A Reading List for the 2024 Oscar Best Picture Nominees

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."

The 2024 Oscar nominations were announced this week, and the Best Picture nominees are an exciting bunch.

Some of the Best Picture nominees are also nominated in Best Adapted Screenplay (American Fiction, Oppenheimer, Poor Things, the Zone of Interest), meaning the work was adapted from previously established material. For all of those films but Barbie, that means a book. Other Best Picture nominees are up in the Best Original Screenplay category (Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Maestro, and Past Lives), meaning the films are not based on previously established materials.

Here, seven books to read tied to Best Picture nominees—some are the work the film was adapted from (like American Prometheus for Oppenheimer, or Killers of the Flower Moon for, you guessed it, Killers of the Flower Moon) while others are books that the directors have said inspired them while working on the film.

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is adapted from Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, so it's a must read for any fan of the film. There was one scene, Nolan says, that hooked him: "Los Alamos, this place that will always live in history or infamy, was first a place where Oppenheimer and his brother loved to go camping. Suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, I’m looking at the most personal possible connection between a character and a massive change to the world that couldn’t be undone."

Read more: 12 Best Books to Read After Watching Oppenheimer

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon is adapted from David Grann's book of the same name. "I spent about half a decade working on the book with members of the Osage Nation, recording stories from the Osage elders," Grann said. "What has been really important and gratifying to see was the level of involvement of the Osage Nation in shaping the movie. They've been involved at every level, from the production to the costume designs to making sure that the Osage language was spoken to the Osage actors who have speaking roles. That's been remarkable to see."

Read more: 23 Books to Read After Watching Killers of the Flower Moon

The Zone of Interest (Vintage International)

British author Martin Amis's novel The Zone of Interest serves as the basis for Jonathan Glazer's feature film, set in "the zone of interest," which was what the Nazis called Auschwitz. The publisher explains, "the narrative rotates among three main characters: Paul Doll, the crass, drunken camp commandant; Thomsen, nephew of Hitler's private secretary, in love with Doll's wife; and Szmul, one of the Jewish prisoners charged with disposing of the bodies." Glazer's adaptation shifts the central characters to be the real-life Höss family, including Rudolf Höss, a commandant at Auschwitz.

Famous Father Girl: The Intimate Memoir of Leonard Bernstein and His Family That Helped Inspire the New Movie Maestro

This memoir of Leonard Bernstein, written by his daughter Jamie, partly inspired Bradley Cooper's Maestro. "There was simply no moment when Leonard Bernstein wasn't being a teacher," she writes. "It was words, above all, that he shared with us in all their glorious incarnations." (Here, read an essay Jamie wrote in T&C about her father.)

Read more: The Best Books to Read After Watching Maestro

Erasure: A Novel

American Fiction, directed by Cord Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright, was adapted from Erasure by Percival Everett, a novel that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. "Percival has really rabid fans, and reasonably so," Jefferson said. "That, to me, was the most frightening screening I did of the movie.... Percival came to my house and watched a cut with his wife." He added that it went well, though, "I was just drenched in sweat by the time it was over. The nicest thing he said was, 'The thing that I like about it is that it feels like you made it your own, it feels like a different piece of art.' That was the highest praise you could get."

Poor Things: A Novel

Scottish novelist Alasdair Gray's book Poor Things (full title is Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer) serves as the basis for Yorgos Lanthimos's film starring Emma Stone. "The essence of [the film] is very much in the novel," Lanthimos said. "The novel has a very different structure, a very different narrative. Her story is mainly being told by all these other men, so it has various literary devices that sometimes refute—is that the right word?—that sometimes announce what they say as false. We made a shift from the novel because the film is solely about her journey, her perspective. And I felt that if we were going to do this, this world needs to be seen her eyes."

Reviving Ophelia 25th Anniversary Edition: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

Writer and director Greta Gerwig explained Barbie is inspired by Reviving Ophelia, focuses on the time in which girls become teenager. "My mom would check out books from the library about parenting, and then I would read them,” Gerwig told Vogue.

Mary Pipher and her daughter, Sara Pipher Gilliam, wrote the updated edition, which focuses on that end of girlhood. "They’re funny and brash and confident, and then they just—stop," Gerwig says. "How is this journey the same thing that a teenage girl feels? All of a sudden, she thinks, Oh, I’m not good enough."

Read more: 18 Books to Read After You Watch Barbie

You Might Also Like

• 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion

• 13 Beauty Tools to Up Your At-Home Facial Game