Picks From Reese's Book Club That Made It To The Big (And Small) Screen

Reese Witherspoon has a knack for selecting compelling narratives for inclusion in her book club, so it's no surprise that many of her picks have been adapted for the silver screen. Witherspoon and her media company Hello Sunshine have been involved far beyond the book club, too, often working to produce films or even starring in some. About 70% of the time, Witherspoon selects her book club titles before their release date, which means she gets an early crack at optioning these stories for film adaptations. Even before launching her book club in 2017, she was reading and optioning the film rights to promising new titles, including "Gone Girl," "Wild," and "Big Little Lies." She snagged the rights to all three ahead of their publication, and all went on to be major cultural phenomena.

In other words, Witherspoon has refined a sort of bestseller-to-blockbuster pipeline, one born out of Witherspoon's powerful love of reading. "I always wanted to be a writer," Witherspoon told Vanity Fair in 2020. "I think that's why I'm in awe of writers, because I've tried to sit down and do it." Thanks to Witherspoon's eye for good stories, it makes sense that her book club would be packed with stories well suited to adaptation. While Witherspoon hasn't been in the producers seat for all of them, these stories have her stamp approval.

Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon starred together in a 2020 television adaptation of Celeste Ng's novel. The series was released on Hulu and followed the intersecting fates of two families with teenage kids. The story opens with a fire that destroys the seemingly perfect Richardson family's home, then works backward to explore the family and friend dynamics that led to the climactic conflagration.

The series earned an average user rating of 3.7 stars on Letterboxd. "Really resonating with that one kid on this who just desperately talks about how badly he wants to watch 'before sunrise' every episode," wrote one user.

Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine helped produce a 2022 adaptation of Delia Owen's controversial southern thriller "Where the Crawdads Sing." The film stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Taylor John-Smith in a story that follows outcast "Marsh Girl" Kya as she struggles to connect with the nearby community and eventually becomes a suspect in a local murder investigation. The film even got an original Taylor Swift song, "Carolina," which won a Grammy.

The film boasts a 96% user rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so this might be one where you're better off seeing the movie and skipping the book, which is unevenly written and considered one of the few Reese's book club reads that aren't worth your time.

This memoir, which follows an American exchange student who meets and falls in love with an Italian chef, was adapted for a 2022 Netflix series starring Zoe Saldana and Eugenio Mastrandrea. This romantic story follows a woman reconnecting with her sensuality in lush Italy, despite plenty of cultural clashes, and it's one of the best nonfiction picks from Reese Witherspoon's Book Club. The sumptuousness of the landscape and cuisine make it a banger onscreen.

The adaptation earned largely positive reviews from critics, including an aggregate critic score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience reception was just as warm. "One of the best acted love stories that I've seen since the notebook [sic]," wrote one user. "The Italian culture mixed with African American culture is so good," added another.

This novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid is loosely based on the true story of Fleetwood Mac. With its 1970s Los Angeles atmosphere, this is one of the best historical fiction pics from Reese Witherspoon's Book Club, and it was practically begging to be adapted into a richly textured miniseries.

The series premiered on Prime Video in 2023 and stars Riley Keough as singer Daisy Jones, who joins up with a band called The Six. Despite the band's success, the group is plagued by interpersonal drama and drug use, which makes for seriously bingable drama that earned an audience score of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes.

This collection of essays, compiled from the "Dear Sugar" column that Cheryl Strayed wrote for the literary magazine "The Rumpus," was spotlighted by Reese's Book Club in November 2022, and adapted into a 2023 Hulu series starring Kathryn Hahn. Though it's ostensibly a collection of advice letters, the book functions as a memoir in essays, revealing much about Strayed's personal history with sexual assault, grief, and motherhood. It treads much of the same ground that would eventually be the basis for Strayed's best-selling memoir "Wild." Given the success Reese Witherspoon found adapting that book, it's unsurprising that she dipped back into Strayed's body of work again.

Though an essay collection is a surprising choice for an adaptation, the material reveals enough about Strayed that Hahn portrays a version of the famous author, grappling with the responsibilities of an advice column while her own life seems to crumble around her. The series garnered an average rating of 3.8 stars on Letterboxd, with one user writing: "Kathryn Hahn does it again. Impeccable performances from all the actors. What a ride!"

Jennifer Garner stars in a 2023 Apple TV+ adaptation of this Laura Dave thriller about Hannah Hall, a woman trying to find her missing husband. His disappearance fuels her relationship with her previously distant stepdaughter as she unravels her husband's lies. The book boasts a 3.8 score on GoodReads, with some readers calling it more of a domestic drama than a suspenseful mystery. 

Audiences were similarly split on the adaptation, as the show eked out a 3.1-star rating on Letterboxd. "It's fine. Just aggressively mediocre, to the point I probably won't remember it in a few weeks," wrote one user. "Whole thing could be solved if people would just answer Jennifer Garner's questions instead of leaving her in the dark..."