The Weekly Wrap

The Weekly Wrap: May 17-23

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The Weekly Wrap: May 17-23

James Daunt’s Bad Week

James Daunt, the CEO of Barnes & Noble sat down with Jenna Bush recently to discuss the turnaround of Barnes & Noble and recent book trends, including AI-generated books. And here’s the statement that got him into trouble:

“Yes, I have actually no problem selling any book, as long as it doesn’t masquerade or pretend to be something that it isn’t, and that it has an essential quality to it, and that the customer, the reader, wants it. So as long as an AI-written book says it’s an AI-written book and doesn’t pretend to be something else and isn’t ripping off somebody else, as long as that’s clearly stated and the customer wants to buy it, then we will stock them.” (Source: “Barnes & Noble CEO Would Support Stores Selling AI-Written Books. Here’s Why“)

His remarks led to a social media firestorm and calls to boycott Barnes & Noble.

Why This is a Problem

What Mr. Daunt does not address are several troubling aspects of AI-generated works. One is that large language models train on human-authored works and to this point, authors are neither credited nor compensated. AI-generated books are a form of plagiarism and theft of intellectual property. It also allows for the “writing” of a book in hours or days instead of the months to years of research and writing by human authors. It is not a level playing field. Thirdly, even Barnes & Noble has limited shelf space and AI-generate books will take away available space for human authors. In addition, this endorses the massive energy and water usage by the data centers supporting AI.

Mr. Daunt Clarifies His Original Statement

In response to the criticism, James Daunt sent a statement to Publishers Weekly, which they summarized and quoted as follows:

“In explaining his reluctance to issue a blanket ban on AI-generated books, Daunt acknowledged his stance is ‘perhaps over nuanced, but there are important principles that have to be balanced and I believe we do so as sensibly and thoughtfully as is possible. Book banning is a clear and present danger, so we are very careful with demands to ban any books, as also in our vigilance not to sell AI generated books that masquerade to be by real authors.’ ” (Source: “James Daunt Looks to Clarify B&N’s Position on AI-Generated Books“)

The Problem With This Response

It appears that behind his remarks, he doesn’t want to engage in what could be perceived as book-banning, a stance to which Barnes & Noble has been adamantly committed. But the argument is specious. First of all, book-banning efforts are book-specific and content-oriented. That is different from choosing not to stock books not written by humans. In addition, this argument fails to address the above-mentioned problems with AI-generated text, notably, the theft of human intellectual property. Daunt is silent about this. But when a human author plagiarizes a book, booksellers pull it when this comes to light.

Why I Care

The local Barnes & Noble is the nearest store to us. I’m a Premium member (for which I pay). We buy a lot of books there and enjoy sharing our finds at the cafe. If they began stocking AI books, I would end this relationship. I interact with so many human authors and I know how hard they work to bring books to print. Thus, I cannot support a decision that preys on their intellectual property and displaces their books. I hope Mr. Daunt will reconsider and instead of a “nuanced” position, will say a flat “no” to AI-generated books. His current response is a marketing and public relations response. Instead, he could take a clear stance and use his stature to give decisive leadership to both his own company and the publishing industry. I hope he will.

Five Articles Worth Reading

The New York Times has taken a very different slant on summer reading. Rather than suggest titles, they offer a “bucket list” of categories. And if you complete five or more this summer, you can enter a drawing for a prize. Read all about it and get the link to enter by visiting “The New York Times’s Summer Reading Bucket List.”

James Nazir was one of the awardees of the Commonwealth Prize until readers, including some who used AI-detection software (which can be wrong), raised red flags that his story might be AI-generated. Vauhini Vara describes the challenges Granta faced in “This Literary AI Scandal Changes Everything.” The author has not responded to the allegations although he and other authors disavowed AI use. The article alerts me to the challenges that every author and publisher needs to navigate in this new AI landscape.

In recent years, colleges have oriented more toward STEM fields. But what happens when AI can perform equal to humans or better in many aspects, particularly in things like programming? Jacob Potash argues in “Rethinking Education in the AI Age” that the humanities could offer intellectual frameworks and “memory scaffolds” that provide the basis for a life well lived. He appeals to the way the Greeks used The Iliad.

From artificial intelligence to alien life. In “Is Alien Life Hiding in Plain Sight, Right Here in Our Solar System?,” Dr. Sarah Alam Malik considers the possibilities.

Finally, I was among those watching the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. From the interview with Paul McCartney, 62 years after he performed in the Ed Sullivan Theatre with the Beatles to the ending, it was a great, if bittersweet finish. One thing I liked about Colbert is that he interviewed authors! Publishers Weekly notes his impact on book sales in “Publishers Bid Farewell to Stephen Colbert.”

Quote of the Week

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859. He observed:

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.”

I’ve always thought that the mark of good leaders is that they surround themselves with people who excel them rather than are inferior to them.

Miscellaneous Musings

This was the week when I received nine books in two days. Lots of interesting new publications that I’ll be featuring on my social media in the next few weeks. One was Tish Harrison Warren’s new book on resilience, that I’ve already started reading.

A book I’ll be reviewing on Monday proposes that the most important philosophical experience common to all of us is the loving gaze of a mother toward her newborn child.

