Best Books I Read In 2014!

My GoodReads tells me that I read 71 books in the year 2014, but I know that’s not true. I read 73 books, and why GoodReads has it wrong is because two of these books have been repeatedly read by me in the past few years. (Yes, GoodReads, you need to up your book-recording game) Anywho, since those two books have been read by me a gazillion times and, hence, are obviously favourites, I will not include them in my list of the best books I read in 2014, the year of the horse. So here goes, in no particular order:

The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud

Three teenage operatives – sassy, smart, intelligent, and learning – bumble, fumble, and survive their way through ghost-hunting in an alternative, almost present-day London, combined with Stroud’s incredible and delightful writing which I have learnt to always rely on. What else can one ask for?

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The tale of four sisters and how they make their way in their lives, with highly endearing supporting characters – this book is called a classic for a reason.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Gaiman takes us around an America where the old gods still exist, alongside the new – the new gods of media, internet, and credit cards. Shadow, an ex-convict and now the man in employment of the mysterious Mr. Wednesday, must see to it that his employer wins the war between the old and the new gods. Shoot, Mr. Gaiman, this book took my breath away, left me boggled and, somehow, with more faith.

Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Gorgeous, gorgeous art, and a beautiful little story with elements of fantasy that will keep you reading till the very end of this somewhat chunky standalone graphic novel. I don’t see anything much wrong with this book.

The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud

You would see a pattern forming here, a pattern which shouts out that Stroud is a favourite author of mine. He is. And Bartimaeus, djinni extraordinaire and the sassy protagonist of this book is one of my top 5 favourite fictional characters of all time.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Gaiman is a magician, and this middle-grade-trailing-into-teen outing of his is a work of brilliant writing and such necessary characters, my heart was warmed for days after I finished reading this book.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a J.K. Rowling)

I love me a good murder mystery, and Galbraith’s one-legged, ex-soldier Cormoran Strike is as good a private eye as they come. Along with his ever faithful assistant and sleuth-in-training, Robin Ellacott, Strike had formed a firm place in my heart ever since he first appeared in The Cuckoo’s Calling. He is ever more fascinating in this second adventure of his, when characters become deeper and the mystery gets more boggling!

The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman

There aren’t many words that can be used to express the plot of the Sandman comics, or the emotions the reader is awash with once he is done reading them. The Sandman is one of the most epic comic book series of all time, and definitely my favourite – I don’t think I can stress enough how much I revere Gaiman’s imagination, and this series surpasses anything else he has ever done, its scale is that large. Filled with mind-blowing art and characters and settings that drive people to get tattoos of them, the Sandman is a cultural statement and a celebration in itself.

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

Of late, I haven’t been entirely sure of long, heavily prose-d, covering entire generations novels, but this one had been on my list for so long, I thought I would take it with me to the Greece and Germany trip that I took with my parents in September, 2014 (from what I could ascertain from the blurb, it had a sea voyage! Yayie!). Boy, did I love it, and boy did it break my heart. (I won’t give out spoilers). Peter Carey’s writing is very close to magical, and this book has made its place into my favourite books of all time. That’s saying something, eh?

A Delicate Truth by John le Carré

Espionage fiction – spy fic – is my favourite genre, alongside crime fiction, and John le Carré is the master of all that is covert, clandestine, secret agent-y, and anti-Bond-y. His latest, published in 2013, is about a covert operation gone wrong, and whistleblowing. What’s there to stop one from grabbing it right off the shelf and devouring it in one go!?

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

This book is a paranormal mystery, and it managed to scare me real good! I talk about it in my post about how I need horror in my life. The author uses real web pages and photographs to show how the detective in the book – a defamed journalist – goes about with his investigation, which is freaking’ awesome, specially for a book with 500+ pages. And the person being investigated is a mysterious and reclusive, Stanley Kubrick-y filmmaker! Woot woot!

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Tina Fey is a goddess, my spirit animal, and one of the funniest women on the planet right now. Surely her memoir would be hilarious? Nope, it’s funnier. Fey talks about her life, from early childhood to her time at SNL and 30 Rock, and she accompanies these with hilarious photographs and quirky anecdotes. This is one book everyone should read who has struggled even minimally in their life, or just wants a good, long laugh.

A very, very special mention should go to the five Flavia de Luce novels by Alan Bradley I read in the year (I read the first one a few years ago – I have no idea why I waited for so long to pick the rest of them up) – it is hard to contain the love that comes out of me for this very special character who is so severely underrated, it should be deemed a literary crime.

