Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
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ABOUT BOOKS AND READING
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What are you reading these days? (Part ELEVEN (2015) ongoing thread for 2015
Joy, good question! In the trilogy, the hero's given name is Bran, which means raven in the Welsh tongue. His father is a Welsh petty king, massacred along with his war band when Norman thugs take over his kingdom. That makes Bran the rightful king ("Rhi," in Welsh), so he's Rhi Bran, which also translates as King Raven; and ravens are birds of considerable supernatural power in Celtic mythology. When he takes refuge in the forest, he gradually adopts the persona (when he's dealing with the superstitious Normans) of a feathered bird-man type of supernatural being with dangerous magical powers. "y Hud," added to his name, means magician or sorcerer; so the Welsh come to call him "Rhi Bran y Hud." With a not fully understood and slurred pronunciation in English, that becomes "Robin Hood."There's no historical attestation as such for a "King Raven" figure like this; so no, this is just a fictional speculation on Lawhead's part. But he does create a plausible speculation about a factual basis that could have given rise to the basic legend.
PPS-Here it is!The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland & Basil Rathbone
"When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029843/?...
http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Robi...
http://dvd.netflix.com/Search?v1=The%...
(Joy H. asked: About the King Raven Trilogy by Stephen R. Lawhead, was King Raven a real historical figure? )Werner wrote: "Joy, good question! ... There's no historical attestation as such for a "King Raven" figure like this; so no, this is just a fictional speculation on Lawhead's part. ... the hero's given name is Bran, which means raven in the Welsh tongue. ... he's Rhi Bran, which also translates as King Raven; and ravens are birds of considerable supernatural power in Celtic mythology. ..."
Werner, thanks for explaining how the name King Raven came about in the King Raven trilogy. Those Welsh names get me every time. So hard to wrap my brain around them!
You're welcome, Joy! (I've read Celtic-based fantasy and historical fiction before, so that helps me have a bit of a handle on the names and titles. :-) )
My librarian daughter met Jamie Ford and came away so delighted after hearing him speak. Did you know he met his wife in a library? I really liked his book, "Corner Bittersweet..."
I think in my child's mind I lumped Arthur and Robin Hood in the same era. British heros/sort of, I guess.Was "The Crystal Cave," an arthurian tale?
Between you, Joy and Werner I feel I am back in school learning again and with Jim's SF facts and I love the one about Venus and I hope to graduate some day soon. And Jackie you often supply me with unknown facts..Thanks all of you bright people for helping to keep this old mind alert. PS I will be 88 years old on Wednesday and I am still learning so keep the facts coming..please.
Have a wonderful 88th birthday, Nina! Your energy and unquenched curiosity is an inspiration to all of us.
Joy H. wrote: "PPS-Here it is!The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland & Basil Rathbone
"When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard'..."
I loved that movie when I was a child.
Joy, watched the first series of the Hornblower movie. It was exciting/good acting but couldn't watch the rat part. I am not sure i'm up to six discs of Navy battles, however.
Nina wrote: "I think in my child's mind I lumped Arthur and Robin Hood in the same era. British heros/sort of, I guess.Was "The Crystal Cave," an arthurian tale?"Nina, I checked The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart and it is Authurian. See Jim's review of it here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
He says: "Merlin tells his story from his boyhood."
Werner wrote: "Have a wonderful 88th birthday, Nina! Your energy and unquenched curiosity is an inspiration to all of us."Nina, I agree with Werner. You are amazing! Have a wonderful 88th birthday!
Nina wrote: "Joy, watched the first series of the Hornblower movie. It was exciting/good acting but couldn't watch the rat part. I am not sure i'm up to six discs of Navy battles, however."Nina, I borrowed the book, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower from the library for my husband (after Jim & Werner mentioned Hornblower). I was curious about it and started reading it today. It really pulled me in. Not sure I'll finish it soon because I'm still reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which is very good. Glad you have read it.
I just finished Mr. Midshipman Hornblower last night & gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It's a wonderful series, but conditions were awful, which I mention in my review. I tried to figure out just how crowded they were.
