best of 2014: books

this gif has nothing to do with this post but I couldn't resist it

   Oh, the difficulty of picking out a mere few books from a year that had a spate of good reads. I read quite a bit this year and I'd probably recommend all of it (but not necessarily to everyone). And so: four stand-out numbers from the year:

• Homage to Catalonia / George Orwell
• Neverhome / Laird Hunt
• Antarctica / Gabrielle Walker
• No Country For Old Men / Cormac McCarthy

   Homage to Catalonia was by turns hilarious, heart-breaking, poignant, confusing, gentle, and passionate. I recommend it to one and all. If you read my post about Neverhome you know how I feel about it already, and I take none of it back. So good. I didn't write about Antarctica because most of the people I know are probably sick of hearing about my deep and abiding love for our southernmost continent and my ongoing desire to winter over at the South Pole despite my struggles with a lack of vitamin D. BUT if you want to read an excellent tome about past and present life in Antarctica with quite a bit of awesome science thrown in, read Gabrielle Walker's book. Sometimes I forget that I love Cormac McCarthy, until I pick up one of his books and say "WHAAAAAAAAT, this is amazing" and then proceed to speak in staccato sentences for the duration of my reading time. Go forth and read these books, but maybe skip the McCarthy if you are sensitive to violence.

   OKAY, here it is, the LIST. What I read in 2014, in the order I read them, sans comment because uuuugh that would take forevvvver and this post would be roughly 18 million words long. An * means it is a re-read, italics means non-fiction, underlined means comics.

1. Jerusalem / Guy Delisle
2. *Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins
3. Fatale v. 1-3 / Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips
4. The Girls of Murder City / Douglas Perry
5. *Catching Fire / Suzanne Collins
6. A User's Guide to Neglectful Parenting / Guy Delisle
7. Book of a Thousand Days / Shannon Hale
8. Rabid / Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy
9. The Rook / Daniel O'Malley
10. Three Cups of Deceit / John Krakauer
11. X-Files Season 10 v. 1 / Joe Harris
12. Attachments / Rainbow Rowell
13. Locke and Key v. 6 / Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez
14. I Am Legend / Richard Matheson
15. How to Lie With Statistics / Darrell Huff
16. *Siddhartha / Herman Hesse
17. The Haunting of Hill House / Shirley Jackson
18. The Virgin Suicides / Jeffrey Eugenides 
19. At The Mountains of Madness / HP Lovecraft
20. The Never List / Koethi Zan
21. Shadows / Robin McKinley
22. A Life in Stitches / Rachael Herron
23. And Then There Were None / Agatha Christie
24. Anne of Windy Poplars / LM Montgomery
25. Fully Present / Sue Smalley, Diana Winston
26. Batman: The Dark KNight Returns / Frank Miller, et al
27. In The After / Demitria Lunetta
28. Fun Home / Alison Bechdel
29. Boxers and Saints / Gene Luen Yang
30. The Madman's Daughter / Megan Shepherd
31. The Bear / Claire Cameron
32. Never Let Me Go / Kazuo Ishiguro
33. The Diary of Edward the Hamster, 1990-1990 / Miriam Elia, Ezra Elia
34. Redefining Girly / Melissa Atkins Wardy
35. David and Goliath / Malcolm Gladwell
36. The Rose That Grew From Concrete / Tupac Shakur
37. The Old Man and the Sea / Ernest Hemingway
38. The Talented Mr Ripley / Patricia Highsmith
39. Drive / James Sallis
40. No Country for Old Men / Cormac McCarthy
41. Good Bones / Margaret Atwood
42. The Spire / William Golding
43. The Diet Trap / Jason Lillis
44. Steppenwolf / Herman Hesse
45. Foundation and Empire / Isaac Asimov
46. The Remains of the Day / Kazuo Ishiguro
47. *Perelandra / CS Lewis
48. The Turn of the Screw / Henry James
49. The Practice of the Presence of God / Brother Lawrence
50. The Case for the Psalms / NT Wright
51. Antarctica / Gabrielle Walker
52. I Capture the Castle / Dodie Smith
53. Invasion of the Body Snatchers / Jack Finney
54. True Grit / Charles Portis
55. Neverhome / Laird Hunt
56. The Shining / Stephen King
57. Any Empire / Nate Powell
58. Love Does / Bob Goff
59. Relish / Lucy Knisley
60. What Every Body is Saying / Joe Navarro
61. Lexicon / Max Barry
62. Homage to Catalonia / George Orwell
63. The Pearl / John Steinbeck
64. The Imperfect Board Member / Jim Brown
65. Herland / Charlotte Perkins Gilman
66. *Inkheart / Cornelia Funke
67. *Beauty / Robin McKinley
68. The Ocean at the End of the Lane / Neil Gaiman
69. How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less / Sarah Glidden 

   And there you have it! My initial goal for the year was to read at least 52 books, and I am pleased to say that I exceeded it by 17 books. This is the most books I've ever read in one year; I'm excited to see what 2015 brings.

