By Stephen King

When a writer returns to his Maine home town, he discovers that the peaceful hamlet is being overrun by vampires and sets out to curb this ancient evil before it can spread.

Became the TV Miniseries: Salem's Lot (1979 and 2004)

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

This story, the first of the Sherlock Holmes adventures, includes an explanation of how Watson and Holmes come to share rooms at 221B Baker Street, and an introduction of Scotland Yard detectives Gregson and Lestrade.

Became the TV shows: Elementary, Sherlock, and more shows titles Sherlock.

By Stephen King
Recommended By Melissa Contino, Library Clerk

Plagued by vivid nightmares of the summer house he had shared with his late wife, grieving widower Mike Noonan returns to his former Maine getaway, only to find a town in the grip of a ruthless millionaire and tormented by a series of ghostly visitations.

Became the TV mini-series: Bag of Bones.

By Stephen E. Ambrose

A look at the exploits of the men of E Company during World War II describes how they parachuted into France early D-Day morning, parachuted into Holland during the Arnhem campaign, and captured Hitler's Bavarian outpost.

Became the TV mini-series: Band of Brothers.

By Sebastian Faulks

A young English soldier finds a new love interest when he stays with a family in Northern France.

Became the TV Mini-Series: Birdsong

By J.K. Rowling

The early death of a small town councilman reveals deep-rooted conflicts in the seemingly idyllic community of Pagford, which rapidly deteriorates in the face of cultural disputes, generation clashes, and a volatile election.

By Bram Stoker

Having discovered the double identity of the wealthy Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula, a small group of people vow to rid the world of the evil vampire.

By Frank Herbert
Series Dune Saga
Recommended By Megan Kass, Systems Manager

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family - and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

Became the movie: Dune and Mini-Series: Dune.

By Ernest Hemingway

An American's love for an English nurse during the First World War ends in tragedy.

Became the movie: A Farewell to Arms (original in 1932, remake in 1957)

Became the Mini-Series: A Farewell to Arms (1966)

By Sarah Waters

Growing up as a foster child among a family of thieves, orphan Sue Trinder hopes to pay back that kindness by playing a key role in a swindle scheme devised by their leader, who is planning to con a fortune out of the naive Maud Lilly.

Became the became a British TV mini-series: Fingersmith.

By V. C. Andrews
Series Dollanganger Family Series

Chris, Cathy, and the twins are to be kept hidden until their grandfather dies so that their mother will receive a sizeable inheritance, however, years pass and terrifying things occur as the four children grow up in their one room prison.

By David G. McCullough
Recommended By Barry Ernst, Reference Librarian

Superb biography of the man some thinkis truly the father of our country.

Became the TV mini-series: John Adams.

By Agatha Christie
Series Miss Marple Mysteries
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

You are cordially invited to a murder. A personal ad in the newspaper inviting strangers to participate in an evening of murder mystery fun and games at the home of Letitia Blacklock is an invitation that Miss Jane Marple cannot pass up. A good thing, too, because when the lights are dimmed real gunshots ring out, killing a young boy. Now it’s time for a new, much more serious game of “whodunit."

By Ken Follett

Set in twelfth–century England, this epic of kings and peasants juxtaposes the building of a magnificent church with the violence and treachery that often characterized the Middle Ages.

Became the TV mini-series: The Pillars of the Earth.

By Jane Austen

In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the suit of a snobbish gentleman, as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.

By Alex Haley

The author shares the saga of an African American family that extends from his ancestor Kunta Kinte, an African brought to mid-eighteenth-century America as a slave, to himself.

By Stephen King

When a writer returns to his Maine home town, he discovers that the peaceful hamlet is being overrun by vampires and sets out to curb this ancient evil before it can spread.

Became the TV mini-series: Salem’s Lot.

By Stephen King
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

"A monumentally devastating plague leaves only a few survivors who, in a desert world, experience dreams of good and evil in confrontation and, through their choices, move toward an actual confrontation (From the Publisher)."

Became the TV mini-series: The Stand.

By Gigi Levangie Grazer

When her Hollywood studio head husband unexpectedly divorces her to marry a pop starlet, Gracie seeks refuge at a friend's Malibu mansion, witnesses the impact of the divorce on her young daughter, and interacts with a series of dysfunctional men.

By Stephen King

Roberta Anderson, while searching for firewood in the forest, stumbles upon a burried ship and with the help of her onetime lover, Jim Gardener, excavates an artifact that changes the townspeople of Haven.

Became the TV mini-series: The Tommyknockers.

By Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace centers broadly on Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the best-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count, who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves behind his family to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman, who intrigues both men.

Became the movie: War and Peace (1915 1st Russian adaptation, 1947 Japanese version, 1956 American version, 1966 Soviet version,).

Became the TV Series: War and Peace (1972 BBC version), La guerre et la paix (2000 French TV production of Prokofiev’s opera), War and Peace (2007 TV mini-series), War and Peace (2015 TV adaptation)

By Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

A novel written in letters from Bess Steer Garner spanning from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1940’s.

Became the TV mini-series: A Woman of Independent Means.