New Blog – Skills & Simulation

I thought I would see if any of you would be interested in checking out my work team’s new blog!

https://skillsandsimulation.wordpress.com/blog/

I work for Buckinghamshire New University for the Skills and Simulation team and we’ve created the blog to share the work we do behind the scenes.

You’ll see some cool moulage, where authentic wounds are added to live actors and manikins for nursing students to treat in their classes – here’s me with a flash burn applied to my forearm:

I’d love for you to have a look at the blog – it was all the amazing book review blogs here that inspired me to create my own and finally to help in creating one for the Skills and Simulation team to share all our hard work and achievements.

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200 Followers!

I am THRILLED to say I now have 200 fantastic followers! Thank you all and a special thank you to the official 200th Rebecca at Bibliogalblog. Smiles and fake tache’s all round!

I absolutely love blogging and unfortunately had a less active April due to other commitments. I am on holiday in Croatia next week (yay, I get to see some cool Game of Thrones locations!) then I’ll be back and posting much more regularly.

Some of my planned holiday reads….

Has anyone read these? Or do you have any recommendations for me? 🙂

Indie Book Review: The Pharaoh’s Cat

Title: The Pharaoh’s Cat
Author: Maria Luisa Lang
Publisher: Self-published
Published: 16th May 2015

Many thanks to author Maria Luisa Lang for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A well-paced, light-hearted and wonderfully unique story which includes a touch of interesting Egyptian history.

Wrappa-Hamen, feline narrator of The Pharaoh’s Cat, is a stray cat who is gifted with the power of speech and the ability to walk like a human. He befriends the lonely Pharaoh of Egypt, a seventeen year old who hasn’t laughed since his parents’ death. The Pharaoh is overjoyed to meet Wrappa-Hamen and brings him back to live alongside him at the royal palace.

The plot moves along well, flowing nicely through adventures which seem to follow Wrappa-Hamen around like a bad smell and his character certainly doesn’t get boring! He is an eclectic mix of sassy, mischievous and hilarious.

‘He points to a spot under a sycamore tree. “This is my favourite place.”
The Pharaoh and I have the same taste–I’ve peed against this tree.’

If you are a cat lover, this is the book for you!

I would like to have been able to delve a bit deeper in to the world of Egyptian mythology as the bits that were covered in the book were so interesting I was left wanting more.

Imaginative and gave me some real belly laugh moments.

Rating:

100 Followers!

Today I have reached the 100 followers milestone! Yay! Celebratory dance!
(Special thank you to my 100th follower Glaiza at Glimmer of Happiness blog)

Thank you all millions for following my blog and keeping me bookishly inspired, you are awesome and I love being part of the book blogging community 🙂

My next posts are going to include a book review for Viral by Helen Fitzgerald, an indie book review for The Pharaoh’s Cat by Maria Luisa Lang (a hilarious read, and if you are a cat lover you will ADORE it) and also a book review for Fractured by Clár Ní Chonghaile, which was sent to me via Legend Press.

All very different books that I’m excited to write about! I hope you continue to enjoy my posts, very soon I’m going to try and go a step further and do some writing of my own – my 2016 goal!

 

New NetGalley Badge – Top Reviewer!

I was absolutely chuffed today when I logged on to NetGalley and saw that I have now achieved the Top Reviewer badge! Wahey!

You get this badge when 3 or more of your reviews have been added to any NetGalley title details page by a publisher. NetGalley is one of the most fantastic things on the planet. You register for free and it allows you to request or be invited to read titles, often advanced reading copies, on your favourite device.

I was also thrilled this month to have Stripes Publishing tweet my review of The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl and a direct quote from it! It was such an awesome read; you can see my review here. 🙂

The Liebster Award!

The Liebster Award is an award for bloggers. It helps to discover new blogs and to build a sense of community in the blogging world!

Big thank you to Book Wish Blog for my nomination 🙂

Okay, so here are the rules:

• Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you
• Answer the 11 questions the blogger gives you
• Nominate 11 bloggers that you think are deserving of the award
• Let the bloggers know you nominated them
• Give them 11 questions of your own

Questions:

1. What’s your favourite part about blogging?
   I love having somewhere I can voice my opinions and share those with other book lovers – how great is it to read all the different review styles and to find so many books that you HAVE to add to your TBR list?!
2. What’s your favourite book?
   Watership Down – Richard Adams. I. Love. This. Book. It’s amazing and I’ve read it countless times, never gets boring. A journey told through the eyes of rabbits… genius.
3. What’s your 2016 reading goal? (if you have one)
   My goal is to read some historical fiction books and I will be getting started with The Secret Life of Winnie Cox (Sharon Maas) after my colleague recommended it – I’ve heard great things!
4. What books are you excited for in 2016?
   Oh god, too many! I am especially excited for Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris after hearing RAVE reviews and I’ve pre-ordered. Also can’t wait for Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica.
5. Favourite place to buy books?
   I love Forbidden Planet in London – I recently bought Tolkien: A Dictionary from there, which is insanely good if you are a huge Hobbit/LOTR fan. Nerd alert! 🙂
6. Ebook, audiobook, hardcover or paperback?
   I do buy a lot of e-books because it’s so easy to access books. But I’m a sucker for a paperback; I love it when you flick through great books so much the paperbacks are worn and have that amazing book smell – you can tell the books have been given some love!
7. What’s your favourite TV show?
   Parks and Recreation is one of the funniest damn shows I’ve ever watched it’s awesome and if you haven’t seen you it need to get on that. Special mention to Gotham – absolutely fantastic I am 100% hooked and currently dying for the next episode.
8. What’s your favourite author?
   I’m going to have to say J K Rowling – Harry Potter brought me so much joy as I read the books throughout High School. I fell even harder in love with reading the whole time. Inspirational!
9. What’s your favourite place to read?
   I love reading in bed! With pillows propped up behind me, I find it so ridiculously peaceful.
10. Besides reading, what other hobbies do you have?
    I love to sing but I haven’t sung live in a long, long time. I have a weekly contemporary dance class that I adore and I also love gaming (I am intense when I get on Star Wars Battlefield, shit gets real!)
11. Have you met any authors? If so, who? If not, who would you want to meet?
    I haven’t and I’m disappointed with this realisation! I would love to meet Clare Mackintosh – her book I Let You Go just absolutely had me one of the best I have ever read.

Here are my nominations:

A Young Writer’s Notebook

Ellis Nelson Books

The Book Wench

Inked Brownies

Sue’s Reading Corner

Addicted 2 Books

Tangling Thoughts

Wattpad Review Corner

Of Reading and Random Things

The Galaxial World

Watcher Book

Questions for my Nominees:

1. If you could only read one genre for the rest of your life, what genre would you choose?
2. What are your blogging goals for 2016?
3. What is your favourite book and why?
4. How did you come up with your blog name?
5. What was your favourite subject at school and why?
6. What are your favourite hobbies? (other than reading hehe)
7. Which author inspires you the most?
8. Tell me a random fact about you!
9. What was the first book you ever read?
10. What is your guilty pleasure?
11. If someone wrote a story about your life what would the title be?