#little birds
That’s right, it’s book tag time! I’ve got a question tag for Little Birds by Hannah Kidder. (Links at the bottom)
For those of you who don’t know, I’m on the street team for this collection, so I’ve been able to read it over before its release date. You should definitely check it out!
What’s your favorite story?
I think my favorite is Dear Emma. It’s the first story in the collection and it’s so sad, but so good. It really hit me where I didn’t expect it to.
What character did you relate the most to and why?
Laini from An Envelope. Probably because I, too, tend to read into things very deeply.
What’s your favorite line?
“Hard to tell if ashes have been opened or not.”
I would tell you which story it’s from, but unfortunately #spoilers, so you’ll just have to read it yourself ;)
Did you cry/how long did it take you to cry?
I actually didn’t cry, which is REALLY surprising, because I am a soft, squishy person when it comes to sad things, and this collection had some really sad stories in it. Hannah Kidder has a way of making you care about a person in less than a page and making their emotions and circumstances feel important and real.
I think the reason I didn’t cry is because for the most part, they always had a thread of hope to them. They always had an element of someone moving on or trying to make things work.
What’s your favorite title?
What Remains. I think it really encompasses the story well, but I also like the play on words with “Remains”. I think the dual definitions of “what is left behind when something is gone” and “corpse/dead thing” really tie neatly into the story.
Describe Little Birds in 3 words.
- Bittersweet
- Melancholy
- Nostalgic
If you could give it a subtitle, what would it be?
Little Birds - Sad stories for every occasion
What image stuck with you the most?
I feel like it changes depending on my mood. Right now I’d say it’s probably the scene in Cane Sprouts where the grandkids are messing around with a old busy games. The grandfather is asleep in his chair and the grandmother is in the kitchen making lunch, and the cousins are just sitting around, catching up, playing around with the puzzle games they used to play as kids. I don’t know, man, it’s just really nostalgic and I really resonate with it.
Who would you recommend this book to and why?
I would recommend Little Birds to anyone that loves contemporary fiction and angst. The book has a very melancholy feel overall, but it’s done in such a way that it always feels soft and poetic. I’d also recommend for fans of first-person stories, as the majority are written in that style.
Hannah Kidder’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/HannieHee
Little Birds on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41216866-little-birds
Little Birds on Amazon: [X]
Turnstone in Summer Plumage.. by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
Tidal creek at Brancaster Staithe on North Norfolk coast ..The Turnstone can be spotted fluttering around large stones on rocky and gravelly shores, flipping them over to look for prey. It can even lift rocks as big as its own body! Although a migrant to the UK, it can be seen all year-round as different populations arrive throughout the seasons.
Common whitethroat @ Snettisham RSPB Norfolk by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
A summer visitor with a scratchy song. Around one million of these birds head to the UK each year to breed..like this one on the Norfolk Coast AONB
Common linnet Norfolk by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
The common linnet is a small passerine bird of the finch family, Fringillidae. It derives its common name and the scientific name, Linaria, from its fondness for hemp seeds and flax seeds—flax being the English name of the plant from which linen is made
Sedge warbler..West Norfolk by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
In summer, the sedge warbler can be spotted singing from a reed or willow perch in wetlands across the UK. Males never sing the same song twice,
Bullfinch Norfolk Woodland..Pyrrhula pyrrhula by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
Shy but striking. Bullfinches bring a brilliant burst of colour to the UK’s woods. The species depends on trees for much of its food, feeding on seeds and buds.
Sedge Warbler West Norfolk.. by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
The sedge warbler is a small, quite plump, warbler with a striking broad creamy stripe above its eye and greyish brown legs. It is brown above with blackish streaks and creamy white underneath. It is a summer visitor, and winters in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. Its song is a noisy, rambling warble compared to the more rhythmic song of the reed warbler
Mallard Ducklings @ RSPB Titchwell Norfolk by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
The ducklings stay in the nest for at least 10 hours while they dry and get used to using their legs. Then, usually in the early morning, the female leads them to water. Bad weather may delay this exodus, but the sooner the ducklings get to water to feed, the better their chances of survival. They cannot survive without their mother, and take 50-60 days before they fledge and become independent.
