Your 2019 Academy Award Nominees

This year's Oscars ceremony will air on Sunday, February 24th. Below is a list of each film nominated for an award - many you can place on hold. What are your predictions for this year's big winners? 

• At Eternity's Gate - Best Actor (Willem Dafoe)

• Avengers: Infinity War - Best Visual Effects

• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Netflix Exclusive - Try our Roku devices!) (3)  - Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song (When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings)

• Black Panther (7) - Best Picture, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (All the Stars), Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

• BlackKklansman (6) - Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Adam Driver), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Original Score

• Bohemian Rhapsody  (5) - Best Picture, Best Actor (Rami Malek), Best Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

• Border - Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Can You Ever Forgive Me?(3)  - Best Actress (Melissa McCarthy), Best Supporting Actor (Richard E. Grant), Best Adapted Screenplay

• Capernaum - Best Foreign Language Film

• Christopher Robin - Best Visual Effects 

• Cold War (3) - Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography

• The Favourite (10) - Best Picture, Best Actress (Olivia Colman), Best Supporting Actress (Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design 

• First Man (4) - Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

• First Reformed - Best Original Screenplay

• Free Solo - Best Documentary

• Green Book (5) - Best Picture, Best Actor (Viggo Mortensen), Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali), Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing

• Hale County, This Morning This Evening - Best Documentary

• If Beale Street Could Talk (3) - Best Supporting Actress (Regina King), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score

• Incredibles 2 - Best Animated Feature

• Isle of Dogs - Best Animated Feature, Best Original Score

• Mary Poppins Returns (3) - Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (The Place Where Lost Things Go)

• Mary Queen of Scots (3) - Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score

• Minding the Gap - Best Documentary

• Mirai - Best Animated Feature

• Never Look Away - Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography

• Of Fathers and Sons - Best Documentary

• A Quiet Place - Bets Sound Editing

• Ralph Breaks the Internet - Best Animated Feature

• RBG - Best Documentary, Best Original Song (I Will Fight)

• Ready Player One -  Best Visual Effects 

• Roma (9) - Best Picture, Best Actress (Yalitza Aparicio), Best Supporting Actress (Marina de Tavira), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

• Shoplifters - Best Foreign Language Film

• Solo: A Star Wars Story - Best Visual Effects

• Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse - Best Animated Feature

• A Star is Born (8) - Best Picture, Best Actress (Lady Gaga), Best Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best Supporting Actor (Sam Elliott), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Song (Shallow), Best Sound Mixing

• Vice (8) - Best Picture, Best Actor (Christian Bale), Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams), Best Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• The Wife - Best Actress (Glenn Close)

Best Animated Short Films: Animal Behavior, Bao, Late Afternoon, One Small Step, Weekends

Best Documentary Short Subject: Black Sheep, End Game, Lifeboat, A Night At The Garden, Period. End of Sentence. 

Best Live Action Short Film: Detainment, Fauve, Marguerite, Mother, Skin

The Unfriendly Skies (download and go)

This morning I took the dog for an abbreviated walk as I opted to sleep in a bit more. Wow, was it cold, after such a warm December, it was a cold reminder of what winter in Chicago is typically like, frigid and the skies gray and almost unfriendly. I think even the dog noticed, as he picked up the pace. Here is a list of downloadable fiction with a reference to the skies above.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow The Orphan Sky by Ella Leya A Sky Full of Stars by Samantha Chase Under a Cloudless Sky by Chris Fabry Meet the Sky by McCall Hoyle Sky Between You and Me by Catherine Alene Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

The 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction Shortlist

At the end of this year the American Library Association announced the six books shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals. This is awarded for the previous year's best books written for adult readers and published in the U.S. The medals, established in 2012, guide adults in selecting quality reading material. The two medal winners, one for fiction and one for nonfiction, receive $5,000 each and are honored during an event at ALA's 2019 Annual Conference. The medals are made possible by a partial grant from the Carnegie Corporation as a testament to Andrew Carnegie who believed that books can change the world! The winners will be announced on January 27, 2019.
Take a look at the six finalists and decide which one would get your vote -


FICTION:
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
A novel set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris follows the director of a Chicago art gallery and a woman looking for her estranged daughter in Paris who both struggle to come to terms with the ways AIDS has affected their lives.

There, There by Tommy Orange
A large cast of interwoven characters depicts the experience of Native Americans living in urban settings. Perfect for readers of character-driven fiction with a strong sense of place. -- Abby Johnson for LibraryReads.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Unexpectedly chosen to be a family manservant, an 11-year-old Barbados sugar-plantation slave is initiated into a world of technology and dignity before a devastating betrayal propels him throughout the world in search of his true self.

NONFICTION:
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America by Beth Macy
In a book that includes deeply human and unforgettable portraits of the families and first responders affected, the author takes readers into the epicenter of America's more than 20-year struggle with opioid addiction.

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse.

The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantu
A former agent for the U.S. Border Patrol describes his upbringing as the son of a park ranger and grandson of a Mexican immigrant, who upon joining the Border Patrol encountered the violence and political rhetoric that overshadows life for both migrants and the police.