Hey Guys! Since I love making lists so much, I thought I'd share one with you all--my best of 2015 list :) Not all of the picks were released in 2015 (most weren't), but they were all either read, watched, or played within the last 12 months.
Without further ado, here are our picks!
Best Game
Winner: Her Story. If you haven't tried it, YOU SHOULD! And then tell us what you think, because we're dying to know what really happened...play it and you'll understand what I mean :)
Runner-up: Forever Lost
Honorable Mentions: The Room 3
Consumes Most of our time (and longest running favorite): Plague Inc. Yeah, that's right, we spend our free time killing off humanity :)
Best TV Show
Winner: Blacklist. James Spader was born to play Raymond Reddington. With a veritable wealth of one-liners and SAT vocab, not to mention creative serial killers, fascinatingly complex criminal masterminds, and a kickass soundtrack, the show never disappoints. Fair warning: It's not for the faint at heart. The violence, while not gratuitous, makes even both of us self-proclaimed horror movie aficionados cringe and look away from the screen at times.
Runner-up: iZombie. Wasn't sure we'd like it when we started watching, but the fact it was created by Rob Thomas was reason enough to give it a try. This show is a must for VMars fans everywhere.
Honorable Mention: The Flash. Much as I enjoy watching Oliver Queen run around shirtless as the Arrow, I feel like Barry Allen and I are kindred spirits, save the whole super power-running-at-the-speed-of-light thing. And Cisco is the best supporting character ever.
Longest Running Favorite/Most frequently re-watched: Veronica Mars. It sucks us back in every single time we see it come up under Amazon's recommendations. And, somehow, the epic love story between Logan and Veronica never gets old. [SPOILER ALERT] Sure, once V gets together with Piz the show sort of loses something, but the movie sets right that egregious error in the season 3 story arc, though I'm sure if the show hadn't been unceremoniously cancelled way before it's shelf-life was over, the writers would have corrected this mistake much sooner :)
Best Movie
Winner: The Giver. Yes, I know that not everyone thought much of this adaptation. And yes we were both hesitant to watch a film based on one of our favorite books EVER. But, ultimately, The Giver was an excellent movie that stood out from the pack.
Runner-up: Interstellar. More than anything this movie was a surprise. Neither of us thought it would be our thing, but we both enjoyed it immensely.
Honorable Mention: Entourage. The movie itself was nothing extraordinary, but watching Vinny Chase and Co. take the big screen was well worth the two hours and $15 we spent for the pleasure of doing so. It gave us the opportunity to spend a little more time with one of our all time favorite characters: Ari Gold.
Best Book
Winner: The Syndicate. Okay, yes, we wrote it, so that means we are just a smidgen bias. And yes, it will not be released until 2016, but we have never let a technicality like that stand in our way. We are so excited to share Stassi's story with the world! A blend of sci/fi, historical fiction, and romance, with a salting of magic thrown into the pot for flavor, we hope that it will appeal to a wide range of readers who will all, fingers crossed, want to take a trip through the spinning vortex and be transported to the world we have spent the last year living in :)
Runner-up: Eighth Grave After Dark by Darynda Jones. Jones' Charlie Davidson series has long since been one of my absolute favorites. Apparently a grim reaper, the son of Satan, and hellhounds running amok in New Mexico make for one truly addicting series. I am currently counting down the days until my pre-ordered copy of book nine appears in my digital library.
Honorable Mention: Storm of Lightning by Richard Paul Evans. This is the fifth book in Evans' Michael Vey series, all of which I have enjoyed. I will say that, unlike the previous books, this one was short and left me feeling a little unsatisfied. The epic adventure of the previous books was missing from this one, and a lot of the story took place away from Michael and his band of merry cohorts. So why did I give this book an honorable mention, you might ask. Well, because I love this series so much that even with these issues, I still wanted to go back, and did go back, and re-read the entire series after finishing SoL, which to me is the mark of a good book :)
Other noteworthy books we read this year:
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. I read this book as research for the Syndicate. I figured I'd find it an interesting read, but hadn't thought it would be so engaging. Once I started, I found myself racing through the pages to learn more and more about Hemingway's life in Paris during the 1920's. I even reread several of the more captivating chapters just because.
The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan. This was definitely a surprise like for me. Ordinarily I wouldn't have picked it up, since it lacks certain aspects that I typically look for in my pleasure reading, like say anything out of the realm of reality or a sadistic killer. I decided to read The Royal We after stumbling across an article online about it being made into a movie that both the mom from Gilmore Girls and the chick who played the Duff were already attached to. Because I love them both, I immediately ran out (to my computer) to purchase the book. And I was so very glad that I did.
We'd love to hear what you all found most entertaining this year! We are always looking for more/better/different ways to procrastinate :)
Happy New Year to all of you! And as always, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, for all of your support!
Love all of us at Sophie Davis Books,
--Hannah, Tabitha, Mary, Phia, Talia, Erik, Lark, Raven, Blake, Asher, Stassi, Gaige, Molly, and Charles!