Friday 16 January 2015

The John Hughes Collection

I realised recently that I’m eternally searching for books that John Hughes would love. If you don’t know who John Hughes is, then you are about to take a trip back to the 80’s to be educated.
John Hughes was a very famous director, producer and screen writer during the 80’s. When I was a teenager, there wasn’t many YA books around, but there were YA films featuring some amazing young actors. These films included such greats, as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and my personal favourite, Pretty In Pink. Oh how I wanted to be Molly Ringwald!!!
In later years he moved onto more family comedies such as the Home Alone films and Uncle Buck. However to my generation, he will always be remembered as the man who brought us the Brat Pack, with members such as Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy.
The films he made had a huge impact on my teenage years. I wanted to be like the teens in those movies. I could sing every song from  each film. Every time I watched one, I was happy.
Now a lot older, it suddenly dawned on me that I’m constantly looking for that John Hughes factor in a Young Adult book. The type of books that he would easily make into a film. After going through my reviews, I realised his name came up quite a few times, so I thought I would share with you the books I thought he would love. If you click on each title, you can read the summary of the books on Goodreads.
This Song Will Save Your Life
This book screamed at me to be produced. I ADORED IT. It had echoes of Pretty In Pink in it. The story embraced the power of music, with excellent songs peppered through it.
From What I Remember
This reminded me of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  It is just pure gold. An adventure across the border that ends happily.
The Art of Being Normal
I swear I could hear ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ playing throughout the last few chapters in this book. John Hughes would have been the first to produce a transgender movie.
Graffiti Moon
This one was a bit of mixture for me. I could see aspects of Nora Ephron in here as well. It is the heartfelt emotion of these two teens that really make this a viable movie option.
The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
From the very start, I was convinced that John Hughes would love this book. It just had this feel to it. It was realistic, yet innocent at the same time.
So if John Hughes was still alive, these are the five books I would be stalking him with, in a desperate attempt to get him to make them into films. Have you read any books that you think John Hughes would’ve loved?

3 comments:

  1. What a fun post! Love John Hughes and I'd love to see someone else take over the mantle of fantastic films that really capture what it means to be a teen these days.

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    1. Perhaps we should make a John Hughes long list. I am sure there are more that people haven't read that could be added.

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  2. Love this post, Viv! I'm a huge fan of John Hughes movies (I heart Jake Ryan forever!) - The Duff and This Song Will Save Your Life are both on my TBR so I'm bumping them up now! :) Would love to see your long list!

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