Purchased from Green Metropolis.

Review taken from www.whiteapples.com

Vincent Ettrich is a bit of a cad, a bounder, even a louse, when it comes to his relations with the opposite sex. Unable to keep his pants on around attractive women, the charming and intelligent Vincent has recently divorced his wife of 16 years in favor of his mistress, Isabelle Neukor. But ironically, he and Isabelle have since had a spat and separated—whether temporarily or permanently is in doubt. This separation leaves Vincent free to take up with Coco Hallis, lingerie salesperson. Their relationship is well along when the props are knocked out from under Vincent's entire world.

Coco reveals to Vincent that his entire present life is a sham. Some months ago, he died of cancer. The world has been literally remade to accept his revivification. But currently he is no more than a substantial ghost, a revenant, a zombie, a fetch. Coco is some kind of supernatural agent in mortal guise sent to guide him through a tortuous labyrinth of revelations about his posthumous purpose.

Naturally enough, Vincent flips. He denies the reality of his situation and his obligations. But a series of incidents forces him to acknowledge the truth. He meets another dead man walking, his old friend Bruno Mann. He visits the hospital where he died, recognizing nurses and fellow patients, including the mysterious Tillmann Reeves. And when Isabelle gets back in touch with Vincent, she reveals that she, too, knows of his death. Moreover, she is pregnant with their supernaturally sentient son, Anjo, who promises to become an earthly savior—if he can ever be born in the face of celestial opposition. In an afterlife which is not set up according to any previous theological speculations, one cosmic force—known simply as Chaos, and symbolized by the white apple of the title—has plans to extend its mortal dominion, plans which include the extinction of Vincent and family. A race is on: Will Vincent learn to utilize his unnatural new powers and will Isabelle overcome her own moral failings before Chaos can crush them? Across time and space the couple bounce, on a journey that is as much into inner space as it is across a vividly limned set of cities.

As so many people enjoy the work’s of Jonathan Carroll I purchased this copy from Green Metropolis so that I can read it and allow others to enjoy it too by sending it out on an international ring.

The order of participation will be as close to a first-come-first-served basis as geographic and postal restrictions allow.

catrionamoore UK
aubriel UK
Squirk UK
coolboxuk UK
Hexa UK INT
eMeReS Netherlands EU
bluepearl78 Netherlands
Gyd Spain EU
graphi Poland
allbookedup Austria EU
Ben-Nevis Germany INT
Flashgirl USA
AngDs USA
MollyGrue USA
LaurieS USA INT
jaynereader Italy INT
Back home to catrionamoore

Written in snippets and put together like a sliding mosaic puzzle eventually all the tiles slide into place and the story is complete.

Frustrating, confusing, enthralling and fantastic, White Apples is nothing that I expected and everything that I hoped for from the second Jonathan Carroll book I had the good fortune to come across. It’s a brilliant modern fantasy and another in a genre of its own.

I don’t want to give too much away in my review of the book because saying the wrong thing could ruin the story, it would be like telling someone before they saw he film that Bruce Willis was dead in Sixth Sense.

I’m looking forward to reading more from Jonathan Carroll.

Going out to aubriel hopefully 07/02.

Arrived this morning - many thanks :-)

I really enjoyable read, certainly a page turner IMO, *but* if you like your stories to flow then this isn't the book for you. The place you start at the begining of the book in no way really resembles the place you find yourself at the end. Along the way there are twists and turns which make you reassess and reevaluate what you think you know. I suspect this book could really get on your wires if you want something logical. However, if you like your stories with imagination, flare and a touch of quick silver then I suggest you give this a try ;-)

Arrived safe and sound - many thanks!

It took me a little while to get into this book, but once I did, it was great. Carroll has some very strange ideas! Fantastic, and kept me going right till the end. I loved the unexpected characters and animals that popped up unexpectedly.

Off to Coolboxuk today.

Many thanks catrionamoore for sharing.

Arrived today - and 2nd in line for reading... Thanks a lot.

I'm much inclined to agree with catrionamoore's journal. It also was my second book by Jonathan Carroll, and I also was taken aback by how different and yet how similar this one felt. Again, it had a direct but nevertheless somewhat slow beginning before it started zigzagging off from one turn and twist to the next wich made it so spellbinding.
But it was everything I could have hoped for - Carroll writes the most unusual fantasy. In fact, it's neither fantasy nor science fiction as we are used to but his ideas are totally different and often make me wonder how he could possibly conceive them!
The one thing about his books that I don't like is that he always intersperses the English text with German snippets (there is always some relation to Vienna which he obviously loves) but very often, although not complicated sentences, he gets it wrong. For somebody who speaks German well, that kind of ruins things a bit... And seeing that Carroll has lived in Vienna for long enough, one should expect him to be able to use easy German without mistakes (or stay away from it...).
Finally, as a piece of totally useless information for anyone else: this is the first book written in the English language in which I found my name (Petra) featuring!

