Be a Cactus Podcast

Hello Friends,

It’s our week for ‘Library and Banned Books News,’ to which I don’t usually add an audio record. However, I’d like to make an exception this week because I want to include a book review in the discussion.

We just finished up Banned Books Week yesterday with “Let Freedom Read Day.” During the week, PEN America published Banned in the USA: National Findings for the 2025-2026 School Year. I encourage you to have a look at it. Meanwhile, I’d like to highlight some of the findings—including the fact that some school districts are using AI to select books to ban. We’ll discuss one of those books after looking at an AI prompt used in the McAllen Independent School District in Texas.

Okay, let’s go.

A Spotlight on School Book Bans from PEN America

Banned in the USA: National Findings for the 2025-2026 School Year Show Continued Assault on Books in Public Schools

Some of the key findings

* Nearly 12,000 (11,982) books were banned in public schools during the 2025-2026 school year, according to PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans.

* The majority are YA books

* 87% are fiction

* The vast majority of recorded book bans this school year came from just two states: Texas and Florida. These states also have by far the most complete record of book bans, owing to public records requests from grassroots organizations, the Florida Freedom to Read Project and the Texas Freedom to Read Project.

* This year saw a record number of unique titles banned — 7,370 titles — impacting the creative works of over 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators.

* Over 4,500 of these were titles not previously recorded in PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans, the most new titles added to the index in a single year, illustrating the continued expansion of the book banning crisis.

* This school year also saw the highest number of school districts (114) banning books in a single school year.

Please read the report to see the additional political trends, the data and methodology used in the study, and the list of books banned for the first time (which, oddly, includes Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë).

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The Use of AI in Banning Books

The report includes mention of the trend of using AI to ban books. Let’s look at that and at one specific book mentioned in the report: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.

Here is an AI prompt provided by McAllen Independent School District in Texas in response to a public records request:

Note that the novel passes the three-prongs of the Miller Test: it doesn’t appeal to prurient interests, does not depict sexual conduct in a patently offensive manner, and it has literary value. But it appears the AI is scraping any old opinion out there and then deeming it a necessary ban.

Eleanor and Park was published in 2012. It was popular in my school library and we had tens of copies. I wrote the following in January 2014, partly because of the feedback some student ‘romance readers’ gave us. Although I called it a romance, I have found since that a closer genre is ‘love story,’ which doesn’t demand the couple be together at the end.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park is already popular with some of our readers of realistic teen fiction, but before Valentine’s Day rolls around, I’d like to introduce it to the rest of you who are looking for a good romance.

It’s 1986 and the new school year has begun. When Eleanor tries to find a seat on the school bus, she is shut out. People seem to hate her for her appearance—she’s heavy, has long, wild, curly red hair, and dresses weird. People will go on to call her “Big Red” and mercilessly bully her in PE class. But on that first day, Park, who also thinks of himself as different-looking because he is half white and half Korean, finally lets Eleanor sit next to him, although he is very rude to her as he does, using the f-word.

And so begins a lovely romance. No, you wouldn’t think so, but both Eleanor and Park are smart kids and can see past the exterior shells. Park realizes that Eleanor likes the comics he reads on the bus in the morning, so he sets copies on her seat each day. He knows that she would like the same punk music he does, if she could afford to buy it. So he makes tapes for her. And they talk about everything they have in common, growing close.

What it takes Park much longer to realize is that Eleanor’s home life is a nightmare.

Eleanor’s dad is out of the picture. He just doesn’t have any interest in his many children. Eleanor’s beautiful but egoless and beaten-down mom has married Richie—an abusive, perverted, foul-mouthed jerk who won’t allow a door on the bathroom (for starters). They are poor, and Eleanor’s strange taste in clothes is partly due to the fact that there is no money to buy anything except ill-fitting thrift-shop attire. She, her brothers and sister all walk on thin ice daily, hiding from Richie and waiting for him to explode. Which he does with some frequency.

The thing about this novel that is so sweet—and so tough—is that Park and Eleanor know that their love has come very early in life. It’s not likely to last ‘forever.’ But what they share is worth having, even if they seem destined for unavoidable heartache.

High school housekeeping: One of my coworkers made the astute observation that there are two camps of teen readers when it comes to Eleanor and Park. Although this is a bestseller and super-popular book, we have had several teens bring it back and tell us they couldn’t get into it, didn’t like it. These are mostly girls who are looking for romance books. In talking to them, we generally find that they like formula romance—they liked Simone Elkeles’ and Susane Colasanti’s books. They want the forever part and sometimes more—teens who stay together forever while becoming brilliant artists or scientists. Oh, and rich, of course. If you are a romance reader, I want to encourage you to try Eleanor and Park (and The Fault in Our Stars, of course). Seeing examples of teens who treat one another well in difficult circumstances is a way of becoming that kind of person—of finding an example of love that respects the individual with all his or her quirks. It’s also a way of facing reality and learning that, painful though it is, to have loved and have lost is often worth it. In fact, it may well enrich your life.

***

Notice the try ‘something a bit uncomfortable’ suggestion at the end of the review. Having these kinds of books in the school library matters! Teens are becoming adults; they will arrive at that milestone very soon. (Girls will be going to colleges and universities with their own versions of the Cornell 7, for god’s sake.) They have to deal with difficult issues and need to have an awareness of danger in the world. They need to look for the helpers, as Mr. Rogers (and his mom) remind us.

Books and Navigating Tough Topics

This is a theme I come back to a lot. Here’s a link to an easy-to-read article that hits the main point and has a nice analogy comparing YA novels to being inoculated against a disease.

