Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Birds of Providence
Read the first installment of an excellent new short story by Jim Tomlinson available at Velocity Weekly. (This will be a regular feature.)
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Nancy Pinard’s BUTTERFLY SOUP
I finished Nancy Pinard’s BUTTERFLY SOUP the same day that Buffalo was hit by what is being called the “October Surprise Storm” as if it were a game show prize. Fortunately, where I live, we were only out of power for 12 hours, while some in the heart of Buffalo were out for 12 days.…
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Quote
“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (Nobel 1952)
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Ellen Meister’s SECRET CONFESSIONS OF THE APPLEWOOD PTA
The cover of Ellen Meister’s debut novel has a Lichtenstein-inspired tongue-in-cheek rendering of four women standing before a backdrop of Suburbia, USA. The woman in the foreground has a thought-bubble that reads, “A MOVIE STAR IS COMING TO TOWN AND MY FRIENDS WANT TO DATE HIM!” But the thought-bubble should read, “A MOVIE STAR IS…
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Roy Kesey’s NOTHING IN THE WORLD
What I feel most compelled to say in awe of Roy Kesey’s talent, is that I read his entire book in one sitting. One! Honestly, I couldn’t put it down. Maybe that just illuminates my own obessive tendences, but I gluttinously devoured NOTHING IN THE WORLD, cramming it all in as fast as I could…
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Jim Tomlinson’s THINGS KEPT, THINGS LEFT BEHIND
I loved so much about Jim Tomlinson’s short story collection, Things Kept, Things Left Behind. It was one of those reads that I felt compelled to carefully portion out so as to not have it be over too quickly. I wanted to savor it. I hated for it to end. The book has a beautiful,…
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Sustainable Seafood Matters
This is taken from a WWF email: Whether it is sushi, swordfish steak, paella or fish and chips, many of us love seafood. The trouble is, our oceans are being seriously over fished. So much so, that unless action is taken some of our favourite fish may disappear from the seafood counter and restaurant table…
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Edwidge Danticat
On torture.
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ERASURE by Percival Everett
I’ll be writing a few reviews over the next week, to share thoughts about and excerpts from some of the great books I’ve been reading recently. I confess that I’m new to Percival Everett’s work. Some of my good friends are great fans of his, and he was at Bread Loaf this year and gave…
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On Striving
“The best advice I ever got was from an elephant trainer in the jungle outside Bangalore. I was doing a hike through the jungle as a tourist. I saw these large elephants tethered to a small stake. I asked him, ‘How can you keep such a large elephant tied to such a small stake?’ He…
Got any book recommendations?