Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. I thought this would be a fun way to share a condensed version of potential rambles and thoughts.

This week’s theme:
Top Ten 2014 Debuts I’m Excited For
(10 Books, 10 Movies, 10 T.V. Shows)

Initial Thoughts:

My interpretation for debut is “newly released”. I know this blog is bookish-centric but I thought I’d share with you other mediums of entertainment that I fancy throwing my time at. Funneling these choices down to a list of ten was kind of difficult, but I think I managed (somewhat) to aggregate my list of novel/movie/telly debuts.

I apologize in advance if you decide to read/skim/skim-read this behemoth.

Note: I refrained from making comments based on the face value of the book. so I hope the synopsis speaks for itself. I mean all I can really say for each one is: MUCH EXCITES. So there’s no real commentary there. Haha, enjoy!

Books

1. The Infinite Sea
by Rick Yancey (2^nd Book, The 5^th Wave Trilogy)

[How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.]

(taken from The Infinite Sea @ Goodreads)

2. The Fifty-Seven Lives of Alex Wayfare
by M.G. Buehrlen (1^st Book, Alex Wayfare Series)

[For as long as 17-year-old Alex Wayfare can remember, she has had visions of the past. Visions that make her feel like she’s really on a ship bound for America, living in Jamestown during the Starving Time, or riding the original Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair.

But these brushes with history pull her from her daily life without warning, sometimes leaving her with strange lasting effects and wounds she can’t explain. Trying to excuse away the aftereffects has booked her more time in the principal’s office than in any of her classes and a permanent place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Alex is desperate to find out what her visions mean and get rid of them.

It isn’t until she meets Porter, a stranger who knows more than should be possible about her, that she learns the truth: Her visions aren’t really visions. Alex is a Descender – capable of traveling back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is one soul with fifty-six past lives, fifty-six histories.

Fifty-six lifetimes to explore: the prospect is irresistible to Alex, especially when the same mysterious boy with soulful blue eyes keeps showing up in each of them. But the more she descends, the more it becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want Alex to travel again. Ever.

And will stop at nothing to make this life her last.]

(taken from The Fifty-Seven Lives of Alex Wayfare @ Goodreads)

3. Wordless
by AdriAnne Strickland (1^st Book, Words Made Flesh Series)

[In Eden City, the Wordless, or illiterate poor, would never even dream of meeting one of the all-powerful Words who run the city-state. Much less of running away with one.

When a drop-dead gorgeous girl literally falls in his lap during his routine trash run, seventeen-year-old Tavin Barnes isn’t sure if it’s the luckiest day of his life, or the beginning of the worst. Because Khaya is also the Word of Life, meaning that she could either heal a wound with a touch or command an ivy bush to devour a city block, depending on her mood.

By helping Khaya escape the seemingly idyllic confines of Eden City into Europe beyond, Tavin unwittingly throws himself into the heart of a conflict that is threatening to tear the city apart… if not the world. Eden City’s elite will stop at nothing to protect the shocking secret Khaya hides, and enlists the help of the other Words, each with their own frightening powers—like the ability to spark a fire, raise a flood, or kill with a touch—to bring her back.

To survive, Tavin must confront the mysteries of his past… and risk sacrificing what he cares about most.]

(taken from Wordless @ Goodreads)

Continue reading to check out the rest of the debuts I’m excited for as well as my anticipated movies and telly shows for twenty-fourteen.

Books (cont.)

4. Guardian
by Alex London (2^nd Book, Proxy Trilogy)

[In the new world led by the Rebooters, former Proxy Syd is the figurehead of the Revolution, beloved by some and hated by others. Liam, a seventeen-year-old Rebooter, is Syd’s bodyguard and must protect him with his life. But armed Machinists aren’t the only danger.

People are falling ill—their veins show through their skin, they find it hard to speak, and sores erupt all over their bodies. Guardians, the violent enforcers of the old system, are hit first, and the government does nothing to help. The old elites fall next, and in the face of an indifferent government, Syd decides it’s up to him to find a cure . . . and what he discovers leaves him stunned.]

(taken from Guardian @ Goodreads)

5. Nearly Gone
by Elle Cosimano (Standalone)

[Nearly Boswell knows how to keep secrets. Living in a DC trailer park, she knows better than to share anything that would make her a target with her classmates. Like her mother’s job as an exotic dancer, her obsession with the personal ads, and especially the emotions she can taste when she brushes against someone’s skin. But when a serial killer goes on a killing spree and starts attacking students, leaving cryptic ads in the newspaper that only Nearly can decipher, she confides in the one person she shouldn’t trust: the new guy at school—a reformed bad boy working undercover for the police, doing surveillance. . . on her.

