#little black bird

[poitionsprince]

I just need more Walburga Black × Eileen Snape content, is that too much to ask for? <\3

[good-books-to-read]

Travel Destination: Poland

The Widow Queen by Elżbieta Cherezińska

The bold one, they call her--too bold for most. To her father, the great duke of Poland, Swietoslawa and her two sisters represent three chances for an alliance. Three marriages on which to build his empire.

But Swietoslawa refuses to be simply a pawn in her father's schemes; she seeks a throne of her own, with no husband by her side, The gods may grant her wish, but crowns sit heavy, and power is a sword that cuts both ways.

Drive your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

In a remote Polish villiage, Janina spends her days studying astrology, translating poetry and caring for the summer homes of the rich. And she much prefers the company of animals to people.

Then a neighbour turns up dead and then more and more bodies follow in increasing strange circumstances, Janina certain she knows whodunnit, if only anyone would listen to her.

Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz

An historical epic tale of country life among the Polish gentry in the early 19th century, full of romance and drama.

A feud between two ancient families, a forbidden romance between them.

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

A tender and passionate story of first love between two young men who eventually find themselves on opposite sides of the political divide.

Ludwik meet Janusz at a summer agricultural camp, where they fell in an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are fulfilled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks in the countryside.

However soon after they separated, Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly coveted government position. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.

Little Black Bird by Anna Kirchner

Wiktoria is a seventeen year old with a secret: she has psychic powers. Her uncontrollable telekinesis hurts her and others, setting fires and throwing objects in the air, no matter how hard she tries to hold it back. All she wants to have is a peaceful, average life, but it’s difficult when you’ve been cursed to destroy the magical world.

[magicalyaku]

Why is it April already? Where did my time go??? (Answer: My friend and I had a big convention (artist alley) in March and even after 10 years of doing this we still haven't learned to start early with our preparations, so it was crunch time! (And if you want to know, the con was okayish. We didn't sell as many prints as we had hoped but a bunch of books, and that felt pretty good.). Don't ask me something like in which order I read these book, because I have no idea, but I do remember reading them, so here we go.

Into the Glittering Dark (Kelley York): So what if I was lured in by the cover??! The illustration is done by Magdalena Pagowska who's also responsible for Dark Rise and some Captive Prince editions. But just like with Dark Rise it was eventually the summary that convinced me. It's an adventure with magic and two young man tangled up in it (and also with each other). Count me in! Now, this is probably the kind of book where you can find all sorts of weak points if you're looking for them, I will not. I was entertained. It did a lot of things that I like. It's written in third person, for instance, and uses that to its benefit by showing how the different people fare at different locations and times. That just doesn't happen often anymore in the sort of books I currently read, so it feels like good old times. Yes, sometimes it's enfuriating when it switches locations between the chapters when you just want to find out what's going on with the characters from that one. But that's the kind of sweet suffering I grew up with. It's not a top tier book, but nonetheless I enjoyed the writing, the characters and the world. There's lots of death and killing, yes, it calls itself a dark fantasy after all. But it's not as cruel as that one other book that I recently read and don't want to talk about again. :'D The amount of romance was also just right for my taste. (And I like what the author has to say about that in the afterword). Also, there's a bird.

The Prince of Nowhere (Rochelle Hassan): While waiting for the author's latest book The Summer Queen to arrive, I decided to read her first one. It's a middle grade fantasy and it's really good! The world starts out really interesting with that village surrounded by fog, the heroine getting mysterious predictions about the future, and an arrogant bird boy. It's kind of slow in the beginning but once it gets going …oh boy. I don't think I can say anything about it without spoiling all the fun. It's a mind-bending topic done well and I loved how it played out, the implications, the ending! I'm always saying how I wish middle grade books would be smarter and more challenging and this is definitely one of the smarter ones. I'm so looking forward to The Summer Queen now and the author's next middle grade series that starts in September.

Little Black Bird (Anna Kirchner): How many books with birds do i have on my TBR? Hehehe. Actually, I wanted to finally read the second volume of this series, but one look inside told me, I better reread volume 1. :'D It was a favourite of mine in 2022 and it's still good, I think. I don't feel like looking up, what I wrote about it back then, if any, but my thoughts haven't change much I dare say. The story is set in a Polish town and it feels so European. So much like home, I love it. There are really nice descriptions of the houses and neighbourhoods, the kids go by tram and walk along the river. And I don't know, it just feels like a place I know and that's nice. The protagonists are also pretty good, the heroine, Wiktoria, does not annoy me, her bond-mate Artur is a really sweet boy, both of them are aspec questioning. And there's a giant adventure going on around involving old slavic magic. It's really interesting. My only gripe would be the timeline. Everything happens in just a few days which left me confused sometimes. Minor details. I should mention, though, that there's at least two editions of the book and I read the old one with the other cover and I don't know if anything between these editions changed.

