Today's Featured Books

Enlighten Up!: Finding Clarity, Contentment and Resilience in a Complicated World

From $3.99
4.8 stars on Amazon



Want to find more clarity, contentment, and resilience in this complicated world we all live in?

Cultivating self-awareness on a practical everyday down-to-earth level is the first step. When we lack self-awareness, it gets in the way of navigating life’s ups and downs.

Enlighten Up! presents a contemporary view of the five layers of self-awareness based on a 3,000-year-old model that provides a broader foundation for self-exploration than the more well-known mind/body model. 

Author Beth Gibbs uses humor and stories to teach you to recognize the influence these five layers have on your life.

• Your physical body and environment.
• Your breath and energy, which makes up your life force.
• Your thoughts, beliefs, and emotions.
• Your intuition, which acts with compassionate, nonjudgmental wisdom.
• Your connection to something larger than yourself.

Soul Food: Life-Affirming Stories Served with Side Dishes and Just Desserts

From $4.99
New release coming February 28!




In these heartwarming and uplifting tales that celebrate the human spirit, we’re offered a glimpse into the lives of a diverse group of characters as they search for clarity, contentment, and resilience in a complicated world. From dealing with heartbreak and loss to fighting for their dreams and standing up for themselves, we see them face their struggles with humor, self-reflection, and tenacity.

This standalone companion to Beth Gibbs’s Enlighten Up! expands the ideas from Enlighten Up! in fictional and often humorous ways, as stories, laughter, and entertainment are nonthreatening ways to learn new skills. Great for light reading, self-reflection, and book clubs. Discussion questions included!

"Written with heart, thought, and wit that will make you think, laugh, and learn; a delightful read." ~Nancy Slonim Aronie, Writing from the Heart

Coming soon! Check your inbox on February 28 for news from LitNuts about purchasing Soul Food in additional formats and from additional book retailers. 

About the Author

Beth Gibbs holds a master’s degree in yoga therapy and mind/body health from Lesley University and is certified as a yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She is a member of the faculty at the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy and is guest faculty at The Graduate Institute.

Beth established The Garnett Gibbs Family Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving in memory of her parents. The purpose of the fund is to support yoga and other healthy living programs in the greater Hartford, CT, region for at-risk populations and people of all ages, especially programs for children in public schools and community settings. Her published writing includes newsletters, magazines, and blog articles on the benefits of yoga, mindfulness, and self-awareness. Learn more about Beth and her work at BethGibbs.com.

Interested in having Beth speak to your group or in interviewing her for your following? Contact her via Emerald Lake Books.

About the Publisher

Emerald Lake Books is a boutique publisher that offers a personalized publishing service to its authors. Every book published by Emerald Lake Books is carefully edited with the author’s message and the reader’s enjoyment in mind. Learn more and browse their catalogue at the Emerald Lake Books website. 

Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day, an occasion intended to help make kindness the norm at school, home, and work. Here are 50 fun ideas for sharing kindness.

We would also like to "kindly" remind you to get in on two great giveaways:

• LitNuts Deals Giveaway: Enter for a chance to win $100 in books. Deadline February 24.
• Reader Central Giveaway (cosponsored by LitNuts): Enter for a chance to win a $150 Amazon.com gift card. Deadline February 28. 

"Kindness extended, received, or observed beneficially impacts the physical health and feelings of everyone involved." ~Dr. Wayne Dyer

"Great cast of characters and two of my favorite hobbies – running and gardening. This mystery makes me want to explore the trails in Ohio, while also providing great tips for my garden." -Amazon review. An abandoned backpack. A damaged walking stick. A broken bridge. What happened on the Buckeye Trail? This charming cozy mystery is set at a garden center with the Buckeye Trail running behind it. When a hiker goes missing, the garden center manager gets involved. 4.4 stars, 56 ratings. From $3.99 SHOP NOW / 

Sarah's world goes haywire when her abusive husband abandons her for another woman. She's left with nothing but a decrepit farm with a guest house teeming with secrets. But, as she delves further into the murky darkness of the house, she uncovers something sinister lurking in its depths, a force so powerful and so relentless that it surpasses her darkest fears. With her life spiraling entirely out of control, Sarah discovers the ultimate horror within the home, as grotesque and unsettling a truth as one could imagine. From $0.99 SHOP NOW / 

Congratulations to Music, Magic, and More and Vine Leaves Press on the release of Houdini's Fabulous Magic, a new edition of the biography of one of the most intriguing and influential figures of the 20th century. 

