Book v. Movie: Alice in Wonderland

For Z's read-a-thon month, we've been focusing on some longer books.  Even though he may not understand everything, he's been a good listener and I've tried my best to do some good voices as I read.  One of our most adventurous reads so far was the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  Z is quite familiar with the Disney film version and so he was willing to listen to this story and even read some of his favorite parts himself (like the crocodile poem).

At first he was a bit daunted because the only copy I own is the beautiful The Annotated Alice.  He said it was too long, especially when he thought we had to read the annotations on the side of the pages.  But when he realized that it was just the center column text and that it had the original Tenniel illustrations, he was excited to dive into the story.  We made it through with only a few bored moments (the story of the unfortunate Mock Turtle is a bit abstract for a five year old) and I think it was a great experience for Z to be exposed to the different language and ideas.  I'm not sure what he took away from it except that, for a couple of days, everything was "nonsense"!  He says that he wants me to read Alice's Adventures Through the Looking Glass to him sometime soon.

As a reward for sitting through a difficult book, we then went to a 3D showing of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.  We both really enjoyed the movie although I would have probably done better with the 2D version because my eyes didn't adapt well.

If you don't know the premise of this new movie, Alice has grown up having vivid dreams of a place called Wonderland that she believes exists only in her head.  Now she is of age and she is attending her engagement party.  She starts to question the life she is being forced to lead and sees the white rabbit running through the shrubbery.  He beckons to her and she follows, only to fall down the rabbit hole once more.  When she arrives, she is told that they have been waiting for "the Alice" to return -- to slay the Jabberwocky on the Frabjous Day.  But until she believes in Wonderland (actually Underland) and herself, she can't succeed.

This film mixed elements from both Alice books and also the original Disney movie in an interesting way.  There were some intense chase and fight scenes but Z wasn't scared.  He was much more frightened by the Other Mother in Coraline.  The visuals were up to Burton standards and the acting was superb for the most part.

Verdict: The movie takes elements of the books but weaves its own story.  The book is, of course, a must read and the movie is beautiful and unique but, since they aren't the same story, you really can't compare them.  Choose whichever one you are interested in and both if you love Alice.

Following the white rabbit,
K and Z

Starred Saturdays: week of March 14

It's the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere!  Yay!  I still haven't uploaded my neighborhood bloom pics but it looks like I'm going to be able to get many more this weekend because the sun is shining and the days are longer.

The U.S. is finally getting in on the children's books in cereal boxes racket thanks to Cheerios.  Jacket Copy doesn't give a date for when this will start but the books are by first-time authors and they are chosen through a contest.

io9 says that there is going to be a new A Wrinkle in Time movie.  That's good news because the first one was rather bad.

If you haven't heard of The 826 Project yet (and I hadn't), check it out.  It's a youth (ages six to eighteen) creative writing program that is funded by some pretty unique shops.  Just looking at the classes offered by the local Seattle chapter is inspiring.  (via Pages to type before I sleep ...)

Are you an Etsy browser or shopper?  PicClick looks like an awesome way to navigate quickly through Etsy items.  I like that it has prices right there up front.  (via Apartment Therapy)

If you are a luxury camper or an emergency preparedness nut, this Camp Chef Camping Outdoor Oven with 2 Burner Camping Stove might be the most awesome thing you could own.  Can you imagine some fresh warm muffins when the power is out?  (via Apartment Therapy)

Atlas Obscura is one of my favorite new sites and the other day they featured a rabbit carving that may have influenced a young Charles Dodgson to write about a certain white rabbit.  What do you think?

Rob of RobAround Books has a Bookshelf of the Week feature and this week's photo from Joseph del Pesco is unique -- a hollow tree structure on the streets of Berlin with books inside.

And finally, I really hope that you consider tuning in to the Discovery Channel for their follow up series to Planet Earth -- Life.  Techland sings its praises and the first two episodes air on Sunday.  (And yes, it's narrated by Oprah.)



Thinking of re-starting my zoology career,
K

New Release: Heresy

Heresy by S.J. Parris is a historical fiction set in sixteenth century Oxford.  It's an easily read mystery with a wealth of details about the plight of Catholics in Elizabethan England.

The novel follows Italian ex-monk Giordano Bruno as he runs from the Inquisition straight into an even more dangerous situation in England.  After being recruited as a spy by Sir Francis Walsingham, he heads to Oxford where he is immediately attacked for his Papist past.  Words are not the only means of attack in this college though.  During his first night there, he is woken by the screams of a man who is being attacked by a vicious dog in a locked courtyard.  After the man dies, Bruno is shocked that the Rector tries to explain it away as an accident even though the conditions are such that it was obviously murder.  After Bruno starts his own minor investigation into the murdered man's life, things in Lincoln College only get worse and it is up to Bruno to figure out who is being targeted and why.

