Favorites of the Year 2014: Books
This year's Favorites Of The Year list starts with my favorite Books of 2014.
I read just enough books to have a Top 10. Between The Strain TV series and rebranding the magazine, I spent more time re-reading GdT and Chuck Hogan's novels and checking out new magazines for design inspiration than I did reading books. But since I was also doing the Book Reviews page for the magazine, I read enough to put together this list! And, before anyone says it, yes, life has changed so much for me since the days that I worked in the bookstore... :P
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Favorite Books In 2014
Note: This list doesn't contain solely books released in 2014. This is a list of books that I enjoyed reading during the year, no matter what their publication date is.
Robert Galbraith's The Silkworm
A much more exhilarating sequel than the first one Galbraith published last year, with a cleverer plot and a background in the publishing industry (which makes me feel right at home), this book also had the added advantage of being well-translated in Indonesian.
Ben Aaronovitch's Foxglove Summer
Ben A's latest Peter Grant takes the detective out of London... and gives me an English countryside holiday with magic, fairies and funny cops. This time around, Peter's sidekicks are even more amazing than usual, all of whom I hope makes a return appearance in future Peter Grant novels.
Rick Riordan's Blood Of Olympus
This is the thrilling conclusion to the Heroes of Olympus series, but people who read it might find that Nico di Angelo - a character who's not originally meant to be The Seven Heroes at the beginning of the series - outshines many of them. And that, for me, is why I simply adore this book.
Weta's The Art Of Film Magic
Probably the most expensive book in my collection (it costs USD 100!), I didn't even buy it on my own. Kudos to HarperCollins for providing this book for review and I definitely loved it. It's not just my love for Peter Jackson and his LOTR/Hobbit movies that made me like it but through this two-volume coffee tabler, but the story of Weta Workshop and Weta Digital's rise to international fame is amazing indeed. Well worth the time you take to buy, ship and read the books.
Chris Colfer's A Grimm Warning
Chris Colfer changed his own fairy tale game through this third novel in the Land of Stories series. He introduced new characters, subverted old characters and introduced pain and tragedy in a way that I never thought he could. This is still a fun romp, but it has surprising depth as well.
Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell's The Graveyard Books Graphic Novels
The Graveyard Book was pretty damn special when it was just written words. But turn it into a graphic novel? It's even more special. Call it a marketing gimmick or whatever cynical thing you have in mind, but I thoroughly enjoyed the two days I spent reading these two volumes. The wonderful illustrations by a group of talented artists add to the familiar coming-of-age tale of Nobody, really, and deserve a place in the book shelves along with Gaiman's other greats.
Neil Gaiman's The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains
Speaking of Neil Gaiman, this book is - as I understand it - not a book at all. It's supposedly a performance art piece because Gaiman first read the story on stage, accompanied by illustrations by Eddie Campbell showing on screen behind him and a string orchestra. Having just the story and the illustration in this version might come as a poor substitute for that performance, but, heck, it's a wonderful story with wonderful illustrations anyway.
K.J. Charles' Flight of Magpies
This is probably one of my favorite M/M romance novels of all time. Enough said.
Jordan L. Hawk's Bloodline
Not so much an 'all time favorite' as it is a 'ballsy I-can't-believe-you-pulled-it-off historical supernatural romance', this book gave me chills and made me drop my jaws and brought on the scares for a few nights. Definitely one of the best M/M novels of 2014.
Brian Michael Bendis' Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2
I read a lot of Guardians Of The Galaxy comics this year, but this volume stuck out. Mostly because it introduces Angela. She's now a Marvel character, originally created by Gaiman and Todd McFarlane (so is it any surprise that I was drawn to her?) But this second volume in the NOW! version of GOTG is actually pretty fantastic and deserving of a place in the Top 10!
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For the first time in many years, I don't actually have honorable mentions because either the other books I read are worth not mentioning (like several YA series that just constitute as 'No. JUST NO.') or I haven't finished reading (like two Jo Nesbo's novels, and The Miniaturist, and several others). I think one of my biggest problems is that the bookstores here do not carry a lot of titles I want to read (like Edgar Cantero's Supernatural Enhancements for example) and so I still haven't got my hands on them.
Therefore one of my 2015 resolutions is simply to read more books.
