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Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • In Review: The Week of Feburary 10th

    In Review: The Week of Feburary 10th

    This week we read a brilliant and heartbreaking essay on death and humour by Fawn Parker, created a very scientific quiz to help you find your literary love match, shared Read Harder challenges, and more!

  • Read Harder Challenge #2 & #3

    Read Harder Challenge #2 & #3

    Throughout 2020, All Lit Up-er Tan Light is participating inย BookRiot’s Read Harder Challengeโ€”a reading task designed to expand readerly boundariesโ€”and doing so with an indie twist. Each entry in this series will highlight one or two completed challenges along with a list of books from All Lit Up to have you reading harder, too! This…

  • ALU Valentine’s Day Quiz: Who’s your literary valentine?

    ALU Valentine’s Day Quiz: Who’s your literary valentine?

    We’ve created this scientifically-proven* Valentine’s Day quiz to match you with your literary valentine. Just answer five questions to find out which character is your true lit love this Valentine’s Day.*Don’t quote us

  • Under the Cover: Finding Calidora

    Under the Cover: Finding Calidora

    Take a look under the cover of Stella Leventoyannis Harvey’s Finding Calidoraย โ€“ a historical novel that follows the politically-engaged Alevizopoulosย family from the time of the Great War down through the Greco-Turkish War of 1919 as they fight to protect their legacy and survive the scars of the past. Stella joins us on the blog to…

  • A Mature and Intelligent Period of Grieving: On Death and Humour in Writing

    A Mature and Intelligent Period of Grieving: On Death and Humour in Writing

    My first job after my mother died was a contract position writing a Joke of the Day calendar. Each day I input approximately ninety jokes into an Excel spreadsheet, selecting which would appear on significant days such as the day my mother died, her birthday, the day she birthed me, her wedding anniversary. Really each…

  • In Review: The Week of February 3rd

    In Review: The Week of February 3rd

    This week we got our design nerd on, learned about the process behind bringing a novel into braille, recommended a debut novel, and more.ย 

  • First Fiction Friday: The Towers of Babylon

    First Fiction Friday: The Towers of Babylon

    Author Michelle Kaeser’s debut novel The Towers of Babylon (Freehand Books) is a literary combo of the all-too-real millennial struggles of Girls and the sibling dynamics of This Is Us with a humorous flair of its own. Set in Toronto, the novel follows a group of millennials and exposes a generation’s struggle to find their…

  • Beautiful Books: A Very Special Episode

    Beautiful Books: A Very Special Episode

    In this Beautiful Books feature, designer Jared Shapiro talks to us about the joys of getting carried away in his creative design for nathan dueck’s A Very Special Episode (Wolsak and Wynn) โ€“ the result of which is an intelligent use of font and form that elevates nathan’s playful, pop-culturally influenced poetry.

  • Under the Cover: Fanonymous in braille

    Under the Cover: Fanonymous in braille

    After experiencing episodes of momentary sight loss, author M.C. Joudrey was compelled to carefully research and write a blind character into his novel Fanonymous (At Bay Press), which has recently been transcribed into braille by theย National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS). Below M.C. Joudrey tells us about his experience bringing Fanonymous into this new…

  • Where in Canada: The Imperilled Ocean

    Where in Canada: The Imperilled Ocean

    Author Laura Tretheway takes us out to sea in The Imperilled Ocean: Human Stories from a Changing Sea(Goose Lane Editions), exploring the compelling stories of people across the world and their relationships with the ocean to give a broader picture of its importance, its future, and its fate. In this edition of Where in Canada,…

  • In Review: The Week of January 27th

    In Review: The Week of January 27th

    This week we get our philosophy hats on, take up BooRiot’s Read Harder Challenge, recommend weekend reads, and more.ย 

  • Weekend Reads: Honouring International Holocaust Remembrance Day

    Weekend Reads: Honouring International Holocaust Remembrance Day

    On Monday, Canada recognized International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Auchwitz. In honour of both those who survived or were lost, we bring you three reads to spend some time with this weekend that share stories of resistance, heroism and hope in the face of one of the darkest…

  • Read Harder Challenge # 1: Read a Book in any Genre by an Indigenous Author

    Read Harder Challenge # 1: Read a Book in any Genre by an Indigenous Author

    Throughout 2020, All Lit Up-er Tan Light is participating inย BookRiot’s Read Harder Challengeโ€”a reading task designed to expand readerly boundariesโ€”and doing so with an indie twist. Each entry in this series will highlight one or two completed challenges along with a list of books from All Lit Up to have you reading harder, too!ย 

  • Quoted: How to Die

    Quoted: How to Die

    Inย Howย toย Die: A Book About Being Alive(Biblioasis), Ray Robertson contemplates death: he argues that it’s neither a morbid nor frivolous to do so, but a fact that is essential to our own happiness. Digging up 1500 years of writing about death, Robertson examines the subject through philosophy and literature asking us to consider mortality in fresh…

  • In Review: The Week of January 20th

    In Review: The Week of January 20th

    This week All Lit Up Read the Provinces wraps up with eight authors from the Newfoundland, PEI, Northwest Territories, and Yukon. Plus, bookish Twitter divided again, and more, below.

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