In Issue #4 of "Parliament of Rooks" readers finally learn how Darius Ravenscar was born and what happened to the mysterious Calisandra.
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Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
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Star-crossed lovers Princess Seraphina and Darius Ravenscar are only able to snatch a few moments of respite before the latter’s curse threatens to consume him and put his lover’s life in lethal danger. Issue 4 of “Parliament of Rooks” isn’t as swift or tense as the last one, however, it does unravel some interesting secrets from…
Do you have one of those presidential rankings lists for oldest first ladies like the one you posted for oldest presidents when Carter turned 99?
I do. A slight distinction, though, is that this will be a list of longest-living wives of the Presidents as opposed to a list of First Ladies. Not every President's wife technically served as First Lady (and not every First Lady or White House Hostess was a President's wife) because some died or divorced before their husband became President and a couple Presidents remarried after leaving office.
So, with that clarification, here are the wives of the Presidents from longest- to shortest-living at the age of their death:
Bess Truman: 97 years, 247 days
Rosalynn Carter: 96 years, 93 days
Nancy Reagan: 94 years, 243 days (Reagan's 2nd wife)
Lady Bird Johnson: 94 years, 201 days
Betty Ford: 93 years, 91 days
Barbara Bush: 92 years, 313 days
Jane Wyman: 90 years, 248 days (Reagan's 1st wife)
Mary Harrison: 89 years, 250 days (B. Harrison's 2nd wife)
Edith Wilson: 89 years, 64 days (Wilson's 2nd wife)
Anna Harrison: 88 years 215 days
Sarah Polk: 87 years, 344 days
Edith Roosevelt: 87 years, 45 days (T. Roosevelt's 2nd wife)
Lucretia Garfield: 85 years, 329 days
Frances Cleveland: 83 years, 100 days
Mamie Eisenhower: 82 years, 352 days
Helen Taft: 82 years, 140 days
Pat Nixon: 81 years, 98 days
Dolley Madison: 81 years, 53 days
Grace Coolidge: 78 years, 186 days
Eleanor Roosevelt: 78 years, 27 days
Louisa Adams: 77 years, 91 days
Laura Bush: 77 years+ [Still living]
Julia Grant: 76 years, 322 days
Hillary Clinton: 76 years+ [Still living]
Abigail Adams: 73 years, 351 days
Ivana Trump: 73 years, 144 days (Trump's 1st wife)
Jill Biden: 72 years+ [Still living]
Martha Washington: 70 years, 355 days
Lou Hoover: 69 years, 284 days
Julia Tyler: 69 years, 67 days (Tyler's 2nd wife)
Caroline Fillmore: 67 years, 294 days (Fillmore's 2nd wife)
Eliza Johnson: 65 years, 103 days
Jacqueline Kennedy: 64 years, 295 days
Florence Harding: 64 years, 98 days
Margaret Taylor: 63 years, 331 days
Mary Todd Lincoln: 63 years, 215 days
Elizabeth Monroe: 62 years, 85 days
Rachel Jackson: 61 years, 190 days
Caroline Harrison: 60 years, 24 days (B. Harrison's 1st wife)
Marla Maples Trump: 60 years+ (Trump's 2nd wife) [Still living]
Ida McKinley: 59 years, 352 days
Michelle Obama: 59 years+ [Still living]
Lucy Hayes: 57 years, 301 days
Jane Pierce: 57 years, 265 days
Abigail Fillmore: 57 years, 17 days (Fillmore's 1st wife)
Ellen Wilson: 54 years, 84 days (Wilson's 1st wife)
Melania Trump: 53 years+ [Still living]
Letitia Tyler: 51 years, 302 days (Tyler's 1st wife)
Ellen Arthur: 42 years, 135 days
Hannah Van Buren: 35 years, 334 days
Martha Jefferson: 33 years, 322 days
Neilia Biden: 30 years, 143 days (Biden's 1st wife)
Alice Roosevelt: 22 years, 192 days (T. Roosevelt's 1st wife)
🦇 Welcome to March, my beloved bookish bats. It's Women's History Month AND Women's Day! To celebrate, here are a few books that highlight powerful, courageous women -- both throughout history and across our favorite fictional realms. These women have contributed to our history, shaping contemporary society with bold, outspoken, badass moves. Let's celebrate and champion these voices by adding more female-focused stories to our TBRs!
❓QOTD Who is your favorite female fictional character AND real-life heroine?
