Guest Blog: Sarah PJ White on Books

Today we have a special post: my first ever guest blogger here on Eat, Sleep, Procrastinate! Sarah PJ White is the author of The Last Angel, which I previously reviewed here. Currently, Sarah is undergoing a blog tour to promote the book which is now out in paperback as well as ebook format. As a part of this blog tour, I asked her to speak a bit about her favourtie books. If you would like to get yourself a copy of The Last Angel or any of Sarah’s other works then links can be found at the end of her post!

I’m delighted to accept Rob’s request to guest on his blog, as part of ‘The Last Angel’ blog tour. The tour will be running for the whole of March, and I will be appearing on various sites – some in the form of author interview, maybe the odd book review and others – like this post – will be specific subjects given to me by the blog host.

So, without further ado, I’d like to share my list of Ten Favourite Books.

1.       Conversations with God: Book One– Neale Donald Walcsh

This book was a complete eye-opener for me; it really casts a new light on the whole religious community and lifts a lot of the myths about heaven, hell & the fear surrounding faith.

2.       Fluke – James Herbert

Brilliant story, well written, totally draws you in – made me cry!

3.       Christine – Stephen King

King writes books that scare the pants off me, Christine & Pet Cemetery to name a few. He is a master of fiction, pace and, even with his non-fiction book ‘On Writing’ – he’s an inspiration.

4.       Unlimited Power – Anthony Robbins

This is one of many inspirational books I have, so it was difficult to just pick one! Although this is quite a long book, it’s a great read – I read it when I was having quite a ‘down’ moment in my life – then read it again to implement the strategies within it.

5.       The Left Behind Series – Tim F LaHay & Jerry B Jenkins

This series is great for asking the question ‘what if?’ It’s based around the idea that the ‘chosen ones’ are taken suddenly from the planet – and what happens to those left behind to deal with the aftermath. My only criticism of this series was that, in my eyes they tried to stretch it out a tad too much. Instead of just leaving it to deal with the aftermath of those people being taken, they wrote one more book that got too religious (Glorious Awakening).

6.       Tell Me Your Dreams – Sidney Sheldon

I’ve read a lot of Sidney Sheldon books and this one is one of the best! I love the idea, the pace and the twist at the end – it certainly made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end!

7.       The Secret History of the World – Jonathan Black

I like any conspiracy book and this one, on the background to secret societies is great!

8.       Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from vision through revision – and beyond – Kenneth Atchity

In this book I finally found an easy to read book that really describes the idea of creativity – and how to handle it – in an easy to understand fashion. Totally recommend this for anyone who is thinking of going into the writing business.

9.       Women’s Murder Club series – James Patterson

I love this whole series. Patterson is a genius at creating characters that are great for longevity, as well as a business masterstroke by stretching each character to their full potential. The fact that it’s written about a group of independent, strong women is an absolute bonus!

10.   When The Wind Blows – James Patterson

Powerful book, written by an author I totally admire. Although the idea of experiments on children was horrifying, the story itself is a brilliant piece of imagination. I also love the fact that Patterson showed his business head by expanding it, not only with a follow up (The Lake House) but also by creating a separate YA series (The Max Series).

My Thanks

I’d like to extend my thanks to Rob Hall for agreeing to be part of my blog tour, and for allowing me to guest post on his blog – I hope you all enjoyed it.

Where To Buy The Last Angel & Contact Sarah

If you’d like to contact me, you can do so through my website:

http://sarahpjwhite.com/

You can buy The Last Angel from Smashwords and Amazon, through the following links:

The Last Angel on UK Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Angel-Account-Trilogy/dp/0957367929/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361998788&sr=8-1

The Last Angel on US Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Angel-Account-Trilogy/dp/0957367929/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1361998830&sr=8-3

The Self Confidence & Self Esteem Bible on UK Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Self-Confidence-Esteem-Bible-Understanding/dp/0957367902/ref=la_B006A5Q0KS_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361998924&sr=1-2

The Self Confidence & Self Esteem Bible on US Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Confidence-Esteem-Bible-Understanding/dp/0957367902/ref=la_B006A5Q0KS_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361998902&sr=1-1

‘The Last Angel’ by Sarah PJ White – Review

‘The Last Angel’ is a novel by the mum of a friend of mine so you may be forgiven for thinking that I am going to be biased in reviewing this book. I wold like to put it out there right now that this is NOT the case and anything that I write is from an unbiased point of view, based upon the book itself. Smashing, let’s begin.