Don’t look to see me as much on X (Twitter). They are not only limiting posts per day for “unverified” (i.e. non-paying) accounts to 50 but also flagging you if you post a lot in a short period. Since I sometimes post in batches, I discovered X was blocking me. So I’ll limit what I post rather than support Elon’s empire.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Esther Lightcap Meek, The Mother’s Smile

Tuesday: Graham Greene, It’s A Battlefield

Wednesday: Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Man Up

Thursday: David W. Gill, ed., Questioning Technology

Friday: Valentyn Syniy, Serving God Under Siege

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for May 17-23.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: May 10-16

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Summer Reading

Readers will tell you that any season is a good season for reading. But summers are a special time for many of us. Lighter schedules. Vacations. And, weather and insects permitting, reading al fresco, perhaps with a cool drink at one’s side. My dream is a screened porch near a lake.

It’s not a bad time to think about how to make the most of your reading opportunities. In this Weekly Wrap, I include two lists you might consider. Maybe this is the time to wade into that longer book you held off from reading. Or you might try a new genre. There’s time to shop your shelves or hit the bookstore to stock up.

Maybe you’ll try something else new. Attend a reading or event at a local bookstore. What about imitating Ellen Burstyn and memorizing a poem or two? Or maybe find some people to talk books with–whether a formal book club or just a friend or two. As one of the articles I post here asserts, joining book clubs just might be revolutionary acts!

While I believe books can enrich our lives, I’d encourage you to keep it fun. Summer is not the time to get bogged down in a book. After all, summers are a time for refreshment. Find books that do that for you; set aside the ones that don’t.

To adapt a favorite summer song, “summer time, and the reading is easy.” It’s a good time to look ahead so that will be true for you.

Five Articles Worth Reading

The Atlantic posted “The Summer Reading Guide,” consisting of 25 books in five categories. I was delighted to find one by Columbus native, Wil Haygood, whose books I’ve enjoyed.

Some of us have aspired to read some of the great books of literature, the ones others compare themselves to. The Guardian is publishing a list of 100 from authors, critics and academics around the world. How many have you read?

“Ellen Burstyn Has Been Memorizing Poetry Her Whole Life” describes the actor’s love of poetry, what she’s currently reading and how she organizes her books. If someone can memorize poems at 93, I have no excuse!

We seem to be losing to have conversations in person where we talk and even argue and walk away friends. In “The revolutionary act of reading together: Why book clubs could save the world,” Dana Vanderlugt argues for the value of book clubs in our society.

Demon Copperhead is Barbara Kingsolver’s contemporary re-telling of Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield, both great books. In “‘Institutional Poverty’ in Charles Dickens and Barbara Kingsolver,” Susan Bruxvoort Lipscomb argues the books have very different takes on the role of institutions in perpetuating poverty. She argues Kingsolver portrays corrupt institutions as responsible for perpetuating poverty, whereas Dickens focus more on unfortunate circumstances. Some institutions actually have redemptive influences.

Quote of the Week

Douglas Southall Freeman was born May 14, 1886. He wrote histories of the Civil War and biographies of George Washington and Robert E. Lee. I agree with this observation about character:

“Character is that quality of mind which makes truth-telling instinctive rather than strange.”

Miscellaneous Musings

Artificial Intelligence has been touted for its efficiency. But a new book on Jacques Ellul that I just began included an article that raised questions about how we assess efficiency. We have to consider not just the immediate task but also the huge expenditures of energy, water, land, and resources to run these centers, as well as the costs of ameliorating the consequences of their use. Also, what is the cost to communities where they are sited? AI may not be nearly as efficient as we think if these costs are included.

While we are on the topic of AI, the Authors Guild has released new guidelines that incorporate guiding principles for the use of AI by authors. The Publishers Weekly article included these guidelines that every author ought heed:

 “AI-generated text is not copyrightable, and knowingly failing to disclose AI-generated content in a copyright registration application can constitute fraud on the Copyright Office.” The Guild also warns that “many book contracts also include warranties that the manuscript is the author’s original work, meaning undisclosed inclusion of AI-generated text may put a writer in breach.”

The full guide is well worth reading for any of us who write. It may be accessed here.

I’ve started reading Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket. I’ve not read any other Pynchon before so I don’t know how to compare. It’s kind of a crazy story of a gumshoe from Milwaukee chasing a Cheese heiress while eluding a cheese mafia. It is laced with jargon that makes it a challenge to follow. Still figuring out what I think of it!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Paul Elie, The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s

Tuesday: Christopher R. Brewer, ed., Art Seeking Understanding

Wednesday: Thomas Pynchon, Shadow Ticket

Thursday: Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

Friday: William J. Kole, In Guns We Trust

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for May 10-16.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: May 3-9

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The Weekly Wrap: May 3-9

Thanks, Mom!

More than anyone, I owe the fact that I am a reader to my mom. She never, to my memory, encouraged me to read. Rather, she loved to read and she shared that love with me. She was diligent in her care for our home and for us. But whenever she took a break, often over lunch or in the evening, she’d be reading.

As soon as I could, I shared my books with her. I’d tell her about the latest baseball book I was reading. And she’d tell me about Taylor Caldwell or Susan Howatch or Leon Uris. And as I got older, I read some of those books as well.