❤️ Fiction ❤️
💜 The Power - Naomi Alderman
💜 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
💜 The Vibrant Years - Sonali Dev
💜 Red Clocks - Leni Zumas
💜 Conjure Women - Afia Atakora
💜 City of Girls - Elizabeth Gilbert
💜 A Woman is No Man - Etaf Rum
💜 Of Women and Salt - Gabriela Garcia
💜 Circe - Madeline Miller
💜 Song of a Captive Bird - Jasmin Darznik
💜 The Women - Kristin Hannah
💜 The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois - Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
💜 The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
💜 Women Talking - Miriam Toews
💜 Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly
💜 The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
💜 Young/New Adult 💜
❤️ Loveboat Reunion - Abigail Hing Wen
❤️ Realm Breaker - Victoria Aveyard
❤️ Only a Monster - Vanessa Len
❤️ This Woven Kingdom - Tahereh Mafi
❤️ Serpent & Dove - Shelby Mahurin
❤️ I’ll Be The One - Lyla Lee
❤️ Squad - Maggie Tokuda-Hall and illustrated by Lisa Sterle
❤️ These Violent Delights - Chloe Gong
❤️ The Box in the Woods - Maureen Johnson
❤️ The Wrath & the Dawn - Renee Ahdieh
❤️ You Should See Me in a Crown - Leah Johnson
❤️ A Sky Beyond the Storm - Sabaa Tahir
❤️ Nimona - N.D. Stevenson
❤️ Legendborn - Tracy Deonn
❤️ Blood Scion - Deborah Falaye
❤️ Not Here to Be Liked - Michelle Quach
❤️ Queer ❤️
💜 Imogen, Obviously - Becky Albertalli
💜 The Fiancée Farce - Alexandria Bellefleur
💜 One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston
💜 The Henna Wars - Adiba Jaigirdar
💜 Girls of Paper and Fire - Natasha Ngan
💜 Delilah Green Doesn't Care - Ashley Herring Blake
💜 A Guide to the Dark - Meriam Metoui
💜 She Who Became the Sun - Shelley Parker-Chan
💜 Written in the Stars- Alexandria Bellefleur
💜 Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir
💜 Gearbreakers - Zoe Hana Mikuta
💜 You Exist Too Much - Zaina Arafat
💜 Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker
💜 The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon
💜 She Gets the Girl - Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
💜 The Jasmine Throne - Tasha Suri
💜 Non-Fiction 💜
❤️ The Secret History of Wonder Woman - Jill Lepore
❤️ Girlhood - Melissa Febos
❤️ Our Bodies, Their Battlefields - Christina Lamb
❤️ The Radium Girls - Kate Moore
❤️ Twice As Hard - Jasmine Brown
❤️ Women of Myth - Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy
❤️ Nobody Ever Asked Me About the Girls - Lisa Robinson
❤️ Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship - Kayleen Schaefer
❤️ The Book of Gutsy Women - Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton
❤️ The Underground Girls of Kabul - Jenny Nordberg
❤️ Feminism Is for Everybody - Bell Hooks
❤️ Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez
❤️ The Women of NOW - Katherine Turk
❤️ Eve - Cat Bohannon
❤️ We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
❤️ Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay
❤️ Memoirs ❤️
💜 Mom & Me & Mom - Maya Angelou
💜 Crazy Brave - Joy Harjo
💜 Reading Lolita in Theran - Azar Nafisi
💜 I'm Glad My Mom Died - Jennette McCurdy
💜 Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner
💜 The Soul of a Woman - Isabel Allende
💜 See No Stranger - Valarie Kaur
💜 They Call Me a Lioness - Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri
💜 Becoming - Michelle Obama
💜 Bossypants - Tina Fey
💜 My Own Words - Ruth Bader Ginsburg
💜 I Am Malala Malala Yousafzai
💜 Finding Me - Viola Davis
💜 Return - Ghada Karmi
💜 Good for a Girl - Lauren Fleshman
💜 The Woman in Me - Britney Spears
Last weekend, I went to my first comic convention! I've been to conventions before (Star Trek ones) but not comic ones.
I was by myself, and it was a bit overwhelming lol. I'd bought the weekend ticket, because I wasn't sure which day I'd go to and was potentially thinking of both. In the end, I heard the Sundays were quieter and so went on Sunday.
If that was quiet, I'd hate to see what busy was 😂There were sooo many people, and it was so noisy.
