Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion
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Well, I kind of did it backward. I chose words that sound/look like they didn't come from the Romance languages more so than whether they sounded Anglo-Saxon. That and anything that starts with sh, ends in uy, or has an ie in it are usually Anglo-Saxon.There were a couple that were absolute guesswork though.
16/20 for me. I like these quizzes :)
Jane wrote: "Wow, my German really helped!"20/20 this makes up for some of those previous quizzes.:) I was really terrible on the Roman: 14/20.
Jane wrote: "I was really terrible on the Roman: 14/20."You? I don't believe it! :)
Pretty much seemed like Anglo Saxon word = Simpler Word in that quiz.
Kimber wrote: "Pretty much seemed like Anglo Saxon word = Simpler Word in that quiz."lol not wrong there, almost saying that us Anglo-Saxons are simple folk..... ;D
Kimber wrote: "Pretty much seemed like Anglo Saxon word = Simpler Word in that quiz."Generally that was what I thought too. I had no idea about which were actually from Anglo Saxon words, and had to work backwards from French. Looking through at the end of the quiz, it did seem that the Anglo Saxon version tended to be the simpler or more normal word. Interesting though
Kimber wrote: "Pretty much seemed like Anglo Saxon word = Simpler Word in that quiz."Yep, that's how I picked.
Kimber wrote: "Pretty much seemed like Anglo Saxon word = Simpler Word in that quiz."Yup, that's how I did it and got 18/20 right without really knowing anything (except for weird, lol, I knew that one).
Saddened by the shooting down of Flight MH17. Damn all wars and those who wage them.
Margaret wrote: "Saddened by the shooting down of Flight MH17. Damn all wars and those who wage them."
With both that and the Israel-Gaza conflict, today has become such a tragic day. Why do we not realise that human life is too valuable to waste so needlessly? :(
We have reached a period of time where human life is as disposable as a used tissue.This is neither morally defensible or good.
Sometimes I despair of this world.
Margaret wrote: "We have reached a period of time where human life is as disposable as a used tissue.This is neither morally defensible or good.
Sometimes I despair of this world."
But hasn't it always been like that? We, especially reading ancient and medieval hf, especially with so much military hf, should know that human life has always been disposable. Especially during war time.
The sad thing is that even with our technology, our knowledge, our ability to reason, disseminate information lightning fast, and our ability to meet a huge variety of people living all over the globe from various cultures and backgrounds at the tip of our fingers... we still haven't learned any better.
Alicja wrote: "But hasn't it always been like that? We, especially reading ancient and medieval hf, especially with so much military hf, should know that human life has always been disposable. Especially during war time.The sad thing is that even with our technology, our knowledge, our ability to reason, disseminate information lightning fast, and our ability to meet a huge variety of people living all over the globe from various cultures and backgrounds at the tip of our fingers... we still haven't learned any better. ..."
Yes, exactly. Humans will always wage war against each other. Just as all animals wage war against each other in nature.
The unfortunate thing is, that while it is our natural instinct to fight others over our herds, packs, mates and over our territories, we as the mammal with the bigger brain have the ability to make weapons that don't discriminate when used.
If I am not posting much in the next few days it isn't because I have deserted you all. :) I have just inflamed an old back injury and sitting down on computers is painful. Don't worry about me or feel sorry for me. I am perfectly okay and it will fix itself in time. I just have some trouble getting comfortable with my back right now and sitting down doesn't go well. neither does lying down for that matter. Pretty much the only thing I can do that is painless, is walk in a straight line. haha! :D
You can imagine my frustration.
I just wanted to explain why I won't be posting a lot. i hope to post a comment or two every day, but I won't be able to be too active.
Terri wrote: "If I am not posting much in the next few days it isn't because I have deserted you all. :) I have just inflamed an old back injury and sitting down on computers is painful. Don't worry about me or..."
Would this condition improve your straight line walking skills while drunk? :P
Hope you get better soon! We'll miss you.
Take care of yourself, Terri.
Simona wrote: "Jane wrote: "I was really terrible on the Roman: 14/20."You? I don't believe it! :)"
Neither did I.
Thanks, guys. :)Alicja, well, I suppose it would. But I gave up the evil drink about 10 years ago. lol.
So I think the only thing that this walking in a straight line thing can help me with, is walking out to the mail box, getting the mail, then turning a very slow turn and walking back to the house. :D
I guess I can just stand at the door each day and wait for the mail to arrive, so that I can get my daily straight line exercise. :)
p.s our mailbox is 250 metres from the house.
Terri wrote: "Thanks, guys. :)Alicja, well, I suppose it would. But I gave up the evil drink about 10 years ago. lol.
