Today's Featured Books— Events

The Edinburgh International Book Festival, the world-leading festival of words, literature, and ideas. wraps up this weekend and includes a dozen online events Saturday and Sunday that you can attend free or for whatever you would like to donate. 

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” ~Terry Pratchett, Diggers

Free online: Strong Women, Strange Worlds. Join for a tasting menu of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories featuring six authors who will each have eight minutes to tempt and tantalizing you with their reading. Thursday, August 21, 6 PM CDT. 

"If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war." ~Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Today's Featured Books include four freebies, and you can enjoy a free online art history class this week: Art History - Raphael. Discover the history, techniques and stories behind the paintings of Raphael with Dr. Lillian Cespedes Gonzalez, PhD in history from the University of Winchester. Tuesday, August 19, 1:30 EDT. 

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." ~Pablo Picasso

Free online Saturday: Brew & Books. Interested in meeting fellow book lovers over your morning coffee? Join for a 30-minute virtual meet-up to sip, chat, and connect around a shared love of books—one Saturday at a time. Each session is short, sweet, and focused on a specific theme. This week’s theme: Autobiographies. Saturday, August 16, 9:30 - 10:00 AM CDT.

"In every picture there should be shade as well as light." ~James Boswell

Free online: Historical Fiction Book Recommendations. Join Jane Healey on the second Tuesday of each month for 30 minutes of recommendations on the best of historical fiction out there. Jane is author of The Beantown Girls, a Washington Post and Amazon bestseller, and The Secret Stealers, a Historical Novel Society’s Editors’ Choice. Tuesday, August 12, 5:30 - 6:00 PM CDT.

"The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like." ~E.L. Doctorow

Free online: Summer's Best from The Back Room. This live online literary event will start with a brief introduction to a panel of four authors via "20 Questions." Afterwards, online participants can talk with each author via breakout rooms. It’s all very relaxed and casual—like a virtual cocktail party! Sunday, August 10, 7 PM ET.

"Hear no evil, speak no evil, and you won't be invited to cocktail parties." ~Oscar Wilde

Today's Featured Books include four freebie, three e-books for 99 cents, and other great deals. See all of our Featured Books at LitNuts.com.

Also, there is a great free online literary event this week: Speaking Crow is brought to you by the Winnipeg (Canada) Public Library and Plume Winnipeg (formerly known as the Winnipeg International Writers Festival). It is Winnipeg's longest-running poetry open mic. Each poet will have 3 minutes to share new poetry. Tuesday, August 5, 7-8 PM CDT. 

“We are never lost, we are just not familiar yet.” ~Tarek Riman

Today's Featured Books include three highly rated freebies, and this Friday, there is a free online literary event...a First Friday QuickRead event sponsored by Strong Women Strange Worlds. Join for a tasting menu of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories featuring 6 authors who will each have 8 minutes to tempt and tantalizing you with their reading. Friday, August 1, 11 AM CDT. 

"People will forget what you said...but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~Maya Angelou

Free online: Postmarks & Paperbacks, the monthly book club of the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. This month the book club will be discussing Possession by A.S. Byatt, a novel that follows the lives of a pair of young academics as they uncover a clandestine relationship between two long-dead Victorian poets. Monday, July 28, 7-8 PM EDT. 

“I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.” ~A.S. Byatt, Possession

Free online Saturday: International Author's Expo, a celebration of literature and creativity from around the world. This event is designed to connect published authors and readers in a virtual setting to explore new books, attend workshops, participate in author Q&A sessions, and more. Saturday, July 26, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. EDT. 

“Life is not what happened to you but what you remember and how you remember it to retell it.” ~Gabriel García Márquez

Free online: First Fiction 2025 Reading and Celebration. Join Poets & Writers as they present authors of five of this summer’s best debut novels. The event will include readings from the authors and a conversation about their debut books, their influences, and their inspirations. Thursday, July 24, 7-8 PM EDT. 

"Every moment is a fresh beginning." ~T.S. Eliot

The Centre Pompidou in Paris is the largest museum for modern and contemporary art in Europe and the second-largest in the world. The museum has more than 12,000 pieces of artwork on display, including works by Kandinsky, Dalí, and Valadon. The Centre's YouTube channel has dozens of videos available that provide walk-throughs of the museum and explanations of its most important works. Free online on demand!

"If you play the genie, you become it." ~Salvador Dalí

The New York Public Library Virtual Poetry Book Club meets on the third Saturday of each month to discuss a wide range of poetry from classics to contemporary. This month the club will discuss Song of Myself by Walt Whitman. You can listen to the poem ahead of time or read a free copy via Project Gutenberg. Saturday, July 19, 10-11 AM EDT. 