My Favorites of 2014:
Books | Music | TV Series | Movies | Eye Candies
I read just enough books to have a Top 10. Between The Strain TV series and rebranding the magazine, I spent more time re-reading GdT and Chuck Hogan's novels and checking out new magazines for design inspiration than I did reading books. But since I was also doing the Book Reviews page for the magazine, I read enough to put together this list! And, before anyone says it, yes, life has changed so much for me since the days that I worked in the bookstore... :P
*
Favorite Books In 2014
Note: This list doesn't contain solely books released in 2014. This is a list of books that I enjoyed reading during the year, no matter what their publication date is.
Robert Galbraith's The Silkworm
A much more exhilarating sequel than the first one Galbraith published last year, with a cleverer plot and a background in the publishing industry (which makes me feel right at home), this book also had the added advantage of being well-translated in Indonesian.
Ben Aaronovitch's Foxglove Summer
Ben A's latest Peter Grant takes the detective out of London... and gives me an English countryside holiday with magic, fairies and funny cops. This time around, Peter's sidekicks are even more amazing than usual, all of whom I hope makes a return appearance in future Peter Grant novels.
Rick Riordan's Blood Of Olympus
This is the thrilling conclusion to the Heroes of Olympus series, but people who read it might find that Nico di Angelo - a character who's not originally meant to be The Seven Heroes at the beginning of the series - outshines many of them. And that, for me, is why I simply adore this book.
Weta's The Art Of Film Magic
Probably the most expensive book in my collection (it costs USD 100!), I didn't even buy it on my own. Kudos to HarperCollins for providing this book for review and I definitely loved it. It's not just my love for Peter Jackson and his LOTR/Hobbit movies that made me like it but through this two-volume coffee tabler, but the story of Weta Workshop and Weta Digital's rise to international fame is amazing indeed. Well worth the time you take to buy, ship and read the books.
Chris Colfer's A Grimm Warning
Chris Colfer changed his own fairy tale game through this third novel in the Land of Stories series. He introduced new characters, subverted old characters and introduced pain and tragedy in a way that I never thought he could. This is still a fun romp, but it has surprising depth as well.
Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell's The Graveyard Books Graphic Novels
The Graveyard Book was pretty damn special when it was just written words. But turn it into a graphic novel? It's even more special. Call it a marketing gimmick or whatever cynical thing you have in mind, but I thoroughly enjoyed the two days I spent reading these two volumes. The wonderful illustrations by a group of talented artists add to the familiar coming-of-age tale of Nobody, really, and deserve a place in the book shelves along with Gaiman's other greats.
Neil Gaiman's The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains
Speaking of Neil Gaiman, this book is - as I understand it - not a book at all. It's supposedly a performance art piece because Gaiman first read the story on stage, accompanied by illustrations by Eddie Campbell showing on screen behind him and a string orchestra. Having just the story and the illustration in this version might come as a poor substitute for that performance, but, heck, it's a wonderful story with wonderful illustrations anyway.
K.J. Charles' Flight of Magpies
This is probably one of my favorite M/M romance novels of all time. Enough said.
Jordan L. Hawk's Bloodline
Not so much an 'all time favorite' as it is a 'ballsy I-can't-believe-you-pulled-it-off historical supernatural romance', this book gave me chills and made me drop my jaws and brought on the scares for a few nights. Definitely one of the best M/M novels of 2014.
Brian Michael Bendis' Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2
I read a lot of Guardians Of The Galaxy comics this year, but this volume stuck out. Mostly because it introduces Angela. She's now a Marvel character, originally created by Gaiman and Todd McFarlane (so is it any surprise that I was drawn to her?) But this second volume in the NOW! version of GOTG is actually pretty fantastic and deserving of a place in the Top 10!
*
For the first time in many years, I don't actually have honorable mentions because either the other books I read are worth not mentioning (like several YA series that just constitute as 'No. JUST NO.') or I haven't finished reading (like two Jo Nesbo's novels, and The Miniaturist, and several others). I think one of my biggest problems is that the bookstores here do not carry a lot of titles I want to read (like Edgar Cantero's Supernatural Enhancements for example) and so I still haven't got my hands on them.
Therefore one of my 2015 resolutions is simply to read more books.
My Favorites of 2014:
Books | Music | TV Series | Movies | Eye Candies