Phone Ban Leads to Record School Library Use

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

School Phone Ban Leads to Increased Library Use

Students in Kentucky’s Jefferson County Public Schools are checking out library books at record rates, a “culture shift” correlated to the district’s new cellphone ban. Here are just a few of the encouraging stats:

• Students at Pleasure Ridge Park High School checked out more than 1,000 books in the first 17 days of the new school year, nearly half the total for last year’s entire school year
• At Butler High School, about 20% of students check out a library book last year. More than 40% of them have a book checked out at present.
• Last August, only 92 books were checked out at Farnsley Middle. This August saw 1,003 checkouts. Yes, folks, that’s a tenfold increase.

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The Season’s Most Interesting Nonfiction Picks

I just finished Elizabeth Gilbert’s new memoir All the Way to the River (out 9/9), and it was exactly as 👀 as the recent author profiles made me expect. Whether you’re looking for a high-profile memoir like Gilbert’s, a timely deep dive into the history of the US constitution, a beloved author’s reckoning with her complicated mother, or an exploration of why the internet is so shitty now, there’s something for you on the NYT’s round-up of nonfiction to read this fall.

The Literary Film & TV to See This Fall

You’re gonna need something to tide you over in between new episodes of GBBO, and you could do a whole lot worse than this line-up of literary movies and TV shows coming this fall. I’m already braced for the five-alarm snot bomb of Hamnet, and I can’t wait to see Tessa Thomson in Hedda Gabler. First up, though, a new season of Slow Horses, always cause for celebration in my house.

Spooky Season Starts Now

If Starbucks can roll out the pumpkin spice latte while it’s still 90 degrees outside, you can start reading for spooky season whenever you damn well please. Here are new horror books to get you going.