My library doesn't have the Hornblower Addendum - Five Stories in audio format, unfortunately. I think I'll try to find it in a written format & read the stories in something like their chronological order since two as Lieutenant, two as Captain, and one as Admiral of the Fleet. I'm at the Lieutenant stage now.
Jim, thanks for the link to your Hornblower review and for listing both the the chronological order and the publication order.I've ordered the following 3 Hornblower books from our library for my husband (He's already read Mr. Midshipman Hornblower ). The titles are as our library catalog lists them. I realize there are duplications, but I wanted to be sure I could get them.
1. Lieutenant Hornblower
2. Young Hornblower; Three Complete Novels: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower, Hornblower and the Atropos
3. "Hornblower during the crisis, and two stories : Hornblower's temptation and The last encounter." (as listed in our library's catalog)
Joy, I just edited my review a bit so you might want to look again at the Chronology. I found some short stories that fit in early plus there is an Atlas which is pretty neat. While I had a general sense of where everything was, the atlas had some good notes & made things clearer. Eddie might appreciate it.
Thanks Jim. I've saved a link to your review in my WordPad document about the Hornblower series. In addition, I've emailed your info to Ed. Now I've ordered the Atlas from the library. Eddie is interested in that sort of thing. Interesting. Funny how we can get wrapped up in certain subjects!
We watched the second episode of the Hornblower saga and so I'm hooked. Bring on the other four episodes. I seem to remember getting the first book for my husband some time ago. I must have given the book to a grandson after he finished it. In any case, I think the acting in these episodes is amazing. Thanks to whoever brought up this subject. I can't remember if it was Joy or Jim. I don't want to read your review Jim untl I finish all the rest of the stories.
Nina wrote: "We watched the second episode of the Hornblower saga and so I'm hooked. ... Thanks to whoever brought up this subject...."Nina, Werner mentioned Hornblower in this group several years ago... in 2009 and again in 2012 & 2013. Jim chimed-in in 2014 and 2015. So we owe this subject to Werner and Jim!
You've all made me curious about the Hornblower movies and now that I've tasted the beginning of a Hornblower book, my curiosity is really piqued! I'll have to order the videos!
I try to not to put spoilers in my reviews, Nina. In this case, my review definitely has none, but does have some good links to other information for the books. I don't touch on the movies at all. The Wikipedia entry for the series lists the following for screen adaptations:Gregory Peck as Captain Horatio Hornblower from the 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower, encompassing the events in "The Happy Return", "A Ship of the Line", and "Flying Colours".
Peck and co-star Virginia Mayo would recreate their roles on a one-hour Lux Radio Theater program broadcast on January 21, 1952, which is included as an audio-only feature in the film's DVD release. You can also listen to or download it here:
http://www.thisoldradioshow.com/OldRa...
or here:
https://archive.org/details/Adventure...
The ITV and A&E television series Hornblower (1998–2003) starred Ioan Gruffudd as Hornblower, and included stories from "Mr. Midshipman Hornblower" up to "Hornblower and the Hotspur". (Books 1 - 3 chronologically)
Jim, thank you very, very much for those invaluable Hornblower links and for all the info! I've saved the links and info to my Hornblower WordPad document. I'm going to try listening to those radio broadcasts!I really appreciate all your contributions to this group!
You're welcome, Joy. That's what groups are about.
Yesterday I watched "Hiding Victoria" (2006) starring Anita Gillette, Margo Harshman & Michael Wiseman.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493425/?...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D...
http://dvd.netflix.com/Search?v1=HIDI...
IMDb: "Hard as nails 22 year old convicted felon VICTORIA WALKER is given a tough choice by a judge: stay clean and get a job or go to jail."
I almost passed this movie up because the very-beginning was so uninteresting and slow-moving. I'm glad I gave it another chance.
I don't know why the directors don't realize how important it is to "hook" a person's interest at the very beginning of a film. I am always bored by meaningless scenes at the beginning which give you no clue to where the story is going. In the beginning of this movie you see a slow-moving scene of a girl getting out of bed and going to the window. Then you see her standing at a barn door looking out. These scenes did nothing to rouse my interest. Finally, the scene suddenly switches to a courtroom scene with a very interesting judge handing down a sentence. That hooked me, but only when I stayed with it the second time, long enough to get to that scene.