We had a house full of books…and I was always free to explore the bookshelves. I can’t think of my mom censoring my reading–even when I picked up some of her racier books!

We also had a bookcase of encyclopedias. And you’d often find me camped in front of those with a volume in my lap. I’d be reading an article to learn about something that caught my interest.

It was a cruel turn that resulted in her losing much of her vision to macular degeneration in her seventies. She hung on, using magnifiers and devices as long as she could. Audiobooks were in their infancy. Having reached my seventies, it’s one of my great fears that I’ll lose my vision. Maybe I read so much to read while I can. And I’m religious about eye checkups.

However, I’ve had a life filled with the joy of reading, bookstores, libraries, and lots of conversations with other book lovers. And I owe it all to mom. Thank you for imparting your love of books to me. I’ll always be grateful. I love you, Mom, and I’ll always remember you.

Five Articles Worth Reading

If you are buying books for mom, you might be hitting the bookstore today to look for something. Here are a couple lists of recommendations you might look over. One is from the New York Times and offers recommendations by genres. Publishers Weekly offers an uncategorized list of ten books.

For some of us, we grieve mothers who are no longer with us. Simon Rogers, who has written a book on our Google searches, addresses the ways we turn to the internet for solace in “ ‘The Data Shows We’re Never Truly Alone.’ What Our Online Searches Say About Loss.“

Motherhood has also been the focus of scholarly study. So JSTOR, in “Motherhood in America: A Reading List,” offers a selection of the scholarship on motherhood.

Elizabeth Strout has a new book out. Her books are both critically acclaimed and bestsellers. I’ve read and enjoyed a couple of them. Adam Begley explores “The Secret of Elizabeth Strout’s Appeal.”

If you’ve looked at antique or fine books, you may have noticed the beautiful endpapers, made by a process called “marbling.” In “The Secret Art of Marbling” Francky Knapp takes us through the meticulous process of marbling.

Quote of the Week

Thomas Pynchon turned 89 yesterday, May 8. He was born in 1937. He warns us of one of the ways people practice the art of deflection:

“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I often find that book awards name books I’ve never read, or even heard of. Not so the Pulitzers. Among the winners are Jill Lepore’s We the People, on my TBR and There is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone which I reviewed last year. Here is a list of the awardees.

I tend to remember more of the music and art of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Paul Elie’s The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s explores a decade I lived through but think less of. It’s a fascinating study of artists ranging from Warhol to Leonard Cohen to Madonna and the “crypto-religious” themes that run through their lives and work.

Would you consider it worth it if you made it to the major leagues in baseball, only to play in one game. In The Cup of Coffee Club, Jacob Kornhauser tells the story of eleven players who played exactly one game in the majors. It’s a story of all they went through to get there, and how they came to terms as they realized this was their “one, brief shining moment.”

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Sabino Chialà, Silence and Speaking Freely

Tuesday: Daniel Taylor, The Prodigal of Leningrad

Wednesday: Lesslie Baynes, Between Interpretation and Imagination

Thursday: Jacob Kornhauser, The Cup of Coffee Club

Friday: Beth Felker jones, Why I Am Protestant

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for May 3-9.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: April 26-May 2

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The Weekly Wrap: April 26-May 2

New Bookstores

“Independent Bookstore Day: Bookshop.org founder on how small retailers are taking on Amazon.” This Fast Company notes that since 2020, the number of members in the American Booksellers Association has grown from1,900 to 3,200.

I think there is something to this. Two nearby communities that have never had bookstores in my memory will have three bookstores by this summer. Escape Into Fiction opened in Powell, Ohio last fall. This summer two bookstores open just down the street from each other in downtown Worthington. Celestielle is scheduled to open May 22 and focuses on fantasy and romance. Then in July, The Whispering Page is scheduled to open, stocking new books of all genres and hosting used book swaps. Their Instagram page also advertises a cafe and bar.

Will they survive? That’s anyone’s guess. But it excites me that there are entrepreneurs who see this a good time to make a go of it. Increasingly, there is a conviction that the big online behemoth is not invincible. Bookshop.org has provided an online alternative to that behemoth that supports Indie stores, and, according to the Fast Company article, have already channeled $47 million to Indie stores.

What delights me about these stores they help to turn the town centers of these communities into more interesting places. And they are filling empty storefronts. They hark back to the time when we’d walk downtown rather than pile into a car to go to the mall. There is a movement of people are going analog and craving interaction with real people.

To me, all this seems a good thing.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Sometimes my “five articles” cluster around a theme. This week, they were just a potpourri of things that caught my attention.

Plough is one of my favorite sources of good writing. This week they posted “When Kierkegaard Got Cancelled.” It’s a fascinating study of how Kierkegaard responded to the attacks and cancelling he encountered.

I was disappointed several years when my one chance to see Bob Seger in concert was lost when he had health issues. He was one of my rock legends, representing the gritty rock of middle America. “The Lost Idealism of Heartland Rock” reviews “Won’t Back Down by Erin Osmon, which traces the progressive strain in artists like Seger, Tom Petty, and John Mellencamp.

Both the change from local businesses to big shopping centers and many of our rock songs assumed the ubiquitous presence of the automobile. “Life After Cars?” reviews a book by the same name that explores what a post-automobile landscape might be like.