So I think the only thing that this walking in a straight line thing can help me with, is ..."
Well, there is always the treadmill... a very straight line. :)
Tonight I'm thinking of all the families of the folks that were headed to the 2014 AIDS conference in Melbourne. Just a sad day all around.
Yeah. Melbourne is in mourning. We've also had confirmation that a Melbourne couple returning from a European holiday were on board.We may be a big city, but we're still small town in a lot of ways. We're hurting.
Margaret I heard one headline this evening of a couple who decided to stay in Amsterdam but sent their children back to Australia with their grandfather. They were 8,10 and 12. It is an unbelievable tragedy. I agree with Alicja. It would seem we have learnt so much about what war does, yet know so bloody little. These events make me sad and angry. I overheard this man once talking away. He was fairly self righteous, quite arrogant and deeply religious. He was saying how he believed alcohol was the root of all evil and should be banned. Really!! Not greed!!! I think greed is at the root of so many of our troubles. And like you Margaret sometimes I totally despair of what will be of us all. Sorry to sound so doom and gloom, this is just a sad day. :(
That plane crash upset me. The whole world situation upsets me. We had a murder/suicide last week in our town. Terri's injury flareup is not good. I read the part of the comment saying, 'sitting down on computer....'and
Well, shoot! I was not finished with my comment and the screen just up and posted! Back to Terri sitting on the computer: I know what Terri meant, but for the life of me, I got a mental picture of her actually sitting on the computer. lol. I had itchy ears and used Cortisone 10 which naturally got into my hair. Went to doctor and after looking at my ears and greasy hair, he said, 'Linda, I don't believe Cortizone 10 is a hair product.' So don't sit on your computer or use Cort 10 to style your hair! lol. I am spitting nails at Goodreads. I couldn't add a book as 'currently reading' I went to their Help for Dummies and asked for help. Three times they wanted more info, and I gave it to them. Later I went to my profile for some reason, and to my utter shock, saw my 'review' of a book named HELP written by yours truly. I got mad and wrote them about it, but in mid-sentence, there she flew and was posted! Finally, I wrote a message claiming I was due money for every copy of HELP that sold!What is wrong with Goodreads. The fault is not mine because I asked for HELP!
Better days tomorrow for everyone! Oh, welcome to new members!
LL
Has anyone signed up (or going to sign up) for Amazon Unlimited for their Kindle? I'm wondering if it's going to be worth it. I have a love/hate relationship with my kindle not to mention I would feel like I'm cheating on the library. I am just looking for some opinions.
Gretchen wrote: "Has anyone signed up (or going to sign up) for Amazon Unlimited for their Kindle? I'm wondering if it's going to be worth it. I have a love/hate relationship with my kindle not to mention I would f..."It seems the selection is limited, at least for now. Mostly, its their Prime's loan per month books from what I've read. Based on that I found that very few books that I want to read that my library doesn't have are on there. I would compare their selection to you library, if you have a good library system I'd stick with it for now until they get more titles. However, if your system is lacking and their selection in greater, then it may be worth it to you.
Personally, my library system is amazing, and they barely have any titles available that my library can't get so I'll wait and see (I do have Prime, which the loan one book a month is enough to make me happy - I got Prime for other reasons to begin with).
What I heard is that none of the 'Big Five' are part of the Amazon Unlimited selection. This is a pretty good article about it: http://gigaom.com/2014/07/16/kindle-u...
Sounds like it might be worth waiting to get. I'm not overly impressed with the Prime library right now. It seems to be a lot of trashy romance novels and ya adult books. I'm not saying those are necessarily bad genres, I just don't want to pay $10/month to read them.
Gretchen wrote: "Sounds like it might be worth waiting to get. I'm not overly impressed with the Prime library right now. It seems to be a lot of trashy romance novels and ya adult books. I'm not saying those are n..."And not the right kind of trashy romance novels. I looked up 20 m/m romances on my tbr and none of them were on the list.
Lisa wrote: "Margaret I heard one headline this evening of a couple who decided to stay in Amsterdam but sent their children back to Australia with their grandfather. They were 8,10 and 12. It is an unbelievabl..."The wise old Bible adage is so true: "Love of money is the root of all evil." So that comes out to greed.
Linda wrote: "Well, shoot! I was not finished with my comment and the screen just up and posted! Back to Terri sitting on the computer: I know what Terri meant, but for the life of me, I got a mental picture ..."I hope you listen to that doctors advice, Linda. :)
Lisa wrote: "Margaret I heard one headline this evening of a couple who decided to stay in Amsterdam but sent their children back to Australia with their grandfather. They were 8,10 and 12. It is an unbelievabl..."It is just awful. They are saying that it is something like 36 Australians killed on that flight. 28 Aussies and then the rest were permanent residents of Australia.
