TRENDING NEWS ENTERTAINME NT FOOD & DRINK PETS SHOPPING HEAL THY NOW HOME BEST READS ON PARADE BOOK PICKS SEE MOREStacy Schi – e Historian Behind TV’s “Franklin”–Sha res Seven Favorite Books The author behind Michael Douglas’s new miniseries shares her favorite books.</p><p> MICHAEL GILTZ • APR 11, 2024 Writer Stacy Schi talks about her favorite books, the kid’s novel she read to her children that may have led to the new miniseries Franklin (starting April 12 on Apple TV+) and what fans of the show should read if they want to know more about the early days of the United States and its most colorful protagonist, Benjam in Franklin.</p><p> An acclaimed and best-selling author, Schi has no horror stories to share about Hollywood.</p><p> It’s been circling the Pulitzer Prize winner’s books for years, including The Witches: Salem , 1692 and Cleopatra: A Life, which Dune director Denis Villeneuve is now working on after both Angelina Jolie and Gal Gadot were linked to the project.</p><p> Schi ’s rst book to be adapted however is 2005’s A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth Of America.</p><p> Critics already say star Michael Douglas is a likely Emmy nominee for his performance as the erudite and puckish Founding Father.</p><p> Related: Best New Book Releases This Week: April 9-15, 2024 Schi couldn’t be more pleased with her journey on this project about the crucial eight years an aged Franklin spent in Paris convincing Louis XVI to underw rite America’s experiment with democracy. “This project may have spoiled me for all future projects,” says Schi in an email exchange. “Every once in a while–it doesn’t happen often, but every once in a rare while–you end up on a dream team. (It surely didn’t happen for Franklin, at odds with nearly every Parisian colleague until the arrival of Je erson.) But it did happen for me with this production. “From the start the producers looped me in.</p><p> Someone even remembered to invite the author to visit the set.</p><p> It was, at the very least, as if the new owner of your old house had thought to send over a set of keys, in case you missed the kitchen.” Acclaimed Author Stacy Schi 's Favorite Books A Great Improvisation by Stacy Schi ($22.99; Holt Paperbacks) Buy now Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org When someone wa tches and loves Franklin, naturally they’ll turn to your book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth Of America.</p><p> What should they read next to learn more about Franklin and that era? That’s quite a big “naturally.” If what you’re after is an intimate sense of Franklin, your best bet may be Claude-Ann Lopez and Eugenia W.</p><p> Herbert’s The Private Franklin.</p><p> For a one-volume Franklin, I look still with immense admiration to Edmund Morgan’s 2002 biography.</p><p> Franklin was Morgan’s favorite founder, and it shows.</p><p> For the generation as a whole, Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers.</p><p> Ben and Me by Robert Lawson ($8.99; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers ) Buy now Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org What about novels in wh ich Benjamin Franklin appears as a character? Franklin pops up surprisingly often in literature, although not often in the best light.</p><p> D.H.</p><p> Lawrence, for example, excoriated him.</p><p> Melville didn’t love him.</p><p> Emerson sounds lukewarm.</p><p> But the book I would recommend? Robert Lawson’s charming Ben And Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos.</p><p> Go drum up a 7-year-old to whom you might read it.</p><p> You won’t be sorry.</p><p> I’ve never actually done the math, but it’s not impossible I had just read this book to my children when I began thinking about what became A Great Improvisation.</p><p> Norman The Doorman by Don Freeman ($9.99; Turtleback Books) Buy now Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org You mentioned elsewher e your heroes from books like Harriet Th e Spy and Pippi Longstocking.</p><p> Did you have a favorite series or book as a kid? One you read again and again or, like me, did you alwa ys move on to the next book because there we re so many to tackle? Harriet, Pippi, Eloise in Moscow.</p><p> I think I had a thing for subversion.</p><p> Also Norman The Doorman and From The Mixed-up Files Of Mrs.</p><p> Basil E.</p><p> Frankweiler, arguably the reasons I live today in New York.</p><p> And yes, like you, I gnawed my way through the library, in part because there were so many books to tackle, in part because you got cool stickers for every ten books you read over summer vacation.