His novel Lázár, has been on the German best seller lists for 29 weeks. It’s been compared to Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks. And he is 22 years old. “A Very Old-Fashioned Novel Has Made a Star Out of a Very Young Writer” features the life and work of Nelio Biedermann.

Finally, one of the most prolific American diarists of the nineteenth century was George Templeton Strong. For example, he wrote four million words between 1835 and 1875. His diaries capture what life in New York was like during the Civil War. “Inside a Four-Million-Word Diary of 1860s New York” profiles Strong as well as offers resources if you want to read more of him.

Quote of the Week

In recent years I’ve become something of an advocate for poetry, even daring to read some on my Facebook page. Yusef Komunyakaa, who was born on April 29, 1947, captures something of the essence of the work of poets:

“Poets are seen as the caretakers of language, so working with words no matter what the form is what we do.”

You can read more about his life at the Poetry Foundation.

Miscellaneous Musings

After thirteen years, I made a small tweak to the tagline on my web page, which was “Thoughts about books, reading, and life.” It now reads “Thoughts from a human on books, reading, and life.” Because it is increasingly common to get reviews from AI (which I think sometimes uses reviews I write!). I felt it time to affirm that the reviews on this page are 100 percent human written, based on the reading of whole books by a 100 percent human. Whether that’s better than AI, I’ll leave up to you.

I am an Inklings fan. But Leslie Baynes Interpretation and Imagination reveals that Lewis made scholarly mistakes like the rest of us. He trusted his memory too much when citing others and sometimes misread those he was critiquing. It seems that particularly when he engaged biblical criticism, he was prone to errors stemming from his lack of expertise and background in the field.

Reading Louis Markos’ From Aristotle to Christ challenged me that I had never read Aristotle. He recommended a basic edition, which should be arriving in a few days. Just another example of how reading one book leads to others!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, A City on Mars

Tuesday: Steven Garber, Hints of Hope

Wednesday: Betony Coons, The Unwinding Path

Thursday: Louis Markos, From Aristotle to Christ

Friday: Jane Austen, Emma

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for April 26-May 2.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: April 19-25

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The Weekly Wrap: April 19-25

Something Different

Dropped by the local Barnes & Noble yesterday. On one of the front tables featuring fiction, I noticed Leif Enger‘s I Cheerfully Refuse. First it was the artful cover and then this description on the back cover that caught my attention:

“Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs and remote islands of the inland sea.”

I bought the book. But I don’t usually buy books this way. Often I buy something I’ve heard of, seen reviewed, or has been recommended. Or I buy books by an author I like or a topic I find interesting. However, this book checked none of those boxes.

So what’s going on? The cover did stand out as something of a departure from other contemporary fiction, so I noticed it. Also, I love quests. And I’ve had good luck with Minnesota authors. William Kent Krueger is a favorite. Enger is also a former journalist, a plus in my book as someone who may know how to write with economy.

I like the serendipity of shopping in a bookstore. You never know what you’ll find. And now, I’ll probably hear of Leif Enger wherever I turn! Look for my review to see if I like him!

Five Articles Worth Reading

This week’s articles all deal in some way with the upcoming 250th birthday of the United States. Three focus on the yet-to-be healed wounds of slavery and race that are an important part of our history.

Firstly, “Mother Emanuel’s Long Struggle” reviews a book on one of the oldest Black congregations, in Charleston, SC, the site of Dylann Roof’s ruthless gunning down of nine Bible study participants, and the forgiveness that followed. However the book traces a far more complex history of this congregation over 200 years.

Thomas S. Kidd, a historian, invites us to take a hard look at American slave trade in “Three History Books on the US Slave Trade.” One of these is even available for free.

Sometimes, historical fiction offers a unique lens for historical insight. In “The Barbarism of Yesteryear,” Jonathan Russell Clark reviews Max Watman’s Tomorrow, the War, an account of the antebellum slave experience in the lead up to the Civil War.


Beverly Gage recently published This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History. In “13 Books on American History That Mapped Out Beverly Gage’s Travelogue,” Gage recommends thirteen books, one for each chapter of her book, taking the reader on a journey from George Washington to Walt Disney.

Finally, part of our history is the unique canon of American literature from the past 250 years and more. The Library of America set out a number of years ago to publish quality editions of some of the best that Americans have thought and written. In “How Library of America Helped Shape the Modern American Literary Canon,” Max Rudin, current president and publisher of the Library of America discusses its mission. I’m proud to say I have a bookcase full of these editions!

Quote of the Week

Philosopher Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724. He formulated an ethical maxim simple and yet profound in its implications, often referred to as “The Categorical Imperative”:

“Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.”

Miscellaneous Musings

There has been a lot of concern about the literacy of our youth, particularly at the fourth grade level. “Another Way to Boost Fourth Grade Reading Scores? Preschool” argues for the effectiveness of Pre-K education to boost these score. Currently, however, we are shifting the burden of funding these programs in the U.S. to the states. It remains to be seen how this will work out across the country. It seems, though, that citizen involvement at the local level could make a huge difference.

