Our Top 10 lists for 2014: Books, movies, TV, taxi names, cat food flavors and more
In no particular order
Top 10 Books that we read in 2014
1. How to be Both by Ali Smith
2. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
3. The Children Act by Ian McEwan
4. My Struggle Volume 1 by Karl Ove Knausgaard
5. Life After Life and Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
6. HHhH by Laurent Binet
7. The Blue Flower and Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald
8. The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh-Fermor
9. Isabelo’s Archive by Resil Mojares
10. Paris Stories by Mavis Gallant
Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala’s Top 10 Books he read in 2014
1. The Martian by Andy Weir
2. An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris
3. The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida
4. The Son by Jo Nesbo
5. The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go
6. For Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta
7. The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
8. Dusk by James Salter
9. The Twelve Children of Paris by Tim Willocks
10. The Fun Stuff by James Wood
Jaime’s Top 10 TV Shows he saw in 2014
1. Gracepoint (US BBC) and Broadchurch (BBC)
2. The Roosevelts – An Intimate Portrait (PBS – Documentary)
3. The Vikings
4. True Detective
5. The Knick
6. Wallander (both Swedish and British versions)
7. Hell on Wheels
Martin Freeman in the William H. Macy role in the TV Fargo, which is different from the movie Fargo.
8. Fargo
9. The Bridge
10. House of Cards
Our Top 10 Movies from 2014 that we saw in 2014
1. Snowpiercer. How to choreograph a fight scene with axes.
2. Guardians of the Galaxy starring Chris Pratt as Han Solo, and Captain America: Winter Soldier, a 70s conspiracy thriller with superheroes. We’re going to cheat and consider all movies from the Marvel universe as a single extravaganza, to make room for a movie someone just reminded us about.
3. Boyhood. Time travel for real. Who knew that the passage of the years, marked by the most mundane events, could be so moving?
4. Nightcrawler. Creepy Jake.
5. Stranger by the Lake. Like Nancy Drew with sex and death.
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel. The movie equivalent of a vitrine of macarons.
7. Only Lovers Left Alive. Who but vampires can really appreciate the history of art, literature, music?
8. The Immigrant. James Gray (Two Lovers, We Own the Night) should be more famous.
9. Edge of Tomorrow. In which Tom Cruise gets killed over and over and over again, to the enjoyment of fans and non-fans.
10. Magic in the Moonlight. A better Woody Allen movie than the fluffy Midnight in Paris, which critics and audiences loved.
(Note: Norte was on our 2013 list. We haven’t seen most of the awards contenders, which just opened in the US.)
Top 10 Taxi Names
1. Ozymandias. Look on yon cab, ye mighty, and despair!
2. from Ricky: Shadow of the Almighty. Not a reference to Sauron.
10. Your choices
Saffy’s Top 10 Cat Food Flavors
1. Fancy Feast Seafood Feast
2. Fancy Feast Salmon Feast
3. Vita Pet Tuna with Prawn
4. Fancy Feast Cod, Sole, and Shrimp Feast
5. Canned food from Bow and Wow (basta mahal)
6. Fried chicken (human food)
7. Vita Pet Tuna Nuggets
8. Friskies Mixed Grill Paté
9. Friskies Salmon Feast Classic Paté
10. Sashimi (human food)
Send us your lists.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
December 30th, 2014 at 13:39
Hi Jessica. How about Boyhood, does it merit a spot on your list? And Coriolanus? (Perhaps, technically, the latter can’t be considered a movie?).
December 30th, 2014 at 14:36
I once saw a cab named “The Shadow of the Almighty.” I thought it was about Sauron or one of those 70s horror movies. Turned out to be a religious reference pala.
December 30th, 2014 at 20:16
Jessica, a new book from Kate Atkinson! http://penguinblog.co.uk/2014/12/30/the-books-we-cant-wait-to-meet-in-2015/
January 1st, 2015 at 02:40
Your Grace
My Top Ten Graphic Novels/Comic book series of 2014 (Not in particular order)
1. 14 (Manix Abrera)
2. Lazarus: The First Collection (by Greg Rucka)
3. Trese 6 (by Budjette Tan)
4. Punk Rock Jesus Deluxe Edition (by Sean Murphy)
5. The Uncanny X-Force Omnibus (by Rick Remender)
6. Batman: Arkham Asylum: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (by Grant Morrison)
7. Marvel 75th Year Anniversary Omnibus (by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Frank Miller, etc).
8. Nick Fury: My War Gone By (by Garth Ennis)
9. Deadpool by Joe Kelly Omnibus (by Joe Kelly)
10. Rodski Patotski: Ang Dalagang Baby (by Gerry Alanguilan)
My Top 10 On-going Comic series (not in particular order)
1. Deadly Class (by Rick Remender)
2. Men of Wrath (by Jason Aaron)
3. Miracleman (by Alan Moore or “The Original Writer”)
4. The Fade Out (by Ed Brubaker)
5. Sandman: The Overture (by Neil Gaiman)
6. Saga (by Brian Vaughan)
7. Velvet (by Ed Brubaker)
8. Multiversity (by Grant Morrison)
9. Revival (by Tim Seeley)
10. Starlight (by Mark Millar)
January 3rd, 2015 at 08:45
Books for 2014
-Platt’s As One Devil to Another + Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters
-Tammuz’s Minotaur
-McCarthy’s Blood Meridian
-Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum
-Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh
-Kidd’s Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design
-JPR’s Noli Me Tangere + El Filibusterismo, Lacson-Locsin translation
-Hwang’s M. Butterfly
-Vaite’s Frangipani
-Ozaki’s Japanese Fairy Tales
January 6th, 2015 at 18:49
My top books for 2014:
– A Visit from the Goon Squad
– Mr. Fox
– A Tale for the Time Being
– The Master and Margarita
– Gone Girl
– Magic for Beginners
– Tenth of December
– Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
– Manila Noir
– The Luminaries (Though I’m not yet finished, my enjoyment of the novel’s plot and level of detail definitely and already qualifies it on my top 10.)