Last night’s Oscar awards are the perfect excuse to catch up on this year’s list of Academy Award-winning and nominated films, but for those who prefer to read the books first, several of the novels, biographies, and nonfiction books that inspired several of the best movies from 2023 are on sale at Amazon. The deals include the books that inspired four Best Adapted Screenplay nominees–Oppenheimer, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest, and American Fiction–as well as the nonfiction crime thriller that informed Martin Scorsese’s latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon.
American Prometheus (Oppenheimer)
Oppenheimer is the big one. The movie took home seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), and was nominated for numerous other categories. The film was inspired by the New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The book covers J. Robert Oppenheimer’s career, from his early years as a physicist and teacher to his work on the atomic bomb during World War II, and later his role during the Cold War. You can grab the biography from Amazon for $15 (was $25).
Erasure (American Fiction)
American Fiction ultimately won the Best Adapted Screenplay award. It was also nominated in four other categories, including Best Actor (Jeffrey Wright), Best Supporting Actor (Sterling K. Brown), Best Picture, and Best Original Score. The film is based on the superbly written novel Erasure by Percival Everett, which is just $12.79 at Amazon (normally $17).
Poor Things
Poor Things, which won Best Actress (Emma Stone), is adapted from the novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray. Much like the movie, the book received high critical praise when it released in 2023 thanks to its surreal story that deals with themes of identity, sexuality, imperialism, and classism. You can pick up a paperback copy of Poor Things for $15 at Amazon (was $19).
The Zone of Interest
There’s also The Zone of Interest, a historical fiction book by the late Martin Amis about a family who lives next to the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. The novel inspired the movie of the same name, directed by Jonathan Glazer, which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Sound. The Zone of Interest paperback edition is $15.79 at Amazon (normally $18).
Killers of the Flower Moon
Lastly, while Killers of the Flower Moon was not nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, it was still one of the most-nominated films of the year, with nominations in 10 categories including Best Picture, Best Director (Martin Scorsese), Best Actress (Lily Gladstone), and Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro). The film is based on Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, a nonfiction book by journalist David Grann that recounts the Osage County murders and their lasting effects on the Osage community. The book is on sale for $10 at Amazon (was $17).
After you’ve read all the books, the film versions are available to buy or rent for cheap at Amazon. You can also stream each of the movies via Amazon Prime Video.