Reading Jane Austen’s Emma, I wonder if Emma will have an epiphany of how condescending she is. It is a good study in how we fail to see ourselves as we are seen by others, in this case, Austen’s readers.

A City on Mars portrays the challenges of life on other planets. Mars is the only realistic possibility, with our Moon as a training ground. But the challenges are substantial to keep them from quickly or more slowly killing us. Let’s put it simply: for the next few centuries, except for very few, there is no Planet B. So, we better take care of this one.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Andrew T. LePeau, She Teaches Me Still

Tuesday: Laura Baghdassarian Murray, Becoming A Person of Welcome

Wednesday: Dallas Willard, The Renovation of the Heart

Thursday: Miroslav Volf and Dorothy C. Bass eds., Practicing Theology

Friday: The Month in Review: April 2026

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for April 19-25.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: April 12-18

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The Weekly Wrap: April 12-18

AI Fatigue

I came up with this phrase in writing this article, but it turns out that it is a real “thing.” Google’s “AI Overview (!) defines it as “the mental, emotional, and operational exhaustion resulting from the rapid, relentless influx of AI tools, news, and pressure to adopt artificial intelligence in the workplace.” My search turned up pages of articles on the phenomenon.

Within this definition, I think I’m able to locate my own fatigue. For me, it is the relentless news and discussion of AI in the world of books. I receive numerous newsletters, and instead of writing about books and the world of reading, they are writing about AI–reviews written by AI, books written by AI, the fear that writers will be replaced by AI, and the difficulty of detecting AI usage unless human developers and publishers are transparent. And the big element is the theft of intellectual property underneath all this. The work of humans. It needs to be talked about.

We also need to come to some solutions. Rules, tracking, and appropriate compensation of intellectual property. Transparency about AI content and blacklisting and withholding of payments for deception. I’d like to see an emblem used indicating a book or other written content is 100% human.

So why do I press for this? Frankly, I’m tired of all the AI stories (even though I’m posting one this week). I’m eager for us to get back to talking about books. Many of us read to engage with another human. And we often talk with other humans about what we read. We like to hear authors read their works. The world of books and reading is actually a highly social world. I also think it would be helpful to make it an AI-free world. Wouldn’t it be great if the world of books and reading could serve as a retreat for the AI fatigued?

Five Articles Worth Reading

John Cheever is back in the news. His daughter Susan has published a new book exploring the relationship between Cheever’s fiction and his own life. Rands Richards Cooper reviews it in “The Father Behind the Fiction.”

Another name in the news is Lena Dunham. Actually, I knew nothing of her until I learned she is a leading voice of young adulthood in these times. I learned much more about her in Sophie Gilbert’s “What Does Lena Dunham Want to Tell Us?,” a review of Dunham’s new memoir, Famesick.

Speaking of names, Andrew Lawler asks “Who Is Blake Whiting?” “Blake Whiting,” for whom no biography or CV exists published thirteen books on complex historical subjects in one week. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing publishes his work, yet they missed the lack of biography, and the fact that “Blake Whiting” exceeded their ten book a week limit. Of course, there is no Blake Whiting, but only Amazon knows who is behind this.

Another name I keep coming across is Iris Murdoch, novelist and philosopher. We often speak of “the good, the true, and the beautiful.” In “Iris Murdoch and the Metaphysics of the Good,” Matthew B. Crawford explores Murdoch’s thinking about “the good.”

Finally, many of us like to escape into fantasy to gain perspective on the world in which we live. “4 Great New Fantasy Books to Transport You to Bold New Worlds” introduced me to some fantasy writers I’ve not heard of before.

Quote of the Week

Thornton Wilder, born on April 17, 1897, offers a watchword for all of us:

“Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.”

Miscellaneous Musings

We are grieving the passing of my wife’s lifelong friend. They met when my wife was three–sixty nine years ago. She was a dedicated educator and reading advocate, working in our state’s Reading Recovery program for many years and teaching the children of children she’d had in classes. She fed my son’s love of reading and writing. And she typified the very best of public school education.

I’ve come to the end of Deb Gregory’s Spiritual Wayfinding. I had the delightful experience of finding my son’s name in the acknowledgements for a lesson on fractals, one of his loves. Deb used to live in our home town, but I am really curious how they crossed paths. A bit of a wayfinding project in itself. By the way, if you like to walk and care about spiritual life, the book creatively combines the two!

Lastly, I bit the bullet and ordered a new Kindle after Amazon’s email (and had it sitting at my door 6:30 the next morning). I’ll still use my old one to read the many books already loaded on it as long as it works. But I decided to go that route to avoid juggling multiple e-book accounts and different platforms, and to be ready when my old Kindle finally bricks. I really like reading on e-readers versus phones or tablets–easier on the old eyes.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: W. David Buschart & Ryan Tafilowski, Worth Doing

Tuesday: David J. Claassen, The Divine Profile

Wednesday: Deborah Gregory, Spiritual Wayfinding

Thursday: Richard Osman, The Bullet That Missed

Friday: Tom Holland, Dominion

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for April 12-18.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: April 5-11

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The Weekly Wrap: April 5-11

They Made It Too Well

I was among many Kindle users who received this email, which I will quote in part, from Amazon:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for being a longtime Kindle customer. We’re glad our devices have served you well for as long as they have. Starting May 20, 2026 — 14 to 18 years after their initial launches — we are discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier. Here’s what this means for you:

* You can continue to read books already downloaded on these devices, but you will not be able to purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them after that date.
* If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way.

