Monday, December 29, 2014

Favorite Movies and Books in 2014

Well, it’s already the end of the year and it’s time for my list of favorite things watched and read in 2014. I’ll try and get a 2014 year in review post together at some point also. It’s been quite a year for us!

Movies
I haven’t yet seen the new Hunger Games, Interstellar, Big Hero 6, the new Hobbit movie, Foxcatcher, The Imitation Game, or Big Eyes. Maybe some of those will make my 2015 list.

Here are some movies I really enjoyed watching this past year, all for various reasons.

A Most Wanted Man – Great slow burn espionage film based on one of John Le Carre’s novels.
Captain Phillips
Dirty Wars (documentary)
Edge of Tomorrow
Ernest and Celestine
The Gatekeepers (documentary) – Very interesting documentary about the Israel/Palestine conflict as told through the eyes of multiple former Shin Bet heads from the past few decades. Highly recommend regardless of your level of knowledge about the conflict.
The Great Gatsby
Muppets Treasure Island and Muppets Christmas Carol – These, along with Muppets from Space are my favorite Muppet movies of all time.
Nebraska
Philomena
Prisoners – Definitely a favorite. The story was so well told and had so many twists. Chilling and completely engrossing, I was thinking about it for days.
The Rape of Europa (documentary) – The true history behind The Monuments Men
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Beautifully shot
Tiny: A Story About Living Small (documentary)

Books
This year, I read 31 books. Here are some of my favorites from that bunch. For a complete list of all the books I’ve read this year, friend me on Goodreads!

Fiction (17 books read in 2014)
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling – I’ve decided to try and read through the whole series every two years. This was my second time through and I loved it just as much if not more this time around.
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Non-Fiction (6 books read in 2014)
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
Hanns and Rudolf: The True Story of the German Jew Who Tracked Down and Caught the Kommandant of Auschwitz by Thomas Harding
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (obviously I was on a Malcolm Gladwell run this year)
Wilson by A. Scott Berg

Christian living (8 books read in 2014)
Erasing Hell by Francis Chan
Generous Justice by Timothy Keller
When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett


Let me know what I should read and watch next year in 2015!

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