Books Can Help Teens Navigate Tough Topics in Ways Their Parents Can’t (Exclusive Essay) from People Magazine

Like many adults, I’d assumed teenagers must be protected from the world’s cruelties as long as possible. But teenagers are already living with hard things, and it’s this reality that makes young adult literature so necessary — and why it’s under siege. The same topics that would earn an adult novel praise as serious and important can be viewed as gratuitous or even irresponsible in Young Adult.

I’m not the only pearl-clutching parent, as countless book-banning campaigns can attest. But this response is a fundamental misreading of the genre and of its audience. YA books that depict death, mental illness, sexual violence and predatory relationships aren’t lurid pulp, and they aren’t tainting childhoods. It’s the opposite. They are protective.

When we are inoculated against a disease, we are exposed to a small, harmless dose of something dangerous. From this exposure, our bodies learn how to effectively respond to the real thing. In the same way, YA lets teenagers encounter dangerous situations and hard truths in a safe, controlled environment. These books trust their readers.

A little break for fun:

This article (It’s Banned Books Week. Here’s what Indiana author John Green had to say about it) has a fun embedded video on weird book bans. (In fairness, I’ll add that some of the books were only challenged and then kept on the shelves, so not banned. But the reasons for the challenges are pretty funny.) Includes The Wizard of Oz and Charlotte’s Web.

The Individual States

California

Fresno leaders sound alarm over possible privatization of county libraries from ABC News

Residents are being encouraged to attend the Oct. 20 Board of Supervisors meeting to express their feelings about the privatization option.

Colorado

As Book Bans Persist Nationwide, Anythink Libraries Keeps Challenged Books Accessible Across Colorado from Business Wire

During Banned Books Week, Oct. 4-10, Anythink is highlighting its Freedom to Read Collection, a free digital collection that gives Colorado residents ages 13 and older access to ebooks and audiobooks that have been banned, challenged or restricted in schools and libraries nationwide.

Indiana

It’s Banned Books Week. Here’s what Indiana author John Green had to say about it

“Banned Book Week is super important because it brings awareness to the cause of intellectual freedom in the United States, which I think is core to civic life. Authors get a lot of credit for fighting against censorship, but the real heroes of the story are always the teachers and librarians who are working very hard to curate collections of books and build curricula that actually meet students’ needs,” Green told IndyStar. “I want to be sure to center the people who are actually doing the work. It’s a difficult time to be a teacher or a librarian, especially in a state like Indiana where book bans have become so common, but that work is more important than ever.”

New York

New York Librarians Reveal How Book Bans Imperil Their Work from NYCLU (ACLU of New York)

The Right to Read Coalition, which includes the New York Civil Liberties Union and PEN America, just released a survey of 323 school library aides/media specialists, public librarians, and public school educators across nine regions of the state. Here’s what they had to say about how the threat of book bans impacts them and the work they do – a stress that Governor Hochul could alleviate by signing the Freedom to Read Act into law.

Discussion includes:

* Pressure to Self-Censor

* Hostility Towards Marginalized Groups

* Resilience in the Face of Threats

Oregon

Oregon library book challenges rise 20% with focus on protected groups from the Statesman Journal

Challenges to library and school materials in Oregon remain near historic highs, with challenges continuing to target materials involving protected-class content, according to a report released Sept. 29.

The Oregon Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse, operated by the State Library of Oregon, documented 75 challenges to library and school materials, programs, and services between July 1, 2025, and June 30, including 60 “official challenges,” a 20% increase from the previous year.

Utah

Utah Bans 7 More Books From All Public Schools; 44 Titles Now Banned Statewide from Book Riot

The new books added to the list are House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas, Identical by Ellen Hopkins, Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, Perfect by Ellen Hopkins, Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab.

Utah passed one of the strictest bills related to books in public schools in 2024. House Bill 29 (HB 29) allows parents to challenge books they deem “sensitive material,” and it also outright bans books from all public schools in the state if those books have been deemed “objective sensitive material” or “pornographic” per state code in at least three public school districts or two public school districts and five charter schools statewide. The bill took effect on July 1, 2024, and it started with 13 titles.

What is important to understand about the law is that, despite claims this is about “local control,” schools in the state are forced to follow the decisions made in other districts. … two school districts in the whole state account for the vast majority of bans. Looking specifically at the seven new banned titles, they primarily came from three school districts: Davis, Jordan, and Tooele.

The article includes a list of all 44 banned titles.

For this Utah school board, book ban decisions are now considered ‘routine’ business — no public discussion necessary from the Salt Lake Tribune

The Davis School District sees so many book removals, state officials determined its board doesn’t need to publicly discuss appeal decisions.

Book banning has become so “routine” in the Davis School District, state officials concluded its school board doesn’t need to publicly discuss appeals that get sent their way.

The issue came before the Utah State Board of Education after Davis school board members decided April 7 to support banning Chuck Palahniuk’s (Paula Nick) 1996 novel “Fight Club” from all Davis schools — but didn’t discuss it.

More specifically, the board didn’t state aloud its “rationale” for agreeing to remove the book, which Utah law — and the district’s own policy — requires them to do….

The district also bans books relatively frequently, contributing to more statewide book bans than any other in the state. Since January, more than 35 titles have been challenged in the district for allegedly containing prohibited content under Utah’s sensitive materials law. …

“They have appeared as consent items, because they had become a routine part of the board’s work, not as any attempt to avoid transparency,” [Assistant Superintendent Logan] Toone told state board members Sept. 3.

According to Robert’s Rules of Order (a standard for conducting fair meetings that the Davis school board follows), consent agenda items must be both routine business and noncontroversial. …

[D]espite counsel from an assistant attorney general that book bans should be considered controversial and do not belong on consent agendas — state board members decided the opposite.

