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.