“I have loved this book for sixty years." ~Teller of Penn & Teller

Houdini's Fabulous Magic

Incredible escapes, fantastic sleight-of-hand—Houdini's most challenging performances are dramatically portrayed in Houdini's Fabulous Magic. Walter Gibson, co-author, was in close touch with Harry Houdini for a number of years before his death and worked with the master magician in preparing material for the book. It is with the aid of Houdini's own scrapbooks and notes that this book was written.

The spectacular highlights of Houdini's career are described and explained, including his famous escapes...from a padlocked milk can filled with water, from locked jail cells, from a water-filled Chinese torture cell while suspended upside down, and from packing cases weighted under water. Houdini also walks through a brick wall, vanishes a 10,000-pound elephant, is buried alive, and exchanges places with his wife in a locked trunk—in three seconds!

And Houdini the man is not ignored. His impact on the world in the early years of the 20th century was enormous. He was a public hero who, in his own way, helped sweep out the cobwebs of 19th-century thinking. While doing so, he distinguished himself as a patriot, writer, collector of magic, aviator, movie idol, philanthropist, and crusader against fraudulent spiritualistic practices.

This is a technical manual for magicians, complete with illustrations and diagrams, but it is also an astute analysis of the best of Houdini's magic and a readable biography of a man who turned himself into a legend. It is a book for would-be conjurers, for professional necromancers, and for those curious about the methods and means of one of the most enchanting men of our time.

Praise for Houdini's Fabulous Magic

★★★★★ “I have loved this book for sixty years. Four pieces of the Penn & Teller repertoire were directly inspired by Houdini's Fabulous Magic.” ~Teller of Penn & Teller

A friendly reminder...that one of the best free online literary festivals of the year is currently in process...now through Friday, February 17. The University of California - Riverside (UCR) Writers Week Festival brings together the most celebrated authors and the best up-and-coming writers in America. It's free. It's online. And it's open to the public! 

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” ~J.R.R. Tolkein

The complete Soldiers of Earthrise series in one box set! Six entire novels, 2,000+ pages of heart-pounding science fiction. Jon Taylor is an Earthling. He doesn't care much about space. At least until his brother dies on Bahay, a war-torn planet many light-years away. After the funeral, Jon joins the army. He learns to kill. And he flies to Bahay, sworn to avenge his brother. But on Bahay, nothing it as it seems... 4.3 stars, 143 ratings. From $0.99 SHOP NOW / 

Do we control our devices, or do they control us? The stories in Our Own Devices explore that very question. Remember, we invite these devices into our lives because the devices themselves tell us we need them. "...four distinct tales, each exploring a different contemporary societal trend and the technology behind it...another fine read from an important writer who just keeps getting better and better." -reader review. From $0.99 SHOP NOW / 

Being Ethel: (In a world that loves Lucy)

From $0.99 via Kindle Countdown Deal
Free via Kindle Unlimited



In Mackinac Island Stories Book 1, Piper Penn is struggling to survive past tragedies, and doing what she wants only leads to more trouble. An unexpected inheritance on a tiny Midwest island in the Straits of Mackinac provides an escape. A stay at the island’s glorious Grand Hotel lifts her spirits—especially when she catches the eye of a handsome groundskeeper and lands a role as an extra during the filming of a blockbuster movie. But when mysterious accusations and headstrong residents threaten to derail her inheritance, the friendship of a quirky I Love Lucy-loving nun might be Piper’s saving grace. 4.5 stars, 109 ratings on Amazon.

Being Dorothy: (In a world longing for home)

From $0.99 via Kindle Countdown Deal
Free via Kindle Unlimited



Book 2 in the series combines elements of the Wizard of Oz, Nora Ephron, and James Bond as Dorothy Cooper finds herself on the run from The Service, the highly secretive organization where she worked for more than a decade. Dorothy and a fellow Service insider assume new identities, but while residing in the opulent Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Dorothy questions her relationship with her colleague and wonders if anyone can be trusted after what she’s seen. Loneliness draws her into a friendship at a new knitting and craft shop, The Creative Lilac, where the camaraderie and ambiance cause Dorothy to re-examine her concept of marriage, family, and faith. Can Dorothy find her long-lost feelings of love before the enemies of The Service find her? Or has her past destined her to an endless life-on-the-run, never allowing her to know the happiness of home? 4.5 stars, 48 ratings on Amazon. 