</p><p> The Borrowers by Mary Norton ($7.00 Pu n Classics) Buy now Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org What wa s the best book you ever received as a gift? My dad was annoyed wh en I wa s more excited about Th e Lord of the Rings boxed set than a much more expensive ten-speed bike.</p><p> Is it possible we’re related? At the very least we were raised by the same father.</p><p> I would have traded in even my beloved pogo stick for my copy of Dr.</p><p> Seuss’s Sleep Book or The Borrowers.</p><p> I did not have a lot of books.</p><p> The ones I had were gold.</p><p> North Woods by Daniel Mason ($28; Random House) Buy now Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org What’s your favorite book to give as a gift? If I gave you a copy of Jane Gardam’s Old Filth and you didn’t like it, we probably haven’t spoken since.</p><p> Ditto Lampedusa’s The Leopard; I love books about lost, or about-to-be-lost, or just-recently-lost worlds.</p><p> I have probably handed out more copies of Harold Nicolson’s sinuous Some People than any other book.</p><p> I can’t explain the spell it holds on me.</p><p> Lately I have been distributing copies of Daniel Mason’s magical North Woods to strangers on the street.</p><p> Buddenbrook s by Thomas Mann ($20; Vintage International) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org What’s the rst “adult” book you remember tackling? Early on I discovered Maugham, Waugh, and Wilde and it was o to the races.</p><p> I’m sure I walked around the house pretending to read something I didn’t unders tand as a child but I know I walked around with The Magic Mountain, which I still don’t understand, as a teenager.</p><p> How can the same person have written Buddenbrook s–which I love–and The Magic Mountain? Related: How T o Read The Books Of Colleen McCullough In Order Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Buy now Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org Your rst published book wa s the Pulitzer Prize nominated biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.</p><p> Here’s a Sophie’s choice: Th e Little Prince or–my personal favorite–Night Flight, his marvelous novel about the dangerous early days of aviation and airmail delivery.</p><p> Night Flight, hands down.</p><p> Also Wind, Sand, and Stars which–with Beryl Markham’s West With The Night–are arguably the best books ever written about ight, if you don’t count Mary Poppins.</p><p> Mr.</p><p> Midshipman Hornblower ($17.99; Back Bay Books) Buy now Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org Guilty pleasures? The great guilty pleasures for me are cycles of novels, whether Trollope’s Palliser novels or Galsworthy’s Forsytes or Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalets .</p><p> Part of the thrill is watching a character grow old; part of the delig ht is the relief that you aren’t going to be ejected from a magical world for several more volumes.</p><p> I still remember having to pick my son up o the oor when he got to the end of the Horatio Hornblower series.</p><p> It was as if life was no longer worth living.</p><p> Was there a book you read that made you think, “I wa nt to wr ite a book!” Or maybe a teacher gave you some encouragement at just the right time, as teachers often do.</p><p> In high school, teachers began to hand back papers with the question: “Have you ever considered becoming a writer?” scrawled on them.</p><p> I snorted.</p><p> Nothing could have been so preposterous. e One Book Actor Je Daniels Says Scarred Him For Life Read MoreCourtesy Apple TV+; photo by Rémy Grandroques Content continues below Content continues below Courtesy of Holt Paperbacks Content continues below Content continues below Courtesy of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Content continues below Courtesy of Turtleback Books Content continues below Courtesy of Pu n Classics Content continues below Courtesy of Random House Content continues below Courtesy of Vintage International Content continues below Courtesy of Mariner Books Classics Content continues below Content continues below Courtesy of Back Bay Books Content continues below Sponsored Stories Holiday deals on tech.</p><p> Get holiday savings on top tech with deals on computers and more at Best Buy®.</p><p> Best Buy | Sponsored Here Are 23 of the Coolest Gifts for This 2024 23 Insanely Cool Gadgets You'll Regret Not Getting Before They Sell Out Trending Gadgets | Sponsored Mac Users Didn't Know Th is Simple Trick To Block All Ads (Do It Now) Safe Tech Tips | SponsoredUrologist Urges Seniors With A Leaky Bladder To Do This Every Mo rning thegrannyblog.com | SponsoredIs Grounding the Secret to Beating Neuropathy? 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