Set in the quaint little town of Thatcham (although I sense this is a stylised version of the town, bearing the same name and geographical location) The Last Angel tells the story of Crystal Meadows, a seemingly ordinary girl who has just had the absolute joy of turning 21. Except, Crystal isn’t just an ordinary girl. She’s an Angel. In fact, she’s the Last Angel, the only remnant of a purge ordered by The Others, an overarching power of creation and control that become the faceless main antagonist of the story.

Crystal is the product of a relationship between her mother Izzy, a healah and her father Samuel, a flyah. These roles are part of the caste system of enlightened human beings on earth that have been made aware of their powers by The Others, so that they can perform tasks for them when necessary. The third full blood cast, the digahs form the ‘grunt’ troop of The Others and serve as the main weapon of this faceless enemy. I know, it’s a lot to get your head around in a short time but White paces the story well to prevent too much confusion, with Crystal learning as we do exactly what is going on in her world.

As the story progresses, we meet a host of supporting characters including my favourite character in the story, Nathan – a flyah friend of Izzy and Samuel, who for some reason I can’t picture as anyone other than Woody Harrelson as Haymitch in the Hunger Games films. Frank, the religious zealot father of best friend Emily is also introduced and becomes a key foil to the best laid plans of Crystal and co. with White clearly setting him up for greater things in the second book. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t connect with the character of Frank, finding it hard to believe that anybody that devoted their life so wholly to following the word of God could be quite as despicable and loathsome as he is. That being said, I still managed to picture him as Nicholas Cage in ‘Kick Ass’ but creepier.

As the story plots on, Crystal becomes more aware of her abilities and learns to control hem, after being entrusted with The Account – the true story of creation. It was prophesied that an Angel would set into motion the enlightenment of the world and the downfall of The Others and, with her being the only one left, it appears that Crystal has become the one to fulfil the prophecy. We also see Crystal begin a relationship with her boss, Tony the American, who I believe is quite an underdeveloped character, but I get the feeling that we haven’t seen the last of him and I have my suspicions that he may have a darker agenda than just dating Crystal; we will have to wait for the second book and see.

Overall, The Last Angel is an entertaining read, I was able to skip through it at a comfortable pace in just three evenings, with no feeling that the story was dragging or being filled with pointless padding, just to up the page count. My disappointment with the book came with the spelling and grammar mistakes in the book, with it having more than I would have liked to have seen, but as I’m sure those of you that read my posts before I have a chance to go back through them and triple check will know, I have no leg to stand on about this. Other than that tiny gripe, I thoroughly enjoyed myself with The Last Angel and if anybody Is looking for an affordable Ebook then I would recommend you go and grab yourself a copy before the second part of trilogy is released and you have to pay catch up!

Overall Rating:

Overall, I give The Last Angel eight happy llamas, out of ten. It’s a good book, well written and nicely paced. Well deserved!

8 of these bad boys go to Sarah PJ White and her book ‘The Last Angel’

Stop Doing That… At The Library!

Well the holidays are well and truly over and all of us students have gone back to struggling our way through the mountains of work that have somehow managed to accumulate themselves, even though we’ve been keeping an eye on them. No, that was not sarcasm, I honestly thought I had less work than I seem to have now! This is why my new best friend is: The Library!

The library is great! There are loads of books, plenty of tables, access to the University’s intranet and all the software they have in the Open Access commuter suite. Heck, it’s even got a cafe in it and a park out the back to go for a walk around for a break! It’s a great place to go, sit down and power your way through all the work you’ve been doing.

There is, however, a problem with the Library.

It’s full of PEOPLE.

More specifically, stupid people that don’t know what they should and shouldn’t be doing, which leads the rest of us to get annoyed and turns the library from the tranquil, intellectual refuge that it should be into a teeth grinding pit of annoyance, stress and resentment.

In an effort to simplify my life (and therefore those in my immediate surroundings, also) here is a brief list of a few of the most common misuses of the library and why you need to stop doing them immediately.

STOP: Taking phone calls
There is nothing more irritating than being sat in the same room as someone who insists on hollering details of their inane life down the phone the entire time they’re in the library. You’ll be trying to work and they’ll just keep going and going and going, these people have no off switch. Here’s an idea for you, turn your damned phone off when you come to the library. You’re in here to work, not organise plans for “a sick night out, bro!”. If the call is THAT important, then shift to one of the corridors or go outside where you can jabber away to your hearts content, if you don’t then don’t look at me like I’m the bad guy when I loudly sigh and tut at you.

