Luna’s Prose Ramblings

After the case was originally dismissed, a 2-1 majority opinion of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the claim by Miami-Dade County School Board that they were in their right to remove Vamos a Cuba by Alta Schreier, published by Heinemann Library, from school libraries for reasons of it not being an accurate representation of life in Cuba.

The case was picked up by the Miami-Dade County School Board after complaints by several people including a former political prisoner of Cuba. The book offended mainly because it depicts smiling children wearing uniforms of Cuba’s communist youth group and the book tells of “carnavals” that in reality are commemorative days celebrating Cuba’s revolutionist history. According to the complainers, the fault of the book is one of omission as the aspects of totalitarianism that effect Cuban life are not covered.

Over at Children’s Book Examiner Diane Petryk Bloom questions where the line lies between books being age appropriate and inaccurate.

Today I came across the list of Hugo nominees for this year’s prestigious Sci-Fi award. I have highlighted some of the nominees here;

Best Novel

• Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)

• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)

• Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)

• Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer, story; Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, screenplay; based on characters created by Bob Kane; Christopher Nolan, director (Warner Brothers)

• Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Guillermo del Toro & Mike Mignola, story; Guillermo del Toro, screenplay; based on the comic by Mike Mignola; Guillermo del Toro, director (Dark Horse, Universal)

• Iron Man, Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway, screenplay; based on characters created by Stan Lee & Don Heck & Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby; Jon Favreau, director (Paramount, Marvel Studios)

• METAtropolis by John Scalzi, ed. Written by: Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell and Karl Schroeder (Audible Inc)

• WALL-E, Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• “The Constant” (Lost) Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof, writers; Jack Bender, director (Bad Robot, ABC studios)

• Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen , writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)

• “Revelations” (Battlestar Galactica) Bradley Thompson & David Weddle, writers; Michael Rymer, director (NBC Universal)

• “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead” (Doctor Who) Steven Moffat, writer; Euros Lyn, director (BBC Wales)

• “Turn Left” (Doctor Who) Russell T. Davies, writer; Graeme Harper, director (BBC Wales)

As is said on the Hugo website, the nominees announcement on the Anticipation website includes links to purchasable and freely available downloadable and readable content from this year’s nominees.

Luna’s reading list update

Have just finished;

• Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series; The Golden Compass (yes, the American version, indeed), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass

• P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast’s House of Night series; Marked, Betrayed, Chosen and the latest Untamed

• Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris in the BBC audio drama version

• J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, also in BBC audio drama version, thanks to the wonderful Travis at The Hog’s Head

• Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten and Stolen, from the Women of the Otherworld series.

• Patricia Briggs’ Moon Called, from the Mercy Thompson series.

Currently reading;

• Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (no really, I am !)

• Patricia Briggs’ Blood Bound, from the Mercy Thompson series.

• I had started in Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, from the Dark Tower series, but I think that I am going to leave that series for later

Prospective reads;

• Some follow-ups to the books that I have just read, such as Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Gaints and Coraline in preparation for the UK theatrical release (in June !) and some more books in the Women of the Otherworld and Mercy Thompson series

• I am seriously looking forward to reading James W. Thomas’ Repotting Harry Potter in conjunction with the entirety of the Potter verse, of course. Thank you for this wonderful birthday present !

A collection of previously unpublished Mark Twain’s penning will be published in April 2009 by HarperStudio. Many of them, such as a short by the title The Undertaker’s Tale, has been recovered from the masses of personal correspondence that Twain has left after his death in 1910.

The volume entitled Who is Mark Twain ? also includes a musing by Twain on the matter of publishing, in which he says;

the man who does most toward deciding me whether I shall publish the book or burn it, is the man who always goes to sleep. If he drops off within fifteen minutes, I burn the book; if he keeps awake three-quarters of an hour, I publish – and I publish with the greatest confidence, too.

The University of Virginia, Alma Mater of Edgar Allan Poe during his brief stint at university, celebrates the author’s 200th birthday by the acquisition and exhibition of a letter of personal correspondence between Poe and his New York publishers, Langley.

The correspondence is a letter of apology accompanying a request for the purchase of an article, which should elevate his situation of being ‘desperately pushed for money’. In the letter Poe writes;

“Will you be so kind enough to put the best possible interpretation upon my behaviour while in N-York? You must have conceived a queer idea of me — but the simple truth is that Wallace would insist upon the juleps, and I knew not what I was either doing or saying”,

referring to friend, poet and lawyer William Ross Wallace.

The University of Virginia purchased the letter from a private collector for an unknown sum. The University Library released the letter this week ahead of an exhibit opening this Saturday, March 7th, that highlights Poe’s enduring literary works, brief life and mysterious death at the age of 40.