Thanks for being here and for supporting the freedom to read! Please like, leave a comment and share! Next week is our book review/discussion.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit victoriawaddle.substack.com

Hello Friends,

This is not our scheduled week for ‘Library and Banned Books News’. It is, however, Banned Books Week, an annual event highlighting the freedom to read. In the U.S., it’s promoted by the American Library Association. (Is there a Banned Books Read-in near you this week? Check the map.) I know that Amnesty International also promotes it elsewhere. If you are outside the U.S., is it a thing where you are?

I’m not going to give the run down of state library news and book challenges now since that’s scheduled for next week, but I want us to take a fun quiz, look at some good news concerning libraries and bans, and then discuss the most banned book of 2025, Sold by Patricia McCormack. (Careless People by Sarah Wynn- Williams has to wait until next time.) And then I’d like to follow up on how my own novel, Keep Sweet is connected to Sold’s theme as well as to the rise of patriarchy in the U.S.

While it’s Not Good News, it’s a Fun Quiz

PEN America posted an Instagram carousel on Jeopardy’s recent “Restricted Reading in America” category, and we’ll see here how many we can name. If you are an Instagram user, you can use the link and then follow PEN there. Since I’ve read many YA books and follow book bans, this quiz was pretty low-hanging fruit for me. I’ll add the answers in a footnote.

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The U.S. Legislative Bills to Ban Books Nationwide are Probably Going to Fizzle Out

Could Congress Create a National Book Ban? From School Library Journal

Misleading titles H.R. 7661: Stop the Sexualization of Children Act, H.R. 2616: Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act, and H.R. 8705: CHARLIE Act.

The good news is noted at the end of the article:

While all three measures represent a concerted effort by House Republicans to codify conservative federal restrictions on K–12 education, none has an easy path to becoming law.

With the 2026 midterm elections approaching and most Senate legislation requiring 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, the proposals face significant hurdles before they could become national policy.

Librarians are Getting the Opportunity to Tell Their Own Stories in Print and on Film

LIBRARIANS on LIBRARIES from the New York Times (gift article)

We asked dozens of librarians about America’s libraries — what they provide, what they need to survive.

These librarians want you to know that they don’t sit around reading all day. They want you to know about book bans and budget cuts, but also about career counseling and crafting groups and pop-up medical clinics.

They want you to worry, the way they worry, about artificial intelligence, looming legislation and harassment of their staff. But most of all, they want you to know what the library really is: a safe place for people to gather around books, ideas and one another.

Librarians Hit the Road from I Love Libraries

Roadtrip Nation, the PBS documentary series that sends three people across the United States in an RV to explore what it means to build a career—and more importantly, a life—around the things you love, has dropped its new season, and libraries are at the forefront for a portion.

In the two-episode arc, “Beyond Books,” three aspiring librarians take a road trip to explore all the surprising, powerful, and essential roles libraries play in our communities today—online, in rural areas, and more. Along the way, they learn from community leaders and caretakers of knowledge just how vibrant and dynamic a career in libraries can be and discover the unique impact they each can bring when it comes to creating a space that’s truly for everyone. …

“There’s a public misconception that librarians are gatekeepers of information because, historically, stacks had been closed and that’s how it was,“ Sam said. “But libraries haven’t been that way for many years now. In reality, we’re thought partners, we’re friends, and we’re in this together. Librarians are here to help the public wayfind, not to hold information back. That’s the message we’re still working to establish culturally.”

And: I enjoyed this post on Banned Books Week by Julie Snider.

Sold by patricia mccormick

As I was a high school librarian for many years, I read a lot of young adult (YA) fiction so that I could ‘book talk’ it to students and classes who were coming in to check out books. It’s strange that Patricia McCormack’s Sold was the top banned book in 2025 because it was published in 2006. Nearly twenty years of helping and not hurting. (Huh. What could this really be about?) In a previous post, I discussed the novel in detail: what it’s about, how I came to read it, and why it belongs in the school library:

* Trafficking of girls (and boys) is a topic that seems to interest conservatives, a thing they claim to want to put an end to. (Remember the Pizzagate conspiracy theory?)

* Information is power. The author interviewed trafficked girls and activists fighting for them to present this realistic portrayal.

* Knowledge of these terrible but very real circumstances engenders empathy.

* Empathy may engender action. Many high school students form clubs, get a teacher to be their advisor, bring guest speakers, and raise funds to fight for good in the world.

* High school activism is a foundation for a life of concern and goodwill for humankind. Even if a student doesn’t get to this step, they’ve done the first step: read the book.

This week book critic Ron Charles posted “What’s So Scary about This Book?” In which he includes a bit of chat with McCormick.

Even while reading scores decline and teenagers drift away from books, activists have whipped up a moral panic about pornography in schools.

As McCormick suggests, it’s a movement based on a particularly destructive kind of misreading.

“Books aren’t being banned because of their content or their quality or their message,” she says. “People are taking a single page — and in the case of this book, it’s the page where the main character is sexually assaulted — and reading that out of context in a way that triggers or troubles people.”

“I always say, ‘It’s supposed to be upsetting!’ You can’t write a book about child trafficking without having a scene like that in there. But it’s written from the point of view of a 13-year-old, so her language is not graphic. … and it isn’t pornographic.”

“I can’t tell you how many schools have launched fundraising efforts after having read the book. It activates kids. It turns them into activists. And so we’re shutting off that opportunity.”

Even more important, McCormick says that when she visits high schools to talk about Sold, a student will frequently take her aside or stand up in front of the group and say, “Something like this has happened to me.”

“There’s a way in which reading about a girl in Nepal — like six degrees of separation — allows kids to see their own situation with empathy. And those kids can get help. … And when you think about what’s happening at Cornell right now, this is a book everybody needs to read.”