Flavia is a an 11 year old chemist and a crime solver who lives with her quiet, almost-reclusive father and her two older sisters whose main occupations seem to be to cause Flavia as much trouble as is possible – only Flavia doesn’t hesitate in paying them back. Ever present wherever there is a dead body or two, with her ears always open for all kinds of information that flows through her tiny, 1950s English village of Bishop’s Lacey, Flavia de Luce is one of the most precocious, lovable, and memorable characters of all time.

So, there you have it, the best books I read in 2014. They were all adventures in themselves, and I can’t be more thankful for books of such incredible quality. 2015 has begun with a few brilliant books already, and I hope the rest of my year is full of awesomeness as well! Happy reading, y’all!

I Want To Believe…In Horror

I am 22 years old, and with increasing age I find myself less scared of all things that used to freak the bejesus out of me up until a few years ago – the idea of sudden appearances of girls in my room in the middle of the night, a serial killer lurking somewhere in my living room, a face grinning at me from the top of the cupboard, or that horrific child-thing from The Grudge – you know, the usual scares. But lately, I am immune to them. My friends would scream every time they hear claps in The Conjuring, while I would be scouring the depths of my popcorn tub, wondering why they are so intent on rendering me deaf. The funniest part of the situation is – I miss being scared. I miss jumping out of my skin at the thought of a ghost looking over me while I sleep, but it just does not happen anymore. I rarely come across a movie – a book even less so – which has the power to give me a sleepless night. I don’t break out in a cold sweat while reading something that (barely) belongs to the horror genre, and I don’t call up my friends asking them if I could sleep over at theirs after watching Annabelle. Movies, to an extent, can still give you momentary scares; they are a visual medium and, thus, have the advantage of the element of surprise. Books, on the other hand, need to be written by someone with terrific syntax, someone that can gradually enable the hair on your arms to rise in absolute, pure terror. Stephen King, sure, but he is the sole bulb in a basket full of wannabe bulbs who can’t shine enough to save their lives.

The last I remember being scared of reading something was a book called Night Film Marisha Pessl. The genre it falls under is along the lines of ‘paranormal thriller/film noir’, and to an extent it did live up to its label. It is the story of a disreputed and disgruntled journalist who, in an earlier time, had dared to question the morality of world-renowned horror-filmmaker Stanislas Cordova. In the present day, he reads about the apparent suicide of the filmmaker’s daughter, Ashley Cordova, and goes out to prove that it wasn’t, in fact, suicide and involved foul play. On his journey henceforth, he comes across certain supernatural elements pertaining to the girl’s father and the girl herself.

Okay, here is the thing. You would not understand the element of horror that permeates your brain unless you delve into this book yourself. I was so pleased with how much it frightened me (I had to sleep with the lights on for the entire time I was reading the book; again, I am 22 years old), that I went about asking all my friends to read it as soon as they can.

I had a slump once again after that, which hasn’t been fulfilled by either book or movie to date. I follow the suggestions of the good people on Book Riot, and they – collectively – were talking about the awesomeness of this book called Bird Box by Josh Malerman. Now, I have never before heard of the author, nor had I heard of the book until Book Riot told me about it. And you know what the great part is? The synopsis gave me the creeps! I was so excited, I immediately reserved it at my local library (book-buying for me is banned before Christmas, folks).

I remember thinking, after the realization struck me that I am absolutely fearless (yeah, right), why is it that I don’t get scared anymore? The easier answer was that I am past the age where grinning dolls would be able to get my adrenaline rushing. The more deep, though-out answer was that I am at that age (okay, age is the common denominator here) where more than the physical, it is the psychological that would have a more compelling effect on me. It will more be the thought of something scary than the actual, physical presence of a dead man with deep gashes on his face that would have any effect on my fearlessness. It is the fear of not knowing what it is than actual, visible poltergeists in the house that would mess with my psyche (no, I am not scared by any of the Paranormal Activities).

I hear people ask – what kind of masochism is this that is fulfilled by experiencing fear? Fret not, I researched it. Scare Specialist (yes, that is a thing) Dr. Margee Kerr explains it all here. Apparently, some people like being scared because it leaves them with a sense of confidence when it is all over. I am not in the habit of psychoanalyzing myself, and that is a good enough explanation for me.

So again, we come to what may scare someone like me. Well, I am trying a lot of books, usually recommended by others. Book Riot, again, talked about a book called The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, which I am currently reading. The premise, in a few well-chosen words, is a time travelling serial killer trying to finish off a list of girls he calls The Shining Girls – one of them escapes and vows to finish him off and put an end to his lunacy (lunacy is probably a weak word in this context).

I am hoping this will manage to give me the chills, if not downright make me want to keep the book in the fridge (gosh, I love Joey). Until then, I will be scourging through lists of books that made people’s hearts leap into their mouths, and maybe give my own heart an extra couple of leaps as well.