Nearly might be the one person who can put all the clues together, and if she doesn’t figure it all out soon—she’ll be next.]

(taken from Nearly Gone @ Goodreads)

6. The Truth Against the World
by Sarah Jamila Stevenson (Standalone)

[In her parents’ San Francisco flat, Olwen Nia Evans, Wynn for short, has been having unsettling dreams about her family’s past in Wales. But her dreams don’t match up with what she’s been told by her dying grandmother, Rhiannon. On the other side of the world, in London, a boy named Gareth Lewis is having disturbing dreams about a frightening encounter with a ghost. A ghost named Olwen Nia Evans.

When he looks for Olwen’s name online, Gareth connects with Wynn in San Francisco as she is preparing to move with her family to fulfill Rhiannon’s last wish to die in Wales. Once Wynn arrives in Wales, she and Gareth join forces to discover the truth of the lost soul that’s haunting them both.]

(taken from The Truth Against the World @ NetGalley)

7. The Young World
by Chris Weitz (1^st Book, The Young World Trilogy)

[After a mysterious Sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he’s secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when another tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure to the Sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip to save humankind.

The tribe exchanges gunfire with enemy gangs, escapes cults and militias, braves the wilds of the subway and Central Park…and discovers truths they could never have imagined.]

(taken from The Young World @ Goodreads)

8. Red Rising
by Pierce Brown (1^st Book, Red Rising Trilogy)

[Darrow is a miner and a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he digs all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of the planet livable for future generations. Darrow has never seen the sky.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better future for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow and Reds like him are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow joins a resistance group in order to infiltrate the ruling class and destroy society from within. He will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies… even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]

(taken from Red Rising @ Goodreads)

9. Extraction
by Stephanie Diaz (1^st Book, Extraction Series)

[“Welcome to Extraction testing.”

Clementine has spent her whole life preparing for her sixteenth birthday, when she’ll be tested for Extraction in the hopes of being sent from the planet Kiel’s toxic Surface to the much safer Core, where people live without fear or starvation. When she proves Promising enough to be “Extracted,” she must leave without Logan, the boy she loves. Torn apart from her only sense of family, Clem promises to come back and save him from brutal Surface life.

What she finds initially in the Core is a utopia compared to the Surface—it’s free of hard labor, gun-wielding officials, and the moon’s lethal acid. But life is anything but safe, and Clementine learns that the planet’s leaders are planning to exterminate Surface dwellers—and that means Logan, too.

Trapped by the steel walls of the underground and the lies that keep her safe, Clementine must find a way to escape and rescue Logan and the rest of the planet. But the planet leaders don’t want her running—they want her subdued.]

(taken from Extraction @ Goodreads)

10. Free to Fall
by Lauren Miller (Standalone)

[What if there was an app that told you what song to listen to, what coffee to order, who to date, even what to do with your life—an app that could ensure your complete and utter happiness? What if you never had to fail or make a wrong choice?

What if you never had to fall?

Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith corporation that has developed the most life-changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux, an app that flawlessly optimizes decision making for the best personal results. Just like everyone else, sixteen-year-old Rory Vaughn knows the key to a happy, healthy life is following what Lux recommends. When she’s accepted to the elite boarding school Theden Academy, her future happiness seems all the more assured. But once on campus, something feels wrong beneath the polished surface of her prestigious dream school. Then she meets North, a handsome townie who doesn’t use Lux, and begins to fall for him and his outsider way of life. Soon, Rory is going against Lux’s recommendations, listening instead to the inner voice that everyone has been taught to ignore — a choice that leads her to uncover a truth neither she nor the world ever saw coming.]

(taken from Free to Fall @ Goodreads)

Afterthoughts:

Well, actually, these are only anticipated to the extent that I have yet to discover other potential reads. I totally only searched up sci-fi. No judgment. So clearly, I’m failing at my “goalsolution” to read less of this genre — ughhhhhh, the struggle is real.

But onward to my anticipated movies:

Movies (Chronological to premiere date, I think?)

1. The Lego Movie (taken from The Lego Movie @ IMDB)
[An ordinary LEGO minifigure, mistakenly thought to be the extraordinary MasterBuilder, is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil LEGO tyrant from gluing the universe together.]
(Click here to view the trailer via. YouTube).

• thoughts: MY. CHILDHOOD.

2. Divergent (taken from Divergent @ IMDB)
[Beatrice Prior, a teenager with a special mind, finds her life threatened when an authoritarian leader seeks to exterminate her kind in her effort to seize control of their divided society.](Click here to view the trailer via. YouTube).

• thoughts: This particular book-to-movie… I’m not so sure.

