2014 Favorites

Favorite 2014 Albums:

3. The Pretty Reckless – Going To Hell

The Pretty Reckless have restored my faith in heavy music this year. Their sophomore album is sexy, edgy and fun. This was an easy pick as one of my favorite albums this year.

2. I Fight Dragons – The Near Future

I put a lot of faith in this album considering I was one of the many backers behind it. I Fight Dragons has never disappointed and The Near Future is no exception to this. Everything about this album is catchy and uplifting and it lived up to every expectation I’ve had in the last year and a half.

1. PVRIS – White Noise

PVRIS was a band I gave an honest shot this year and it really paid off (I’m mean they did land a spot on two of these lists). They perfectly blend rock ‘n’ roll and electronic laced pop on their debut album. This is everything I wanted in music in 2014. Nailed it!

Favorite New Bands:

Same disclaimer as last year: While all of these bands are newer bands, I know they didn’t just form this year, and not all of their debut full length albums came out this year (Echosmith’s came out last year). These are bands I just started listening to a lot this year.

3. This Wild Life

@christie_road91: “Meeting more people #ThisWildLife #WarpedTour2014”

One of my many discoveries from my AP’s 100 Bands You Need to Know and one of my favorite new bands from this year. Their music is chill and made up of great melodies. I may have had to buy their album twice this year, but it’s not like I minded.

2. Echosmith

@christie_road91: “#Echosmith #WarpedTour2014”

Echosmith has made it clear that this is probably not the only favorites list they will be featured on this year. Finally a band that gets regular airplay that truly deserves it! They are young and talented and I can’t wait to see what they do next!

1. PVRIS

@christie_road91: “#PVRIS was so incredible! Jamming to #WhiteNoise now.”

Um…let’s just note that they’ve gotten two nods on my favorites list. You can refer to my previous nod, but seriously good job in 2014, PVRIS!

 

Favorite Concerts Attended:

3. Tonight Alive – 11/10/14

@christie_road91: “She’s lovely. #TonightAlive #ReadyRoom #STL”

Best birthday present to myself since last year (aka: I went and saw The Swellers for my birthday last year). I didn’t even have to stay for the real headliner to have a good time. It only took PVRIS and Tonight Alive to blow my mind.

2. All Time Low – 4/6/14

Seriously, this was the most fun I’d had at a concert in quite some time. All Time Low are not only a joy to listen to, but a joy to see live. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

1. Monumentour – 7/6/14

I really feel like I don’t need to elaborate here. I met Fall Out Boy, like all of them. I was front row. It was shear perfection in a single night. Well…if we can just forget about blowing a fuse in my car afterwards that is, but yeah let’s just forget about that, okay. It was perfect.

 

Favorite Shows I Watched:

3. “Malcolm in the Middle”

I used to watch this show every morning before school, so as soon as it was on Netflix I needed to see the whole thing. Thank you to “Breaking Bad” and Netflix, because this show is sitcom gold.

2. “Breaking Bad”

My friends begged me to watch this show for a long time. Eventually my fiancé and I caved and gave it a watch. It really is as addicting and well done as everyone says it is. Totally worth being a part of the crowd for.

1. “Orange is the New Black”

This one was kind of like “Breaking Bad.” I kept hearing people talk about and finally I had to know why. I love, love, love it. I love how funny, serious and sweet it can be. I love knowing everyone’s story. I just love it!

 

Favorite Books I’ve Read:

3. “The Raven Boys” by Maggie Stiefvater

The reason this is only the #3 spot is because I’m actually still reading this book, but I’m already in love with it. It plays with my love of the supernatural and it’s written by Maggie Stiefvater, which just means it’s beautifully written.

2. “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins

I know a lot of people who really didn’t like this book. I honestly don’t understand why. I thought this book was sad, but true to the ugliness of revolution. It constantly had you wondering who to trust. Plus, the Katniss, Peeta and Gale love triangle wasn’t like the typical teen novel; she really could have picked either one and I didn’t know who she would end up with till the end.

1. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky

This book was just so touching and easy to relate to. It’s a true outsiders story full of high school nostalgia. I found it charming from beginning to end.

 

Favorite 2014 Movies:

3. “Maleficent”

I loved this movie. While I do like it when my villains are just good old-fashioned, evil villains, this story showed a completely different side of this traditional fairy tale. It took everything you knew from the original and twisted it and told a beautiful tale of motherly love.

2. “The Lego Movie”

This movie was super cute and well orchestrated. I won’t spoil anything, but the imaginative twist ending was the best part. This level of imagination makes it the kind of movie I would want to show my future kids.

1. “If I Stay”

I loved If I Stay despite its imperfections. This movie adaptation of my favorite book may not have been as great as its source material, but it was still musical, beautiful and touching.

 

Favorite Youtubers:

3. LoeyLane

Plus sized, gorgeous and does awesome make-up tutorials? I’m sold. Here’s her WordPress blog.

2. Jarrod Alonge

He makes funny videos about alternative rock. A true one-of-a-kind on my subscriptions list.

1. Emma Blackery

She funny, she’s british, she’s a great singer and I honestly can’t get enough of her videos this year.

So there you have it! Those are my favorite things from 2014! What were some of your favorite things from this year? Let me know in the comments. Do forget to keep checking back and to follow me on my social media.

Book Diary #2: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

book and movie covers.

I’m going to start this off with a question: Why do so many people seem to hate this book??? I read the whole thing, tore through it in 2 days and I honestly could not see what all the fuss was about. Okay now that that’s out of the way, let’s start from the beginning…

So I was able to rent this book from my work. We got in a used copy and I took advantage of the situation because I really just wanted to finish this series asap. I rented it and tore through the whole thing in no time, that is, after I finished reading Warm Bodies. I read this book expecting the worst and was disappointed with the realization that I wasn’t disappointed at all.

Let’s analyze, shall we?

First of all this book was very dreary and often a very dark read, but considering everything Katniss, Peeta, Gale, the other surviving tributes and the people of District 12 had to go through, if the tone had been anything other than dreary it would have been a terrible story.

This book left me completely unsure of who I was to trust. President Coin clearly had something terrible up her sleeve and was obviously going for a power grab, but that didn’t make the Capitol any better than it was throughout Catching Fire and The Hunger Games (they used children as murderous playthings for crying out loud!). The story kept my attention from beginning to end with little clue as to how it would all pan out, but I knew it would be brutal, and it certainly was.

SPOILER ALERT!

The ending. This is where I assume everyone thathated this book slammed it shut in a fit of rage. This book does not have your standard happy ending; more like a happily ever after with a hefty price. But honestly would the ending really have made sense without a good dose of real tragedy?

And it was pretty tragic. When Finnick died I had to read the scene twice just to make sure I wasn’t imagining it. When prim died in a fiery explosion I had to stop reading for a moment. Considering saving Prim is how this whole story began, it was a brave move to kill her off, but a fitting one.

You can’t have a revolution without sacrifice and loss.

Honesty I applaud Suzanne Collins for being willing to give her characters tragic yet heroic ends; it kind of makes their lives and this story worth more. I’ll say it again: You can’t have a revolution without sacrifice and loss.

Haters Gonna Hate

I can see what people can complain about with this book: Katniss is whiny and many times she annoyingly doesn’t want to step up to the plate. Good characters die and some bad characters live. Friendships end and romances don’t work out in the most romantic way. But in all honesty, that’s a greater dose of reality then you will see in most books. That’s something I can get behind.

So Mockingjay…love it? Hate it? Believable or not? You let me know in the comments!

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