When I saw the picture of those kids from Perth I cried and cried and cried. Truly awful.
Our whole country is in shock from this tragedy. I am quite emotional about it all.
One thing is shocking to know.
There is a family from my state (Queensland) who have lost family members who were on MH17.
They also lost their son and his wife who were on the vanished MH370.
Speaking of unlucky/lucky coincidences, one of the flight attendants on the MH17 swapped his shift to get on that flight and, obviously, is one of the victims. His wife, also a Malaysian Airlines flight attendant, was supposed to be on the MH370, but swapped her shift and got off that flight. So she escaped MH370.
These are quite amazing coincidences.
Does anybody recall the fallout from when the US military shot down a passenger plane of the same size and killed nearly 300 people in the late 80's?
I remember this same thing happening, only it was the US who had shot the plane down thinking that it was jet fighter in a no fly zone.
I was very young when this happened, so I remember it as being sad that all those people were killed, but I don't remember much else. It was so shocking, just as this Ukraine one is, but I don't recall what the International response was to it.
I should remember the 80's incident, but I don't. Accidents of this kind just break my heart. There are loved ones who are mourning the victims of MH370. ' Someone loved them and held them when they cried.' The quote from LES MIS probably isn't correct, but the sentiment is.
Terri wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Margaret I heard one headline this evening of a couple who decided to stay in Amsterdam but sent their children back to Australia with their grandfather. They were 8,10 and 12. It is a..."I had no idea that something like that had happened. Having read into it on the wikipedia article for it, there seemingly wasn't a huge international outcry. It isn't mentioned in the article anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air...
Interesting that you mentioned that, Terri. There's a list of shootdown incidents too and, even though they thankfully seem to have become rarer, it doesn't make it any less tragic. :(
I recollect the one from the 80's & I believe? a few years later the family of the officer responsible for firing the weapon were gunned down in the street? Not that Ive read that in the wiki above but im sure some retribution was taken.
Here is a slight change of topic. I hope I don't make anyone jealous but today is a cool, rainy Sunday in Edmonton, Canada. We have nowhere to go, nothing to do and are in no hurry to do it. I'm curled up on the couch, drinking coffee, checking various social media accounts and reading my book. The Fiancé is in the kitchen on a bake-a-thon. We have two loaves of regular bread, twist top muffins, braided garlic herb bread and four trays of cinnamon buns - all scratch made - in the process of rising and baking. It smells like heaven in here and I'm even happier that he's doing his own dishes :D
Terri wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Margaret I heard one headline this evening of a couple who decided to stay in Amsterdam but sent their children back to Australia with their grandfather. They were 8,10 and 12. It is a..."Yes. It was an Iranian airliner.
Kimber, Why would any one of us be jealous of fresh home made bread, a free day with the love and light our lives, doing what lovers like to do most? Read! lol. Glad you had a good day! Those days bringing a glow of joy and perfect contentment are rare. Ponder them.LL
It's suppose to be 90 degrees with a heat index over 100 today in Minnesota! The only kind of baking we're doing around here is the kind that involves getting popsicles out of the freezer. I think we're having pb&j for supper since I have no desire to turn on anything in my kitchen that produces heat.
I got the airline numbers mixed up, but the ghost flight and the latest flight disaster were both MH flights. Two military flights have been shot down in the last few weeks. The commercial flights had been
(Did it again. Now I know why would people throw these tablets against the wall.) Commercial flights had been warned not to fly over that air space. The reasons for doing so we are hearing were to save money and time and/or pilot fatigue prompted the pilots to choose the shorter route. This disaster has been all over our news stations ever since it happened. There were only two Americans on board, but human life is human life no matter the citizenship, creed, IQ, ....My heart breaks for everyone touched by this . I hope the flights were disasters and not something more sinister.
Linda wrote: "(Did it again. Now I know why would people throw these tablets against the wall.) Commercial flights had been warned not to fly over that air space. The reasons for doing so we are hearing were..."This article explains why MH17 was flying where it was despite the warnings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/opi...
It answered my question, "Why in the world would they fly over the Ukraine if they didn't have to?"
Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction
Books mentioned in this topic
The Berry Pickers (other topics)Fortune's Child (other topics)
Hild (other topics)
Sharpe's Command (other topics)
Edenglassie (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Amanda Peters (other topics)Nicola Griffith (other topics)
Bernard Cornwell (other topics)
Bernard Cornwell (other topics)
Allan Hands (other topics)
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ok, quizz time again. I go..."
17/20- I knew all of those additional French lessons in school would be useful at some point! :P