Wednesday 31 December 2014

2014: A Year in Review



Personal

I moved from my childhood home into a flat with my little sister.

I did a week’s work experience on the features desk of The Times newspaper.

I went to lots of gigs:
- Fall Out Boy (support: New Politics, The Pretty Reckless)
- You Me At Six (support: Young Kato, Don Broco)
- Deaf Havana (support: The People the Poet, The Maine)
- The Summer Set (support: Paradise Fears, William Beckett)
- Blink 182 (support: Neck Deep)
- Black Veil Brides (support: Drama Club, Fearless Vampire Killers, Attila)
- The Maine (support: Lydia, Nick Santino)
- We Are the Ocean (support: Boy Jumps Ship, Decade)
- Kids in Glass Houses (support: Save Your Breath)
- Framing Hanley (support: Reaper in Sicily, Hours)
- Bring Me the Horizon (support: Issues, Sleepwave, Young Guns)

I got my first tattoo at Broad Street Studios in Bath (highly recommended).

I saw some musicals:
- Once: The Musical at Phoenix Theatre
- Avenue Q at The Hawth (for the third time...)
- Wicked at Apollo Theatre (for the second time...)

I saw a pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, on Christmas Eve at The Hawth in Crawley. The best I’ve ever seen!

I went to my first spoken word event, Mark Grist’s Rogue Teacher.

I spent a week on the Greek island of Thassos.

I went scuba diving. I hated it. A lot.

Bookish

I celebrated my fifth blogoversary.

Meg Cabot followed me on Twitter (I had a full-blown freak out).

I was invited to an advance blogger screening of The Fault in Our Stars in Covent Garden.

I got my quote about Orange is the New Black published on an inside back cover ad in Stylist magazine and they sent me an amazing thank you goody bag.

I got to go to YALC!

I met Scott Westerfeld – a longtime favourite author.

I started 22 new series’.

I read 22 debut novels.

I read 9 dystopias, 55 contemporaries, 36 UKYA novels, 5 historical novels, 13 LGBT novels and 4 classics.

All together, I read 137 books.

Sophie

Tuesday 30 December 2014

2014: End of Year Awards



Here are the books that rocked my world in 2014:
 
BEST DEBUT:
Trouble

BIGGEST SURPRISE:
Pantomime

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT:
Amy and Matthew: A Love Story

BEST UKYA:
Banished/Trouble/A Kiss in the Dark/Blue

MOST HYPED:
We Were Liars


MOST ANTICIPATED OF 2014 :
City of Heavenly Fire

BEST LGBT:
A Kiss in the Dark

BEST FANTASY:
Snow Like Ashes/Blue Lily, Lily Blue


BEST DYSTOPIA:
The Jewel

BEST CONTEMPORARY:
Trouble


BEST STANDALONE:
Trouble


BEST NON-FICTION:
The Bookshop Book

MY FAVOURITE BOOK(S) OF 2014:
Trouble

Blue Lily, Lily Blue

MOST ANTICIPATED OF 2015:
Saint Anything

Well, there certainly seems to be a stand out book of 2014, doesn’t there? And I know I’m not alone either. Trouble is fresh, funny, heart-warming and exactly what I want from a novel – UKYA at its best.

What’s your favourite book of 2014?

Sophie

Monday 29 December 2014

2014: Favourites



2014 Releases:


How They Met and Other Stories, David Levithan
Ignite Me, Tahereh Mafi
Grasshopper Jungle, Andrew Smith


Banished, Liz de Jager
Trouble, Non Pratt
A Kiss in the Dark, Cat Clarke


Thirteen Weddings, Paige Toon
Blue, Lisa Glass
City of Heavenly Fire, Cassandra Clare


Silver Shadows, Richelle Mead
Sinner, Maggie Stiefvater
Unmade, Sarah Rees Brennan


Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Maggie Stiefvater
The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks, E Lockhart
The Bookshop Book, Jen Campbell

Non-2014 Releases:


Obsidian/Onyx/Opal/Origin/Opposition, Jennifer L Armentrout


Emma, Jane Austen

What were your favourites of 2014?

Sophie