A lot of us choose our summer-reading list based on what we're seeing-or looking forward to seeing-on screen. Some of last summer's most popular beach reads weren't new books at all, but were inspired by what we were watching: Kevin Kwan's "Crazy Rich Asians," originally published in 2013, was rediscovered last summer due to the hit movie; Gillian Flynn's "Sharp Objects," written in 2006 (before "Gone Girl" made her a household word), newly hit the best-seller lists thanks to the HBO series based on it.
This summer, I'm hearing from readers excited to devour "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng-freshly out in paperback!-before its Hulu adaptation arrives next year. (They're in for a treat; it's terrific.)
Also on the coming-soon list: Delia Owens' bestselling Southern thriller "Where the Crawdads Sing," currently in development by Reese Witherspoon's production company; "Nine Perfect Strangers" by Liane Moriarty, on its way to Hulu next year (shades of HBO's "Big Little Lies," also by Moriarty); the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn, coming soon to Netflix in a Shonda Rhimes adaptation (and featuring Julia Andrews!); and, should you be in need of a classic, H.G. Wells' "The Invisible Man" and Agatha Christie's "Death on the Nile," both arriving at the multiplexes in 2020.
Any of these should pair nicely with sunscreen.