Arrived today and balanced carefully on top of Mt TBR - thanks.

I loved this book and whizzed through it in a couple of days. It reminded me a little of a more obscure and fantastic version of The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) - the same focus on love and relationships and how they work, but so much more as well. It's the kind of book that colours the way you see the world while you're reading it, the stange magic slightly closer to the surface than usual. Like others, I've only read one or two of Carroll's other novels but will definitely be looking out for me, I didn't realise he'd written so many.

Sending on to eMeReS as soon as I have an address.

The book has arrived safely while I was away on holiday. I am home again as well and hope to get into it as soon as I have finished the book I am reading at the moment.

Hexa, thanks for sending it on and for the card (wish I could go to that Hitchhiker's Guide exhibition).
And compliments to Squirk for the beautiful bookmark, I also saw one of your pictures in your journal for Vurt. Amazing how you capture those covers. I'll make sure to send it on with the book for others to enjoy as well.

This was my first encounter with the work of Jonathan Carroll, I'm still not sure what to think of it. It was a good read, but it was like something kept me from really getting into it. I really liked the ideas behind the story, especially the concept of the mosaic. For me that was the gift and I have to say that I didn't really like the wrapping it came in, i.e. the way the story was told. But then again, usually you keep the gift and forget about the wrapping anyway, so I still don't regret signing up for this ring.
And although this book did not make me an instant fan of Jonathan Carroll I am still curious to read more of his work.

The book is safe with me ...I will write more once I have read it

Received, safe & sound, thanks Bluepearl78 :).
Starting my reading in a couple of days.

First of all sorry everybody for this long time without notice!.

The book is flying to Poland right now and hope Graphi will enjoy it far more than I did. I couldn't finish it but I don't think it's the book's fault, perhaps it was a case of good book/bad time; I felt the story was interesting but somehow I didn't get trapped in the storytelling.

Thanks for sharing.

got it from Gyd today - thanks a lot! :)
best wishes to all :)
graphi

Got the book today, thanks!

I finally finished the book and yesterday I sent it on to Ben-Nevis in Germany.
I quite enjoyed the book, it was a totally new "genre" for me, but it is not something I could read all the time.
The one scene in the zoo was horrible!
But I think I will read another book by Carroll, I picked one up a while ago at the local meetup.

Thanks for sharing, catrionamoore!

edited to add: great bookmark, squirk!!

15.Aug.06 Arrived today (took longer due to some misspelling of the address)

It took me a while to get into it. But than I was gripped. I like storries that just do not care about reality and this definitly is one.

I liked this. It was interesting and always surprising. Like Ben says, it just didn't care about reality. I could never tell where it was going. I've read other short stories by Carroll, but this was my first novel of his. His writing really makes me want to see Vienna.

So anyway. I think I received this in November amd then finished it a few weeks ago. MollyGrue asked to be skipped and I didn't get a response from LaurieS so the book will be on its way to jaynereader by early next week. Thanks for letting me participate!

Cool bookmark too.

Just received from AngDs, thank you. It's next on my list after my current read.

I'm not a fantasy fan so that didn't help, but I'm afraid I didn't like this book very much. I didn't find it very original: parallel universes, a 'chosen one' coming along to save the world if only he/she can be saved first. It reminded me of The Matrix. A few episodes were laughable I thought: the zoo, the scrabble pieces and the eef, and they were key bits so it was definitely not my kind of book. Sorry!
have PMed catrionamoore for her address but not received a reply. When you get this catriona, send me your address and I'll send it home soon. Thanks.

Both the book and Squirk's lovely bookmark have arrived back safely. Thank you very much to everyone who has particpated. After having a nightmare recently with a book box this was just the tonic needed to reaffirm my trust in bookcrossers.

I'm not sure what I will do with the book next, it may be a RABCK, go off in a book box or I might just wild release it.

RELEASE NOTES:

Taking with me to the meet to leave in the wild, pass to another bookcrosser or be used in a bookswap.

I found this book on top of a way marker in Salcey Forest on 8 August 2007 at approximately 3pm (so it wasn''t there long!) I had heard of book crossing but this is my first experience of it. I''ve just registered today and am currently half way through White Apples. I haven''t read any Jonathon Carroll before so I didn''t know what to expect - so far so good.

I will post another journal entry when I have finished it.

I hadn't read a Jonathan Carroll book before. Like another reader, I found the themes in White Apples very reminiscent of The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger). One of the marks of a good book for me is when you are left wanting to know what happens next, to me this is a sign that I have been involved in the book and care about the characters. This certainly happened with both of these books. I have passed White Apples on to my sister-in-law, who has no access to the internet, so when she is finished I will make a journal entry onher behalf and then release it into the wild.