Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
The contest winners are . . .
Yes, yes, I’ve been remiss. Blame it on vacation. I promised you a pair of winners, and I haven’t delivered.
Reminder: this was the Gimme A Good Book Contest, which has proven quite useful. Thank you.
Winners: protected static and MEL. Would you prefer an Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift certificate? Email me, or respond in the comments.
D.
← Pals
Thanks! Glad you liked the suggestions.
I’m gonna go with Amazon, please…
I’ll take care of it this weekend, once we’re back from vacation. Congrats 😉
I won! Wow! I’ll take either Amazon or an equivalent gift to DonorsChoose. Thanks!
When I get back home (Friday, assuming all goes well and Jake doesn’t get us busted by the TSA), I’ll set you both up 🙂
I meant to flog Nicholas Christopher’s “A Trip to the Stars,” but I got too busy.
By far, it’s my favorite book of recent years.
In the first chapter, a young boy gets separated from his guardian aunt at the planetarium in NY, and they spend the rest of the book, in alternating chapters, telling what happened as they tried to find each other again.
I don’t want to give too much away, but there are hallucingenic spiders invoved, and the Vietnam War, and mind-reading (thanks to those spiders), and rumors of vampires, and the best character names this side of Dickens, and, yes, a trip into space. And I was so enthralled that I had trouble putting it down, despite the fact that I was on vacation in Prague and Budapest the first time I read it.
I missed the contest, but do pick it up anyway.
Oh, and I recommend Jonathan Carroll’s books, too, but not the last few. I think he no longer has a strong editor.
File them under “realistic fantasy,” or “fantastic realism.”
“From the Teeth of Angels” and “Outside the Dog Museum” are probably my faves. But “The Land of Laughs,” “Bones of the Moon,” “Sleeping in Flames,” and “A Child Across the Sky” are all good.
“From the Teeth of Angels” has one of the most stunning scenes I’ve ever read, as the protagonist meets death–literally. “Outside the Dog Museum” is about an architect who comes to realize the museum he’s designing has, shall we say, biblical implications.