Affected devices include Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation, Kindle DX and DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle 5, and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation.

I have used a Kindle Keyboard to read e-books. It was registered January 30, 2012. I like it for mysteries, science fiction, and other books I’m not interested in putting on physical shelves. I’ve read hundreds of books and have hundreds more stored on it. Most important of all, it works! It’s lasted longer than any other electronic device I’ve used. If nothing else, whoever manufactured it for Amazon built it well. So well, in fact, that I planned to keep using it until it died. I love the low glare screen and the ability to set font sizes.

Well, it appears I can still use it until it dies or as long as I don’t de-register it. But after next month, I won’t be able to download new books. No one with a pre-2013 Kindle will be able to do that.

I’ve heard a lot of us old Kindle users are furious. I’m not happy about it. Amazon’s solution, unless you use the Amazon app on other devices, is to buy a new Kindle e-reader, the base cost for which is $109. To ease the pain, they are offering a 20 percent discount and a $20 credit on e-books.

I haven’t made up my mind on what to do. I’m not crazy about Amazon in general. It seems to me this is a great time for other e-book platforms to lure new customers. I might just jump ship if a competitor offers a good deal (hint, hint!). Want to know more about what’s behind Amazon’s email? Here’s a good article I found.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Many of us have had notions of reading “the Great Books.” Ted Gioia has created a 52-week humanities program. In “How to Read the Great Books in 52 Weeks,” he’s interviewed by one of his readers who completed the course.

Are you troubled by the world we are leaving to our children and grand-children? I am. But how are the children doing with that? Tae Keller’s new children’s novel, When Tomorrow Burns, explores through the eyes of three seventh graders the question “What do you do when your biggest fear comes true?” Craig Morgan Teicher reviews this new book in “Kids: It’s Not All on You to Save the World.”

Rebecca Ackerman argues for human ghostwriters as “The Literary Job AI Can’t Replace.”

It inspired Ray Bradbury. And it launched the careers of many science fiction writers. In “How Amazing Stories Served as the Blueprint for American Science Fiction,” Ed Simon chronicles the history of this pulp publication.

So, it must be Ed Simon week! In a different publication, he explores the influence of Francis Bacon on the scientific research enterprise on the quadricentenary of his death. “The Man Who Invented the Future” explores the complicated legacy of his 1620 Novum Organum.

Quote of the Week

Irish poet George William Russell was born April 10, 1867. He offers this counsel for anyone engaged in some form of “resistance” or activism:

“We may fight against what is wrong, but if we allow ourselves to hate, that is to insure our spiritual defeat and our likeness to what we hate.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I received an unusual gift yesterday. She Teaches Me Still is a memoir of Phyllis Strong LePeau, who died in 2022. It is written by her husband, Andrew T. LePeau. Phyllis was one of the most joyful and caring people I ever knew. I look forward to reading this account…and remembering.

I am thoroughly enjoying Frank Deford’s dual biography of Christy Mathewson and John McGraw, The Old Ball Game. Their time together with the New York Giants transformed baseball as one of the greatest pitchers and greatest managers, respectively.

I’m reading Tom Holland’s Dominion, subtitled “How the Christian Revolution Remade the World.” Others have raved about this book. So far, I’m less than impressed, making me wonder what I’m not getting.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Dallas Willard, Knowing Christ Today

Tuesday: Robert J. Coplan, The Joy of Solitude

Wednesday: Susan Mathew, Enabling Grace

Thursday: Marietje Schaake, The Tech Coup

Friday: Frank Deford, The Old Ball Game

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for April 5-11.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: March 29-April 4

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The Weekly Wrap: March 29-April 4

First Authors, Now Reviewers!

Last week, I wrote about Mia Ballard’s book being pulled by Hachette when it was found to rely heavily on AI. This week, a story broke about New York Times free lance reviewer Alex Preston’s use of AI in a review of Jean-Baptiste Andrea’s Watching Over Her. It turns out, the AI inserted passages into the review from another review of the book in The Guardian. A Times reader recognized the similarity of the reviews and contacted them.

When they confronted Preston, he admitted his use of AI in the review and acknowledged the serious mistake he’d made. The New York Times has ended its relationship with Preston and linked his review to that of Christobel Kent in the Guardian. You can read more about this incident in this Guardian story.

Preston has written other articles and books and insists he has not used AI-generated text. But like any case of plagiarism, one discovered incidents taints the whole. I expect he will have a hard time publishing anything going forward.

However, as a reviewer, I understand the temptation. Sometimes I’m tired or have to fit reviews into other obligations. I suspect professional reviewers struggle with the same temptations, with paychecks at stake. AI can speed up the writing process. Preston’s failure was not properly citing his source. Instead, he represented the AI text as his own.

I do not use AI in writing, apart from a “readability” aid integrated into WordPress software. But the content comes from my interaction with the books I’m reviewing. Afterall, readers can seek AI reviews of books if they want. But I assume those who come to this page do so to learn what I thought about the book in question. If I can’t do that, it’s time to hang it up.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Tracy Kidder died last week. In “What Tracy Kidder Stood For,” Cullen Murphy reviews his career and the impact of his writing.

