The diction in Neil Gaiman's Stardust is rather nondescript in terms of elevation. The diction here tends to be connotative, using the same words quoted above to establish a mood of foreignness and foreboding. The sound here is more harsh than mellifluous, with phrases such as "dark slate roofs and high chimneys" and "grey and tall and stocky" which serve to evoke a feeling of strangeness which one feels when placed into an unfamiliar situation.
The diction in Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life is incredibly formal, as evidenced in the following sentence: "Had we been placed on earth by a malign creator for the exclusive purpose of suffering, we would have good reason to congratulate ourselves on our enthusiastic response to the task." While the previous passage was more connotative than denotative, the tone of this passage is denotative, which goes along with its genre, self-help. The sound here is sophisticated, so one might call it musical.
Finally, the diction in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is denotative, the sound noncommital, and the elevation more formal than informal. The author uses fancy adjectives to describe his surroundings, while denotative-ness can be derived from the informative tone with which he explains what he is doing. The sound, going along with the fancy adjectives used to describe, is more harmonious than discordant.
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