Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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First Fiction Fridays: Redheaded Stepchild
Redheaded Stepchild will take you right back to middle school, into a world where pre-teen angst fills the halls, where the popular kids and bullies are still pulling the strings and the misfits are looking for ways to express themselves.
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Chappy Hour: 75 Opals + If I Were in A Cage, I’d Reach Out for You
If I Were in a Cage, I’d Reach Out for You by Adele Barclay (Nightwood Editions) is a collection filled with alcoholic allusions, though it is not a book about booze. It is quotidian yet quirky in detail – these are playful poems. With so many cocktail tie-in possibilities, I took one of Adele’s own…
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(Women’s) Writer’s Block: Soraya Roberts
For Women’s History Month, we’ve saved Wednesdays for highlighting Canadian women writers, their latest work, and their writing process. This Wednesday, we’ve got a short-but-sweet interview with Soraya Roberts, author of In My Humble Opinion (ECW Press) – an examination about the equally short-but-sweet TV series, My So-Called Life. IMHO recounts a watershed moment in TV history: when real…
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Character Study: How to Pick Up a Maid in Statue Square
The expatriate characters living in Hong Kong in Rea Tarvydas’ short story collection How to Pick Up a Maid in Statue Square (Thistledown Press) find themselves in that in-between place of belonging and outsider-dom. They struggle with their lives in humankind’s “most thrilling city” as home – wherever it is – continuously makes its pull felt.
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This Week in Lit Events: October 17-23rd
Lots to keep you busy this week in literary events: the fall launches of Wolsak & Wynn and Talonbooks, as well as Vancouver Writers’ Fest!Are you hosting an event featuring an author whose titles are available on All Lit Up? Send the event details, including author, book, date, time, and address to hello@alllitup.ca to be included in our…
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In Review: The Week of October 10th
The Thanksgiving leftovers are gone and the Halloween candy is everywhere, tempting us at every turn. If you, like us, need a distraction from the candy calling your name everywhere you go, read on for this week’s book news and recommendations.
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First Fiction Fridays: Waiting for the Cyclone
Leesa Dean’s debut short story collection, Waiting for the Cyclone (Brindle & Glass), is indeed the swirling shakeup we’ve all been waiting for: a bold collection of stories headed up by fierce, unapologetically real women that Ayelet Tsabari would “like to hang out with.” So would we!
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Where in Canada: Richard Harrison’s Calgary
When we think of Calgary, we think of towers and the wild swings of the oil economy. We think of the Calgary Stampede, the quick trip to Banff (traffic allowing) the tips of the mountains at the western edge as the way to orient yourself in the city. But it’s the rivers and their water…
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(Women’s) Writer’s Block: Danila Botha
For Women’s History Month, we’ve saved Wednesdays for highlighting Canadian women writers, their latest work, and their writing process. This week, we feature Danila Botha, whose latest short story collection For All The Men (and Some of The Women) I’ve Known (Tightrope Books) explores the complexities of human relationships in a manner both raw and relatable. Lynn Crosbie says of…
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So you’re an artist? Help is on the way!
I have never subscribed to the notion that I drank because I’m a writer or that my writing would only be possible if I were in an altered mental state. I never thought there was anything remotely charming about letting yourself go because you’re an artist. But there seems to be a popular assumption that…
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This Week in Lit Events: October 10-16th
If you have the post-turkey strength to lift your arms, write down a few of these great lit events to head to – like Wordfest Calgary, perhaps?Are you hosting an event featuring an author whose titles are available on All Lit Up? Send the event details, including author, book, date, time, and address to hello@alllitup.ca to be included…
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In Review: The Week of October 3rd
Long weekend! That means extra reading time, plus this one comes with a side of turkey and mashed potatoes. We hope you’re enjoying your Thanksgiving weekend, whatever it is your doing. If you do need a break from the festivities, we’ve got you covered with some great book news and recommendations!
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First Fiction Fridays: Teardown
Clea Young’s debut collection of short stories, Teardown, examines relationships as fodder for the minutiae of everyday life. From IKEA trips to imbibing dockside to impending parenthood, the almost uncomfortably recognizable characters in the twelve stories in Young’s collection err and err again, but stumble towards being better.
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Test Kitchen: Rock Recipes Christmas (for Thanksgiving!)
Team ALU was at it again – someone let us into a kitchen with a new cookbook! This time we’re getting ourselves into the holiday spirit with the latest in the Rock Recipes series: Rock Recipes Christmas by Barry C. Parsons (Breakwater Books). While the holiday for which we’re getting in the spirit for is…
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(Women’s) Writer’s Block: Mary Frances Coady
For Women’s History Month, we’ve saved Wednesdays for highlighting Canadian women writers, their latest work, and their writing process. This week, we feature Mary Frances Coady, whose newest novel Holy Rule (Inanna Publications) examines an ecosystem of almost exclusively women’s interactions: the inner-workings of a convent-slash-school in the late 1950s. Between adolescent rebellion, questions of faith, and…
Got any book recommendations?