Shelf Monkey

Win­ner — Gold Medal, Pop­u­lar Fic­tion, 2008 Inde­pen­dent Pub­lisher Book Awards

Thomas Friesen has three goals in life. Get a job. Make friends. Find a good book to curl up with. After land­ing a job at READ, the newest hyper­me­ga­book­store, he feels he may have accom­plished all three.

All is not peace­able within the stacks, how­ever. Dis­con­tent is steadily ris­ing, and it is aimed squarely at Munroe Purvis, a talk show host whose wildly pop­u­lar book club is pro­gres­sively low­er­ing the I.Q. of North America.

But the book­worms have a plan. Plots are being hatched. The destruc­tion of Munroe is all but assured. And as Thomas finds him­self swept along in a maël­strom of insan­ity, he won­ders if read­ing a book is all it’s cracked up to be.

If you’ve ever thrown a book against a wall in dis­gust; if you’ve ever loved a novel that no one else can stand; if you obsess over the proper use of punc­tu­a­tion; this may be the novel for you. A weirdly funny story about book­ish addic­tions, Shelf Mon­key is the ideal novel for any­one who loves good books. Or hates them.

Reviews

“What a lit­er­ate, witty, sus­pense­ful alter­nate world Corey Redekop’s cre­ated. I’m not so sure I want to be res­cued from it!” Eric McCor­mack, author, First Blast of the Trum­pet Against the Mon­strous Reg­i­ment of Women

“A play­ful — yet very seri­ous — ode to bib­lio­philia. Corey Redekop writes with energy and imag­i­na­tion, deft lit­tle jabs that go straight to the solar plexus.” Paul Quar­ring­ton, author, Whale Music

“Shelf Mon­key is a lit­er­ary thriller but it’s also a fun romp – unless, pre­sum­ably, you’re an Oprah fan. But if so, you’re not Redekop’s imag­ined audi­ence. His ideal reader knows this book is blackly, blackly funny because it’s all too true.” Peter Dar­byshire, author, The Warhol Gang

More reviews of Shelf Mon­key can be found here.