2014 Academy Awards Nominees and Predictions

Photo Credit
 

The 2014 Academy Awards were announced this morning and MAN do I have work to do!  I've only seen ONE of the top nominated films (Gravity) and I didn't even like it that much!  As an overall impression I'm not too surprised by the nominations, though I do think there were some snubs, mostly in the best actor category.  So, who got nominated, who got left out, and who do I think will win?  Let's discuss!
Best Picture
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

2014 follows the trend of 9 nominations for best picture.  These really aren't surprising.  Some people may be surprised that Saving Mr. Banks and Lee Daniel's The Butler aren't on the list (The Butler got zero nominations actually, but based on reviews and such I'm not all that surprised). 

Last fall it seemed like it was going to be a Gravity vs. 12 Years a Slave show down, but then American Hustle reared it's head gathering 10 nominations.  Gravity also has 10, but they are largely behind the scenes awards for sound and visual effects while American Hustle has turned out to be this years Silver Linings Playbook with nominees in all 4 acting categories.  But don't count 12 Years a Slave out just yet, it's right behind them with 9 nominations.  In the middle of the pack is Dallas Buyers Club, Captain Phillips, and surprisingly Nebraska with 6 nominations each. 

Who Will Win?  Based on the Academy's history (the past 3 winners have all been historical dramas) I will predict 12 Years a Slave.  I don't think Gravity's writing was strong enough to take the award and I think American Hustle is a little too "main stream".

Who Should Win?  This is tough because I haven't seen most of these, but I would love to see the academy break away from the historical drama trend.  Maybe  Dallas Buyers Club or Her if they really wanted to be bold.  It will never happen, but it would be cool.

 

Photo Credit

 Best Actor

Christian Bale - American Hustle

Bruce Dern - Nebraska

Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street

Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave

Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club

 

Bruce Dern was a pleasant surprise, and Christian Bale was a rather annoying one.  There were a lot of strong performances, but I am really surprised Tom Hanks didn't make the cut.  Tom Hanks was an awards show staple in the 90s and it would have been nice to see him nominated again.

 

Who Will Win?  It's a very tight race and I'm not really sure, but I think the top contenders are Chiwetel Ejiofor  and Matthew McConaughey.  I think McConaughey will come out on top, but it is a tough category.  He did lose 45 lbs for the role, and hollywood loves that kind of commitment.

 

Who Should Win?  My vote will be with Leonardo DiCaprio until he actually takes home the award.  He is probably the most snubbed actor in all of hollywood and damn it he is overdue!

 

Photo Credit

 Best Actress

Amy Adams - American Hustle

Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine

Sandra Bullock - Gravity

Judi Dench - Philomena

Meryl Streep - August: Osage County

 

Some really surprising nominations here, in particular Meryl Streep, not because of her performance but for the lackluster reviews of August: Osage County in general.  I'm also pretty surprised to not see Emma Thompson there for Saving Mr. Banks.  I do love how this category represents older actresses, the youngest being Amy Adams at 39. 

 

Who Will Win?  I think Cate Blanchett  has had this in the bag since Blue Jasmine's summer release.  At the end of the day all of the other ladies are vying for second place.

 

Who Should Win?  I would love to see Amy Adams win an oscar, she has had a great career so far and is the only woman nominated who has yet to win an oscar but Blanchett is going to take this one, no doubt. 

Photo Credit

 Best Supporting Actor

Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips

Bradley Cooper - American Hustle

Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave

Jonah Hill - The Wolf of Wall Street

Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club

 

I'm not surprised by this at all.  Let's just cut to the chase.

 

Who Will Win?  Jared Leto has this on lock.  Of all the categories this is the only one I'm 100% certain.

 

Who Should Win?  Jared Leto, duh.

 

Photo Credit

 Best Supporting Actress

Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine

Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle

Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave

Julia Roberts - August: Osage County

June Squibb - Nebraska

 

This is a very interesting category.  I was not expecting Julia Roberts at all, and I know a lot of people were really surprised Oprah Winfrey didn't get nominated for Lee Daniel's The Butler.  I personally would have loved to see Scarlett Johannson get nominated for Her, just because I would have really enjoyed seeing a voice only actor be nominated.

 

Who Will Win?  This is TOUGH, but I really think the 2 leaders are Jennifer Lawrence and Lupita Nyong'o and given Lawrence just won last year, I think Nyong'o will take it home.