   Some notable bookish things from 2014:

• "Discovered" Kazuo Ishiguro and Jeffery Eugenides, finally finally. 
• Kept up with reading nonfiction
• Read more about the American Civil War era than I ever have in my life (???)
• Became more and more comfortable with tossing books I am not enjoying or getting anything out of
•  Participated in a Mini Readathon, which was delightful.
• Read a great deal about feminism and communication, in non-book form
• This isn't bookish but I finally have picked up a guitar and am more determined than ever to learn.

best of 2014: movies + tv

   First things first, here they are friends, the 41st - 45th movies I watched this year:

1. Cowboys & Aliens (11)
2. Meet Me in St Louis (44)
3. Rounders (98)
4. The Dark Knight (08)
5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (05)

    All quite different from each other, clearly. And if you were trying to figure our which of these I'd watch and write a paper about for an university course, it would be that gem of hilarious cinema: Cowboys & Aliens.  What a world we live in.

   On to the best of! For the movies I picked my two favourites that I saw in theatres and one that I don't think many would find and watch unless they came across it by chance (as I did) or heard about it from a friend.

• Noah (2014, Darren Aronofsky)  This movie has garnered a great deal of attention and discussion, and when I watched it and posted about it earlier, I said that I felt I did not need to add to the conversation, except to say that this was a truly beautiful and poignant film. I still feel that same way. It's gorgeous. It's moving. It's worth your time. 
• Interstellar (2014, Christopher Nolan)  Speaking of movies that are beautiful (and filmed in Iceland), after you see Noah might as well see Interstellar. It's got space, it's got weird locations, it's got (fake) science. It makes me think that maybe one day they'll make a movie of Foundation. 
• Barbara (2012, Christian Petzold)  This might be the best movie I've seen all year, and maybe last year too. It is golden. It makes a point of being understated and a bit claustrophobic. It's also in German, but please don't let that dissuade you. A doctor living in Eastern Germany in the 80's makes a request to leave, and is subsequently relocated to a rural hospital and put under constant surveillance. Maybe I'm not making it sound very thrilling, but see this movie. I think it's on Netflix still. 

 SPEAKING OF NETFLIX, do you like TV? I do. I highly recommend these:

• The West Wing
• X-Files
• The West Wing
• X-Files
• The West Wing
• X-Files

   Start watching those and you'll be fine

  And that's that for this installment, folks. If you click on the "Movies" label at the bottom of this post you can see/read about the other films I watched this year, if you feel so inclined.

best of 2014: webcomics

   Admittedly, I feel somewhat pretentious with this blog, telling you what I read and if/why you should read it, and expecting that my writing and opinion will have an influence on your choices. Who am I to tell you what you should read? And now with a "best of" list. Such audacity. However, putting my vanity aside, I have had an excellent year media-wise. It seems only fair to spread the love. And so: a few posts on what I thought were the shining stars of my media consumption this year, and, naturally, the yearly "what I read" and "what I watched" posts.

   To begin: webcomics.

• Earlier this year, Anthony Clark and KC Green teamed up to start BACK, a wild-west-esque comic which has proved delightful in the first thirty updates.  There are gunfights, graveyards, witches, and two brothers holding a town hostage by means of bodily gas. What? Just take my word for it, check it out, it's a good romp. Clever and funny. 
• If there is one comic artist/writer who I will always recommend to everyone, it is John Allison. He is behind the excellent (and now ended) Bad Machinery, which revolves around a group of teens in Tackleford, England, as they solve mysteries. The last case wrapped up earlier this year, at which point Allison turned his focus to Bobbins, which is also set in Tackleford and features many of the same characters as Bad Machinery. Both comics are well worth your time. Those links go to the beginning of the last Bad Machinery case and the beginning of the latest Bobbins story, respectively. 

   BACK, Bad Machinery, and Bobbins all start with "B" and feature paranormal elements, I am sensing a theme here. 

   Join me next time for "best of 2014: movies"! So exciting.

41-45

   You know the drill: I watch 'em, you guess 'em. For bonus points you can guess which of these movies I watched for school.

Resolved, 2015

   In an effort to diversify my reading, and to keep an open mind and to find new books I wouldn't otherwise read, I want to know what your favourite books are, and I want to know why you think I should read them, or if you think I should read them, or if I should at least give them a fair go. The plan is to read at least one book that someone else has suggested a month, which means twelve books I maybe wouldn't have given the time of day before, or maybe didn't realize existed.

   In order to do this, though, I clearly need your suggestions. What should I read? Be forewarned that I draw the line at Amish romance (and romance in general, actually. But those rubbish "plain romance" books especially. What is the appeal? I am genuinely baffled by the sheer number of those things). Beyond that, however, I am game for pretty much anything.

   This past year one of my resolutions was to read at least 52 books, I've achieved that and I want to add to it for 2015. And so: books other people tell me to read. If you want a frame of reference for my reading patterns, there's a list of what I read this year at the bottom of this here bloggo. 

   Also: can I get a holla if you love Pushing Daisies as much as I do.