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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.
Readers’ Most Anticipated Books of Fall
These lists are the best thing about Goodreads. Forget the ratings and reviews–what are people adding to their shelves and marking as “want to read?” Book sales are trailing indicators, but these round-ups are really the only hard-ish information those of use not privvy to preorder numbers get. And there are always a few surprises (I had not heard of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors) in the categories I feel like a know, and in the categories I don’t read as much, it is a tremendous overview.
Newcomers defeat two Broward County School Board members appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis
The reporting on these results doesn’t mention book bans or censorship, but I have to imagine that is the spotlight issue in these elections in these districts. And you love to see DeSantis appointees lose and lose big. Elections at the local level are really the only effective way to combat school and district level censorship, and poll after poll finds it a losing issue for Republicans. May their efforts at the ballot box continue to fail.
The 10 Most Interesting Questions in the World of Books and Reading
This is my own piece for Book Riot today, in which I run down ten questions about the book world that I find the most fascinating. As a Today in Books reader, these might not surprise you, though perhaps some of my provisional-very-loosely-held answers might be.
The Shawshank Redemption at 30
Get busy living, or get busy dying: This year marks the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of one of the best movie adaptations of all time. In this podcast episode, Rebecca Schinksy and I talk about the novella and film. Spoiler: both are terrific.