Best of the Best of the Best 2014!

Aloha! I'm writing this post from my private cabana on Disney's Castaway Cay!

...

No, just kidding. I'm sitting in my bed and I need to shower.

Anyhoo! I know you're all dying to know: What did Jessica love in 2014? What books moved her? What movies thrilled her?

WAIT NO MORE!

I now present to you: THE BEST OF 2014 ACCORDING TO MOI!

Beginning, as ever, with the movie picks:

Movies for Grownups:

Guardians of the Galaxy (So much to love, from the story to the humor to the action to the characters themselves. We ARE Groot!)
The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (I had to watch it twice to really appreciate it. It really leads in so well to the Lord of the Rings movies.)
Interstellar
Maleficent
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Winter's Tale
Live. Die. Repeat. (aka Edge of Tomorrow)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Chef
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Monuments Men

Movies for Kids:

The Lego Movie
Big Hero 6
The Secret of Kells (This movie is several years old, but I finally saw it, and it was gorgeous!)
Muppets: Most Wanted
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Planes: Fire and Rescue

And now, the books! BOOKS! BOOOOOOOOKS! So many good books this year! So many! As those of you who follow me on Goodreads know, I actually made my goal of reading 160 books in 2014! I'm so proud of myself! And so pleased, too, that I discovered so many great books!

Also, for the most part, these lists are all ten-way ties. To choose which one I liked better, LANDLINE or ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, is simply ridiculous, because they were both amazing, and so different. It's like asking which I like better: steak or dark chocolate.

Books for Grownups, Fiction:

LANDLINE - Rainbow Rowell
ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr
THE BONE CLOCKS - Brian David Mitchell
THE ROSIE PROJECT - Graeme Simsion
WINTER'S TALE - Mark Helprin
THE HUSBAND'S SECRET - Liane Moriarty
THE SILKWORM - Robert Galbraith
DANIEL DERONDA - George Eliot
GIDGET - Frederick Kohner
DEATH OF A POLICEMAN - M. C. Beaton

Books for Grownups, Fantasy/Sci fi:

SOME KIND OF FAIRY TALE - Graham Joyce (Graham, who was so kind and hilarious and wonderful, passed away this fall after a long battle with cancer. If you haven't treated yourself to one of his gorgeous books before, start with this one.)
MY REAL CHILDREN - Jo Walton
WORDS OF RADIANCE - Brandon Sanderson
ANATHEM - Neal Stephenson (It took me two tries to get into this book, because the language is so different, but once I did . . . WOW.)
THE SLOW REGARD OF SILENT THINGS - Patrick Rothfuss
THE BONE SEASON - Samantha Shannon
BLOOD OF TYRANTS - Naomi Novik
ODD THOMAS - Dean Koontz
FARTHING - Jo Walton
THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS - M. R. Carey

Books for Grownups, Nonfiction:

THE EGG AND I - Betty MacDonald (I loved the movie as a kid, and just recently discovered that it was originally a book, which was autobiographical, and by the author of my beloved Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books!)
EVERY LIVING THING - James Herriot
AS YOU WISH - Cary Elwes

Young Adult, Fiction:

I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN - Jandy Nelson (Definitely for older teens and adults, but so beautifully written and heart-breaking, it's my pick for the Printz Award!)
THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE - Leila Sales
WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE - Trish Doller
NOT IN THE SCRIPT - Amy Finnegan (Amy is a good friend of mine, and this debut YA book of hers is simply to die for! A fabulous rom-com!)
THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH - Rosemary Sutcliff
MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME - edited by Stephanie Perkins
THE SCANDALOUS SISTERHOOD OF PRICKWILLOW PLACE - Julie Berry
SKINK - NO SURRENDER - Carl Hiaasen
THE CHAPEL WARS - Lindsey Leavitt
THE OUTSIDERS - S. E. Hinton (Nope, I've never read it before. Yep, it was great!)

