Goodread’s Best Books Of 2015

By TBI on December 3, 2015 Industry Features, Industry News

Goodreads has just announced its Best Books of 2015 as voted on by the readers across 20 categories, ranging from Historical Fiction to Children’s Picture Books. With studios and production companies increasingly seeking to pick up the rights to the next hot literary property and adapt it into a summer blockbuster or an awards season contender, the books on this list could become the next talked-about adaptation in the near future.

Here at the Tracking Board, we’ve been ramping up our exclusive tracking of television and film rights for the industry’s most buzzed about literary properties, and as such, we’ve done the digging and marked which of these titles have already been optioned, and which are still available. And while many have already been picked up by major studios and production companies, it’s a good bet that many more will be the subject of some serious bidding wars very soon.

Goodreads’ Best Books of 2015 (Winners in bold)

Fiction

GO SET A WATCHMAN (Unavailable)
Harper Lee

AFTER YOU
Jojo Moyes

THE ROYAL WE (Lauren Graham & Mae Whitman developing for CBS Films; Whitman to star)
Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan

A LITTLE LIFE (Available)
Hanya Yanagihara

MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE’S SORRY (Available)
Fredrik Backman

Mystery & Thriller

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (Under option at DreamWorks; Tate Taylor to direct)
Paula Hawkins

FINDERS KEEPERS (Unavailable)
Stephen King

CAREER OF EVIL (In development for television)
Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

OBSESSION IN DEATH (Available)
J.D. Robb

PRETTY GIRLS (Available)
Karin Slaughter

Historical Fiction

THE NIGHTINGALE (Under option to TriStar; Elizabeth Cantillon to produce)
Kristin Hannah

A GOD IN RUINS (Unavailable)
Kate Atkinson

AT THE WATER’S EDGE (Available)
Sara Gruen

REBEL QUEEN
Michelle Moran

IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT (Available)
Judy Blume

Fantasy

TRIGGER WARNING
Neil Gaiman

A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC (Available)
V.E. Schwab

SHADOWS OF SELF (Unavailable)
Brandon Sanderson

MAGIC SHIFTS
Ilona Andrews

THE AERONAUTS WINDLASS (Available)
Jim Butcher

Romance

CONFESS
Colleen Hoover

GREY
E.L. James

THE SHADOWS
J.R. Ward

THE DEAL
Elle Kennedy

CAPTIVATED BY YOU (Under option to Lionsgate TV with Impact Pictures and Clover Entertainment producing)
Sylvia Day

Science Fiction

GOLDEN SUN (Under option to Universal; the author adapted; Marc Forster is attached to direct)
Pierce Brown

SEVENEVES (Available – see our exclusive)
Neal Stephenson

THE HEART GOES LAST (Available)
Margaret Atwood

WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE (Available)
Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor

THE WATER KNIFE (Under option to Fox TV)
Paolo Bacigalupi

Horror

SAINT ODD
Dean Koontz

ALICE
Christina Henry

THE LAST AMERICAN VAMPIRE (Unavailable, Fox owns property)
Seth Grahame-Smith

SLADE HOUSE (Cuba Films developing at BBC)
David Mitchell

THICKER THAN BLOOD
Madeline Sheehan & Claire C. Riley

Humor

WHY NOT ME?
Mindy Kaling

YOU’RE NEVER WEIRD ON THE INTERNET
Felicia Day

FURIOUSLY HAPPY (Available)
Jenny Lawson

BINGE
Tyler Oakley

YES, MY ACCENT IS REAL
Kunal Nayyar

Nonfiction

MODERN ROMANCE (Available)
Aziz Ansari with Eric Klinenberg

HUMANS OF NEW YORK: STORIES (Available, but author has no intention of selling)
Brandon Stanton

BIG MAGIC (Available)
Elizabeth Gilbert

BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME (Available, but author has no interest in selling)
Ta-Nehisi Coates

H IS FOR HAWK (Rights sold to Lena Headey, who is looking for backers)
Helen Macdonald

Memoir & Autobiography

A WORK IN PROGRESS
Connor Franta

IN REAL LIFE
Joey Graceffa

AMERICAN WIFE
Taya Kyle with Jim DeFelice

THE GIRL WITH SEVEN NAMES
Hyeonseo Lee

M TRAIN (Available – see our exclusive)
Patti Smith

History & Biography

DEAD WAKE: THE LAST CROSSING OF THE LUSITANIA (Available)
Erik Larson

THE WITCHES (Under option to Scott Rudin Productions)
Stacy Schiff

THE WRIGHT BROTHERS
David McCullough

BORN SURVIVORS
Wendy Holden

PIONEER GIRL: THE ANNOTATED AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Author’s estate is not interested in optioning the rights)
Laura Ingalls Wilder, Pamela Smith Hill (Editor)