This was an average novel.  There was nothing exceptional about it but at the same time I have no real complaints.  If this is a genre that you enjoy, you will probably want to read this book.  The descriptions of torture are vivid and the religious complexities of the newly Protestant England are well expressed.  Giordano Bruno was a real historical figure and, if the author makes this a series, we will have few years left with Bruno as he was imprisoned for seven years and then burned at the stake for heresy in 1600 -- only 17 years after his visit to Oxford.

Contemplating religious freedom,
K


Support our site and buy Heresy on Amazon or find it at your local library. We received an advance review copy from the publisher.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and Giveaway Winner

In lieu of clover (of which we have tons in our semi-wild yard including quite a bit of the four-leafed variety), you will have to be satisfied with just a bit o' green.  I think the rabbits ate the pictures along with the clover.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and congratulations to the winner of a copy of The Yellow House

Wendy a.k.a. Caribou's Mom!

Thank you to all who entered the contest and I hope to have another giveaway soon.

Looking for someone to pinch,

K

New Release: Dead Spy Guy

Last fall I reviewed the first of David Lubar's Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series, My Rotten Life. I thought it was cute and was hoping that it was the start to a strong series. In January, the second book of the series, Dead Spy Guy, was released and, if anything, I liked it more than the first one!

This book picks up shortly after the first one leaves off.  Nathan Abercrombie is a zombie and only two of his friends know his secret.  At least, that's what he thinks until he notices that he is being followed (rather shabbily) by a man in a shrub costume and an electronic squirrel. When the man finally contacts him, he reveals that he is head of B.U.M., The Bureau of Useful Misadventures.  The man wants to recruit Nathan to use his special skills to help the world.  But can Nathan trust this man -- especially when he offers a partial cure to Nathan's woes?

This is a really fun book.  I found myself chuckling in a few places and laughing a bit too loudly at 2 am during one of the final scenes.  I love the direction that the book takes and that it deals with some of the everyday challenges that Nathan faces with his "condition".  He has his same personality but he doesn't need to sleep or eat and he has to be careful with his slowly deteriorating body.  I also like the way that friendships and school kid alliances are portrayed in the books.  This story has depth despite its light-hearted topic.  I have recommended this series to Z's school librarian and she is going to purchase the books for his school.

Rooting for Nathan despite his being a zombie,
K


Support our site and buy Dead Guy Spy (Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie) on Amazon or find it at your local library. We received an advanced reading copy from the publisher.

Japanese Literature Read-Along: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: Book 1

I'm very excited to have the chance to join Tanabata in a three-month long read-along of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.  Simon suggested I try Kafka on the Shore first but I ran out of time so this ended up being my first Murakami novel.  I've been interested in it since last year when my husband ran a Facebook application that gathered data from his friends and said that the most frequently listed "favorite" book in his friends group was this one!  Anyway, the group read started with Book One for this month and I finished it just in time.

Told in the first person, we follow Toru Okada, a married man in a Tokyo suburb who has quit his job and is trying to figure out what he wants to do next with his life.  He certainly doesn't want to return to his career in law but he's not sure what else lies in his future.  While he's spending his time at home, his wife gone at work, many things happen to him that are out of the ordinary. He receives strange phone calls from an overly familiarly woman.  His cat goes missing and his wife brings in a psychic to help them find it.  He meets a sixteen-year old neighbor girl who ditches school and does surveys around the city of bald men for a wig-making company.  And this is just the start of many irregular things that happen.  He tries to make sense of all of this but his calm personality also allows things to happen around him and, instead of acting out, he tries to find the reason that these things are coming to him.

I'm really enjoying this book so far.  There are some parts that are a bit over the top but I get the sense that Murakami doesn't write without purpose.  I think that many things will be explained and tied together before the end of the story.  As a main character, Toru Okada is very neutral--he doesn't really initiate anything--and yet he is somehow also quite likable.  Apparently the reader isn't the only one to think this.  Many of his fellow characters find him easy to confide in and seem to trust him immediately.  I am very interested to find out what happens in the rest of the story and it will be hard to wait to find out!

I will be discussing this more today at In Spring It Is The Dawn.

Hoping for a satisfying continuation,
K


Support our site and buy The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle on Amazon or find it at your local library. We received our copy from a fellow blogger.

