Today's Featured Books

The Children of Earthrise complete series set includes six novels...2,000 pages of epic science fiction! "We hide in shadows. Our planet is lost. We are the last humans, and we must go home." Children of Earthrise is a story of exodus...of humanity lost among the stars...of one man rising to lead our people home. In 2016, the Earthrise series became a surprise bestseller, captivating hundreds of thousands of readers around the world. Two thousand years later, Children of Earthrise begins a new story, one for both new readers and old fans. 4.4 stars, 500+ ratings. From $0.99. Free via KU. SHOP NOW / 

Free online: Poetry Lit! Explore the world of poetry from the comfort of your favorite chair via this monthly online reading series featuring international poets and their passionate fans. This month: poets Vasiliki Albedo and Joseph Fasano. Friday, November 10, 1:00 - 2:30 PM CST.

"Gratitude bestows reverence...changing forever how we experience life and the world." ~John Milton (9 December 1608 - 8 November 1674)

Congratulations to Scott Gould and Vine Leaves Press on the release of Idiot Men, a collection of stories about wayward characters who make poor choices in life and love against a backdrop of elegant prose.

★★★★★ "Scott Gould is a literary shapeshifter. A rough Southern man who writes about trucks, beer, dogs and doublewides with the finesse of a poet." ~Jane Stern, author of Ambulance Girl

Idiot Men by Scott Gould

With Strangers to Temptation, Things that Crash, Things that Fly, and The Hammerhead Chronicles, Scott Gould cemented his reputation as one of the most inventive, distinctive voices of Southern literature. In his latest collection, Idiot Men, he once again gathers a cast of unforgettable characters in eleven stories chock full of exceptional storylines and hilarious writing.

You’ll meet a truck driver whose wife flees to Jamaica with her lover, leaving him to babysit her hairless tomcat, Princess Di; a male nurse who discovers a trailer full of counterfeit NASCAR paraphernalia during a home health visit; an amateur arsonist sentenced to a year in a Smokey the Bear suit; a disgruntled roofer with a bad back and a meth-dealing twin brother… these are just a few of the idiot men you’ll encounter in a collection of stories that will appeal to readers who relish literature with a Southern flavor. 
 
Gould's Idiot Men provides the stage for wayward characters who make poor choices in life and love against a backdrop of elegant prose. These tales recalibrate morality and convention as readers will grow to love the characters despite—and perhaps because of—their flaws. These diverse, rich stories are ultimately connected by the spellbinding voice of a true Southern storyteller. 

Praise for Idiot Men and Scott Gould
★★★★★ "A writer able to make you laugh out loud and move you deeply, often in the same sentence." ~Nic Brown, author of Bang Bang Crash

★★★★★ "Yes, the protagonists in Idiot Men make questionable choices at times, but they do so with big-hearted, well-meant, honorable intentions. And if they’re idiots, well, they’re our idiots. Here’s a great congregation of stories, told in Gould’s unmistakable voice." ~George Singleton, author of The Curious Lives of Nonprofit Martyrs

★★★★★ "Idiot Men is like the best country song you have ever heard. [Gould's] writing breaks your heart but makes you rejoice that you are still alive to recover.” ~Jane Stern, author of Ambulance Girl

Free online: NYPL discussion of "Song of Myself." Join the New York Public Library Grand Concourse Library staff to discuss Walt Whitman's classic poem "Song of Myself." Whitman included this lengthy poem in his epic work, Leaves of Grass. "Song" is divided into fifty-two parts, each poem representing a week of the year. The registration site includes a link to read "Song" online free. (The registration site also says the event begins at 12 a.m., but we're pretty sure they mean noon!) Tuesday, November 7, noon - 1 p.m. EST.

“Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.” ~Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

Today, LitNuts is shining a spotlight on A Perspective on Life: The Big Questions Addressed by Jerry Goldberg, a conversational book that explores science without inundating readers with math and technical jargon. Read on to learn more. Click on the book title, the "SHOP NOW" button, or the book cover image to purchase a copy.

★★★★★ “Covers the broad expanse of science in a logical and friendly way.” ~Amazon Review

A Perspective on Life: The Big Questions Addressed

This is a book about science, but it is written in an informal and readable format offering an imagined dialogue between the reader and the author. The book uses no math or technical jargon and incorporates many images and sketches to help clarify key concepts.

A Perspective on Life also recounts the major events in the personal journeys of famous scientists, recognizing that these great men and women were also real persons with the same problems in their daily lives we all struggle with.

The book presents, discusses, and clearly explains the following topics:

• Cosmology – Only relatively recently have astronomers shown the incredible size of our universe.
• The Big Bang – Astronomers know now that our universe began 13.7 billion years ago.
• Classical Mechanics – Isaac Newton was the first to use math to quantify what we see all around us.
• Quantum Mechanics – The most perplexing theory in physics, but the most successful of all.
• Special and General Theory of Relativity – Always proven right despite the challenges still coming.
• General Theory of Relativity – Einstein's masterpiece: what we perceive as the force of gravity arises from the curvature of space and time.
• Chemistry – How scientists put elements together for all our benefit.
• Biology – What we know about how we are put together and reproduce.
• Human History – From the human migration out of Africa some 50,000 years ago to present.

As author Jerry Goldberg says, these topics are important because "the public must have an understanding of the basics of science, which is the underlying structure of our modern civilization. Even more so, the public now needs a grasp of science to challenge those fools who claim to be 'science deniers.'”

Praise for A Perspective on Life
★★★★★ "An excellent book. It is readable, interesting, and informative on a whole range of topics not usually combined into a single book." ~Amazon Review from Bob L., a successful engineer and entrepreneur

★★★★★ "I like reading about science. This is one of my favorite books for several reasons. First of all, I could follow everything in the book. I like Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History in Time, but frankly, he lost me about 2/3 into the book. I really enjoy Neil Degrasse Tyson a lot! But, once again, his books seem to lose me before I get to the end. That did not happen with this book.

"Jerry Goldberg starts with the ideas and concepts that were accepted in earlier times and shows why, how, and by whom they were challenged and changed. He continues along this path until he arrives at the current scientific thinking and then explains them, even if the ideas are complex. He does this without using mathematics or technical jargon.

"The chronological presentation of events—the stepwise growth of scientific thought—is enhanced by allowing the reader to peek in on the lives of famous scientists, and not just their accomplishments either, but their struggles too. Learning about Newton, Darwin, Einstein, and others was a real treat. Sure, they were geniuses but they were real people too. It’s a connection to their humanity that I have rarely seen in other books. This enriches the book and the reader’s experience as well." ~Amazon Review from Joseph G., retired engineer

Starting online tonight: The Reclaiming Mni Sota Indigenous Writers Grant 24-Hour Live Fundraiser (from 7 PM Nov. 3 to 7 PM Nov. 4) to support and uplift Indigenous writers in Mni Sota (Minnesota). Throughout the 24 hours, Colin Mustful of History Through Fiction will be hosting interviews with special guests (including LitNuts cofounder Mike O'Mary at 10 AM CDT Saturday) to discuss writing, editing, and publishing. 

The event also includes a silent auction for dozens of special prizes. The silent auction ends Saturday, November 4 at 6 PM CDT. All proceeds from the auction directly benefit the Reclaiming Mni Sota Indigenous Writers Grant.

"I feel a keen sympathy that all are akin. The racial lines, which once were bitterly real, now serve nothing more than marking out a living mosaic of human beings." ~Zitkála-Šá