Yes, I Did My Own Take— Keep Sweet

I had a brief interview with Marla Miller about how I came to write Keep Sweet, the title of which I’d picked before the Netflix series on the FLDS cult and Warren Jeffs. I decided to stick with the title because, at that point, it was a good indicator of what the novel was about. (Please check it out!)

I was told by agents that I needed to make the book less ‘adult’ (the protagonist being sexual abuse victim might be too much) and that I should give her a boyfriend. Ugh. That wasn’t the story I wanted to tell. Luckily, I found a small press publisher. This makes it hard to promote, but it’s an honest book, which matters to me.

Everyone is probably thinking of the Cornell 7 just about now. The similarities are in the privileged men dominating women and girls. But there is also the concern about our government becoming enmeshed with Christian Nationalism. And we can see how mixing up the church and the state harms women. Check this article published only a few weeks ago:

A Gender War Explodes in Utah Over the Courts, Abortion and Representation from the New York Times (gift article)

But Utah is unique; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is patriarchal and dominates state politics. And as Utah’s women have spoken up, its male politicians, including Gov. Spencer Cox, who has made a national reputation on “disagreeing better,” have punished them.

The women so far are unbowed. Emma Petty Addams, the co-executive director of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, quoted church doctrine on the proper exercise of power to explain her group’s mission: “We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.”

For all the images of tradwives and momfluencers flooding television and social media from Utah, the reality playing out in the Beehive State is something quite different.

Four years ago, Mormon Women sued the Legislature for refusing to enact a law that voters had passed banning gerrymandering. As Salt Lake City grew bigger and bluer, that law was all but certain to yield a Democratic member in the state’s four-person House delegation. The state’s Supreme Court, with its first female majority, consistently and unanimously sided with the women.

Utah’s Republican leaders, who command every statewide office and a supermajority in the Legislature, responded first with threats, and then by remaking the court.

That’s right, they added men and took away the women’s voices. That’s current stuff, friends.

Next, please grab Keep Sweet from your favorite bookseller. That supports me and my work here.

Please like and comment! Thanks for being here! Happy banned books reading!

P.S. In our very long discussion comments section about Theo of Golden and how much I disliked it, a few people wished that I had given more plot/story info on John of John by Douglas Stuart, which I loved. Tema Frank wrote a review of John of John that includes major plot points without giving away too much. Check it out!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit victoriawaddle.substack.com

Hello Friends,

This is our week to talk about books. (Audio included.) I feel I have so many books I’d like to discuss after reading people’s comments on Theo of Golden. For now, I’ll mention a few ‘feel good’ books that I enjoyed and then focus on Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID by Nicholas Enrich.

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On a personal note, I participated in a Walk to End Alzheimer’s this weekend. When I was a bit younger, I did marathons for causes. This walk was a lot shorter, but there were so many participants and folks cheering us on. Very good vibes. The sponsors were handing out flower-shaped wind spinners. There were different colors, and we were to choose the one that represented our relationship to dementia. There was blue for caretakers. When the volunteer explained that, I was going to pick one, but then she went on to say that purple was for those who’d lost a loved one to dementia. I picked that, as I started to explain myself: with my sisters, I cared for my mom as she declined and lost her memory, but she’s gone now, so I’ll take the purple. A sudden wave of grief smashed into me and I started to tear up, losing it. I didn’t want to distress the volunteer and was trying to pull it together. Just then, a young woman began to sing the national anthem to kick off the day’s program. I turned to face her, to stand in respectful silence. Isn’t it wild the way grief arrives without warning?

Good Books for Uplifting Reading

In the past few weeks, in response to numerous comments about the need for books that make us feel good, I’ve mentioned that Ann Patchett’s Whistler fits the bill. I also want to mention two books that I found very heartening: Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton and Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven. Both are nonfiction about women who find themselves in unusually close connection with a wild animal. These creatures are neither pets nor people and the authors are careful not to interfere with their wild natures nor to anthropomorphize them: there is no sentimentality in the narratives. And yet by coming into close contact with the animals, the authors come to have a deeper understanding of their own humanity and a greater connection to the natural world. These intimate tales of very different natural settings are quietly gorgeous. A true balm, and perhaps what you need now.

My sister-in-law is something of an animal whisperer and English as well, so I sent her my copy of Raising Hare, which takes place in the English countryside. Hare read like an alternative version of her life. I still have my copy of Fox and I. I hope to reread it, but I can’t keep up with new books, much less go back to those I love. Does anyone else have this problem?

Thanks for reading Be a Cactus! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Thanks for the recommendation

I also want to thank jen parker for recommending The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring. Richard Russo blurbed it and it definitely has a Russo vibe—small town folks dealing with big issues, so I enjoyed reading it. A tragic event leads everyone in town to question whether they had unknowingly contributed to the outcome. But they also have to find their way forward. Here’s the publisher’s back copy:

In most small towns, the private is also public. In the town of Dalton, one local makes an unthinkable decision that leaves the community reeling. In the aftermath, their problems, both small and large, reveal a deeper understanding of the lives of their neighbors, and remind us all that no one is exactly who we think they are.

It’s 1990. In Dalton, Maine, life goes on. Rose goes to work at the diner every day, her bruises hidden from both the customers and her two young boys. At a table she waits, Dr. Richard Haskell looks back on the one choice that’s charted his entire life, before his thoughts wander back to his wife, Trudy, and her best friend.

Trudy and Bev have been friends for longer than they can count, and something more than lovers to each other for some time now—a fact both accepted and ignored by their husbands. Across town, new mother Bridget lives with her high school sweetheart Nate, and is struggling with postpartum after a traumatic birth. And nearer still is teenager Greg, trying to define the complicated feelings he has about himself and his two close friends.

