DLC match #13: Disney vs. Milne

Disney Literature Challenge:

WINNIE-THE-POOH

THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER

by A. A. Milne

If you want to learn something about the impact of voice on a story, read the old school Winnie the Pooh stories by A.A. Milne. Even though Disney lifted the plots and characters and a heap of dialog without much meddling, in spite of creating an animated storybook complete with text and narrator, there's still something missing.

That something is the gentle earnestness of Milne's voice. For whatever reason, it just doesn't translate. Disney's Pooh is sort of dopily lovable, which endears him to millions of people -- even me, once upon a time. But no more. I accept no substitutes. (Besides, once you've worked at a place called Halfway Down the Stairs, Milne spinoffs are strictly verboten.)

Verdict:

Milne

Score:

Disney - 6

Authors - 8

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Currently re-reading:

Living Dead Girl
by Elizabeth Scott

A-men!

This should be required reading for everyone who ever asks anyone (editor, agent, author, critique partner, mail carrier, etc.) to read anything they've ever written. Period.

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Currently re-reading:

Graceling
by Kristin Cashore

State of the TBR pile

Finished:

Jackaroo, by Cynthia Voigt

The Re-read-a-thon continues with...

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Wendy, by Karen Wallace

Per request

(Rather dim) closeup of Mystery Book #3:

Also, don't forget #7 and #11 remain unidentified...

Reminder clues:

• All three books are by Newbery-winning authors
• #7 and #11 are by the same author

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Currently skimming:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Poetry Friday

"Those who speak know nothing
Those who know are silent."
These words, as I am told,
Were spoken by Lao-tzü.
If we are to believe that Lao-tzü
Was himself one who knew,
How comes it that he wrote a book
Of five thousand words?

~Po Chü-i

Clues

Four books still left to identify from Saturday's Books Unmasked challenge: 2, 3, 7, & 11.

Clues:

• All the remaining books are by Newbery-winners
• #2 and #1 come from the same family tree, so to speak
• #7 and #11 also share the same type of relationship

[ETA: closeup of #3 here]

Post-It countdown, week 2

After one week of revision:

Red: 11

Orange: 5

Yellow: 6

Green: 6

Blue: 2

100 post-its, GONE. 30 left to go. Probably less, actually, since some of those red and green ones are likely to stay right where they are. That leaves just a few more tasks. Little things, like, oh...

• Rewriting the first 20 chapters in present tense (maybe)
• Finishing chapters 44 and 45
• Trimming the whole shebang by 15%

Blogging from this quarter might be erratic for the time being. I've got stuff to do.

State of the TBR pile

Finished:

Under Three Tsars, by Elizabeth Narishkin-Kurakin

Fire, by Kristin Cashore (audio)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Next:

Jackaroo, by Cynthia Voigt

Books unmasked

Happy Halloween!

Here's a puzzle for you -- how many of these books can you identify without their costumes, er, dust jackets? Some should be easy, others maybe not so much:

(click the image to make it bigger)

Other nifty undercover embellishments, which didn't make the puzzle matrix for obvious reasons:

Some cover decorations, like those on Number the Stars, Beauty, The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus, Diamond Willow, and The Castle in the Attic are embossed without foil or color, and don't photograph worth a darn. Check 'em out! And next time you've got your hands on a nice new hardcover, don't be too shy to peep under its knickers. You might be surprised by what you find. Heh.

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Currently re-reading:

Jackaroo
by Cynthia Voigt

Poetry Friday

The Hag

The Hag is astride,
This night for to ride;
The Devill and shee together:
Through thick, and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne’r so foule be the weather.

A Thorn or a Burr
She takes for a Spurre:
With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
Through Brakes and through Bryars,
O’re Ditches, and Mires,
She followes the Spirit that guides now.

No Beast, for his food,
Dares now range the wood;
But husht in his laire he lies lurking:
While mischiefs, by these,
On Land and on Seas,
At noone of Night are working,

The storme will arise,
And trouble the skies;
This night, and more for the wonder,
The ghost from the Tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Cal’d out by the clap of the Thunder.

~Robert Herrick (1648)

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Currently reading:

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Tiresome trends, volume 5

For the record: I am officially getting my fill of realistic novels narrated by witty, sarcastic, socially outcast teenagers.

Thank you.

(Prior complaints gathered here.)

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Currently reading:

Under Three Tsars
by Elizabeth Narishkin-Kurakin

Shorty-short Spitfire news post:

As of today, Miss Spitfire is an ebook!

ELSKE, by Cynthia Voigt

ELSKE

by Cynthia Voigt

(Atheneum)

I've had a doozy of a time figuring out why I like this book so much. With its restrained style and limited access to the characters' inner lives, a number of readers have complained that they felt detached from Elske. Stepping back to consider objectively, I can see where they're coming from - that sort of thing usually drives me bats. But in this case, where others wind up disengaged, I find myself fascinated. Even when they don't say so, I'm sure I know what the characters are feeling. What they do say, and the way they say it, tells me everything I need to know. It's like watching really good theatre, the kind without voiceover or soliloquy, where the tension between the surface and what lies beneath simply crackles.

How does Cynthia Voigt do that, without a stage, and without actors? If I find out, I'm not telling - at least not until I've learned to do it myself.

State of the TBR pile

Finished:

The Storm in the Barn, by Matt Phelan

Escaping the Tiger, by Laura Manivong

As for next week, I'm thinking some classic horror might be fun. Say, Dracula, or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (Probably the latter, since it's shorter and the movie's showing on TCM on Halloween.) Possibly with a little Poe mixed in.

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Currently reading:

The Lost Conspiracy
by Frances Hardinge