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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
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Ghostwritten Memoirs Are the New Wealth Status Symbol
Wealthy retirees, many of whom “just want the kids to know how hard they had it,” are spending up to $100,000 to commission ghost-written memoirs. Oh, the irony. The trend is popular enough that a cottage industry has sprung up to support it, with some older folks use all-inclusive services that pair them with interviewers who sit with them for multiple sessions before passing the transcripts to a ghostwriter who pulls them into a cohesive story. Those lucky enough to have $10 million or more with a Cleveland-based wealth management firm receive a “free” ghostwritten memoir as a perk offered “to ease clients’ fears that their heirs won’t understand the value of hard work.” If I resist the urge to roll my eyes all the way to the back of my head while muttering about how boomers really did ruin it for the rest of us, I can find some sympathy for the end-of-life concern about leaving a legacy. We all want to be seen, after all. But a hundred grand? Sure feels excessive. And exploitative?! Probably that, too. Storyworth will do this for you for $99, and, dare I say it, this might actually be a great use-case for AI.
Hank Green Wants to Help You Focus
Having trouble staying focused on your book? Hank Green’s new Focus Friend app, created in partnership with Honey B Games, is here to help. Billed as gamified “ADHD-friendly focus timer,” Focus Friend introduces you to an anthropomorphized bean who just wants to sit in their room and knit. I named mine Beanu Reeves.
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Set a timer for between five minutes and two hours of focus time, and when you pick up your phone, you interrupt your bean’s knitting (I can’t believe that’s a sentence I just wrote, what a time to be alive), and that makes it sad.
It’s like if Animal Crossing guilted you into staying off TikTok. Your bean’s completed knitting projects become decor for its room, and when you upgrade to a pro subscription, your bean gets access to fancier projects (scarves and etc). True to Green’s vibe, the bean is even encouraging when you fail.
I’m a longtime fan of the Forest app, which is basically the same idea but you’re growing a tree instead of supporting a bean’s creative endeavors, and listen, if it works, it works, and it’s cheaper than throwing your phone into the sea.
The Most Anticipated Books of Fall, According to Goodreads
2025 has been a pretty quiet year for books so far, but it looks like the fall line-up is about to change all that. Goodreads users’ most anticipated books of the season include a new Ian McEwan, the latest from the author of My Sister, the Serial Killer, Cory Doctorow’s long-awaited book-length meditation on how and why the internet became so shitty, and, yes, a whole section devoted to romantasy. What’s atop your list?