Tall White Tenement (Little Black Bird 2) (Anna Kirchner): While I loved the first volume easily, this is more difficult. A lot of things happened, but I can hardly tell you any of them. Everything was small steps, and always 3 steps forward and 2 backwards. And while there was logic behind all actions, many turned out futile in the end, which was a bit frustrating. Some of them, like the devil summoning, also might have benefitted from a little more impact. Overall, I still do like the story. Shit's getting really rough towards the end, so the third volume will probably be fun again. There's more demons and a new important character, who's pretty cool. There's also parenting of a baby dragon which I didn't like very much … Personally, I just hate it when people call me "cat mum" or my cats my kids. My mom is their mom and my cats are my siblings, thank you very much. So now, there's a book with a not-annoying aspec girl heroine and suddenly she's a pet mum and I'm just here suffering quietly. xD Anyway, there are developments on the aspec front for some of the questioning characters which was nice and highly anticipated. The shape of Wiktoria's and Artur's relationship is a major point after all. It just felt a little heavy on the author's voice. Oh well. The series does have a good foundation, the execution of this volume just stumbles a bit and doesn't reach as high where it wants to go in my opinion. It's still engaging and I'm looking forward to the next volume. Also, the author had a give away back when the book came out and I received some postcards, stickers and bookmarks with really nice illustrations. Thank you for those. <3

Tadek and the Princess (The Mahisti Dynasty novella) (Alexandra Rowland): Aw. Just aww. When I found out that the author has a new book coming out in summer I got strangely excited, because while I really liked A Taste of Gold and Iron, it never crossed my mind to go back to her older books (there are a few), so why is the new one different? xD (The pirates maybe. The promise of Adventure.) Anyway, alongside the news for that one, I also found the one about Tadek, and well, he was my favourite character of A Taste of Gold and Iron (surprisingly), so I had to read it, right? And damn, it's sweet. It alternates between the present (after the end of the main book) and the past of Tadek as a child and his path to his current position. Again, it's so sweet. So full of love. I think the word for that specific kind of love is Agape? The love for something higher that oneself. (Do correct me if I'm wrong.) It made me feel like "Ah, there's good people in this world after all".

Tales of the High Court Short Story Collection (Megan Derr): What the title says. If you like the Tales of the High Court series, you'll probably like this collection (if you don't already know the individual stories as all of them were previously published online.) There's a lot of Sarrica, some Allen, some Lesto. Basically, lot's of the characters I like and less of those I don't care much for. :'D I really like the world of these stories, so it was nice to return to it. As for the presentation … you can't tell me, all of these stories were published previously and then have so many errors right in the early ones. >_< (There's half a sentence missing at one point …) I hope, that get's fixed soon. Other than that, I enjoyed reading this collection!

That's it! The wrap up for March is going to be short. When the theme this time was birds and sequels, the next one will be ... ghosts and ballet. 8D

[thebusylilbee]

have you guys heard of Snow pigeons ? it's a pigeon species that lives in the Himalayas and it has a little black hood on its little head :3

[source of last pic : Sergey Yeliseev]

[llovelymoonn]

my favourite faye wei wei paintings

little blue bird from the pillow flew (2020) \\ first i must clean the keys of the piano with milk (2022) \\ the black bells of a distant new mexico (2023) \\ an echo trapped forever (2023) \\ sweet velvet flower there is no time/ I ask to go back I wish you were mine (2021) \\ two butterfly lovers (2021) \\ untitled (2022) \\ nectar for honey (2021) \\ red i (2022) \\ fountain lies the sun (2017)

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[puppyeared]

wanna see a magic trick? 🪄🎩

[untimelybones]

might come back someday to clean him up or do a better piece for him but. here's what i have for now??

eastern dragon doesn't make sense canonically but this is already so far from canon i don't care anymore

how do you even attach a bird to an eastern dragon they’re just noodles (i settle for neck fluff)

[plusie]

🐦‍⬛ - magpie plushies!

[royalarchivist]

Fit takes advantage of an AFK moment to do a little "passa tudo"-ing (Pac's reaction is priceless 😂)

I miss their shenanigans already.

[salamispots]

saw a seagull that looked different

[finzphoenix]

A grungy little ink piece for the start of september ^w^🎃🖤🤍

[jakegyllenbaalz]

random film title cards

[batcavescolony]

*Comic bats+rogues get dropped into Gotham tv show universe*

Batman: *on tv* to all my rogues, you have 30 minutes to meet us in Robinson Park, or I send the kids after you. If you can't get to the park in 30min you're all smart enough to find a way.

Voice from the back: WHICH ONES.

Batman: Hmmmm, All of them?

Voice from the back: ...DOES ROBIN HAVE HIS SWORD?

Batman: yes

*a few colorfully dressed people part from the crowd towards Robinson Park*

[besidethepath]

Sometimes you can see the small divers on the water surface

[sarcasticmothdraws]

Vashbrown returns

[weevilsdaily]

weevil 467