Universal Studio Group’s Jordan Moblo shares his philosophy for adapting books for screen.

In this special episode of Fully Booked, recorded live in August 2026, at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., Jordan Moblo of Universal Studio Group and Jordy’s Book Club joined festivalgoers for a lively conversation about adapting beloved books for TV and film, building an online reading community, and much more.

Moblo is executive vice president of creative acquisitions and IP management at Universal Studio Group, charged with acquiring intellectual property from books, podcasts, and other media. His team acquired Elin Hilderbrand’s The Five-Star Weekend, produced by Universal Global Television, starring Jennifer Garner, Regina Hall, and Chloë Sevigny, on Peacock; as well as the forthcoming live-action Dungeon Crawler Carl series, produced by Universal Global Television and Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door for Peacock. He’s also the founder of Jordy’s Book Club, a monthly book club, subscription service, and virtual community with 450,000 followers on Instagram.

We begin by discussing Moblo’s day job and the tasks that may comprise a typical workday—reading, meetings, negotiations, and more. We tackle some of the biggest misconceptions about how a book becomes a TV series, what it was like to work with the legendary Elin Hilderbrand, and some other recent projects he’s excited about. He takes us down the “development pipeline,” enumerating the many steps a project takes between acquisition and development. We talk about industry trends, including LitRPGs, and building relationships with authors over time. We then turn to Jordy’s Book Club—its humble beginning, its surprise success—and what makes a great book club pick. Moblo also shares the name of the author he was most overwhelmed to meet.

Then memoirist, essayist, and picture-book author Amy Alznauer joins us in a sponsored interview to discuss her middle-grade debut, Where the Wild Horses Are (Neal Porter/Holiday House, Oct. 13). It’s a moving new novel about a 12-year-old cowboy—“not a cowgirl”—named Nashville Eliza West, who enters an Extreme Mustang Makeover contest with her cousin. In an admiring review, Kirkus compliments Nash’s “quirky and strong” voice and Alznauer’s “fantastic” portrayal of Deafness in a family that includes hearing characters.

During our main interview, Moblo mentions many books—but we’re looking for the title of the novel he recommends to audience members that was also the August 2026 selection for Jordy’s Book Club. Follow @kirkus_reviews on Instagram and DM us the title of that book, along with your email address and location, for a chance to with a $100 Visa gift card courtesy of Kirkus. The giveaway is open to legal U.S. residents who are 18 or older at the time of entry.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

World News From Waverly High by Linda Kass

Hugo by Karl Linden

Sebastian the Belgian Koala by Jill Charlotte Thomas, illus. by Parks Sadler

The Hourglass by Michelle Christina

Fully Booked is produced by Jessica Lockhart and Megan Labrise.