Young Adult, Fantasy/Sci fi:

DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS - Laini Taylor (Gorgeous ending to this trilogy!)
MIDWINTERBLOOD - Marcus Sedgewick (The Printz winner, and so deserving of it!)
A BREATH OF FROST/WHISPER THE DEAD - Alyxandra Harvey (The first two books in the Lovegrove Legacy and I couldn't put them down!)
IN THE SHADOWS - Jim diBartolo and Kirsten White
IN THE AGE OF LOVE AND CHOCOLATE - Gabrielle Zevin (Another great trilogy ender!)
THE SHADE OF THE MOON - Susan Beth Pfeffer
BLACKOUT - Robison Wells
CHASING POWER - Sarah Beth Durst
STEELHEART - Brandon Sanderson
AFTERWORLDS - Scott Westerfeld

Middle Grade, Fiction:

LIAR & SPY - Rebecca Stead
WEST OF THE MOON - Margi Preus
HOMECOMING/ DICEY'S SONG - Cynthia Voigt
CHARLOTTE'S ROSE - A. E. Cannon (This book is hard to find, and has been out several years, but it is just gorgeous, and fans of Little House on the Prairie will love it!)
THE SECRET OF THE FORTUNE WOOKIEE/THE SURPRISE ATTACK OF JABBA THE PUPPETT/PRINCESS LABELMAKER TO THE RESCUE/EMPEROR PICKLETINE RIDES THE BUS - Tom Angleberger (Basically, if you haven't read this series, you really must!)
THE MYSTERIOUS HOWLING - Maryrose Wood
LIFE ON MARS - Jennifer Brown
THE SPY CATCHERS OF MAPLE HILL - Megan Frazer Blakemore

Middle Grade, Fantasy/Sci Fi:

THE HERO'S GUIDE TO STORMING THE CASTLE - Christopher Healy
NIGHTMARES! - Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller
THE NIGHT GARDENER - Jonathan Auxier
THE MAGIC HALF - Annie Barrows
IRON-HEARTED VIOLET - Kelly Barnhill
THE SEARCH FOR WONDLA - Tony DiTerlizzi
THE WIDE AWAKE PRINCESS - E. D. Baker
THE PRINCESS IN BLACK - Dean and Shannon Hale
THE QUIRKS: WELCOME TO NORMAL - Erin Soderberg
THE FAIRY TALE MATCHMAKER - E. D. Baker

Graphic Novels:

TREATIES, TRENCHES, MUD, AND BLOOD - Nathan Hale
EL DEAFO - CeCe Bell
SISTERS - Raina Telgemeier
WHY GRIZZLY BEARS SHOULD WEAR UNDERPANTS - The Oatmeal
DRAMA - Raina Telgemeier
RESIDENT MAD SCIENTIST - Howard Tayler
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 1: COSMIC AVENGERS - Brian Michael Bendis
ANDRE THE GIANT - Box Brown

Picture Books: 

SAM AND DAVE DIG A HOLE - Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett
MOO! - David LaRochelle and Mike Wohnoutka
GASTON - Kelly DiPucchio and Christian Robinson
HUG MACHINE - Scott Campbell
THE TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES - Brigette Barrager (My daughter has had the Princess Matching Game based on this for years, and I just realized that there was a book featuring this beautiful art, and the princesses are all flower names, too!)
UNI THE UNICORN - Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Brigette Barrager
WAITING IS NOT EASY - Mo Willems
THE FIRST CHRISTMAS - Jan Pienkowski
THE PIGEON NEEDS A BATH - Mo Willems
FOUND - Salina Yoon

Summer Reading Recap

Hello, all!

I hope you had a wonderful summer! I'm guessing it was far more restful than mine! Nevertheless, I did manage to get some reading done. I think I challenged myself to read sixty books. I don't know where I pulled that number from . . . wishful thinking, I suppose! The reality is . . . Fifty-four! Not bad, right? I've read 97 of the 160 books I've challenged myself to read this year, but according to Goodreads, I'm still ten books behind schedule. Le sigh.

Before I give you the list, let me tell you that I am awaiting final details of my October book tour for THURSDAYS WITH THE CROWN! I will post those events soon!  I do know that I will launch the book one day early, on October 6th! It goes on sale officially on October 7th, but that is Baby Girl's birthday, and I am not THAT terrible of a mother... The launch party will be at The King's English in Salt Lake City on Monday, October 6th at 7 pm! I can also confirm that I will be at the Provo Library on November 13th at 7 pm, for the Utah Valley launch, so there's two options already for you, Utah!

I can also confirm that there will be special Barnes & Noble editions of THURSDAYS, which have maps of the Castle on the endpapers and a bonus short story at the end!