3. Transcendence (taken from Transcendence @ IMDB)
[A terminally ill scientist downloads his mind into a computer. This grants him power beyond his wildest dreams, and soon he becomes unstoppable.]
(Click here to view the trailer via. YouTube).

• thoughts: so like. matrix 2.0?

4. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
(taken from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 @ IMDB)
[Peter Parker runs the gauntlet as the mysterious company Oscorp sends up a slew of supervillains against him, impacting on his life.](Click here to view the trailer via. YouTube).

• thoughts: Stone and Garfield: OTP.

5. X-Men: Days of Future Past
(taken from X-Men: Days of Future Past @ IMDB)
[The X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.]
(Click here to view the trailer via. YouTube).

• thoughts: because j-law is the next m-streep.

6. 22 Jump Street (taken from 22 Jump Street @ IMDB)
[After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college.]
(Click here to view the trailer via. YouTube).

• thoughts: Plenty of laughs.

7. The Maze Runner (taken from The Maze Runner @ IMDB)
[Set in a post-apocalyptic world, young Thomas is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they’re all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow “runners” for a shot at escape.]

• thoughts: I’ve always wanted to read this trilogy. Soon.

8. Interstellar (taken from Interstellar @ IMDB)
[A group of explorers make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.]
(Click here to view the trailer via. YouTube).

• thoughts: Christopher Nolan.

9. The Hunger Games:  Mockingjay: Part 1
(taken from The Hunger Games – Mockingjay: Part 1 @ IMDB)
[Katniss Everdeen reluctantly becomes the symbol of a mass rebellion against the autocratic Capitol.]

• thoughts: I would rather pay 2x admission, sit for another 3 hours and finish it. But hey, at least they aren’t breaking it into 3 parts like the novel right?

10. Into The Woods (taken from Into The Woods @ IMDB)
[A witch conspires to teach important lessons to various characters of popular children’s stories including Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel.]

• thoughts: more childhood stuff via. fairy tales.

Worthy Mentions: How to Train Your Dragon 2, Maleficent, Veronica Mars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Neighbours, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jupiter Ascending, Godzilla (just because), The Hobbit: There and Back Again

Afterthought:

Hmm, okay, now I just feel childish with this list. No judgment. I hope I get to see all of these even though I still haven’t finished my list of 2013 movies (mainly The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Frozen). I think that was it? Memory is failing me. Less rambling.

Now onward to anticipated telly shows:

Television

Upcoming (U) and Returning (R)

1. Flash (U)
• thoughts: Grant Gustin was pretty stellar in his mini-arc in Arrow. IMDB says 2014 (and that’s what I’m hoping for) but realistically I think it’s 2015. Fingers crossed.

2. Helix (U)
• thoughts: I’m actually already a few episodes deep by the time you read this. I can best describe it as a modern Umbrella Corporation (Resident Evil) gone awry. So it’s not mind blowingly original (if that’s even a word). But the value that it has kept me entertained is enough for me to see it through (despite flaws in certain areas that I won’t elaborate on).

3. Mind Games (U)
• thoughts: “…who solve their clients’ problems using the real science of human motivation and manipulation…” (as cited from IMDB). Fun.

4. True Detective (U)
• thoughts:  Anthology format? I approve.

5. The Hundred (U)
• thoughts: So basically CW network’s version of post-apocalyptic Terra Nova minus dinosaurs.

6. Intelligence (U)
• thoughts: I watched the first two episodes out — so to compare it to recent shows: if you merged John and Dorian (from Almost Human fame) into one person, you’d get Gabriel (protagonist of Intelligence). So take your pick…but there is nifty CGI action doe. And hey, Red Riding Hood (from OUAT) is in it. And hey, this seemingly recognizable lady from thousands of CSI episodes is in it. And hey, Micah; the-person-who-should-have-ended-up-with-EmilyOwens-on-EmilyOwensMD is in it. Das it.

7. Believe (U)
• thoughts: Abrams PLUS Cuaron.

8. Suits (R)
• thoughts: I need this. Oh and an acquaintance that I knew from elementary school said he was making some cameo in an episode. So that’s neat. 

9. Sherlock (R)
• thoughts: Been meaning to start (and catch up on) this. Eventually.

Afterthoughts:

And there you have it, my 10/10/10 anticipated books/movies/telly shows for 2014. Also, the returning television shows discount those that air during the Fall 2013 schedule. Otherwise, this list would keep going on-and-on because I literally watch like 75% of all networks shows.

Are any of these novels on your reading radars? Have any other recommendations? What about your anticipated movies/television shows? Hit me up with your thoughts!

Cheers,
Joey