Corey Redekop's Blog, page 45

Critical Monkey! Update the 9th!

Wow, what a roller coaster of a month! Two completions! Two survivors! Two participants of iron will, joining the ranks of the immortals! So exciting, I can't even form coherent hyperbole to adequately describe it!! Must resort to extra exclamation marks to express pleasure!!!!

Let's go to the stats:

Acceptance (seven reviews)Lori L
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Roses of Glory by Mary Pershall
Spock's World by Diane Duane
A Texan's Honor by Leigh Greenwood
Star Wars: Rebel Dawn by A.C. Crispin
...

Critical Monkey entry #6 - Treasure Island - "The secret has been told to the parrot."

Having suffered mightily at the hands of James Patterson and his abysmal King Tut "non-fiction" meanderings (I still don't have peripheral vision in my left eye), the Critical Monkey had to take a well-earned rest for a bit. But time heals some wounds, although not altogether cleanly. There is still a scar on my soul, and I find I cannot bear to try and conquer another bottomless pit of despair just yet.

So instead, I'm going old-school. 19th century old, to be precise. I'm taking to the high ...

Girl Crazy by Russell Smith - Quill & Quire review

The estimable mag Quill & Quire had published my review of Russell Smith's newest novel Girl Crazy online. I'd never read Smith before this, but Girl Crazy is strong enough that I'm going to seek out his earlier work.

Here's a nugget:

Smith excels at presenting the sexual fixations of the male psyche, slicing them apart and exposing the emotional impotence beneath. Justin, still an adolescent at heart, fetishizes each woman who crosses his path, living for "the fright of helplessness that he...

Canada Also Reads: And the winner is...

Canada Also Reads: And the winner is...

Well, not Steve Zipp. Sadly for friend of the blog Steve (but hey, honour to be nominated, am I right, folks?), his novel Yellowknife was not the winner of the National Post's Canada Also Reads competition.

No, instead it was given to another quality offering, Jessica Grant's Come, Thou Tortoise.

My congrats go out to Miss Grant and to the rest of the nominees, all worthy reads.

And go find a copy of Yellowknife, it is a gloriously weird piece of Canadian m...

Monkey Droppings - The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

The monkey remembers a simpler time, when all you needed to solve a mystery was a zest for crime-solving, three good friends, and maybe a talking dog.

And a van. Always need a good van.


The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
by Alan Bradley (2010)

If one were to closely follow the tenets of Agatha Christie mysteries, one would be wise to stay as far away from quaint English townships as possible. The murder rate of such hamlets, as described by Christie and her ilk, must rank in the highest...

Canada Reads, but does Canada listen?

As some of you may know (the Canadians, anyway), tomorrow marks the start of the ninth annual Canada Reads competition, that "battle of the books" wherein Canadian celebrities (???) meet at an undisclosed (but probably in Toronto) location to argue over those particular books they each feel all Canadians should read. The winning author is then proclaimed king or queen of all Canadian literature for a year, and attends mall openings and rodeos as part of their royal obligations. Or something.

Monkey droppings - The Waterproof Bible by Andrew Kaufman

The monkey searches for meaning in his life.

Maybe it's in the folds of this chair... nope, but hey, a loonie! Score!


The Waterproof Bible
by Andrew Kaufman (2010)

"Why do bad things happen to good people?"
"Because it makes a good story."

Please allow me the courtesy, if you will, to begin this review in an exceedingly lazy fashion, with someone else's words (courtesy of Dictionary.com):

Whimsy (whim·sy)
–noun,plural-sies.
capricious humor or disposition; extravagant, fanciful, or excessively...

Critical Monkey! Update the 8th!

Before we begin the 8th Update of Critical Monkey, I would like to send a personal shout-out to our very own Steve Zipp. Steve is the author of Yellowknife, a terrific slice of twisted Canadian absurdity that is currently being argued for in the National Post's counter-programming to Canada Reads, Canada Also Reads. I won't get into a rant on the merits of Canada Read's choices here - too much has been said already, and by smarter people than me. I'll leave it at this: the point of Canada Rea...

Monkey Droppings - The Players by Margaret Sweatman - "The wonderful violence of freedom."

Today, the Monkey takes a bold walk through Canada's past.

Boy, it is freakin' cold out. Luckily, the Monkey has a built-in coat of fur.

Look out! Trappers!

The Players
by Margaret Sweatman (2009)

I admit, while I may not read the genre as much as I should, I harbour a great admiration for the writers of historical fiction. To immerse oneself in the literature, to sift through the data to come up with new words, new modes of thought, new ways of seeing the world so that it will seem fresh to the r...

Freedom to Read Week! February 21-27! Can you smell the excitement?

Ah, Freedom to Read Week, where has the year gone? I completely forgot it was coming. I hope the shelf fairy brought me something nice this year.

For those caught unawares, a refresher: Freedom to Read Week is a seven-day period put aside to celebrate everything that someone else thinks you shouldn't be allowed access to. Subversive ideas. Blasphemies. Swear words. Political ideologies. Homosexual penguin lust. And no, that last one is not a joke.

Let's face it, you cannot please everyone. And ...