Sedge Warbler West Norfolk (riverbank) by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
My focus on the sedge warbler is for two reasons. One is simply as it’s a new arrival from sub-Saharan Africa, a reminder of the miracle of migration. The second links, I think, with keen birdwatchers’ constant search for the new or different. Yes, they’re back – like seeing an old friend after many months of absence. I haven’t heard a sedge warbler for ages..Walking along the Nar Riverbank so tranquil and beautiful to hear and see in spring
I found some bird books this weekend at a table top sale at Bridgemere Garden Centre. My favourite book was this one about Finches. Just look at those neon feathers! A very beautiful and agile little bird. I’m brimming with ideas, so this evening will be spent in the studio with my sketchbook. xoxo
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Meadow Pipit by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
Meadow pipits can be difficult to spot as their plumage often blends into surrounding vegetation. They have olive-brown upperparts, with broad black streaks on the head, mantle and back. The upperwing is darker with pale edges. Meadow pipits’ tails are dark brown with a green fringe, they have paler underparts, and the underwing is whitish. They have slender bills which are dark brown with a pale base. Eyes are dark brown, and their legs and feet are yellow-brown with a long hind claw. Male and female meadow pipits look similar while juveniles are browner with paler underparts. Their streaks are also not as dark
“Bird on a Wire”…Norfolk by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
Meadow pipit..The meadow pipit is a common nesting bird of moorland, heathland and rough grassland. In the autumn and winter, it moves out of upland areas to lowlands where it gathers in small flocks and can be found on farmland and saltmarshes. In the spring, it performs a fluttering, ‘parachute’ display flight. There are 2 million breeding territories in the UK
Black-headed gull by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
Not really a black-headed bird, more chocolate-brown - in fact, for much of the year, it has a white head. It is most definitely not a ‘seagull’ and is found commonly almost anywhere inland. Black-headed gulls are sociable, quarrelsome, noisy birds, usually seen in small groups or flocks, often gathering into larger parties where there is plenty of food, or when they are roosting
Cattle & Swallows @ Thornham NT Reserve. by Adam Swaine
Via Flickr:
With more than 6,000 acres of nature reserve across Norfolk, our grazing sheep, cattle, and ponies are essential to conservation
Louis could not sleep. He turned over in his bed to lie on his stomach and, burying his face in the pillow, moved against the hot sheets as if he were lying over the woman. But when the friction increased the fever in his body, he stopped himself
He got out of his bed and looked at his watch. It was two o'clock. What could he do to appease his fever? He left his studio. The moon was shining and he could see the roads clearly. The place, a beach town in Normandy, was full of little cottages, which people could rent for the night or a week. Louis wandered aimlessly.
Then he saw that one of the cottages was lighted. It was set into the woods, isolated. It intrigued him that anyone should be up so late. He approached it soundlessly, footsteps lost in the sand. The Venetian blinds were down but not tightly closed, so he could see right into the room. And his eyes met the most amazing sight: a very wide bed, profusely covered with pillows and rumpled sheets, as if it had already been the scene of a great battle; a man, seemingly cornered in a pile of pillows, as if pushed there after a series of attacks, reclining like a pasha in a harem, very calm and contented, naked, his legs folded out; and a woman, also naked, whom Louis could see only from the back, contorting herself before this pasha, undulating and deriving such pleasure from whatever she was doing with her head between his legs that her ass would shake tremulously, her legs tighten as if she were about to leap.
Now and then the man placed his hand over her head as if to restrain her frenzy. He tried to move away. Then she leaped with great agility and placed herself over him, kneeling over his face. He no longer moved. His face was directly under her sex, which, her stomach curved outwards, she held before him.
As he was pinned under her, she was the one to move within reach of his mouth, which had not touched her yet. Louis saw the man’s sex rise and lengthen, and he tried with an embrace to bring her down upon him. But she remained at a short distance, looking, enjoying the spectacle of her own beautiful stomach and hair and sex so near to his mouth.
Then slowly, slowly she moved towards him and, with her head bowed, watched the melting of his mouth between her legs.
For a long while they maintained this position. Louis was in such a turmoil that he left the window. Had he remained longer he would have had to throw himself on the ground and somehow satisfy his burning desire, and this he did not want to do.
He began to feel that in every cottage something was taking place that he would like to be sharing. He walked faster, haunted by the image of the man and woman, the round firm belly of the woman as she arched herself over the man …