And in YA book news, my long-awaited Romania book, entitled SILVER IN THE BLOOD, will be out July 7th, 2015! Advanced copies are coming, and you know I'll do giveaways and show you cover art and all good things as soon as I can!

Now, the summer reading books!

From Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day I read:

1. Peyton Place, Grace Metalious*
2. Midwinterblood, Marcus Sedgwick
3. The Chapel Wars, Lindsey Leavitt
4. Farthing, Jo Walton*
5. Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson
6. Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood, Nathan Hale
7. Dreams of Gods and Monsters,  Laini Taylor
8. And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
9. Searching for Sky, Jillian Cantor
19. The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion*
20. My Real Children, Jo Walton*
21. Open Road Summer, Emery Lord
22. Gidget, Frederick Kohner
23. Silver in the Blood
24. In Darkness, Nick Lake
25. Fool Me Twice, Mandy Hubbard
26. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 1: Cosmic Avengers
27. Jim Henson's The Labyrinth, A.C.H. Smith
28. Shadow on the Mountain, Margi Preus
29. Tuesdays at the Castle (read this aloud to my kids)
30. Silver in the Blood
31. No Graves As Yet, Anne Perry
32. Bad Monkey, Carl Hiaasen*
33. Silver in the Blood
34. Landline, Rainbow Rowell
35. The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith*
36. Rogues, edited by George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois*
37. The Glass Sentence, S. E. Grove
38. Wish You Were Italian, Kristin Rae
39. The Night Gardener, Jonathan Auxier
40. Charlotte's Rose, A. E. Cannon
41. One More Thing, B. J. Novak*
42. Silver in the Blood
43. Life on Mars, Jennifer Brown
44. The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier
45. Little Women and Me, Lauren Baratz-Logsted
46. Skink- No Surrender, Carl Hiaasen
47. Iron Hearted Violet, Kelly Barnhill
48. Wednesdays in the Tower (aloud to the kids)
49. I'll Give You the Sun, Jandy Nelson
50. Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark, Ridley Pearson
51. The School for Good and Evil, Soman Chainani
52. Chasing Power, Sarah Beth Durst
53. Blood of Tyrants, Naomi Novik
54. Double Whammy, Carl Hiaasen*

* - Solidly for adults, sensitive readers be warned.

Yes, that's right, I had to read my own book, Silver in the Blood, three times this summer, start to finish, as part of the editing process. No, that never got old, I love that book! On the other hand, some of these books were not my favorite. But let's not dwell on that! Let's talk about the ones that were my favorite(s)!

For grownups: The Silkworm (if you are not reading J. K. Rowling's alter ego, Robert Galbraith, you are missing out), Landline (older teens might like this as well. Some swears.), and My Real Children (in which Jo Walton again wows me with her excellence). The Rosie Project was darling and hilarious!

For teens: If you love fantasy, please treat yo'self to Brandon Sanderson's epic Stormlight Archive series. Words of Radiance is book two, book one was The Way of Kings. They are magnificent. Also, why are you not reading Naomi Novik's Temeraire books? Blood of Tyrants is the second-to-last, the first was called His Majesty's Dragon. They are must reads for fans of historical fiction and/or dragons. Both these series are for adults, but there is no reason a teen couldn't read them. Also, just for teens: I'll Give You the Sun should win all the awards this year. Midwinterblood was last year's Printz winner, and it deserved the medal! Chasing Power by my girl Sarah Beth Durst comes out soon (I got an advance copy), and if you like X-Men, you are going to love this!

Middle grade readers: The Night Gardener is wonderful and creepy and I want it to get awards. And Charlotte's Rose was absolutely wonderful. It's the story of a young girl (based on real events) emigrating from Wales to Utah with the early Mormon pioneers. She agrees to carry a newborn baby whose mother has died, and walks across the plains with the baby strapped to her back. Funny, harrowing, and heart-warming!

So, what did you guys read that I need to know about? Tell me in the comments!

Where's My Tars Tarkas Action Figure? Or: Why You Should See JOHN CARTER

So JOHN CARTER came out this last weekend, and apparently is not doing well at the box office. This saddens me. I love movies. You all know I love movies. I post lists of favorite movies on this very blog! I used to review movies on a website back in the early days of the interwebs. Heck, I'm even IN a movie. (No, seriously! I was an extra in the airport scenes of THE RM. Check it out!) And more importantly, I loved THIS movie, and hearing people bash it is making me le sad.