I didn't go to any of the panels. That felt like too much for this time, so I spent the few hours I was there walking around all the tables, trying to scan for anything that looked interesting but also trying not to get too close and get drawn into sales pitches and/or conversations I'd not be prepared for (I was only semi-successful at this).
I must've had A Look on my face every time I approached a table, because more than one of the people at the stalls said, "It's okay, you can touch them". 😂Which did not, in fact, make me feel any less nervous about touching the comics on display. 😂
I also went up to a stand manned by a couple guys I'd met previously at my local comic shop's social get together. The guy there when I approached didn't recognise me, and he asked what kind of comics I like. Being already so far out of my element, I didn't know how to bring up that we'd met a couple times before and panicked, so I just said I don't know what kind of comics I like 😂(although, tbf, that is essentially the truth hah, no matter how funny it sounds to anyone hearing it) and focussed on my other reason for dropping by their stand - the other guy was debuting a comic at the convention, which I'd backed on Kickstarter, and was there to pick up.
There were a few other people I've met before there (like, a few people who own/work at my local comic book shop), but there were just sooo many people that I didn't cross paths with any of them, except for a person I recognised, having met at another of the comic book shop's social things, who had a stall for their book(s).
Aside from just generally looking around, my other aims for the day were to visit a few specific tables. I picked up my own copy of Ask for Mercy (and a cool bookmark) from Abigail Jill Harding and, fortunately, no one at the table seemed offended when I said I hadn't thought I'd read the book, because the story was too weird for me but that the art is just soooo gorgeous that I have to read it anyway xd (which is good because I didn't mean it offensively) (Seriously. The art is so incredible. I'm going to also give Parliament of Rooks a go, because I think I really love her artwork. Also the title makes me think of Six of Crows, so... xd)
Another top priority was visiting Jacob Phillips's table. I picked up a really cool print of The Enfield Gang Massacre issue #1 cover art and a That Texas Blood button. It has joined the other TTB button I had at home. :D
I'm kind of hoping there will be prints like this of all the covers, because they're interlocking covers, and I'd rather frame the prints instead of the actual comic books.
He was going to sign the poster, but I asked if he could sign something else instead. Last year, before I'd really got into comics but could tell it was a matter of time, I made a little drawing on the subject. And because that represents something for me, how important comics now are to me and how much I love them, I decided I wanted to ask those folk whose work I love and is important to me to sign the back of that (I've actually laminated the drawing and then glued a sheet of cardstock to it). Jacob Phillips's work is very high on that list for me. And he did agree to sign it. He also briefly looked at that terrible awful drawing, so that was embarrassing, but... 😂😂😂
He had some other art for sale, but I was way too nervous to stand there and go through it. It was funny that I already own a copy of almost every single book he had for sale on his table haha. I think there was only one that I don't have, and I think it was one of the Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips ones that I'm not yet sure I want to try. Although, now that I think about it, if Jacob Phillips was on colours... ngl, that means I do want it. Darn it. My brain was definitely not working while I was at that stand xd.
I had hoped to come across a couple other people, but did not. One of them is another person whose work is on that "very important to me" list. Next time, perhaps!
There were also a lot of queer tables, which was really cool. I picked up this patch from one of them.
I don't really know what to do with it, 'cause I don't put patches on my clothes or bags lol, but I love it, so I'll have to find something.
I haven't really started on the comics I picked up from the convention yet, except for one. That one (not pictured) is (hopefully) the only dud. I'm a bit of a sucker for the setting/topic and was just so nervous that I basically just agreed to buy them without really looking at them or considering what I thought the odds of the topic being handled well by the creators were. That was definitely my mistake. I kinda feel icky having them in the house, so I'm not totally sure what to do with them lol.
Oh, I did read Zac: Death and Admin. That one's cute, and I hope I can pick up any others that may exist. Ambrosia is also technically a gift for a friend, but I'm gonna read it first xd.
Overall, it was a pretty good day. I'm glad I went, though I kind of wish I'd gone to the first day. Next time, I may have to figure out something for my cats so I can perhaps stay in the town overnight (and not travel way too much) and go to both days. I'm also going to go to panels next time.
The architect Darius Ravenscar is in love with the Princess of Eborvik, but a violent attack on him unleashes a ghastly curse which changes his life forever.
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Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
It’s difficult to form an opinion about the comic book series “Parliament of Rooks” by Abigail Jill Harding from its first issue alone because it’s hard to say where the story is headed. So, I decided to read the next issue too and review them together.
The inaugural instalment introduces a somber narrative with a dark winged…