His detailed exploration into things like the cause of the Civil War, Confederate monuments, Gone With the Wind, Confederate flags, military fort names, and beyond is a compelling demystification of the Confederacy and of Robert E. Lee.

Three Words That Describe This Book: Introspective, Compelling, Well-Researched

Give This a Try if You Like…How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History Slavery Across America by Clint Smith, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DeAngelo, How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Rating: 5/5

Find it at the library!

What did you do during “Lockdown 2020?” Brandon Sanderson wrote 4 secret books!

Just over one year ago, Brandon Sanderson, the popular science fiction and fantasy author, started a crowdfunded project on the Kickstarter platform called “Surprise! Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson.” With only vague, yet tantalizing hints, Sanderson’s fans did not disappoint. Nearly 186,000 people pledged over $41 million to see these books come to fruition. Sanderson now holds the bragging rights for the highest funded project on kickstarter.com!

If you missed out on participating, don’t worry. The books are also coming to Fondulac District Library. The first book is already on our shelves, with the second set to arrive over the summer. Find out more below.

Secret Project #1: Tress of the Emerald Sea

Publication Date: April 4, 2023

Author Brandon Sanderson expands his Cosmere universe shared by The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn with a new standalone novel for everyone who loved The Princess Bride.

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?

Find it at the library!

Secret Project #2: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

Expected Publication Date: June 27, 2023

Brandon Sanderson meshes Jason Bourne and epic fantasy in this captivating adventure that throws an amnesiac wizard into time travel shenanigans—where his only hope of survival lies in recovering his missing memories.

A man awakes in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the “real world” should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation, but can he figure them out in time to survive?

Find it at the library!

Secret Project #3: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Expected Publication Date: October 3, 2023

A gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different worlds must compromise and work together to save their worlds from ruin.

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?

Secret Project #4: The Sunlit Man

Expected Publication Date: January 2, 2024

Brandon Sanderson shows us a future in the Cosmere universe where a perpetual planetary wanderer must decide whether to keep running or stay and make a difference on a struggling planet.

Years ago, he had comrades in arms and a cause to believe in, but now the man who calls himself Nomad knows only a life on the run. Forced to hop from world to world in the Cosmere whenever the relentless Night Brigade gets too close, Nomad lands on a new planet and is instantly caught up in the struggle between a tyrant and the rebels who want only to escape being turned into mindless slaves—all under the constant threat of a sunrise whose heat will melt the very stones. Unable to understand the language, can he navigate the conflict and gain enough power to leap off-world before his mind or body pay the ultimate price?

-Annotations from the publishers

–Post by Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist