All the Books to Read Before They Become TV Shows in 2022

Hit the library before Everything I Know About Love and more beloved books arrive on the small screen this year.

By Allison Crist Aug 18, 2022 6:35 PMTags

Nothing beats the experience of reading a really good book, but watching all of the characters you fell in love with come to life on the screen is pretty darn close.

Thankfully, 2022 has delivered and will continue to deliver a wide-range of book-to-screen adaptations. We've already been blessed with The Summer I Turned Pretty, a wistful love story based on Jenny Han's eponymous YA book, as well as Netflix's stunning take on Neil Gailman's beloved comic book series, The Sandman.

Looking ahead, there's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Daisy Jones & The Six, House of the Dragons and Everything I Know About Love—the latter of which is set to premiere the soonest. Hitting Peacock on Thursday, Aug. 25, the series is inspired by Dolly Alderton's memoir of the same name and follows two 20-something best friends living in London as they navigate bad dates, heartaches and humiliations.

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9 Changes The Summer I Turned Pretty TV Series Made to the Book

Get more details on the upcoming Peacock series and every other book-to-screen adaptation coming to a TV near you by scrolling on.

The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2

Based On: It's Not Summer Without You, the second book in Jenny Han's beloved young adult trilogy
Starring: Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno, Sean Kaufman and Rain Spencer
Premieres: July 14 on Amazon Prime Video
Why We're Excited: Like Belly (Tung), we've been counting down the days 'til summer all year as we awaited our return to Cousins Beach to find out what happened between her and the Fisher brothers—our current favorite love triangle on TV!—as well as get a much-needed update on how Susannah (Rachel Blanchard) is handling her cancer battle.  

Han teased that fans should expect major differences between the 2010 book and the upcoming season. "There's always gonna be changes here and there," the showrunner told E! News in December. "So I guess you'll just have to wait and see."

It Ends With Us

Based On: Colleen Hoover's 2016 novel of the same name.
Starring: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj
Premieres: TBD
Why We're Excited: Two words: Blake Lively. Okay, two more words: Love triangle. Centered around a florist named Lily Bloom, the book is a riveting tale of love, strength and the complications of relationships.

Red, White & Royal Blue

Based On: Casey McQuiston's 2019 novel of the same name.
Starring: Nicholas Galitzine, Taylor Zakhar Perez, Uma Thurman, Sarah Shahi, Stephen Fry and Rachel Hilson
Premieres: Aug. 11 on Amazon Prime Video
Why We're Excited: Make sure you have your A.C. on full blast before reading or watching McQuiston's steamy secret romance between Alex Claremont-Diaz (Perez), the son of the President of the United States, and Britain's Prince Henry (Galitzine). Trust us, relations between the U.S. and the British have never been hotter.

Lessons in Chemistry

Based On: Bonnie Garmus' 2022 novel of the same name. 
Starring: Brie Larson, Lewis Pullman, Stephanie Koenig, Aja Naomi King, Thomas Mann and Beau Bridges 
Premieres: Oct. 13 on Apple TV+
Why We're Excited: In the 1950s-set series, Larson plays Elizabeth Zott, an aspiring scientist whose ambitions are put on hold in a society that insists women belong in the domestic sphere. After she finds herself pregnant, a desperate Elizabeth accepts a job as a host on a TV cooking show, which she turns into an opportunity to inspire overlooked housewives to change the status quo. This revolution really will be televised.

Kay Scarpetta

Based On: Patricia Cornwell's mega-popular series of the same name that has 26 books in total
Starring: Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis
Premieres: TBD on Amazon Prime Video
Why We're Excited: If it's based on a book and Kidman stars in it, we will binge the s--t out of it. (See: Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers and The Undoing.) Add in the fact that the Oscar winner and Curtis—who bought the Kay Scarpetta book rights back in June 2021—will be playing crime-fighting sisters and it's already become our favorite new show of the year.

 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Based On: The Lightning Thief, the first book the beloved fantasy series written by Rick Riordan
Starring: Walker Scobell, Aryan Simhadri, Leah Sava Jeffries, Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Jason Mantzoukas, Megan Mullally and Timm Sharp 
Premieres: Early 2024 on Disney+ 
Why We're Excited: Confession: While we loved the film franchise that starred Logan Lerman, we do think the source material is better suited for the TV treatment and we're so happy to be re-enrolling at Camp Half-Blood for more teen deity drama. Plus, Lin-Manuel Miranda is guest-starring as Hermes and we want to be in on the streaming service where that happens. 

Three Women

Based On: The non-fiction bestseller of the same name by Lisa Taddeo.
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Betty Gilpin, DeWanda Wise, Gabrielle Creevy, Blair Underwood and Sean Meehan
Premieres: TBA on Starz
Why We're Excited: One of the most relevant books of 2019, the series will explore female desire as it follows a trio of women who are on a crash course to radically overturn their lives. While Showtime initially canceled the show despite production already being completed, Starz swooped in, answering our literary battle cry.

(E! and Peacock are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

Peacock is live now! Check out NBCU's streaming service here.