A good book series is binge-worthy. The same is true for our favorite television shows. This month’s book recommendations combine the two formats and highlight book series set on the small screen. Binge the book then binge the show for a perfect relaxing weekend.

The Temperance Brennan series by Kathy Reichs has 23 primary works and several secondary books. The books follow the career and personal life of Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist. Made into a primetime TV show, Bones ran for 12 seasons on Fox. Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz star as Dr. Brennan and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth. Temperance, the main character in both the books and TV series is loosely based on Kathy Reich’s life.

 

Game of Thrones the TV series premiered on HBO and ran for eight seasons. Based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series, it has major themes of power, loyalty and morality. The book series is planned to have seven primary works; five have been released so far, with the first titled A Game of Thrones. Shelved in the fantasy section, these works present like medieval historical fiction with a splash of magical realism (and dragons) and consist of multilayered and complex characters and plots.

 

The Queen’s Gambit is a Netflix miniseries with seven episodes, based on the novel with the same title by Walter Tevis. Beth Harmon, a young girl living in an orphanage, turns to chess, alcohol and drugs to escape her surroundings in this coming-of-age tale.

 

Midsomer Murders is a British crime drama based on the Chief Inspector Barnaby books by Caroline Graham. The book series has seven primary works and the TV show has 142 episodes broadcast on the ITV Network. Barnaby and his police team solve various murders in the fictional English county of Midsomer.

 

Agatha Raisin is of a 35-book series by M.C. Beaton (Marion Chesney) and a British comedy-drama TV series with 20 episodes. The title character is a fictional retired public relations guru who moves to the Cotswold village of Carsely, where she cannot keep her nose to herself and becomes an amateur sleuth. Agatha relies on friendships old and new to keep her and the community safe as she pokes around.

 

Outlander the book series by Diana Gabaldon has 13 primary works. It is an epic story with each book building on the previous ones. Claire Randall is accidentally hurled back 200 hundred years after walking through a standing stone in Scotland while on a second honeymoon with her husband after WWII. The TV series follows Claire and her family across 83 episodes, back and forth across time and geography. It shows on the Starz network.

 

My Lady Jane on Amazon Prime Video is a historical fantasy in eight episodes based on the book of the same title by Jodi Meadows, Brodi Ashton and Cynthia Hand. The young adult novel is “in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history,” says the book blurb. Full of humor and set in 16th century England, Lady Jane Grey’s life with royal intrigue is reimagined with humans who can take animal form and the ordinary humans who drive them out of society.

 

A Discovery of Witches, which is based on the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness, has three seasons with 25 episodes. The original story is in the first three books, with two sequels, for five primary works in the book series. Diana Bishop is a reluctant witch and historian. She solves a mystery and falls in love with a vampire while finding self-empowerment along the way. The TV series stars Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode.

 

Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy by Holly Jackson premiered on Netflix last month. Emma Myers (Enid on Wednesday) stars as Pip, a curious high school student determined to solve the murder of a local schoolgirl that rocked the fictional Little Kilton, Buckinghamshire, five years before. The six-episode first season is based on the first book of Jackson’s trilogy. Additional seasons have not been announced, but if renewed, will likely cover the second and third books in the series. This young adult story is widely popular in both print and screen formats and kept bouncing between number one and two spots in Netflix Top 10 chart in the first few weeks after release.

 

By Celeste McNeil; courtesy images