STOP: Using the computers for Facebook
I cannot tell you how many times I haven’t been able to do work in the library, or any, computer room because it is chocked full of morons staring at their news feeds hoping something has happened in the last 2 minutes. I need the software on these computers to be able to do my work and you’re staring at your friend Jessica’s holiday photos/pictures of a cat in an outfit/a club night that you want to go to but “only if you get the work done first”. Here’s a novel idea: GET THE HECK OFF FACEBOOK AND DO YOUR WORK! I will fantasise about dipping you in molasses and covering you in fire ants if I see you wasting time on Facebook when I need to do actual work. One of these days I may even follow through with it. You have been warned…

STOP: Putting books back wrong
You know those little tags on the bottom of the spine of the book? Those ones that have the little numbers and letters on them? That’s a reference number so that everyone can find the book, where it is supposed to be. It just makes it easier and less time consuming. So stop just chucking a book back anywhere when you’re finished with it. Try and stick the book back at least CLOSE to the books with the same numbers on the notice! Imagine trying to find a book in a world where no one catalogued them and didn’t keep them in an order. It would be like trying to look for a literary needle in a page turning haystack. Think about other users and learn to use the system, please.

STOP: Eating loud food in the silent area
By all means bring whatever food you like and enjoy it. I bring food to the library all the time, when you’re doing a day of work you have to! The only thing I’m saying is that don’t crack open a bag of Doritos or whack out your “healthy option” of celery sticks in the silent area. The clue is in the name and we’re all in here because we don’t want to be disturbed, so with that said and done we don’t need you marching in here crunching away on the loudest foods known to man. In an attempt to forewarn you, if you ever come and sit next to me in a silent area and start munching away on foods that sound like a frost giant cracking its knuckles, I will not hold back from smacking you around the face with it. 🙂

STOP: Sitting in aisles
This one re-he-healy bugs me. There are tables for a reason. Get up off of the floor, get the hell out of this TINY CRAMPED AILSE and sit yourself down where you should be. People sitting in the aisles make it incredibly difficult for other people to get past and find the books that they’re looking for. Common courtesy guys!

STOP: Using the library to start up pointless discussions
I’ve seen this happen a few times over my time at Uni. Someone will be walking along, notice that someone is reading a book on a certain subject and then, for some inexplicable reason, will strike up a conversation essentially quizzing the poor soul on their beliefs and views on the subject! Chances are that person didn’t want to be bothered and here you are, basically poking and prodding them in the face to try to provoke them into having a discussion, which you’ll likely turn into an argument. Go and get a coffee or something and leave strangers alone.
(I should point out that this last one has never happened to me personally, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s because people don’t want to argue about a book called “Applied Fluvial Geomorphology for River Engineering and Management”.)

Well, there you go. If you have any more that you think I should add to this little list then please leave them in comments! Happy studying guys!

Book Reviews: Astin, Lane, Roth, Iggulden, Johnson

So I’m finally getting around to writing some small reviews of those books that I’ve finished reading. (More detail on the books that I’ve read and am planning on reading can be found on the “Reading List” tab, just up the top there…)

There and Back Again: An Actors Tale – Sean Astin
This book was really quite interesting to read. As an avid Tolkein fanboy, I’m always looking for new insights and tidbits into the worlds he created. Sean Astin’s book does just that, amongst other things.
The book opens with a brief look at Seans life leading up to the films, after he was a child actor (The Goonies, though mentioned a few times, aren’t explained in vivid detail. Something I can only be thankful for). It provides a good look at some of the behind the scenes stuff with LoTR and how he felt as an actor whilst filming it.
At times, it seems as though Astin is a bit of a petulant child, moaning about how Ian McKellen never had that much time for him personally, amongst other things. That said, it’s refreshing that Astin acknowledges this and admits it is one of his flaws. All in all, a good book for Tolkein fans!

Life on the Edge – Keith Lane
Keith Lane is not a writer. He is just a man that walked along the cliffs where his wife killed herself, everyday. Keith Lane also saved a lot of lives. In his book, Lane shares his feelings and experience of everything that happened to him, from meeting wife Maggie, to her tragic demise and on to becoming the ‘hero’ that he is. I use inverted commas there not because I don’t think of Keith as a hero but because I’m sure he wouldn’t think of himself that way. He’s just a guy that patrolled the cliffs. In a very poignant story Keith tells all and hopefully inspires people to try to be decent in their daily lives. A truly lovely, if a bit sad, read.