I didn't appreciate the tattoo designs on the girl's face at all. I suppose they're related to the word "hidden" in the title. An annoying idea, IMO.
Anita Gillette saves the film with her portrayal of a very kindhearted lady. The social worker, played by Avery Sommers, is also very appealing. At times the movie gets sappy, the way some Hallmark films do, but if you can tolerate those parts, the story is a very satisfying one. After I was hooked, I stayed hooked.
Pic of Avery Sommers: http://www.a4ac.org/gallery/144371.jpg
Thanks Jim and Werner for whetting my interest in Hornblower and thanks Jim for your latest info on the movies and who starred in them. We must be watching the A & E series and I think the acting is superb.There are six DVD discs. I wonder why A & E stopped doing these good series. I used to watch it a lot and now is is almost extinct. So, Jim I'll be anxious to read your review.
I left a comment on your review on that page and as I said it was excellent, Jim.
you are right, you didn't put any spoilers in your review. Thanks for telling me that so I wasn't afraid to read it. And thanks to you all for my birthday wishes. So far, so good/great lunch at a museum/great weather/and lots of happy wishes from far flung family and friends/
Thanks, Nina. Glad you had a good birthday so far. Hope it continues to be a great one.
Thanks for your good wishes everybody. They came true. I had a very Happy Birthday as I had so many nice messages and cards from various offsprings/five and from some of the seventeen grandchildren and from some of the eighteen great grandchildren and from friends and in laws that I love. What a blessing to have this big family as I was an only child.
Nina, it's great that you have a big family and I'm sure that you are loved by all of them.
Happy Birthday Nina! You are indeed blessed to have such a big and loving family.
Oh, my as good as Hornblower is and exciting it is somewhat of a relief we are watching, "Young at Heart," in between tonight. Busy today planting columbine from a friend's garden. I think I must throw out the hibiscus tree we kept over the winter. I pruneded it a lot but now the leaves look sick. Oh well, can't win them all.
Hi Nina. I see that "Young at Heart" stars Frank Sinatra. I remember the film.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047688/?...
It so happens that I'm currently listening to a CD audio of the book Frank: The Voice. It doesn't draw a very good picture of him. Sometimes I'd rather not know the downside of these celebrities who have entertained us over the years. I feel the same way about Dean Martin, about whom his daughter wrote a biography (which I read recently).
I feel more and more sorry for the first wives of these two attractive men. They really got a raw deal. Celebrities are subject to too many temptations.
Nina: Happy Belated Birthday! Hope it was wonderful!
I just started The Book Thief tonight. Has a gripping and unusual style. I do not think I will "like" it because it is set during the Holocuast in Germany, 1939.But what I have read so far is really gripping!
Joy, we probably watched an earlier version of "Young at Heart," and truly enjoyed it. Kind of a silly premise but a strong moral about it; unlike most movies now. And was surprised at the quote/Abraham Lincoln and Socrates among other quotes. It starred Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Janet Gaynor and a young Paulette Goddard. I recommend it. And yes, "The Book Thief," as gripping but a very good book I thought.
PS I agree about the first wives of celebs but I do admire Gegory Peck/Bob Hope/and a few others that don't come to mind right now. I always felt sorry for Jane Wyman and Paul Newman's first wife.
Mary JL wrote: "I just started The Book Thief tonight. ..."It's a good story, Mary JL. Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Nina wrote: "Joy, we probably watched an earlier version of "Young at Heart," and truly enjoyed it. ..."Oh, I see. The full title is "The Young in Heart" (1938) with Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., & Paulette Goddard. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031002/?...
"Thrown out of the Riviera, a family of grifters meets a lonely, vulnerable rich old woman and insinuate themselves into her life while they sponge off her."
I'm streamed it via Amazon Prime in April: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D...
It was a light and feel-good movie. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
My Goodreads friend Quentin Wallace writes supernatural fiction, and recently offered the electronic edition of his debut novel, Brackett Hollister: The Werewolf Pack, for free on Amazon (for a couple of days). I took advantage of the chance to try it out, so I started reading it last night on my Kindle app. Reading in that format doesn't fit into my schedule as well as reading in print does; but I'll stick with it, and if I like the book I'll buy a print copy.