The Road to Dalton offers valuable understandings of what it means to be alive in the world—of pain and joy, conflict and love, and the endurance that comes from living.

Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID by Nicholas Enrich

“Elon Musk tweeted on Monday, February 3 at 1:54 AM. ‘We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could have gone to some great parties. Did that instead.’”

Author Nicholas Enrich worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under four administrations. He was the Bureau of Global Health’s director of policy, programs, and planning until January 2025 when he was designated as USAID’s acting assistant administrator for global health.

“Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.” Into the Wood Chipper’s epigraph, quoting Timothy Snyder

In Into the Wood Chipper he details the history of USAID, its value to both Americans and communities around the world, and its demise at the hands of Elon Musk and the Trump administration. The title brings to mind the infamous image of a gleeful Musk holding up a live chain saw as if he were the star of a horror flick.

“My distress had intensified as I watched Musk flagrantly lie. Standing next to Trump in the Oval Office, he assured the gathered journalists and their live TV audiences that USAID’s programs to prevent the spread of deadly diseases like Ebola and HIV were still operating. They weren’t. DOGE was dismantling them piece by piece. At the same time, Secretary Rubio and his team were blaming me and my colleagues for the undeniable and deadly mess, accusing us of intentionally creating bureaucratic hurdles to block delivery of food and medicine. Rubio called USAID’s career staff ‘completely uncooperative’ and ‘insubordinate,’ even as his own political team stonewalled our desperate efforts to restart life-saving aid. Trump then piled on, claiming that USAID was run by ‘radical lunatics’ and pushing absurd lies about our work.”

Enrich’s goal is to bear witness to the thing he could not prevent. He is perfectly situated to do so. And while the book is well written, it is content rather than style that concerns him. If you have been following the Trump II cycle, doubtless you know that USAID was dismantled. But if you want to see how this affected both employees of the organization as well as healthcare around the world, I recommend Into the Wood Chipper. If you feel that you can’t spare the thirty dollars for a book on a topic you’re already familiar with through the news cycle, I encourage you to do as I did—borrow it from your local public library.

USAID was established because President Kennedy understood that the Soviet Union was pouring billions into support for newly independent nations across the globe. The United States needed to provide a counterweight. (Perhaps we’ve forgotten that we still do.)

President George W. Bush also understood the value of USAID. In 2003 he signed legislation to combat AIDS, saying that every day of delay meant 8000 more AIDS deaths in Africa and 14,000 more infections.

President Obama reminded us: “To many people around the world, USAID is the United States.”

According to peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet, in the two decades previous to its shutdown, USAID prevented 92 million deaths. And, as Enrich reminds us, “It benefits Americans. Tuberculosis and HIV don’t stop international borders. Neither do other infectious diseases, as we all know having recently endured a global pandemic. Even if you’re not convinced of the value of goodwill and partnership built through decades of American generosity, USAID’s work to enable countries’ health systems to detect outbreaks before they spread makes us safer here at home.”

“Russell Vought, the incoming Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, made no secret of this planned assault on the federal workforce: ‘We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,’ he said. ‘When they wake up in the morning, we want them not to want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down.’ In case that wasn’t clear he added: ‘We want to put them in trauma.’”

So why was USAID a primary target of the DOGE dismantling party? Its employees hoped, rather naively, that it was all a misunderstanding of their work, that if they could educate DOGE ‘officials’ (I’m not sure what to call them) about USAID’s work, it would survive. They kept trying. They figured that in Trump’s previous term, his administration supported most of USAID’s global health investments. They felt the value of their work to global health was indisputable and non-partisan. They also knew that Project 2025 did not call for the elimination of USAID, but rather mentioned the critical value of the agency. However, DOGE never met with a career staff, but simply decided for themselves what needed to be cut without any information or knowledge of the work. The firings were so bad that people were simply emailed at night and told not to come into the office in the morning. These employees were asking those still allowed in the building to grab the wedding photos from their desks.

“Someone at DOGE was just flipping a swish to shut off access for staff across the agency, with no direction from any political appointee or any knowledgeable career staff, and with no regard for the impact it would have on our operation? As far as I could tell, the entire TB, malaria, and maternal and child health teams had been switched off, even as our life-saving programs hung in the balance. Was DOGE really using no criteria whatsoever to determine who to shut off and who to keep?”

Efforts to save the agency are laid out in heartbreaking detail. Once the reality of dismantlement is clear, Enrich turns to documentation, it seems, for future generations.

“The results were rapid, predictable, and catastrophic. In Zambia, pregnant women with HIV could no longer find medicine to prevent their babies from being infected. In Sierra Leone, crates of donated drugs sat expiring on warehouse shelves instead of saving children’s lives. In war torn Sudan, malnourished families walked all day to communal kitchens, only to find them closed.”

One example was particularly striking to me because of the current outbreak of Ebola in the Congo, the largest on record.

When Ebola broke out in Uganda—neighbor of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west and Kenya to the east—USAID had already purchased 27,000 sets of personal protective equipment that were sitting in a nearby warehouse in Kenya, ready for use. This included gloves, masks, and hood gowns to protect healthcare workers. These critical supplies could be delivered within only a few hours. However, the outbreak went on and on for weeks without delivery because the warehouse was owned and operated by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Trump administration was in the process of withdrawing from the WHO and Trump had paused the transfer fund support or resources to the WHO. USAID they couldn’t authorize a nominal fee to the WHO to deliver the supplies to the Ugandan authorities.