You can imagine my excitement at hearing about JOHN CARTER. It's based on A PRINCESS OF MARS, the first book in the Barsoom series by Edgard Rice Burroughs, who also wrote TARZAN. I have never read the Barsoom books, but c'mon, these books were written over a hundred years ago, about a Civil War veteran fighting giant aliens on Mars! What's not to love? Also, it was directed by Andrew Stanton (No, not the Andrew Stanton I went to high school with, the director of FINDING NEMO and WALL-E). The movie had a huge budget, a great cast, and every clip and trailer looked like enormous fun. In fact, the first trailer introduced me to the song "My Body Is A Cage" by Peter Gabriel, which I loved so much I bought the single.

My sister, who knows of my love for movies and my excitement for this one in particular, offered to babysit for us, despite the newness and screaminess of Baby Roo, and so Mike and I were able to go on Saturday. And see what was one of the Best. Movies. I've. Seen. In. Forever.

It was fun. It was funny. It was exciting. It was romantic. It was dramatic. It was, in short, everything you might want in a movie. I have no idea how long it was, but when it was over, I wanted to stay in my seat, clapping my hands and yelling, "Again! Again!" like a Teletubby.

There were no inappropriately sexual jokes. There was no scatological humor. The dialogue wasn't embarrassingly cheesy (a failing of many sci fi movies). The special effects were amazing, I never once saw something and thought, Green screen! In fact, both my husband and I admitted to having the sudden realization that the Tharks WEREN'T real . . . Tharks are ten feet tall, have four arms and tusks, and we fully believed in them. The acting was excellent, too, both voice and physical.

In fact, the acting was stellar. Look at the cast!

Willem Defoe. Samantha Morton. Thomas Haden Church. Dominic West. Mark Strong. James Purefoy. Ciaran Hinds. Taylor Kitsch is great as John Carter, and I loved Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris, Princess of Mars. LOVED her!

First off, she's a scientist and a fighter, not your typical damsel in distress. She also has a very nice body. Yeah, okay, that sounded weird. But I have a pet peeve with movies, especially lately. I have a little problem with people asking me to believe that Angelina Jolie, who looks frighteningly gaunt lately, can jump off a moving train and not snap like a brittle twig. Watching SALT I was cringing every time she did a stunt or got in a fight, she looked sickly and fragile. Lynn Collins has a shapely, healthy figure. She looked good in a bikini, but she also looked like she could swing that sword without falling over, and she totally did. She was tough without being masculine, intelligent without being portrayed as a nerd with no social skills. She was a REAL WOMAN.

Also, I totally want an eight-legged Martian dog. I just do, okay? Disney is really missing out on some marketing opportunities. If there were John Carter action figures, I would buy them all. And a plush Wolla. (I think that was the dog's name.) And some Dejah Thoris paper dolls. Where are my Happy Meal toys? I have a light up Jake Sully from AVATAR, and his six-legged blue horse. Where's my John Carter with glowing medallion, huh? HUH?

And here's the thing about this movie tanking, which Laini Taylor brought my attention to last week. She's started the hashtag #JohnCarterParty on Twitter, and has been encouraging people to see it. Not because she's a huge Barsoom fan, either, but because of what it represents. This is an intelligent, fun, big budget science fiction movie. If you want to see more movies like this, you need to show your support. More good sci fi and fantasy books can be adapted into good movies if Hollywood sees a profit. More good sci fi and fantasy movies can be made, period. Sure, there are some standouts in recent years like AVATAR or the new STAR TREK, but for every AVATAR, there's at least five MISSION TO MARS. (About about fifteen Adam Sandler movies. *shudder*)

If you need more convincing, allow me to sum it all up in this handy list:

Why You Should See JOHN CARTER:

1. Great cast, great acting.
2. A good story.
3. Great effects.
4. Excellent female role models. (Not just Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris, but also Samantha Morton as Sola the Thark maiden.)
5. Suitable for (nearly) the whole family, the violence was more science fictiony than gory/shocking, there was no sex, profanity, or poo!
6. (And most importantly) It will encourage Hollywood to make more fun sci fi/fantasy adventure movies!