Stuff I Liked in 2014

I'm  not doing a "best of," because, as tempting as it is to insist that my opinions constitute the definitive guide to what's best, well...I dunno. Maybe it's getting old or something, but I've really come to appreciate that what I like is not what everyone likes.  So here's the stuff I liked this year. As always, it's not necessarily the stuff that came out this year, but this year is the time when I enjoyed it. 

Books:

I read more books this year than I have in a long time.  Not sure why, but I'll take it.  Here are the ones I liked best this year, with links to my Goodreads reviews.  They're listed in chronological order of when I read them.

Scott Lynch--Red Seas Under Red Skies

James Oswald--Natural Causes

Lawrence Wright--Going Clear

Michael G. Munz--Zeus is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure

Holly Black--The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Kelly Link--Get in Trouble

Jill MacLean--The Hidden Agenda of Sigrid Sugden

Frank Portman--King Dork,  Approximately

Alisa Libby--The Blood Confession

I read a lot more books that I liked, some that I was meh about, and one or two that I hated.  If you wanna check out the full list of stuff I read in 2014, you can find it here.

 

TV and Movies:

I saw hardly any new movies this year.  Which is weird; I used to go to the movies on a weekly basis.  Now I'm pretty out of touch with movies. And most TV, to be honest.  Most of the movies I watch are old horror movies that aren't very good, which seem to be the comfort food I crave the most.  And  while the TV is on in my house fairly frequently, it's usually showing something that someone else has chosen.  Still, I have these:

American Horror Story: Freakshow. Not as good as Coven or Murder House, but better than Asylum, but here's the thing: even when AHS is not firing on all cylinders, it's still better and weirder than most stuff on TV.  And the cast is absolutely fantastic. Special props to Ryan Murphy for giving Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates the kind of big meaty roles that women that age rarely get.  I love the way the ensemble pops up in different roles in each season, and I love how dark and odd it is. Whoever decided to go all Baz Luhrman this season and throw in some anachronistic musical numbers was horribly horribly misguided.

Guardians of the Galaxy: I think this is the only movie I saw in theaters this year.  Saw it in IMAX. Totally worth it.  Fantastic movie.

The Twilight Zone: The whole original series is on Netflix. I've seen a lot of them before, but I've been watching a lot recently. It's stunning how good they are.  Even the bad episodes are pretty good--the writing and acting are always good.  And it's amazing, once you start watching, how you recognize the show's colossal influence on popular culture in the last 50 years. I'm not just talking about Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes--I'm talking, books, comics, tv,  and even that thing Dr. Evil did with his pinky.  I don't think it's overstating to say Rod Serling is one of the most influential figures in 20th century art of any kind.

Quincy, M.E.--Yes, the Jack Klugman vehicle.  The fashion is, of course, awesome, and Jack Klugman's yelling is awesome, but what is interesting and surprising about the show  is how non-formulaic it is.  One of the reasons I like crime dramas like Law & Order (I'm a Criminal Intent man, myself) or  Criminal Minds is because the formulaic predictability is comforting and not challenging.  Quincy, though, isn't just corpse-of-the-week. Well, there is a corpse of the week, but the story goes in all kinds of different directions from there.  I don't know if this would be compelling to watch if  you didn't have fond memories of watching it as a kid, but I like it.  Also, you can thank Jack Klugman and Quincy M.E. for publicly shaming Orrin Hatch and getting the orphan drug law passed.  (read all about it here.) My mom takes a drug whose manufacture was made possible by this law in order to stay alive.  So, thanks  Jack Klugman! 

Music

I don't have a lot of albums to recommend because I  didn't listen  to too many whole albums this year. But here  are some songs I liked:

"Milwaukee" and "Volunteers of America"--The Both. As a big Ted Leo fan, I was pretty excited about this project, which is Ted Leo and Aimee Mann. I thought it would be like a Ted Leo album with great harmonies; instead it's more like an Aimee Mann album with some impressive guitar work.  But still, these two songs are great,  and exactly what I wanted from this collaboration.

"Avant Gardener"--Courtney Barnett. Because the world needed a song about anaphalaxis. 

"Shake it Off"-- Taylor Swift. I  know. I know. But this is a ridiculously catchy, nearly perfect pop song.  And my coworkers really appreciate it when I sing this in the office.

"Gotta Get Away"--The Black Keys. I think this is the first reference to San Berdoo in popular music since Creedence's "Sinister Purpose."

"I'm Not the Only One"--Sam Smith. Just an incredible old-school soul song with an amazing chorus. 

Comics:

(I'm mostly reading comics acquired through the Humble Bundle because the price is unbeatable. I also go and read graphic novels in the library sometimes.)

Pretty much anything written by Gail Simone, especially Batgirl and Red Sonja.

Dynamite's Pathfinder comics are tons of fun--not meta at all, just a really great adventure story featuring a party comprised of Pathfinder's iconic class  characters.  

Games:

On my tablet, I play Marvel pinball kind of obsessively.  I briefly held a world top-5  score on the Blade table. 

I was dangerously addicted to Marvel Puzzle Quest for a while.

I also bought Shadowrun Returns and found it a pretty absorbing game that's probably more fun if you're familiar with the tabletop version.

Speaking of which, I'm still playing Shadowrun regularly, though my superhero group has switched from Mutants & Masterminds to Icons: Assembled, which is probably the best, and simplest superhero RPG I've played.

I'm running D&D 5e for teens in an afterschool library program--I love the new books and the new rules.  Using the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign for my group, and it's a good story with a nice mix of investigation and hacking and slashing, though it has to be said my teen group leans heavily on the hacking.

If you didn't order Timewatch by my friend Kevin Kulp on his Kickstarter, you should totally buy it when it comes out. I've had the opportunity to play several times, and it is ridiculously fun.