1. A New Hope

To start at the beginning means going back to 1976. While the movie was released in May of 1977, the novel version actually was released at the end of 1976. The novel was written by Alan Dean Foster, and not George Lucas as the cover indicates. It sticks pretty closely to the movie, although it does include one interesting scene that was not included in the movie. It is included in the Deleted Scenes section of the DVD, and basically shows Luke interacting with some of his friends on Tatooine before the excitement starts.

You probably already know the story, but just in case, the story centers around Luke Skywalker, a moisture farmer on the desert planet Tatooine. While he has long dreamed of giving up life on the farm for the excitement of learning to be a space pilot, his Uncle refuses to let him go. All that changes when a battle takes place between the Empire and the Rebellion which concludes with the capture of the rebel Princess Leia and the escape of two droids to Tatooine. Luke finds the droids and delivers them to their destination, the home of a man called Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Empire investigates, killing Luke's aunt and uncle in the process, which forces him to leave with Obi-Wan on a ship piloted by Han Solo and Chewbacca. The ship is subsequently captured by the Empire's battlestation, the Death Star. Luke, the droids, Han, and Chewbacca manage to escape capture and rescue Princess Leia in the process, while Obi-Wan is killed by Darth Vader while trying to aid their escape. The droids are delivered to the Rebel Alliance which uses the information in one of the droids to form a battle plan to destroy the Death Star. Luke is the fighter pilot who fires the fatal shot, the battlestation is destroyed, and the Rebel Alliance is saved.

Overall the novel is fine, but the writing is somewhat bland. Outside of the deleted scenes, there isn't much to get excited about in the book. There are a few other minor differences between the book and the movie, but they don't really impact the story at all. If you've seen the movie, and the deleted scenes, there's not really any need to read the book as well.