Everyone has a different reason for watching the Academy Awards. Maybe it’s the fashion or perhaps you love to see the performances for the “Best Original Song” nominees. Or you could be one of those people waiting for the gaffs, like the nominee who doesn’t look quite happy enough for the person who really won.
Whether you're watching from the comfort of your own couch or are all glammed up at a party with friends, it's always more fun to not only have watched the movies up for the big prize but also to have read the books they're based on! Is there really anything more satisfying than saying, “the book was better,” and having the experience to back it up? Nope.
Add these books to your Libby shelves now, and the award for “Best Read While Watching the Oscars” can go to you!
🏆 Nominated for 10 awards including “Best Picture,” “Best Actress,” “Best Supporting Actress,” and “Best Original Score.”
Wicked by Gregory McGuire
🎧 Audiobook
While there’s a distinct lack of singing and dancing going on in the pages of this book, it’s still a must-read for those who want to return to Oz and find out what “really” happened before and during the times of Dorothy.
This book tells us the story of Oz and the Wizard, but from the point of view of Elphaba, aka The Wicked Witch of the West. We follow her journey from a childhood marked by trauma and a sense of being different from those around her, to her school years, when she began to come into her own and question the world’s status quo.
Just a fair warning, this book is no stroll down any yellow brick road and is very much a book for adult readers.
This is especially good for those waiting for Part 2 to premiere later in 2025 and must know what happens before then!
🏆 Nominated for 8 awards including “Best Picture,” “Best Actor,” “Best Supporting Actress,” and “Adapted Screenplay.”
Conclave by Robert Harris
🎧 Audiobook
What happens when the pope dies? This compelling novel takes us behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel to answer this exact question.
The pope has died and now 118 cardinals from around the world have gathered to pick a new one, bringing along with them all of their secrets and power struggles. What could be a rather procedural book from the outset, centered around a bunch of people talking about who should lead, is rife with intrigue, lies, bargains, and all of those things that can show the worst sides of humanity. And one of these men will lead them when this is all through.
Even if you think you know what’s going to happen, this book will surprise you to the very end.
🏆 Nominated for 8 awards including “Best Picture,” “Best Director,” “Best Actor,” “Best Supporting Actress,” and “Best Supporting Actor.”
Dylan Goes Electric! By Elijah Wald
🎧 Audiobook
Ever since I took a college English class on Bob Dylan as Literature, I’ve been fascinated by the man who plugged in, and personally, I cannot wait to see this movie. How have I not seen it yet? I have a kid, the last movie I saw in the theater was Moana II, so I’ll turn to the source material in this book to find out more about his dramatic day of going “electric.”
Bob Dylan had been the face of folk in the mid-1960s until the Newport Folk Festival, when he famously started playing his new rock song, “Like a Rolling Stone,” and turned the audience against him. Meticulously researched, Wald’s book takes you behind-the-scenes and delves deeper into Dylan’s choices, the world around him, and the state of music during a pivotal time for music, pop culture, and the entire globe.
This is a story you think you know, but you only know the beginning.
🏆 Nominated for 5 awards including “Best Picture,” “Best Cinematography,” and “Best Production Design.”
Dune: Part II by Frank Herbert
🎧 Audiobook
The first thing you’ll need to know is that like Wicked, this movie is a two-parter, though it's based on just one book. Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic is just too much story to fit into one full-length feature, so we’re invited to delve deeper into the pages of the novel set on the desert planet of Arrakis.
Paul Atreides is a noble heir who’s set on a quest when his family is betrayed, and he must find his way on this inhospitable planet where spice is king and sandworms abound. Paul is on a path to surpass his former self and may even become the one to save humanity.
There’s a reason this classic sci-fi series has been popular for decades. If you find yourself entranced by the worldbuilding, there are many more books to enjoy after!
🏆 Nominated for 3 awards including “Best Animated Feature,” “Best Original Score,” and “Best Sound.”
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
🎧 Audiobook
Can any of us survive alone in the wilderness? Even a robot? This heartwarming and thought-provoking book asks questions of survival and what it means to adapt and be part of community.
The first time Roz awakens, it’s to discover that she’s alone in the wilderness with no idea of how she got there and what she’s supposed to do. Nature, both animals and her surroundings, prove to be vicious, and she’s forced to work with friendly faces to carve out a home. But when her past is revealed, she finds everything that she worked to achieve hanging in the balance.
This middle-grade read is a great one for the whole family to enjoy.
🏆 Nominated for 2 awards including “Best Picture” and “Best Adapted Screenplay.”
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
🎧 Audiobook
Based on a real reform school in Florida that operated for over 100 years, this book is about two boys at Nickel Academy in the 1960s and the repercussions it had on their lives. One innocent mistake was all it took for Elwood, a Black boy in Tallahassee who idolized Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to end up sentenced to reform school and all of the institution’s horrors. Once there, he finds a lifeline in Turner, a boy who’s nothing like him, with his cynical outlook on the world and their place in it. As things at the Academy go from bad to worse, decisions the boys make together will have consequences that echo for years to come.
This book won a Pulitzer Prize, so be prepared for a story that packs an emotional punch and sticks with you long after the last page is read.
🏆 Nominated for 1 award, “Best Documentary Feature.”
Black Box by Shiori Itō
In 2015, an aspiring young journalist, Shiori Itō, charged a prominent reporter, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, with sexual assault. When she went to report the case to the authorities, she was told they would not pursue charges, as this case was a “black box,” and the man who assaulted her was untouchable by the law.
This memoir recounts Itō’s experience with the police and the system as a whole, calling for justice for her and countless other women in Japan who had their cases ignored and buried by authorities.
This book is not an easy read, but it’s a much-needed call for justice that has led to more women speaking out and the system recognizing the need for this reckoning.
🏆 Nominated for 1 award, “Best Documentary Feature.”
While not based directly on a book, this nominated documentary is one you can stream right now for free, with no ads on Kanopy!
This film captures the moment in the early 1960s when African politics, globalization, and jazz comingled together in a CIA-backed coup plot that seems too unbelievable to be true. But remember, this is a documentary, and a well-researched and thorough one at that. Told through eyewitness stories, official memos from involved governments, mercenaries, and CIA operatives, along with a famous jazz musician or two, learn about the colonial forces that were moving pieces on the global stage and the resulting fallouts. This film is timely and well-paced and will catch your attention until the final credits roll.
Pro tip: While you’re waiting to see who wins on the big day, catch up on your other favorite movies on Kanopy for free from your library.
So, pop yourself a big bowl of popcorn and settle in to enjoy these great books on Libby! (And seriously, don’t forget to say, "the book was better.” People really do love hearing that hot take!)
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Published Jan 28, 2025