The people who were left at USAID keep requesting members of the Trump administration to OK the fee and issue supplemental guidelines, authorizing exceptions for emergencies like this one, but they didn’t do anything. Then Director of the Office of Foreign Assistance at the State Department and acting deputy administrator of USAID Pete Marocco—out after less than three months in office—acted like he didn’t know why he was getting these requests when he already said the authorization should happen. He either was willfully ignorant that formal State Department approval was required due to the executive order withdrawing the US from the WHO or he didn’t care what happened. Marocco’s answer to the crisis was just to say stupid things like ‘You better do it; get it done now within the next 12 hours; trim the fat’ (when there was no fat left) and using other clichés as if that would get work done.

Marocco went on to lie about the status of USAID’s Ebola response and downplay the threat. He claimed to have approved every Ebola support program, even ones he believed were exaggerated. He indicated that he wasn’t going to provide vaccines for bird flu, Ebola, polio, monkeypox, or infectious tropical diseases because they weren’t killing anybody at the moment. He could not be made to understand that these things needed to be taken care of in advance of their killing people rather than waiting until after there was a huge outbreak. He comes off in this narrative as a complete knucklehead.

Into the Wood Chipper provides many more such examples and includes a testament to all the futile work employees of USAID did in hopes of stopping the Musk DOGE train in its track.

The text includes a forward by Dr. Atul Gawande, who served as the Assistant Administrator for Global Health at the USAID under the Biden administration; an author’s note; a key for referenced officials; a prologue; and an index.

Let’s Remember There’s Also Positive News

Did you know Gloria Steinem was a Girl Scout? I didn’t until I saw social posts from numerous Girl Scout Councils with the same Steinem quote:

Here’s good news:

Girl Scouts use their cookie sale money to 3D print wheelchairs for toddlers from Good.

If you use a fan of girl scouting, you might like my post about the quilt I made for my niece using all her Girl Scout badges and camp patches. (Yes, it took me two years.)

Thanks for reading! Please like, share, and leave a comment! Next week is our ‘Library and Banned Books News.’ Be well!

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit victoriawaddle.substack.com

Hello Friends,

I’d like to discuss some books at length. Don’t forget you can choose to listen to the audio (located above).

I read Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These (Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize , Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, The Irish Times Best Book of the 21st Century) and wanted to learn more about the Magdalene Laundries of Ireland.

Small Things Like These

If you’re unfamiliar with Small Things Like These, you are in for a beautiful reading experience! Oh to be able to write like Keegan. What a voice. The novella takes place in a small Irish town in the 1980s during the Christmas season. When a coal merchant delivers an order to a Catholic convent that runs a Magdalene Laundry, he discovers a freezing girl who has been locked in the coal shed overnight. In returning her to the convent, he finds a world of abuse and imprisonment for the girls and young women who are pregnant and new mothers. As he questions what his response should be, the frightening political and social power of the nuns and the Church are made clear. This is a tale of a test of moral courage.

The Fallen

So powerful was this little novella that it inspired me to find The Fallen by Louise Brangan, a research-based book on the twentieth-century history of the Laundries told through the stories of six young women and girls who were inmates there. I purchased the audiobook version. Again, the story was powerful and shocking. I decided to get the print version from interlibrary loan to have a closer look. Just as my copy was available, it was announced that The Fallen had made the The 2026 Cundill History Prize Shortlist.

The two epigraphs at the beginning of The Fallen indicate that Brangan plans to bring the truth to light and force a reckoning:

In some instances, one may not talk of forgetfulness, for one cannot forget what one has never attempted to know. —Gordon Horwitz, In the Shadow of Death: Living Outside the Gates of Mauthausen

What is the source of our first suffering? It lies in the fact that we hesitated to speak. It was born in the moment when we accumulated silent things within us. —Gaston Bachelard, On Poetic Imagination and Reverie

The Women and Girls of the Laundries

The prologue discusses a fifteen-year-old girl named Eileen who disappeared from her job as a maid at a bed-and-breakfast in Dublin in February 1954. She enjoyed the job. However, one night when her friends were out and she was on her own, two women appeared in the townhouse and decided that Eileen was destined to become a fallen woman. They told her she had to go with them. Like all Irish children, she was raised to unquestioningly obey adults, and so she did. The women dropped her into a Magdalene Laundry, stealing her freedom and ruining her life. She’s given as an example of the kind of girl who ended up in the laundry. She was born in a Mother and Daughter Home, which means that she was considered illegitimate. She lived with relatives who weren’t very kind to her until she finally got away and found her job in the bed and breakfast. She was not pregnant, nor was she an unwed mother. This is one of the important things Brangan clarifies about the Magdalene Laundries. They were not really for ‘fallen women,’ even though people assume that they were and Small Things Like These indicates as much.

In fact, Brangan must also correct the record about information that rolls at the end of the Small Things film, which is based on the novella. It states that there were 56,000 young women who were sent to the Laundries and the children born there were taken from them. The government‘s official calculation of women and girls in the Laundries is 10,012; informed historians consider this an underestimation. However 56,000 seems high. It is, in fact, a figure from an official state investigation into something different—the inmates held in Mother and Baby Homes during the 20th century.

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The Magdalene Laundries

What actually happened in the Laundries belied the serenity of the Irish countryside of the twentieth century, where the general population was considered to be quite moral. From the period of Irish independence in the 1920s, there weren’t very many people in prison. Brangan argues that this doesn’t mean many people, particularly women and girls, weren’t imprisoned. They lived in various “psychiatric hospitals (known then as mental asylums), industrial and reformatory schools for poor orphan children, county homes (formally work houses that were rebranded after Irish independence) and Mother and Baby Homes, where women and girls who were pregnant outside marriage were sequestered. Then there were the Magdalene Laundries.”

Brangan points out that these institutions housed over 1% of the total Irish population, an incredible rate, and that people there became “ensnared rather than supported.”

