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Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Hot Summer Reads: Laugh-out-Loud Picks
Yesterday we brought you five action and adventure picks from the ALU bookshelves to keep you on the edge of your beach blanket. Today we bring you five book picks by some very funny women that’ll inspire some belly laughs during those plane/train/car rides to your summer vacation spots.
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Hot Summer Reads: Action and Adventure Picks
Nothing gives us that FOMO feeling more than sitting inside on a hot, sunny day. Now that summer is here, it’s time to put that Netflix subscription on hold and get outside with a great read. If you’re looking for a book with a plot that will get your pulse racing and keep you on…
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In Review: The Week of July 1st
This week we kicked off #ALUbookclub, celebrated 10 books from every province for Canada Day, shared our summer reading list, and more.
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ALU Summer Reads: Staff Picks
We’re only turning up the heat this summer (and the A/C) with some smokin’ hot staff picks for reading by the lake, beach, backyard or anywhere summeresque we can park ourselves. Check out what’s in our ALU tote bags this summer!
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Where in Canada: The Western Alienation Merit Badge
Alberta wasn’t always as it is today. Nancy Jo Cullen’s The Western Alienation Merit Badge(Wolsak & Wynn) shows us a different side of the province that takes us away from the sleek glass towers of today and back to its 1982 roots on dusty Prairie outskirts as seen through the eyes of the Murray family.
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ALU Book Club: Intro to Echolocation
We’re kicking off our annual summer book club with Echolocation, a debut collection of short stories by novelist Karen Hofmann, published by NeWest Press!
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Read the Provinces: Authors Across Canada
It’s still Canada Day in our books! Our celebratory cheers today are for all the gorgeous, compelling, and exciting reads coming out of our country. Check out our list of books that celebrate writers in every province.
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In Review: The Week of June 24
This week: we got a head start on Canada Day with the perfect book and cocktail pairing, played casting director with Playwrights Canada Press, introduced a debut collection from author Philip Huynh and heard from a few of the contributing authors of Breaking Boundaries about their experiences with coming out in Canada.
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First Fiction Friday: The Forbidden Purple City
Debut author Philip Huynh joins us on the ALU blog to share his collection The Forbidden Purple City, which includes nine compelling stories about the Vietnamese diaspora. With the urban realism of a David Bezmozgis novel and the hard-hitting visuals of a David Fincher film–this collection is a stunning first for Huynh and one you…
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Chappy Hour: Smoked Plum Gin Cocktail and Cursed Objects
Jason Christie’s Cursed Objects (Coach House Books) confronts the veiled versions of ourselves; our troubling self-reduction into mere objects, and then, through the wizardry of writing, casts those illusions aside to find the rooted nature of ourselves and others. Resident mixologist Tan Light takes smokey inspiration from the poem Broadway Tower to create a Smoked Plum Gin…
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Breaking Boundaries: LGBTQ2 Writers on Coming Out and Into Canada
In a world where a majority of countries still criminalize and persecute LGBTQ2s+ people, Canada tops the list as a safe haven for the LGBTQ2s+ community. As we approach the commemoration of Canada along with the annual Pride celebrations, we chat with some of the contributors of Breaking Boundaries: LGBTQ2 Writers on Coming Out and…
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Character Study: Bang Bang
So meta we could almost see it on the marquis for screening at TIFF, Kat Sandler’s play, Bang Bang(Playwrights Canada Press), was a clear choice for this edition of Character Study. We paired up with Playwrights Canada Press and Kat, herself, to imagine a celebrity cast to take this dark and brilliantly funny play all the way…
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In Review: The Week of June 17th
This week we welcomed #ALUbookclub for another patio season, interviewed authors, shared book picks for National Indigenous Peoples Day, and more.
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A Reading List for National Indigenous Peoples Day
It’s only when I sit down to write up a bit about each book I’ve chosen to include in this list that I notice that these six books share two strong themes. The first relates to memory and remembering. Each book plays with remembering the past and remembering the future. And each book shows that remembering needs…
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On Intergenerational Trauma and National Indigenous Peoples Day
As Canada celebrates National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21, I am thankful for the things that have changed in this country over the past 30 years. Indigenous peoples are now commonly identified using terms from their own languages instead of being referred to as “Indians.” Publishers are embracing the cross-genre non-linearity of Indigenous storytelling.…
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