Being Alice: (In a world lost in the looking glass)

From $0.99 via Kindle Countdown Deal
Free via Kindle Unlimited



In Book 3 of the Mackinac Island Stories, Alice Merveille has been pushed into a contract by her scheming uncle to serve as the guitar and drum tech for world-renowned recording artist J.D. Grayling. But as Alice heads to the summer gig at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, she is horrified at the idea of J.D., his band, and visitors to the Grand seeing her face, which was mangled in an accident that also took her self-esteem. Alice plans to stay in the shadows, but her worries are enhanced when band members one-by-one mysteriously become too ill to perform. Alice wonders if the world is going mad, or if the truths she is learning from her new friends at the island’s Creative Lilac shop can change the pain she feels from her past. Can Alice survive the summer working for the singer-songwriter she has idolized for years, or is she once again headed down a rabbit hole of disappointment and betrayal? 4.5 stars, 31 ratings on Amazon.

Being Wendy: (In a world afraid to grow up)

From $0.99 via Kindle Countdown Deal
Free via Kindle Unlimited



Book 4 in the Mackinac Island Stories could be the end for Wendy T. Bell. While celebrating her 50th birthday at a party in Los Angeles, all she feels is betrayal...wondering if someone in the room is behind the threats that could end her glamorous life as a best-selling author, not to mention her engagement to a wealthy English Baron. To get away from it all, Wendy travels incognito to a tiny Midwest island she learned about from an old boarding school chum. But when her blackmailer begins to slip notes under her door, Wendy is terrified. Who found her, and why are they bent on ruining her life? Wendy ends up wishing she had never grown up to live a life filled with lies, and wonders if it’s too late to find genuine happiness, friendship, and love. Or do these things only exist on fairy-tale islands? 4.9 stars on Amazon.

About Michèle Olson

Michèle has lived the majority of her life in Northeastern Wisconsin, including the last three decades in the shadow of Lambeau Field in Green Bay. She and her husband, Ray, have taken many trips to Mackinac Island and stayed at the Grand Hotel, and Michèle says the beauty of the area never ceases to inspire more stories. 

Michèle and Ray are also the husband and wife team behind Lake Girl Publishing, where Michèle does the creative stuff...the writing, voice work, speaking, sketch doodling, and art, and Ray runs the technical side of things...formatting books and handling the many details that come with a publishing company. 

Michèle especially loves telling stories that take a deeper look at how faith can be a part of every moment. She also enjoys sharing life lessons from a storied career and from life as a wife, mother, and grandmother. Whether doing voice work around the country, writing novels, or working on more art, she loves a good laugh! Learn more about Michèle, get signed copies of her books, or sign up for her mailing list at Lake Girl Publishing.

Free online today: A virtual event celebrating the release of Wanting: Women Writing About Desire. In this daring collection, award-winning and emerging female writers share their innermost longings, in turn dismantling both personal and political constructs of what desire is or can be. Presented by Women & Children First, an indie bookstore in Chicago and one of the largest feminist bookstores in the United States. Monday, February 13, 12 p.m. CST. (Also available 1-2 weeks after the event on the Women & Children First YouTube Channel.)

“Sometimes the most dangerous thing of all in matters of love was to be granted your heart’s desire.” ~Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic

Coming February 21, for ages 10-14. Thirteen-year-old Julia would much rather work with horses at the rescue barn than worry about things like dating and makeup. But when her BFF meets a boy at camp, Julia is determined not to get left behind. After a makeover from her older sister, she posts a picture of herself online and meets Tyler—a seemingly nice kid who lives across town. As they DM more and more, Julia’s sure that Tyler understands her in a way her family never has. Then Julia finds out Tyler’s true plan, and her world is turned upside down. She fiercely guards her secret, but could her silence allow her friends to fall into the same trap? From $8.49 PRE-ORDER NOW /