The Magdalene Laundries were Ireland’s main carceral institution. While they had initially been run by ordinary people both Catholic and Protestant, they eventually became regimented and religious places of punishment. However, the state colluded with the church in running them. There were ten Magdalene Laundries, which circled the island, run by four religious orders of nuns. The inmates there did everyone’s laundry: priestly vestments, prisoners’ uniforms, hotel and restaurant linens, family laundry, everything. They were not allowed to speak to one another—complete silence at all times was the rule—much less form friendships.

Outside of cleaning laundry, what happened there was a dark secret before activists demanded a reckoning in the mid 2000s. Former inmates were interviewed, particularly between 2009-2015. While the Laundries were active, some women managed to escape, but the tales they told at the time were generally not believed. People couldn’t imagine the nuns running the Laundries because they had not had the same kind of experiences with women religious, who might have been very kind to their families, helping them with alms and with their family troubles.

Punishment for Uncommitted Sins

Brangan tracks six women and girls were confined to the Laundries. One was imprisoned for truancy from school; another because strangers considered her pre-delinquent; yet another to save a family’s reputation. While each of their stories is different, all of them were unwanted, homeless, abused, or rejected. Their stories are unique and utterly compelling, deserving the full treatment they receive in the book. After reading about them, I had nightmares about inescapable places.

In 2009, when there had been a period of pronounced hand ringing about the horrors of the past, the author John Banville wrote what remains one of the most eloquent and uncompromising statements on the topic of Irish silence. ‘Never tell, never acknowledge, that was the unspoken watch word. Everyone knew, but no one said.’”

Immediately upon entrance into the Laundries, inmates’ names were taken away, and they were given pseudonyms. They were not allowed to speak to each other; they were not allowed to form friendships. This meant that girls who were new didn’t know where they were. They started rumors that the women around them were prostitutes or women who had illegitimate babies. Yet they learned this didn’t make sense because there were also much older women there. The others were like them: abandoned, abused, neglected, rejected by their families.

They had to work long hours in very hot and horrible environments. For example, girls who worked in the sorting rooms found it absolutely disgusting. One woman described it as “‘all filthy dirty and the smell of it and everything was awful.’ None of them could adjust to the fetid air. It was ‘wreaking, stinking, bleach, smell of piss, urine, always had that smell, always.’”

The food was also described as a nasty watery swamp of stew. There was no toilet paper, just crumpled up newspapers. Ironically, the girls had to wash their own laundry on their own time, at the sinks in their dormitory. They weren’t even allowed to use the laundry equipment, and so, sometimes, they would bring their “wet underwear into the bed with them and lie on top of it as they slept hoping that the heat of their bodies would wick enough of the wet from them so they could be worn again the next morning.”

The girls and women were insulted and they were told things like “You’re here because no one wants you.” “You’re dirt.” “Your mother didn’t want you.” “Your father won’t come for you.” “No wonder your family doesn’t want you, look at you.” “You are illegitimate; you’ll end up like your mother.” “You are nobody, and you have nobody.”

They were required to say the same prayers that the nuns did as part of their devotional life, but they didn’t have any of the nuns’ social capital, and all their years of devotion didn’t earn it for them.

Disobedience could result in inmates having their hair cut off. Talking might result in a dinnertime punishment of being forced to sit on the floor in front of the group with a bowl, eating their food while saying “I am nobody. I am nobody. I am nobody.”

When these girls and women finally had a chance to venture back into society, they often couldn’t negotiate the world. They have not been well educated or educated at all in the Laundries.

Brangan declares this was only possible because the Irish people gave “unfettered deference” to the church. “Irish people genuflected, lit their candles, muttered their novenas, and undertook their penitential obligations. … the logic of the laundries was the logic of Irish life.”

Twentieth-Century Ireland

To help the reader understand why, she dives into Irish history and politics of the twentieth century.

In 1932, in the heart of the worldwide Great Depression, the government of Ireland was in a bad situation. They had rising income taxes, oil was expensive, they had cut teachers’ and policemen’s wages, and austerity was everything. At the time, a new populist Catholic party was working to take over, and when the country had a snap general election, the government was dissolved. The election brought in this Catholic group. When they gained power, their leader wrote a note to the Pope that their intention was to “maintain with the Holy See that intimate and cordial relation which has become the tradition of the Irish people.”

At this point, the government had extreme protectionist ideas, so they launched a tariff on British goods. Britain retaliated by enacting tariffs of up to forty percent on Irish imports. A secret report called the Carrigan Report concluded that something had to be done about the immorality of the Irish people. Government officials confidentially sent copies to the Catholic hierarchy and asked what they should do next. They wanted to bring the law in line with Catholic teachings and practices, so they ushered in legislation that would do so. They created a censorship bill, and then, in 1935, without any debate, passed into legislation the Criminal Law Amendment Act and the Public Dance Halls Act. They kept people from having too much fun. They decided that in schools, children would not be taught anything that would help them critique or to question, so kids ended up being fed a diet of fear, superstition, self-abnegation, and obedience. They also felt that girls who had ‘a marked tendency towards sexual immorality’ would be better off in Catholic rather than state run institutions. There’s a lot more to this, obviously (thus an entire book, which I highly recommend you read), but this is how the Laundries became prevalent.

The book concludes with the demise of the Laundries, the last of which closed in 1996 and with the 21st century reckoning. Highly recommended!

Like all good books of research, The Fallen has an excellent notes section and index. I noticed that the last work cited was the New Yorker Fiction podcast episode entitled “Andrew O’Hagan reads Edna O’Brien” with Deborah Treisman, December 1st 2015. It’s a great story about a small country village where the people sternly judge one of their neighbors and destroy her life. Since you are a lover of good stories, I recommend you have a listen.

