Today's Featured Books

Today, LitNuts is shining a spotlight on Reflections on Life's Illusions: A Memoir of Culture and Consciousness by Jane Gallagher.

"Unconventionally structured and feminine forward, this memoir presents a narrative that celebrates the strength, resilience and whimsically intuitive nature of all women." ~Olivia Thomes, Hare's Paw Literary Journal

Reflections on Life's Illusions

“It is not our business to solve all the world’s problems. It is our business to learn to be aware of as much as we can...and to act as wisely as we can.”

As growing children, the baby boom generation experienced a vast array of cultural extremes, from McCarthyism's anti-communist paranoia to the Vietnam War, Watergate, systemic racism, second wave feminism, the birth of rock ’n’ roll, the civil rights movement, the environmental movement, and more. This memoir reflects on the dynamic relationship between the development of personal and cultural consciousness in order to highlight a path to resilience for anyone seeking to heal Earth's living systems.

Reflections on the effects of childhood awakening to cultural grief following the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, mingle with reflections on the cultural impacts of rock ’n’ roll, the hippie movement, and the atrocities of Jim Crow racism. From challenges faced in search of personal identity, meaningful relationships, and a rewarding career to the repercussions of a life-changing hike through the mountains of Peru, a focus on the outer journey throughout the book is coupled with attention to a corresponding inner journey to reconnect with wonder, joy, and awe against the backdrop of a nation increasingly at war with itself.

Reflections on Life’s Illusions maps a path of discovery, illuminating what it takes to thrive personally and professionally while working to foster resilience within the turmoil of Western culture and the matrix of life on Earth.

Praise for Reflections on Life's Illusions
"Part memoir, part social commentary, Jane Gallagher's book is both unique and deeply thoughtful in its exploration of the relationship between her personal journey and how it was shaped by the cultural influences throughout her life. A multifaceted, heartfelt book, Reflections on Life's Illusions is rich with both personal stories and skillful cultural analysis, revealing the author's passion for self-understanding, propelled by compelling questions about the mystery of existence." ~Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle, author of Aging with Wisdom

"Jane Gallagher's memoir charts her journey to find direction and connection against the backdrop of the social and cultural mores of the baby boom generation. We attend her long quest to seek a clear and independent voice. She leaves us with a map to unearth the wisdom that nurtures and heals." ~Linda Hoffman, author of The Artist and The Orchard: A Memoir

"A tapestry of experiences that reflect not only her individual journey but also the broader context of the times in which women in her family lived." ~Olivia Thomes, Hare's Paw Literary Journal

Free online: How To Easily Share Your Old Photos. This workshop will teach you the steps for converting your paper print photo collection into print-quality digital images. Hear about the simplest and proven methods from sorting, preparing, and digitizing to developing, storing, and uploading. Thursday, July 18, 12 - 1 PM CDT.

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” ~Dorothea Lange

Congratulations to Brendan Gillen and Vine Leaves Press on the release of Static, "a High Fidelity for our millennium."

★★★★★ “Reverberates with the drumbeat of why we make art.” ~Will Musgrove, author of Asphalt Dreaming

Static

For Paul, stealing is easy. When he's hungry, he strolls into a bodega and steals lunch. When rent’s due, he steals records and flips them for cash. As a lonely kid growing up in Ohio’s Rust Belt, stealing was the only way he could score the hip hop records and production equipment that fueled his musical dreams.
 
Now he’s in NYC fighting to keep his once-ascendant band alive and his life from falling apart. His bank account is flatlining. The love of his life has broken his heart. Bunky, his bandmate, is ditching him for Eloise, a soulful vagabond with an intoxicating voice. When financial trouble forces his parents from their lifelong home, Paul ramps up his stealing to save his family from collapse. And in a fever of creativity, he begins to steal from the voices in his life to make the music he’s sure will save his soul.
 
Set against the modern music industry, where a single social post can change your destiny, Static is alive to the weight of familial expectations, the pursuit of our deepest hopes and dreams, and the struggle to make meaningful connections in the anxiety of the digital age.

Praise for Static
★★★★★ “Static is a deep dive into the dark web of the American way of success and failure, and the unforgiving scream of the music of chance.” ~Salar Abdoh, author of A Nearby Country Called Love

★★★★★ “Funny, witty, and energetic... will hook you like a beautiful, catchy song that you’ll be humming for days.” ~Will Musgrove, author of Asphalt Dreaming

★★★★★ “A heartfelt, moving debut about the downtown New York music scene, brimming with wasted talent, floundering ambition, broken hearts, and betrayals—and wonderfully redeemed by the possibility of second chances.” ~Elizabeth Gaffney, author of Metropolis and When the World was Young

★★★★★ “Music pops out of every page in multi-sensory detail - the warm crackle of a needle on vinyl, the sweat of a crowd, the vibration of strings, the digitized reanimation of a sample, and the cacophonous ambient symphony of New York City.” ~Will Hagle, author of Madvillain's Madvillainy

★★★★★ “A generation ago, Nick Hornby showed us that a record store can be the perfect backdrop for a novel about the twisted path to growing up. So why haven’t more people paid attention since then? Luckily, Brendan Gillen has, and the result is Static, a High Fidelity for our millennium.” ~Dan LeRoy, author of Dancing to the Drum Machine

Free online: Mindful Reinvention for Women In Midlife, a two-night virtual gathering focused on empowering women in midlife to embrace change and reinvent themselves through mindful intention. July 16 & 17, 7 PM CDT each night. 

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” ~Alice Walker

Today, we are shining a spotlight on Doombringer, a gritty dark fantasy novella from Marcel Liemant. If you relish twisted magic, supernatural creatures, and complex LGBTQI+ characters, dive into this mysterious tale!

★★★★★ "A beautifully written story set in a dark fantasy realm... The relationship between Oden and his daughter is magical and truly heartwarming. This story had war, loss, hope, love, perseverance, and strong family dynamics.” ~Tara Johnson, Goodreads Review

Bonus: Purchase print editions of Marcel Liemant books directly from the author at MarcelLiemant.com to get signed, wax-sealed paperback editions. 

Doombringer: Of Shadows and Sacrifice

Ancient enemies on the horizon. Twisted magic with a cost. A father who will sacrifice anything to save his daughter.

Oden Treaty is tireless. His nights are devoted to mining magic, his days to shielding his daughter from the reality of their realm ravaged by war. As the skies blacken with signs of imminent attack by the merciless Red Mages, Oden refuses to let the enemy that killed his wife destroy more of his home.

Surrounded by a community resigned to defeat, Oden unearths an unsettling prophecy foretelling his role in the destiny of the final battle. But with every spell cast eroding his body to dust, and their village about to be overrun, Oden is desperate to survive long enough to save his daughter’s world.

Can Oden wield unimaginable power in time to rescue his realm from doom?

★★★★★ "An intriguing dark fantasy." ~Amazon Review

★★★★★ "The author's writing style is particularly captivating, vividly painting scenes that pull you deep into the story." ~Goodreads Review

Other titles from Marcel Liemant:

  

           

Free online: Poets in Pajamas. This virtual poetry reading series takes place each Sunday at 7 PM ET. This week, join poets Dorinda Wegener and Mukethe Kawinzi for two 20-minute live readings, immediately followed by Q&A. Sunday, July 14, 7 PM ET.

“What is the meaning of life? The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark.” ~Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse