Books On Film | Roots, Amistad, & 12 Years A Slave

Roots: The Saga of An American Family

by Alex Haley, published 1976.

Roots starts the story of an African adolescent, Kunta Kinte, who is captured and sold into slavery in the United States during the 18th century and continues by following the lives of his alleged descents.

The book was adapted into a highly rated television mini-series in 1977 starring a young LeVar Burton (Star Trek, Reading Rainbow).

Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy
by Howard Jones, published 1987

The mutiny and attempted escape of enslaved Africans aboard the La Amistad led to a highly publicized court case in 1851, United States vs The Amistad Africans.

The story was adapted into the film Amistad by Steven Spielberg in 1997. The screenwriter based the screenplay on Jone's book.





12 Years A Slave
by Solomon Northup, published 1853

12 Years A Slave is the biographical narrative of a New Yorker, Solomon Northrup, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1851.

It was adapted into film by British director Steve McQueen in 2013 and has been very popular this award season. To read more, see Bucket Book List: Academy Award Nominations.

Book Bucket List | Academy Award Nominations... for movies based on books

Break out the champagne and $10,000 dresses, the Academy Awards are just around the corner!  The awards this year feature quite a few movies based on books.  Luckily, our libraries carry these titles, so you can find out what the original stories were like before they were made into the year's best films.

The film, Philomena, is based on the book of the same name follows the story of Philomena Lee, who was forced to give up her child for adoption in Ireland because she was unmarried.  Fifty years later, she joins forces with a journalist to find out what happened to her son.  This film is nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress for Judi Dench.  This book is available to our patrons from our Link+ system.

12 Years as a Slave by Solomon Northup was made into a movie this past year featuring some of the best acting, editing, and screenwriting of the year.  It's nominated for numerous awards including Best Picture.  It is the true story of Solomon Northup written by him in 1853.  Northup was living as a free man in New York, but was later kidnapped and sold into slavery in New Orleans.  The book is Northup's memoir of his experiences as a slave and what it took for him to reunite with his family.


Catching the Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort was made into the Wolf of Wall Street film by Martin Scorsese.  It's up for a ton of awards too, so everything will have some stiff competition.  This second book by Belfort was written after he spent two years in prison for securities fraud.  This book holds Belfort's reflections of what he did including all of the crazy illegal activities he partook in.