"I am large. I contain multitudes." ~Walt Whitman

Free online: Women's Fiction Recommendations with Kristan Higgins, bestselling author of humorous contemporary romance. She is a three-time winner of Romance Writers of America's RITA Award and a five-time nominee for the Kirkus Prize for Best Work of Fiction. Whether you're a seasoned fan of the genre or just curious to discover new authors, you're warmly invited to participate. Thursday, July 17, 5:30 PM CDT. 

“Miracles surround us at every turn, if we but sharpen our perceptions to them.” ~Willa Cather

Free online: Transformational Stories...for writing your own journal and aspiring authors. Gather in a supportive space to write your book, poems, or journal. Tuesday, July 15, 2:30 - 4:00 PM CDT. 

"I don't know what I think until I write it down." ~Joan Didion

Free online: The Back Room’s Super Beach Reads!—an author conversation and chat with bestselling writers Nikki Cloke, Kyra Davis Lurie, Dwyer Murphy & Liza Tully. Sunday, July 13, 7:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. CDT.

“One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by.” ~Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle

Free online: Poetry Lit! Explore the world of poetry from the comfort of your favorite chair via Poetry Lit's monthly online reading series. This month: poets Kate Hendry & Nalini Paul. Friday, July 11, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. CDT. 

"Like a piece of ice on a hot stove, the poem must ride on its own melting." ~Robert Frost

Free online: Smithsonian Folklife Festival, July 2-7. This free festival takes place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., July 2-7. If you happen to be in the area, you can attend in person. If you are not in the area, you can catch some fun events online via YouTube: Prom in the Park, Saturday, July 5, 2025, 5:30 – 8 PM EDT, and Next-Gen Music Ensembles, Sunday, July 6, 2025, 5:30 – 7:30 PM EDT. 

"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better." ~Albert Camus

Free online: Larksong First Friday Book Talk & Reading with Cliff Taylor, author of The Shining Hands of My Ponca Ancestors. Friday, July 4, 12 pm CDT. 

“It does not require many words to speak the truth.” ~Chief Joseph

Free online: Speaking Crow. Brought to you by the Winnipeg (Canada) Public Library and Plume Winnipeg (formerly known as the Winnipeg International Writers Festival), Speaking Crow is Winnipeg's longest-running poetry open mic. Each poet will have 3 minutes to share new poetry. Tuesday, July 1, 7-8 PM CDT. 

“Poetry is like a bird, it ignores all frontiers.” ~Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Greetings! Today's Featured Books include 12 indie titles (4 freebies!). See all of our Featured Books at LitNuts.com. 

Like Sci-Fi? Then you might be interested in the Fantastic Worlds: Science and Fiction 1780-1910 online exhibit at the Smithsonian Library. This free virtual exhibit includes nine chapters on topics like "The Age of the Aeronaut" and "Rise of the Machines," as well as a digital library of 85 manuscripts related to early works of science fiction. 

"If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others." ~Philip K. Dick

Free online: Get the Word Out Poetry Reading. Hosted by Poets & Writers, this is a celebratory reading by the current poetry cohort of Get the Word Out, a publicity incubator for early-career authors. Thursday, June 26, 7 PM CDT.

"As you start to walk on the way, the way appears." ~Rumi

Free online: "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. Join staff of the New York Public Library on the third Saturday of each month for an online-only discussion of a wide range of poetry from classics to contemporary. This month: "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. Saturday, June 21, 10 AM EDT. 

"In my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-journey on the highway across America." ~Allen Ginsberg, "Howl"

Free online: The Writers' Room After Hours. Join The Writer's Room of Boston for an interview with Mable Chan, journalist, writer, producer, and founder of One in a Billion Productions, a film-focused multi-media nonprofit. Her current writing projects include a memoir and a TV pilot. Wednesday, June 18, 7:30 - 8:30 EDT.

"Productivity is a trap. There will always be too much to do." ~Mable Chan

Free online: Rogue Reads - A Crime Spree, a fun online event where authors discuss not just their latest crime novels, but also share recipes for their favorite drinks and snacks. Tonight's line-up includes Christina Dodd, author of Thus With a Kiss I Die; Vaseem Khan, The Girl in Cell A; Delia Pitts, Death of an Ex; and Ryan Pote, Blood and Treasure. Monday, June 16, 6 PM CDT. 

"Life is about working out who the bad guy is." ~Sophie Hannah