We're Booked Up - The Guest List

 Andrew, Kendall, and Angelique are back with another book discussion. This time we're talking about The Guest List by Lucy Foley.

Use the player below to listen or search for Gaston Speaks on your preferred podcasting app. And, after listening, let us know what you think!

Next episode, we'll be discussing The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. 

Don't forget to check out the NC Digital Library!

Final 2022 Oscar Winner Predictions

Well, our normal tradition of a podcast episode was thwarted by illness, but we still wanted to make sure that you saw Andrew's final predictions before Oscar night. The ceremony will be on ABC this Sunday, March 27th at 8:00 p.m. on ABC. 

Best Picture

Will Win - CODA

Could Win - The Power of the Dog

Should Win - Drive My Car

Commentary - The Power of the Dog has been out front for months now. However, I have always wondered how that film would do on the preferential ballot, which favors films that are well-liked. The Power of the Dog is well-respected, but it has its detractors. That hurts it with this kind of voting system. Then CODA won the PGA (which has a preferential ballot as well) and SAG. CODA, the film about a child of deaf parents, the coming-of-age film that makes you cheer. This is the kind of movie that wins on a preferential ballot. This is the film that everyone likes and it has few people rooting against its success. The Power of the Dog has so much support, 12 total nominations, and CODA would be the first film to win without a technical nod in a long time. So this is not a done deal by any means. However, at just the right moment CODA is peaking, and I think it will pull off a major upset. 

Best Director

Will Win - Jane Campion "The Power of the Dog"

Could Win - Steven Spielberg "West Side Story" or Kenneth Branagh "Belfast"

Should Win - Jane Campion "The Power of the Dog"

Commentary - Whatever happens in the Best Picture race, Jane Campion is winning Best Director. She has won every major precursor, she has dominated the season, and to be honest, while I didn't love The Power of the Dog, I completely respected the film as a piece of art, and think that Campion's direction was flawless. I think Oscar voters will agree. 

Best Actor

Will Win - Will Smith "King Richard"

Could Win - Andrew Garfield "tick, tick...boom!" or Benedict Cumberbatch "The Power of the Dog"

Should Win - Smith or Garfield

Commentary - I think this race is closer than a lot of people are expecting, and I would not be surprised at all if Andrew Garfield or Benedict Cumberbatch pulled out a last minute upset. But then Will Smith won SAG, and then, in a real shocker, won BAFTA, up against Cumberbatch who felt like a lock with British voters. That shows the depth of the support for Will Smith's magnum opus film King Richard. He has been acting for decades now, this is his third nomination, and he carries one of the biggest Oscar contenders with his bravura and screen presence. The time has come for him to finally get this level of recognition, and I think Oscar voters agree. 

Best Actress

Will Win - Jessica Chastain "The Eyes of Tammy Faye"

Could Win - Any of the other four

Should Win - Jessica Chastain "The Eyes of Tammy Faye"

Commentary - The wildest race of the year continues to baffle prognosticators, especially as a lot of voters are expressing support for Penelope Cruz. She has zero precursors of note, and in many cases, was not even nominated. Yet, the calls for her win are growing louder and louder. Nicole Kidman lost the second she lost the SAG Award, and I feel that Kristen Stewart lost when she lost at Critics Choice, which felt like her group. Both of those awards went to Jessica Chastain for her passion project The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Olivia Colman has never won an individual SAG Award, and yet has an Emmy and an Oscar. She should not be discounted. Chastain is the front runner for now, but watch out for Cruz and Colman, as the surprises may last all the way up until the time the envelope is opened. 

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win - Troy Kotsur "CODA"

Could Win - Kodi Smit-McPhee "The Power of the Dog"

Should Win - Troy Kotsur "CODA"

Commentary - In the first phase of the Oscar season, Kodi Smit-McPhee was way out front for this award. Then SAG, Critics Choice, and BAFTA hit, and Troy Kotsur, a hard-working deaf character actor who finally got his break, swept the awards. Kotsur has the performance and the story to win over voters, and he is winning this award in a walk. 

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win - Ariana DeBose "West Side Story"

Could Win - Aunjanue Ellis "King Richard" or Kirsten Dunst "The Power of the Dog"

Should Win - Ariana DeBose "West Side Story"

Commentary - Ariana DeBose tackles the iconic role that won Rita Moreno her Oscar, and did so with Rita Moreno sharing the screen. DeBose knocked it out of the park. She was bold, vibrant, emotionally resonant, and her talent lit up the screen. She will win her first Academy Award.

