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Welcome to At the moment in Books, our every day round-up of literary headlines on the intersection of politics, tradition, media, and extra.
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Ghostwritten Memoirs Are the New Wealth Standing Image
Rich retirees, a lot of whom “just want the kids to know how hard they had it,” are spending as much as $100,000 to fee ghost-written memoirs. Oh, the irony. The pattern is fashionable sufficient {that a} cottage business has sprung as much as assist it, with some older people use all-inclusive providers that pair them with interviewers who sit with them for a number of classes earlier than passing the transcripts to a ghostwriter who pulls them right into a cohesive story. These fortunate sufficient to have $10 million or extra with a Cleveland-based wealth administration agency obtain a “free” ghostwritten memoir as a perk supplied “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 in which to the again of my head whereas muttering about how boomers actually did smash it for the remainder of us, I can discover some sympathy for the end-of-life concern about leaving a legacy. All of us need to be seen, in spite of everything. However 100 grand? Certain feels extreme. And exploitative?! Most likely that, too. Storyworth will do that for you for $99, and, dare I say it, this may really be an incredible use-case for AI.
Hank Inexperienced Needs to Assist You Focus
Having hassle staying centered in your guide? Hank Inexperienced’s new Focus Good friend app, created in partnership with Honey B Video games, is right here to assist. Billed as gamified “ADHD-friendly focus timer,” Focus Good friend introduces you to an anthropomorphized bean who simply desires to sit down of their room and knit. I named mine Beanu Reeves.
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Set a timer for between 5 minutes and two hours of focus time, and whenever you decide up your cellphone, you interrupt your bean’s knitting (I can’t imagine that’s a sentence I simply wrote, what a time to be alive), and that makes it unhappy.
This may be excellent if I might play Weezer’s “Undone (The Sweater Song)” within the background.
It’s like if Animal Crossing guilted you into staying off TikTok. Your bean’s accomplished knitting tasks develop into decor for its room, and whenever you improve to a professional subscription, your bean will get entry to fancier tasks (scarves and and so on). True to Inexperienced’s vibe, the bean is even encouraging whenever you fail.
Success (left) and failure (proper).
I’m a longtime fan of the Forest app, which is principally the identical concept however you’re rising a tree as an alternative of supporting a bean’s artistic endeavors, and pay attention, if it really works, it really works, and it’s cheaper than throwing your cellphone into the ocean.
The Most Anticipated Books of Fall, In keeping with Goodreads
2025 has been a fairly quiet 12 months for books thus far, however it appears like the autumn line-up is about to vary all that. Goodreads customers’ most anticipated books of the season embody a brand new Ian McEwan, the most recent from the writer of My Sister, the Serial Killer, Cory Doctorow’s long-awaited book-length meditation on how and why the web grew to become so shitty, and, sure, an entire part dedicated to romantasy. What’s atop your checklist?