 

Who Should Win?  A lot of people were surprised to see Lawrence take home the golden globe, and while I love me some J-Law, I think Lupita Nyong'o deserves this one.

 

Photo Credit

Best Director

David O. Russell - American Hustle

Alfonso Curon - Gravity

Alexander Payne - Nebraska

Steve McQueen - 12 Years a Slave

Martin Scorsese - The Wolf of Wall Street

 

 I'm really surprised Paul Greengrass and Spike Jonze did not get nominated for Captain Phillips and Her, respectively.  I did not expect Scorsese to sneak into this category.

 

Who Will Win?  I think Alfonso Curon will win.  Even though I didn't really like Gravity, I have to admit it was a technical achievement.  It may have had a clunky story, but DAMN it looked good!

 

Who Should Win?  I kind of think Steve McQueen could/should win, but Curon is an ok winner too in my book.

 

So those are all of the major categories and their nominees.  Which of these movies have you seen and who do you think should win?  Let me know in the comments below and we'll all find out Sunday, March 2nd!



Bout of Books Read-a-Thon Wrap Up

 

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team.

Hey everyone, sorry this wrap up is a little late, had some family stuff to do.  Anyway, I think I ended this read-a-thon pretty strongly as far as my usually read-a-thon habits go. 

Graphic Novels

I'm still waiting on Chew vol. 5 from the library so I decided to start on another popular series, Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan.  I actually started and finished the deluxe vol. 1 for 256 pages. 

 

I didn't really like the start to this series unfortunately.  The premise is that there is some sort of pandemic that wipes out every living mammal with a Y chromosome except one dude named Yorick and his monkey.  While that in itself sounds really cool, I'm not sure I like the way it is being presented.

 

Audio Books

 

I did quite a bit a driving and managed to get a lot of Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side completed.  I've only got 2 discs left and I think I read about 64 more pages.

 

Novels

 

I finished Inferno for 106 pages.  I thought it was better than The Lost Symbol, but still very weak and no where near Brown's "pre-fame" novels.  I wouldn't be surprised if this had a ghost writer to be honest.

 

I also made some progress in S. by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams for around 40 pages.  This is a really excellent book but I can't take it while traveling so I've been pretty slow.  I'm loving the story in the margins even if it is confusing!



 

 

Overall Progress

 

 Overall I think I did really well.  I ended up finishing 4 books and made progress on another 2.  In total I read 701 pages which is pretty damn awesome for me, even if a lot of those pages were graphic novels.  Whatever they still count in my opinion!  Did you guys participate in the read-a-thon?  How did you do?  Let me know in the comments below!

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon Day 4 Update

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team.

So I've reached the midway point for the read-a-thon and I have to admit it's been rather slow.  I have had to work late pretty much every day this week, but I did get a little reading done.

Graphic Novels

I've been reading the comic series Chew by John Layman and really loving them.  I finished volume 3 for around 25 pages and started and finished volume 4 for 120 pages.  I really am enjoying this series, it's weird and gross and really interesting.

 Audio Books


I've been listening to the audio book for Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey and honestly?  It's absolutely terrible.  I've only got a couple of CDs left though so I'm going to go ahead and soldier through but damn.  Very cliche PNR.  I've listened to approximately 40 pages.

Novels

I've been working through Dan Brown's latest Inferno, but it's been slow.  I don't know why, but Brown's last few books have been very sub-par.  It's like fame has made him not a great writer (I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this was a ghost writer).   I really enjoyed his early works, especially Digital fortress and Deception Point, but since the popularity of The Da Vinci Code I feel like his ability to write fast pace scientific thrillers has gone way down.  I've made it about 50 pages.

So that was my reading process so far, about 235 pages, even though a lot of that was comic book.  I don't really have any plans for the weekend, hopefully I can step up my game.  I want to finish Inferno as well as 2 other novels I've been working on since early December. 

Challenges

There are 2 challenges for today, the first is the double date book challenge hosted by Writing my Own Fairy Tale.   We are supposed to take two books that we would recommend people read together and explain why they compliment each other.