Thanks for posting, Werner. I'm always amazed that people can find time to write books and get them published. Of course, it's being done all the time... but not by me! LOL I haven't got enough imagination for thinking up plots. That's a special kind of talent.Speaking of talent, I'm currently reading the fiction book, Mozart's Sister by Nancy Moser. It's told from the sister's point of view. She relates how Mozart could tell exactly what note was being played just by listening. He could also pick out a tune on the keybooard without looking at the keyboard. I couldn't do that in a million years! :)
Don't feel bad, Joy --I couldn't even pick out a tune while looking at the keyboard. :-)
Werner wrote: "Don't feel bad, Joy --I couldn't even pick out a tune while looking at the keyboard. :-)"LOL! Werner, that is funny. I think I can pick out a tune on a keyboard by trial and error.
One thing I cannot do is harmonize. I can do it if I memorize the harmony tune, but that's only by rote. I really envy those who can harmonize spontaneously as they sing along with someone else singing the lead. That really takes an ear for music.
Dick Cavett has compared having an ear for music to having an ear for humor. I think that's a great comparison. Some people cannot get a joke right away. Others can. Comedy writers have a extra-special talent. Dick Cavett said he could write jokes tailored to the comedian who would be saying them. That really takes an ear for the particular comedian's style!
I'm currently browsing a book entitled, And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers on their Craft and the Industry. One of the comedy writers in the book says that the humorous lines just spill out of his brain as he writes, as if he doesn't know where it all comes from. I find that so amazing!
PS-About having an ear for music, someone (I can't remember who) said that when you have an ear for music, you can hear a particular note in your head the way most of us can see a particular color in our head. I think that's a great comparison. It really helps me to understand the phenomenon of perfect pitch.Perfect pitch is a separate subject all by itself! Some people say it's inherited. Others say it comes by way of training, especially at an early age. Maybe it's a little bit of both. That issue reminds me of the book: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. Here's a link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
One of my son's did have perfect pitch at a very young age of five. He also could identify what note was being played even if he was standing in a different room. He used to be on stage at this early age and into about age nine. He once played at the MO State Fair in competition. He hated doing this so we let him stop.
He learned to play the piano on a cardboard key board until we bought a piano and he was unusually good in math and his piano teacher said that was not unusual.
Nina wrote: "One of my son's did have perfect pitch at a very young age of five. He also could identify what note was being played even if he was standing in a different room. He used to be on stage at this ear..."That's amazing, Nina. I've heard that math and music are related in many ways. I can understand how that can be.
The math-music relationship may work the other way as well, since I'm not only tone deaf, but don't do well at math. (Or rather, I don't do well at "higher" math; I always got As in arithmetic and can calculate, etc. perfectly well, but when they moved beyond that, in junior high and high school, I just passes on Ds, and probably should have flunked. In college, I only had to take one algebra class, and managed a C in it.) Maybe the two skills are genetically or psychologically related (or both).
That's interesting, Werner. I guess your strength lies in your word-related abilities. I don't think I have any particular "strengths". I'm fairly average across the board with some signs of extra-ability along the way. I have to work hard at whatever I do or learn. I don't seem to have any artistic talent or it was never developed. I did show interest in art as a kid but the interest was never nourished.
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The Last of Robin Hood (2013) with Dakota Fanning, Susan Sarandon, & Kevin Kline.
"The last days in the life of legendary Hollywood actor Errol Flynn."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2450440/?...
"Kevin Kline stars as an aging Errol Flynn in this biopic that chronicles the womanizing actor's relationship with teenager Beverly Aadland. The film examines Beverly's mother's role in the affair and the private demons behind Flynn's reputation."
http://dvd.netflix.com/Search?v1=The%...
"Kevin Kline, Dakota Fanning and Susan Sarandon star in the true story of a young starlet who became the infamous girlfriend of legendary swashbuckler Errol Flynn."
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Robin-Hood...
I guess I'm on a Robin Hood kick. :)
PS-Now I'll have to find a movie with Errol Flynn playing Robin Hood!