Discussion: Top 40 Bad Books

If you haven't had a chance to read this American Book Review article, Top 40 Bad Books, yet, head over and take a read and then come back and we'll discuss.  (FYI - It's a 10 page PDF.)  It starts by asking what exactly is a bad book --

That said, what constitutes a bad book? Is it an overrated “good” book? Can an otherwise good author produce a “bad” book? Is the badness in style, in execution? Or is it in theme or outlook? Or is the notion of a “bad” book even comprehensible in the age of postmodernism, poststructuralism, and cultural studies?

All set?  Okay ...

So this didn't turn out really to be "a list" but instead the thoughts of forty academics on the subject of bad books.  What do you think about the books that received mention?  Jacket Copy says "Really? If they're the worst, what's the best?"  It's true that some "classics" get mentioned -- The Little Prince, Women in Love, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The End of the Affair -- but I think most books can be argued as "bad" for some reason or another.

So, another question?  Are there any books that are unequivocally, unarguably "good" books?  I think Gerald Graff puts forward an interesting question as well --

It has always seemed strange to me that bad books aren’t a prominent part of our school and college literature curriculum. How do we expect students to learn to tell the difference between good and bad books unless we assign some bad ones for comparison? Don’t you need badness in order to know goodness?

I can only conclude that those who have determined the literature curriculum have been more interested in protecting the good or great books from contamination—that is, in feeling virtuous about their own tastes—than they are in helping students understand what they read.

I think my own definition of "bad" books definitely includes this category, as described by Sue-Im Lee --

One breed of a bad book is a disappointing novel from an author for whom you harbor expectations. Previous encounters with this author’s novels have pleased you immensely, and you look forward to another opportunity.  This opportunity comes surprisingly early and frequently, since this author publishes a novel every few years. But by the third novel, you experience growing indignation at the familiarity of it all.

Or does it all just boil down to Liedeke Plate's idea that the addition of zombies to classics is what makes a book truly bad?

I think that Zahi Zalloua's thoughts were the perfect end to this article --

Bad books deliver on their promise. They lend themselves too easily to pedagogical use; they are saturated with purpose, conforming all too well to their readers’ expectations. They don’t take a risk; they don’t interrupt the numbing flow of knowledge and commentary. They are devoured (read once) and then discarded by an insatiable reading public. Is the state of bad books hopeless? Can they be “rescued”? Can they be reminded of their so-called literariness? Maybe. Maybe a bad book is in fact merely a mirror that reflects a bad reader—a reader who asks uncreative questions of a work. Or maybe bad books are really at their worst when they’re paired with such bad readers.

Lost in thought,
K

Starred Saturdays: week of March 7

Where does the time go?  We're a few days away from St. Paddy's Day (yay!).  We're changing our clocks forward an hour this weekend (boo!).  And we're wrapping up winter and welcoming spring.  Time flies!

Penguin is determined to create an alternative cover for every taste and now we have their (RED) series.  There are some beautiful books there and they fund a fantastic charity!  (via Rob Around Books)

If you have lots of spare money and a book-lover who has almost everything, how about getting them The Oxford Companion to the Book?  $270 for 1408 pages comes out to only 19 cents a page.  It's really quite a good deal!  (via The OUP Blog)

Here's an amazing database of 20th century bestselling American novels that The Millions calls "bibliophilic crack".  Click on a novel and find a ridiculous amount of information (compiled by graduate students) including descriptions of paper and binding and dust jacket flap blurbs.

Don't forget to pre-order your iPad.  I've decided to wait for the next version.  It's always improved and usually cheaper.

If you're heading to Buenos Aires, don't miss the Palacio Barolo -- a 22 floor building modeled on Dante's Divine Comedy.  "The lobby, a central hall adorned with inscriptions of Latin verse and monster statues, radiates out from a central dome into 9 vaulted archways, which represent the nine circles of hell as described by Dante in the Inferno."

Are you a tree house lover?  Check out the Wilkinson Residence from Portland, OR.  Be warned, at 3300 square feet, it's no kid's playhouse!  (via Apartment Therapy)

A woman in New Zealand has just made a tidy sum by selling the souls of the previous residents of her home.  However, she donated the proceeds to the SPCA. (via io9)

Need some useless information about yourself?  Take the True Value personal color quiz.  I got black.  What am I supposed to do with that?  (via Apartment Therapy)

And for your viewing pleasure ... Dead Vlei.  The trees are dead and dry and the sand is red with rust.

Thinking about a weekend excursion,
K