My two books are both zombies novels, but on different ends of the spectrum.  My Life as a White Trash Zombie is a really funny almost urban fantasy with a great protagonist.  If you like books like True Blood or the Chicagoland Vampires give this a try.  I would also recommend Feed by Mira Grant, one of the best books I have ever read.  Feed uses a zombie apocalypse to examine the American economic and political system. There's lots of science and technology but I also developed a really emotional connection to the two man characters.

The second challenge is hosted by Pen in Hand to create a poem from a book you're reading.  We're supposed to pick a novel and a number 1-10.  Basically you just go to a random page, count the chosen number of lines and then count to that number word.  Do that 14 times and write a poem with the selected words.

I chose Inferno by Dan Brown and chose the number 3.  Here are my words:  glowing, turned, the, strange, down, had, his, deadly, countryside, of, copper, will, sea, face.  We're allowed to take out two words (had, will) and replace them with different ones (he, traveling).

And here is my poem!

He turned his face.
The glowing sea of copper.
Traveling down the strange, deadly countryside.

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon 9.0 Sign Up

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team.

So I know I'm tardy to the party, but I wanted to participate in the Bout of Books read-a-thon this year!  This is my sign up notification, I'll add another post with my progress later.  I'm just now leaving the office so I'm not sure how much reading will get done today, but I will let you all know!

2014 Goals and Resolutions

Hey guys!  Happy 2014!  Long time no blog, I know.  I needed a break from social media.  I didn't make any youtube videos either, so don't feel too neglected.  But it's a new year and a fresh start!  In this post I wanted to outline my redirected focus for the blog and youtube channel and let you know my resolutions.  Don't worry, a 2013 wrap up will be next.

Also, I've been using This Planner to help me get organized for 2014.  I've been using Leonie Dawson's year planner since 2011 and I absolutely love it.  Now you can get a digital or a physical copy and I highly recommend checking it out.  There's still plenty of time to create an amazing 2014!

Bookish Goals

1.  No Reading Challenge - I'm doing something a little different this year.  I'm not setting a specific number of books to read this year.  I get too hung up on staying on schedule and then I don't enjoy what I'm reading because I'm rushing and I also stay away from longer or harder books because I'm afraid it will take too long to read.  I want to take my time and enjoy my reading process this year.

2.  Book Buying Ban - Full disclosure.  I am really embarrassed to admit that I currently have 867 unread physical copies of books.  That is so embarrassing to admit.  At my current reading rate this would take close to TEN YEARS to read all of these.  So I'm going on a book buying ban for all of 2014.  There are a few exceptions, but not many.

• If I am given a gift card I can spend it on books.
• If there is a book signing I'm really interested in I can buy the book for it.
• Cress by Marissa Meyer Feb. 4
• Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor April 8

Yep you read the right, I officially plan on only purchasing 2 books for the entire year.  As for book signings it has to been an author I've at least heard of and am really interested in the book they've written.  I'd guess around 5 or so for the year.  Any other books that I don't own in the collection will be borrowed from the library.

3.  Sell 100 Books - Not only am I looking to not add to the collection, I'm hoping to downsize it as well.  The way I will be accomplishing this by figuring out how many pages is roughly 20% of the book and then deciding if I want to keep reading.  If the answer is no it goes in the sell pile.  Also any books I rate 1 or 2 stars will also go in the sell pile.  3 and 4 stars will be evaluated based on how likely I will be to re-read it, and 5 star books earn automatic self space.

Those are all of my bookish goals.  Not too bad really.  I do have a few specific books I want to read, but I'm not putting too much pressure on myself. 

Other Goals

I do have a few other life goals.  I do have a financial goal where I want to save a specific amount of money and I also want to put some extra money toward my student loans (beyond my monthly payments).  To achieve this goal I figured out a monthly budget that I hope to live by, but damn it is tough! 

Another goal I have is to run in my first 10k.  I've already signed up for a race on September 20th, which means I've only got 257 days left to train (eek!).  Of course I've started off in fine fashion by catching a terrible cold, but I hope to get into training today.  I'm using Hal Higdon's training programs to build up my endurance.

My final big goal for 2014 is to participate in Life Book 2014, a year long art course hosted by Tamara Laporte at Willowing Arts.  Each week we are sent a lesson from Tam or one of her guest teachers.  I've already done the first lesson and I loved it, so I'm really excited to see what else will come from this course.

So those are my 2014 goals, I think I can live by them, but I'll definitely have to work!  What are your goals for 2014?  Let me know in the comments below!