July 4, 2026 is the 250th birthday of the United States. Beverly Gage, in This Land is Your Land takes us on a road trip to 300 historical sites, a kind of road trip through our history. Reviewer Jennifer Szalai considers Gage’s effort in “Road-Tripping With a Historian Through America’s Past.”

So, I find almost anything Alan Jacobs writes worth a read. And so it was with “How Not to Save the Planet.” Instead of abstractions like “saving the planet,” he argues “If you learn to love a pond or a creek or a valley, then what you love others will love—and will perhaps also come to find some element of their own local environment dear to them, dear enough to conserve and protect.”

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month. Therefore, it’s a good time to do something about that floating resolution to read more poetry! And the folks at JSTOR have compiled the grand-daddy of resources in “A Reader’s Guide to Poetry for National Poetry Month.”

Finally, I discovered a real treat in “Hear Aldous Huxley Read Brave New World. Plus 84 Classic Radio Dramas from CBS Radio Workshop (1956–57).” Not only can you hear Huxley read his famous work, the Open Culture article points you to where you can hear 84 more productions from the CBS Radio Workshop, back when you could hear quality productions around the family radio before TV supplanted it.

Quote of the Week

Jane Goodall, who died just last year, was born April 3, 1934, She made an observation that both seems simple, and perhps one of the hardest things for human beings to do consistently:

“Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I don’t know if you knew this but we lived for nine years in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland–and loved our time there. Recently, heard of a new store opening up in a cool part of Cleveland Heights, The Checkered Bookshelf. There are a number of interesting bookstores in the city. Two on my book crawl bucket list are Loganberry Books and Zubal Books. Remember when I visited John King’s in Detroit? Zubal Books looks and sounds like that.

I’ll be reviewing George Saunders’ Vigil next week. It was an engrossing read but I found the ending both disappointing and puzzling. I wonder if any other readers of this book had that reaction?

Literary Hub ran an article that had me written all over it: “What Are the Routines of So-Called Super-Readers?” I wasn’t interviewed for the article, but the five things they found that super-readers have in common ring true. So who else out there are super-readers?

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Darrell L. Bock and Timothy D. Sprankle, Matthew

Tuesday: W. David O. Taylor and Daniel Train, eds., Naming the Spirit

Wednesday: Stuart M. Kaminsky, Not Quite Kosher

Thursday: George Saunders, Vigil

Friday: Amanda Hope Haley, Stones Still Speak

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for March 29-April 4.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: March 22-28

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The Weekly Wrap: March 22-28

The Latest AI Brouhaha

Last week, Hachette pulled Mia Ballard’s Shy Girl after The New York Times provided evidence that the book text relied heavily on AI. In an email to the Times, Ms. Ballard denied using AI in writing but conceded that a friend, who helped edit the self-published version of the book, used AI.

What is interesting about this, according to a story in Publisher’s Weekly, is that readers and reviewers in online discussion widely criticized the book for AI use, describing it as “flat.” Given that online chatter is one of the reasons publishers pick up self-published books, a PW editor in a blog post suggested it stretches credulity that no one at Hachette was aware of the criticism. (On a related note, the author’s explanation also stretches credulity and is a blatant denial of authorial responsibility.)

According to PW, the episode exposes the muddiness of major publishers on AI use. Only PRH requires “original work,” but even this is slippery. Hachette only pulled the book after public pressure. Did the book fool editors? Or did editors not look closely enough to notice?

I personally would like to see a “no AI generated text” policy on the part of publishers. Alternatively, if a work uses text generated by AI, disclose it publicly. I would handle deception on these matters as a version of plagiarism. Authors tempted to use AI as a shortcut without disclosure should realize that such a shortcut may be career-ending.

All of this reflects the conundrum of the rapid imposition of AI by high-tech companies. So several articles this week explore different aspects of AI use.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Geoff Shullenberger argues in “Critique of ‘Agentic’ Reason” that delegating agency to AI is a bad idea, particularly as this makes war on introspection.

Peter Wayne Moe was a deeply depressed English professor, due to the heavy reliance of his students on AI. Then he enrolled in a course to learn to play guitar, an experience leading him to ban screens in his classes, requiring students to read print books and PDFs, and write with pens in college-ruled notebooks. “Hollow Body” is a marvelous article describing his process.

Pope Leo XIV has urged priests not to use AI to write homilies. Jim Morin, in “A Disembodied Gospel,” extends this argument to the sacraments (no bots as confessors!) and other pastoral work. I’d love to see other Protestant church leaders address this!

Former kickboxer and social media influencer Andrew Tate says books are too slow. Joel Halldorf defends slow and deep reading, arguing “Andrew Tate Doesn’t Get the Point of Books.” I love what he says when he writes, “So I try to see reading not as a plate of vegetables, but as a glass of wine. Just as we don’t sip an earthy red in order to work our way through the stocks in a cellar, we shouldn’t read just to diminish the pile of books on our desk. There is pleasure in an attentive sip.”

