Every category of the Oscars feels like the race of his or her life, to the person who’s nominated in that category. But there’s no denying that the Best Picture is the horse race of the annual contest. It’s the big film that makes producers and studios race to copycat (just the way publishers try to recreate a bestseller in the mold of any previous bestseller). We’re sure you’ll enjoy watching this year’s awards show on Sunday night, but we really hope that some of these successful Best Picture–winning films have you reading more books.
- If you like The Silence of the Lambs (1991), read People Who Eat Darkness.
- If you like Annie Hall (1978), pick up Do the Windows Open?.
- If you like Dances with Wolves (1990), check out The Searchers.
- If you like Gandhi (1982), try Great Soul.
- If you like The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), read The Ordinary Acrobat.
- If you like The Godfather (1972), pick up Mafia Summit.
- If you like Amadeus (1984), you might like Reinventing Bach.
- If you like Gladiator (2000), read Pompeii.
- If you like Slumdog Millionaire (2008), pick up Behind the Beautiful Forevers.
- If you like Platoon (1986), try A Bright Shining Lie.
NONFICTION
Released: Feb. 26, 2013
"Blending cultural history with biography, memoir and travelogue, Wall's carefully balanced book is, in itself, a successful tightrope traverse."
NONFICTION
Released: Feb. 19, 2013
"A thoroughly researched, clearly written account of an obsessive search through the tangled borderland of fact and fiction, legend and myth."
A gracefully presented narrative of the 1956 John Ford film
The Searchers, which was based on a 1954 novel that was based on an actual Comanche kidnapping of a white girl in 1836.
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NONFICTION
Released: Jan. 22, 2013
"An exciting, comprehensive chronicle of one of the most pivotal events in mob history."
How honest New York State Trooper Ed Croswell crashed a special meeting of gangster elites in 1957 and exposed organized crime to a dozing American public.
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NONFICTION
Released: Sept. 18, 2012
"The author's passion, thorough research and imaginative heart produce one revelation after another."
The author of
The Life You Save May Be Your Own (2003) returns with a tour de force about Johann Sebastian Bach and a description and assessment of the recordings that have made his work an essential part of our culture.
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NONFICTION
Released: June 5, 2012
"A fresh, compelling read for fans of true crime and slowly unfolding mysteries."
NONFICTION
Released: Feb. 7, 2012
"The best book yet written on India in the throes of a brutal transition."
In her debut, Pulitzer Prize–winning
New Yorker staff writer Boo creates an intimate, unforgettable portrait of India's urban poor.
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