Divergent – Veronica Roth
A dystopian future, unlikely romance, violence and a shady conspiracy. What else is there to a smashing book? Roth delivers all in her novel about young teen Tris and the strange circumstances she finds herself in for being a bit different to everyone else. I have nothing else to say apart from: GO READ THIS BOOK!!!

Quantum of Tweed – Conn Iggulden
Albert Rossi, the gentlemans outfitter from Eastcote finds himself in the unlikely situation of becoming a hired assasin. A true parody of the Bond series, Quantum of Tweed grips you all the way through, with its only flaw being that it is much too short!

The Name of The Star – Maureen Johnson
Every now and then, a book really grabs you and won’t let go. It starts screaming at you when you aren’t reading it, because you SHOULD be reading it. This is one of those books. TNoTS is chilling, funny and just downright spectacular. I thought it may be a bit girly for me, it’s told from the perspective of a teenage girl at a London boarding school, but I was shocked by how un-girly it was. A new Ripper terrorises London, following in the footsteps of old Saucy Jack, the original Ripper (I’m aware that made him sound a bit more ‘gangsta’ than he needed to be…). Terror breaks out and Rory, our protagonist, is in the middle of it all! Is the Ripper caught? Does Rory survive? If you want to know, or even if you don’t want to know, READ THIS BOOK! You will thank me later.

There are too many books!

There are far too many books out there right now and this causes me a major problem; I want to read all of them.

This wouldn’t normally be a problem except for the fact that right now in my life I don’t have the time to read a lot of books. I have assignments to do. (I’m currently ahead of my assignments, so let’s hope this gives me time to read soon!!)

The Reading List page of this blog is woefully behind. I’ve added a lot of new entries into the list I keep on my phone but I haven’t had time to put them onto the blog yet. I also haven’t had a chance to review those books that I have actually read. I WILL do that over the weekend. I promise! I’ll also try to update my GoodReads account for those of you out there on the site. There’s a link to it on the reading list page. (Note: it may not be on there but it will be soon!)

So to keep the book nerdiness going whilst I catch up with writing reviews, I thought I’d share a few books from the list in my phone. If anyone has read any of them then please let me know what you thought via comment or email, no spoilers please!

The Midnight Palace – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Pigeon English – Stephen Kelman
The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
Hawk Quest – Robert Lyndon

I will update everything soon!

Keep reading!

Goodreads

In two posts, I seem to have made this a “Book Blog”. I’ll try to steer away from that slightly, but reading is a big part of my life so there will be a lot of posts about books and if that’s not your thing then I can only apologise and hope you’ll stick around for some of the other things that I’ll eventually talk about.

I’ve known about Goodreads for a while but I never bothered to sign up for an account until today. What a mistake that was.

Goodreads is a website where people rate the books they’ve read and can post a small review in comments on the book. This is a great idea as Goodreads will recommend books that you may enjoy based on your previously listed books and it can help broaden your reading selection. Oh no, this wasn’t why signing up was a mistake.The mistake was the fact that you can add books to your “To Read” list.

THERE ARE SO MANY BOOKS THAT I HAVEN’T READ!

Now, I’ve always thought of myself as a well-read, bookish person but there are just SO many books that I’m clicking “want to read” on. I feel slightly ashamed by some of them. For example, I’ve never read ‘The Great Gatsby’ or ‘The Catcher In The Rye’. How? How have I never read these books that are listed under the heading of ‘Classics’? I’ve got a lot of reading to do, it would seem…

Check out Goodreads here, if you havent already: Goodreads and I’ll put a link on the “Reading Lists” page to my profile so we can share books, if you would like to!

 

 

Reading Lists.

I’ve never been one for making a list of books that I want to read, I tend to just pick up something that grabs my eye and have a read. The unfortunate truth of this though, is that I do not read enough anymore. Cue the creation of my reading list.

I’m aiming to review every book that I read from now. I’ll make a new page on the blog where you can check out the list as it stands and see what I’ve finished and get a link to the review post if you’re interested yourself.

The goal of this is to read more books, and not just those books that are useful or necessary to my course (though undoubtedly, these books have a higher level of importance). I’ll be reading both fiction and non-fiction books and I’ll aim to have as broad a selection of genres and subjects as I can manage.

Hopefully, some of you out there that may stumble over my blog will be doing the same or may just love reading. In that case, please get in contact with any book recommendations that you might have and I’ll add them to the list. You can do this in comments or by email, i’ll put it either in the “About” page or somewhere in the sidebar.

Happy Reading!

Not completely unrelated links:

What’s on Your Reading List?

“To Read” List of 2012

You Inspired Me…To Compile My 2012 Reading List