I think I found my baseball book for this year after reading “Like Baseball? In This Book, You Can Play in Your Kitchen.” It is a review of Robert Coover’s 1968 classic, The Universal Baseball Association, once again in print. It was written before the rise of fantasy baseball leagues and eerily anticipates them.

Quote of the Week

Flannery O’Connor was born on March 25, 1925. Her bluntness is not limited to her stories. She commented:

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

Miscellaneous Musings

Ever get a treasured book soaked in a rainstorm or drop it into a swimming pool? Open Culture posted a great video from Syracuse University Libraries on “How to Rescue a Wet, Damaged Book: A Handy Visual Primer.” The key thing is, don’t let the book dry out before following this process!

I’ve been reading The Joy of Solitude by Robert J. Coplan. It’s a fascinating exploration of the fine line between being alone and loneliness. One factoid: students preferred inflicting electric shocks on themselves to sitting alone with their thoughts for fifteen minutes.

I’ve had Richard Hays’ The Moral Vision of the New Testament on my shelves, unread, for years, nearly 30 as it turns out. Eerdmans just sent me New Testament Ethics, a collection of essays on Hays’ book on its 30th anniversary of publication. So. both books are now in my review queue! That’s one way to get me to read those unread books!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Julian Peters, Nature Poems to See By

Tuesday: Edith Stein, A Sure Way

Wednesday: The Month in Reviews: March 2025

Thursday: Harold Ristau, Spiritual Warfare and Deliverance

Friday: Josiah Hesse, On Fire for God

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for March 22-28.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: March 15-21

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The Weekly Wrap: March 15-21

Retiring a Saying

A saying that has become nearly a mantra among bibliophiles is “So many books; so little time.” For example, my family even bought me a t-shirt with this saying. Yet the longer I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve come to conclusion that it might be healthy to retire this slogan.

It’s not that both parts of the statement are not true. I just read that four million books were published this past year. And, if I live as long as my parents did, I have twenty years or less of reading left. But I think the statement can foster a kind of frenzied compulsiveness to try to read as many as one can. Don Quixote, move over!

That’s a temptation to which I am prone. But I think its time for a new saying. Maybe something like, “So little time; so savor your books.” Whether I’m enjoying the twists of a good mystery, the suspense of a thriller, the wonder of a life chronicled or an exposition seeking to unravel the majesty of God, I want to savor.

Somehow, I don’t think the One Who has written the greatest story will mind.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Those of a certain age will remember The Baby-Sitters Club novels, published by Scholastic. In all 213 were published and it led to a TV series and film. And apparently they are still popular. Jennifer Hubert Swan offers ten recommendations of other books like these in “My Kids Love the Baby-Sitters Club Books. What Should They Read Next?“

I learned a new word today–“looksmaxxing.” It is the practice of maximizing one’s physical attractiveness, one’s “sexual market value” on social media. Anna Louie Sussman, in a review of The Intimate Animal explores “The Basic Drive That Humans Might Be Losing.”

Needless to say, AI is one aspect of looksmaxxing, as well as many other emerging developments in our relationship with machines. However, that interaction is not new and Peter Wolfendale explores some of that history and the recurring question of machine souls in “Geist in the machine.”

Do you ever find yourself in a conversation grappling with so many global issues, all of which have moral implications, that you wrestle to find moral language to respond? Ann Frances Margolies suggests we might find help in the work of Simone Weil in “Speaking After the Noise.”

And lastly, it’s time for a little fun. With St. Patrick’s Day celebrations this week,  J. D. Biersdorfer asks “Do You Recognize These Lines From Great Irish Poets?” Just five questions. I got four out of five, but a couple were guesses!

Quote of the Week

I do think the breakdown of our collective sanity may be attributable to our loss of neighboring and other forms of community. John Updike, born March 18, 1932, thought so as well:

“We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable.”

Miscellaneous Musings

Standard Ebooks describes itself as “a volunteer-driven effort to produce a collection of high quality, carefully formatted, accessible, open source, and free public domain ebooks that meet or exceed the quality of commercially produced ebooks. The text and cover art in our ebooks are already believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks dedicates its own work to the public domain, thus releasing the entirety of each ebook file into the public domain. All the ebooks we produce are distributed free of cost and free of U.S. copyright restrictions.” They have quite a library and their renderings surpass other versions of Public Domain works.

Yesterday was delivery day–five books from four different publishers. I’ll be highlighting them over the next weeks on my social media platforms (Facebook, X, Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram). You might find it worthwhile to follow me on one or more of those platforms.

I’m about 80 pages into On Fire For God by Josiah Hesse. He explores the evangelicalism of the Seventies and Eighties that formed his parents, its influence on him, and how so much of it morphed into what we know as “The Religious Right.” It’s fascinating as I consider the different way my life went while being shaped by similar influences. I also find myself observing, as does Amy Grant in her recent “The Sixth of January (Yasgur’s Farm),” that “we’ve lost our way.” This is one of those instances of hoping to understand in retrospect to discern the way forward.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels, Working for Better

Tuesday: Jonathan A. Linebaugh, The Well That Washes What it Shows

Wednesday: William Kent Krueger, Sulfur Springs

Thursday: Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Friday: Daniel G. Hummel, The University of Wisconsin and the Ideal of Nonsectarianism

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for March 15-21.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.