Academy Award-Winning Reads

While searching for different book blogs on Pinterest, I found Aimee’s Always.  It’s a great site.  She focuses on Young Adult books and also gives helpful book blogging advice.  In one of her posts, she gave awards to some of her favorite books, similar to the Academy Awards.   What a fun idea! So on this Academy Award weekend, I thought I would give it a go and see if I could find books for various categories.

It is not as easy as it sounds.  Picking best book? How does one do that?  I like different books for different reasons and the ones I like are so dissimilar, how do you choose?  I am going to preface this by saying that I did my best! I chose the easy categories first, and for the harder ones I went with my gut.  

Here’s how I set this up.  All the winners below are books that I read in 2018, not necessarily ones that were published in 2018.  Categories chosen were ones that went with books that I’ve read; I tried to make them fit the best that I could.  You will find the movie categories next to the “bookish” category.

If you decide to do this let me know!  I would love to see what books you chose!

So without further ado, here are my 2018 Academy Award Winners!

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BEST HERO (BEST ACTOR)

And the winner is….. Roy from An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

This was one of my favorite books of the year, and Roy was such an amazing character.  I admired him in so many ways. He was taken through the most horrific of circumstances but in the end, he stayed true to himself.  Roy came from poverty, struggled to become a young executive on the rise, met and married a beautiful artist – and then it was all taken away from him when he was unjustly convicted rape and sent to jail.  I can’t imagine having to go through that – losing everything. When he got out, he was a changed man in new circumstances, but still a good man. He didn’t let the unjust and horrific experience he had negatively affect him, which shows tremendous strength of character.  I am team Roy!

BEST HEROINE (BEST ACTRESS)

And the winner is…..    Leni from The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah  

I chose Leni because of her bravery, her loyalty, and her resourcefulness.  Brought to the wilds of Alaska by her parents, Leni had to work hard to help her family, especially in light of her father’s fragile mental state.  As winter drew nearer, he got worse and Leni was forced to make some tough choices, since her mother was unable to. She is a force to be reckoned with!  

BEST SUPPORTING CHARACTER (BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR/ACTRESS)

And the winner is… Rafiq from A Place for Us by Fatima Mirza

He is an unlikely choice, right?  I didn’t even like him for the first three parts of the book.  He was sexist, old-fashioned and hard on his children, especially his son, Amar.  But Part 4 is told completely from his point of view and I cried the entire way through it.  He is not a perfect man; he is flawed. But he loved his family the best way he knew how. And in the end, isn’t that what’s important?  It made me look at parenting in a whole new light. This was a great book and I highly recommend it if you haven’t read it.

BEST PLOT TWIST (BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY)

And the winner is…. Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

Not necessarily one of my favorite books of the year, but you can’t deny that the plot twists were mind-blowing!  (Yes, twists... There were a few!) I didn’t see them coming at all.  Amber Reynolds is in a coma. She knows she has been in some sort of accident, and she is aware of people around her but she can’t move, she can’t speak and she can’t remember how she got there.  What she does remember is that someone else caused this accident, and it might be her husband. An interesting read, if only for the twists.

BEST NEW-TO-ME AUTHOR (BEST DIRECTOR)

And the winner is….. Jane Harper

I love mystery/thrillers and Harper’s The Dry was one of my favorites of the year.  This is the first of the Adam Falk detective series.  It takes place in Australia, where Harper is from. I loved the book so much, I immediately ordered Force of Nature, the second in the series.  It was also very good. Right now, The Lost Man, her 2019 book, is sitting on my nightstand.  I have Modern Mrs. Darcy to thank for introducing me to this author!  If you like thrillers, make sure to give Harper a try!

BEST NOVELLA (BEST SHORT FILM)

And the winner is…. Paris for One by Jojo Moyes

I am a big fan of Jojo Moyes.  I have read all of her Me Before You series, and while some find these to be sappy, I find them to be well written women’s fiction.  You are able to see yourself in her characters, even though they all face different challenges and life experiences.  Paris for One chronicles Nell’s transformation from shy and unsure to confident and happy.  And in finding herself, the new Nell also finds love in the City of Lights.

BEST NONFICTION (BEST DOCUMENTARY)

And the winner is… The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines

I listened to the Magnolia Story on audiobook.  Chip and Joanna are the narrators and take turns telling their stories.  I laughed along with them and was inspired by their tales. They truly created a life that they wanted, together.  They decided what they wanted, and they went out and got it, and didn’t let other people’s opinions deter them. Things weren’t always easy, but they kept what was important first.  Truly inspirational!

BEST BOOK-TO-MOVIE ADAPTATION (BEST SCREENPLAY)

And the winner is…. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

I read the book when it first came out in 2008 and loved it.  It is historical fiction, set on an island near England during the second World War.  It is about a group of book lovers who write to their favorite author in London, and she comes to see them, changing her life as much as theirs.  

Netflix created a movie based on this book and I thought it followed the book very well.  It is a sweet movie and sure to please! If you haven’t seen it, check it out!

BEST BOOK COVER (BEST COSTUME DESIGN)

And the winner is…. An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

This was one of the harder categories to choose a winner.  There are a lot of great book covers on a lot of great books.  To be honest, I picked the ones I liked the best and then had my husband choose.  We both liked this one because of the spooky, snowy look. Plus, I really enjoyed this read.  It reminded me of Agatha Christie. If you like mysteries, definitely give this book a try!

And now… the category we have all been waiting for…..

BEST BOOK (BEST FILM)

And the winner is…. I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

This book was published in 2010, but I never heard of it until this year, thanks to @crimebythebook on Instagram.   It was one of the scariest books I have ever read, and I love to be scared by books. It’s also based on a true story which I find horrifying.  

This book switches between two seemingly unrelated plotlines.  In the first, three friends head to their new rental vacation home to renovate it before the summer season starts.  This property is in the deserted village of Hesteyri, and the trio soon find they aren’t as alone as they thought – there is a dark force lurking.  

The second plotline follows a psychologist, Freyr, who is helping the police investigate a woman’s suicide. He is dealing with a heartbreak of his own – his young son completely vanished three years prior.  This heartbreak haunts him, literally and figuratively.

The chapters alternate between the first plotline and the second and Sigurdardottir is masterful in ending each one  with a cliffhanger. I had to stop myself from skipping over the next chapter to find out what happened to the characters.  Each piece of the story added to the suspense and it took me almost to the end of the book to see how all the pieces came together.  A must read for all fans of horror!

Those are my academy award picks.  I would love to hear what you chose for these categories!  Would any of these books make your list?

That’s all for now.  Enjoy the Academy Awards show on Sunday!  Until next time, happy reading!

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