classic books

Audiobook: The House at Pooh Corner

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by A. A. Milne
Read by: Stephen Fry, Judi Dench, Michael Williams, Geoffry Palmer
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: It’s Pooh Bear! Perfect for everyone.

I have read the Pooh Bear stories over and over to my children (as has Hubby), but still, when I saw this on the shelf at the library, I snapped it up. I never mind hearing the Pooh Bear stories again, if they are being read by a handful of really great British actors, it’s positively perfect.

And it really was. These are the later ones, the Tigger stories, and I loved (we all did!) hearing them again. Our realizations this time? Eeyore is such a delightful cynic. He made us laugh every single time. Piglet is such a Good person (or pig, as is the case) and no one appreciates it. Tigger is quite possibly high. Rabbit is the only one of the bunch who actually actively has machinations: he wants to Get Rid of some of the other animals (*cough*tigger*cough*). Owl is a complete fraud. Christopher Robin is God. And Pooh? He’s that delightfully clueless person that you can’t help but love. The full cast audio was an absolutely perfect way to do this book; the personalities came shining through with each reader.

And the last story, In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place? It made Hubby and me both tear up. Growing up is such a bittersweet thing.

Delightful.

Audiobook: Sense & Sensibility

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by Jane Austen
Read by: Wanda McCaddon
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: Aside from Willoughby being a bit of a cad (!), there really isn’t anything improper in this one. The main obstacles are with the length and the language and the pacing.

The last time I read this one, five years ago, I ended up liking it. At least more than I did the first time I read it. Well, call me fickle, but I’m back on the “not so much” side of things. Perhaps it was the reader of this audiobook — she had a slightly grating voice; or perhaps it was that I was trying to listen to this driving back from Austin and it kept putting me to sleep. Either way, I was underwhelmed by this Austen novel.

This time, while I was amused at parts, and even laughed aloud once or twice, mostly I just kept thinking how poorly Austen plotted. It took too long to get started, it took too long to get events rolling, and it went on long after it could have ended. None of which is a crime; there are many adult books that suffer from the same issues. But I found myself irritated with it this time around. I wanted the story to be tighter, more streamlined. And while I enjoyed Austen’s trademark wit, I wanted more of it and less, well, austerity.

It’s not a bad book; it’s just not one of my favorite Austen books. I wouldn’t recommend listening to it, however. That was just a bad experience.

Emma Approved

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I haven’t mentioned this yet, but have you been watching Emma Approved?

It’s from the people who did The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (which I adored), and while it’s not as good (the varying camera angles bug me, and the idea seems more forced than Lizzie Bennet) (but then again, Emma’s not as good as Pride and Prejudice), all my favorite elements from the book are there. Emma’s a snob and a busybody, Mr. Knightly’s wonderful (and cute!), and they’re doing fun things with the story while still staying faithful to the book. Plus cute clothes.

They’re only 14 episodes in, so it’s still early. Give it a look and tell me what you think.

Audiobook: The Black Cauldron

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by Lloyd Alexander
read by James Langton
ages: 7+
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: The Book of Three

I picked this up because I thought the kids would want to listen to it (and they didn’t have Book of Three) on our recent vacation. But, when we put it in, there was much complaining and whining. And a couple of the kids, after listening to the first disc, said they were lost and confused. I guess after Harry Potter, even the simplest of books are boring. Either that, or The Black Cauldron starts out  too slow, and there are too many characters to keep straight. Which does make sense.

The plot is simply this: Taran is still the Assistant Pig Keeper at Caer Dallben, even though he’s fresh from his journey with Gwydion. He’s basically content (though he still longs to do things “men” do), but that changes when Gwydion shows up with a bunch of other lords and military men to hold a council. Their agenda: going after Arawn’s black cauldron and destroy it so that he doesn’t make any more of his undead cauldron born soldiers.

Sounds easy enough: go into Annuvin, get the cauldron, and get out. Except it isn’t that easy: someone has already come in and gotten the cauldron, and now it’s missing. So, the band — including Taran and his faithful friends, Fflewder Fflam (the reader actually said it “Flewdur Flam”! And here I was thinking it was some weird Welsh pronunciation), Princess Eilonwy, and Gurgi — splits up, and sets out looking for the cauldron.

Taran and his bunch get saddled with the most annoying character in the book: Ellidyr. He’s the worst kind of character: and annoying, proud, brat who thinks he’s too good for everything. I wanted to smack him whenever he came around.

Which brings me to the narration. I actually liked the was Langton read the book — he gave Eilonwy a slight Scottish accent, which suited her nicely (and she wasn’t terribly whiny, either), and he made other characters suitably menacing.  And while I thought his Gurgi was off at the beginning, the way Langton portrayed him grew on me over the course of the book.

One more thing: as I listened to the story, it occurred to me just how much Alexander drew on Tolkein’s world to create this little series of books. It’s not just the similarities in names or the magic, but the whole feel of the book. The quest that Taran has to go on. The fact that he’s mostly reactive rather than proactive (much like Frodo). The Big Evil Bad Guy lurking in the background with the Lesser Evil Bad Guy that they have to deal with immediately. It’s not a bad thing that this book felt a lot like Lord of the Rings. It’s just an observation.

I remember these books being some of my favorites as a kid. And while I’m not sure I ever found them brilliant, this one, at least, is still a good, entertaining adventure tale.