Best Adapted Screenplay - Sian Heder "CODA"

Best Original Screenplay - Paul Thomas Anderson "Licorice Pizza"

Best Animated Feature - Encanto

Best Documentary Feature - Summer of Soul (Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Best International Feature - Drive My Car (Japan)

Best Cinematography - Dune

Best Costume Design - Cruella

Best Film Editing - Dune

Best Makeup and Hairstyling - The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Best Original Score - Hans Zimmer "Dune"

Best Original Song - Encanto - Dos Oruguitas

Best Production Design - Dune

Best Sound - Dune

Best Visual Effects - Dune

Best Animated Short - Robin Robin

Best Documentary Short - The Queen of Basketball

Best Live Action Short - The Long Goodbye

Looking for Ebooks?

Are you looking for Ebooks and other forms of Econtent? If so, GCPL offers access to more than just the North Carolina Digital Library powered by OverDrive and hoopla Digital. Be sure to take a look at NC Live! 

In addition to the plethora of research and homework resources offered by NC Live, there is an entire section dedicated to Ebooks. Head over to the NC Live site and click on the listing for Ebooks or go straight there via this link .

Take a look at the HomeGrown Ebooks collection. It includes Ebooks from a variety of North Carolina publishers, popular and scholarly nonfiction, novels by well-known NC authors, and award-winning short fiction and poetry. Check out Open Library, a downloadable EBook collection with books contributed from libraries across the country, and more!

And while you are there be sure and have a look at all of NC Live's offerings!

Not-Necessarily-New Good Reads:

Invisible Women

Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray (Fiction)

The Invisible Woman by Erika Robuck (Historical Fiction)

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez (Non-Fiction 305.42 CRI)

If you had a superpower, what would it be?

I used to think . . . invisibility . . . yeah . . . . 

As a woman of—ahem—a certain age, I have discovered that, in reality, I do have a tendency towards invisibility.  It is no fun.  In Calling Invisible Women, Jeanne Ray explores the almost undetectable line between being taken for granted and true invisibility.  Clover, another woman of –ahem—a certain age, wakes up one morning to find herself literally invisible . . . and no one in her family notices.  Soon, she discovers she is not alone.  There are many invisible women, and they want to shake up the world.  And it may just turn out that Clover is sort of a . . . Superhero???

Virginia Hall was a legend in the halls of the OSS during the second World War.  A real-life superhero.  In The Invisible Woman, Erika Robuck pulls no punches relating the story of the spy with the prosthetic leg.  Nick-named “the limping lady” and most dangerous of spies, her face on wanted posters throughout France, Virginia must become invisible to the Nazis.  How?  She disguises herself as a much older woman (she was thirty-six.) Trying to fill in the blanks with what one imagines a spy thought and felt during her mission leading up to D-Day, both the horror and the hope, lands Robuck’s novel in Fiction, rather than Biography. However, Robuck’s historical sources include Virginia Hall’s family and the CIA museum.

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez, examines how data is collected, and how the skew towards studies designed around the human male affect women in the world at large.  Perez calls the standard the “Default Male,” and proceeds to show how data studies effectively ignore the over 50% of the world population, (the female half,) with roots in language itself.  Mankind. Warriors/Women Warriors. Doctor Who/Female Doctor Who. And the results of this inequity range from the irritation of “shivering in offices set to the male temperature norm,” to the snowballing effect of unpaid “women’s work” on wages and career advancement that result in feminized old-age poverty, to fatal medical misdiagnosis due to women’s symptoms not conforming to the male norm . . . like, say, heart attacks.  In essence, Perez' well-researched work demonstrates that the female half of the world is simply invisible in the human equation and makes a compelling case for closing the gender data gap.

Xina Lowe, Librarian 

 

#Women in Fiction, #Data on Women, #Historical Fiction, #WW II, #Booktalking

The Magnolia Tour of Gaston County, N.C.

 
 Now on YouTube

“See the most interesting and beautiful attractions in Gaston County with our self-guided Magnolia Tour”

 

The Gaston County, North Carolina, Department of Travel and Tourism devised the self-guided Magnolia Tour to promote attractions such as the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, the Schiele Museum of Natural History, and Christmastown, USA. The tour was intended to appeal to all ages and was advertised with the short video, “Explore & Experience Gastonia/ Gaston County, NC The Magnolia Tour.” The Magnolia Tour started about 1995 and continued through 2009.

 

 

 

Explore and Experience Gastonia Gaston County, NC The Magnolia Tour

Duration 9:15

A Terry Shiels Production

Watch this video on the 

Gaston County Public Library Digital History Collection

 Brian Brown, Librarian, Local History & Genealogy