Our thought experiment

How does the story of what happened in twentieth-century Ireland relate to what is happening in the United States today? What could happen to the U.S. in the near future?

This is what happens when you have certain people with certain religious ideas running the country and at the same time promoting the idea that you’re not allowed to resist. What Brangan refers to as “a repressive and censorious atmosphere.” We are regularly told that we don’t have to worry because the religious fundamentalist societies we are familiar with are not Christian. But fundamentalists across religions have much more in common with one another than they do with more liberal practitioners of their own faiths.

I’m betting that someone looking to earn an academic degree could draw some comparisons (conservative Catholics in the Supreme Court, J.D. Vance’s conversion, giving religious leaders political power, high tariffs, new ‘laws’ without debate [Presidential orders], current rates of incarceration in the U.S., etc.).

Speaking of J.D. Vance and His Conversion

I’m not going to buy Communion because I don’t want to fund Vance, but some of what I’ve read in reviews is gobsmacking. If you have any knowledge of the Roman Catholic Church—I was raised in it—the idea that you can just stay at home and have Mass there is ludicrous. The purpose of the Mass is the celebration and partaking of the Eucharist—the body of Christ. This cannot be done at home. It’s a sacrament requiring ritual and an ordained priest. And if you aren’t going to church, why pick a title like Communion? Does he understand a basic definition of the word?

J. D. Vance’s Straussian Moment from Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB)

The US vice president wrote his new book without citing his source—Peter Thiel.

J.D. Vance’s Conversion from London Review of Books

By James Butler

Why would anyone buy this? Vance has been a willing participant in a squalid government sunk in graft which has gutted the agencies that might restrain or regulate private avarice. The labour share of income is at a historic low. The most obvious question is not whether Vance believes what he claims to believe, but why, if he believes it, he acts as he does. Halfway through Communion he quotes, without irony, a recovering addict who passed on some homely advice: show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future. Perhaps Vance has forgotten who he’s been hanging out with.

…

Early in the book, Vance says he believes ‘Jesus Christ’s teachings are true.’ But the programme he outlines is more interested in the social utility of faith as an institution: unlike secularism, which has produced ‘racial conflict and gender division’, Christianity is ‘the most powerful force for cultural cohesion’. Yet Christianity can be ethically difficult and politically unsettling, difficulties Communion mostly seeks to evade. Should it cease to be useful, or if evasion is no longer possible, perhaps Vance will find his way to another conversion.

And one more thing about Vance to clarify his ethic

JD Vance says he’s doing ‘God’s work – and if that leads to the end times, OK’ from the Guardian

Vice-president says on evangelical podcast he would feel ‘not shocked if the antichrist was walking among us’

Thanks!

Thanks for reading! Please click like, share, and leave a comment. Next week is our biweekly “Library and Banned Books News.” Until then, be well.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit victoriawaddle.substack.com

Background

I knew nothing about the novel Theo of Golden, but I wanted to read it because I was heartened by the story of an older writer going viral with a debut after self-publication and then being picked up by Simon & Schuster. I asked for it for my birthday, and I received it (along with several other birthday books; I have a lovely family and friends).

As a general rule, I only discuss books I think are worth reading. If I read something I don’t like, well, I’m a librarian who believes in books for everyone. Though I’m the wrong reader, the book will find the right one. An author, especially one who is published by a small press, can be hurt by criticism, so why engage in it? Better to lift each other up. However, a novel like Theo of Golden and its author, Allen Levi, can’t be harmed by a small voice like mine--and probably not by a booming voice, either. It has sold millions of copies worldwide and has been scheduled for a film starring Tom Hanks. So, I want to discuss it because it leaves me wondering about the future of fiction.

Warning: I’m likely to include spoilers because I don’t think you should read the book.

Theo of Golden

Though the prefix ‘Theo’ means god, as a name it means a gift of God, and that is clearly what our protagonist is meant to be. Though he is 86 years old, this mystery man is healthy, wealthy, and wise, ready to solve others’ life problems.

Theo is a curious stranger, making his list and checking it twice. He arrives in Golden just before Easter and departs a year later in my least favorite author ‘Get Me Out of This Book’ trick—defenestration. By which I do not mean that another character tosses Theo off the balcony, but that Levi does it.

One of the first things we learn in this novel is the hours of operation of the local coffee shop, the Chalice. (Get it? Get it? Because we have to have very clear religious metaphors in case the name Theo and the fact that he arrives just before Easter escape us.). So I thought the book would be a murder mystery and the hours would have something to do with solving it. But no, it’s just a beginning writer’s story with all the hallmarks of a self-published book. The excess of useless info dumps continues throughout the book, which would benefit from a good editor.

At the Chalice, Theo finds that the coffee competes with the best of Europe. And he would know because he’s been everywhere, beginning with his native Portugal. The walls of the shop are covered with original pencil portraits of the town’s inhabitants. Masterpieces. This, too, Theo knows. In fact, he’s quite the expert on lots of things. Wine, liquor, art, music--you name it, Theo can birdwalk about it, as the novel roams over diverse topics that don’t drive the plot forward. The one thing that’s not discussed until after Theo’s death is who he really is and what he is doing in Golden. But this city of Golden, Georgia is one of the best he’s ever been to, a quaint, loving community in the God-Blessed American South.

Theo decides to buy the pencil portraits from the Chalice, a few at a time, and then give them to the models. He sends each person a mysterious letter asking them to meet him in the park, tell him their stories, and receive the portraits. And while the town knows little about this man, including his last name, they do know that he has beautiful penmanship and a set of expensive stationery, so they trust him. Well, except one very bad man, who will also be easily dispensed with.

The episodic structure of these meetings affords Levi the opportunity to include stories that are completely disconnected. Instead of incorporating necessary character development into the narrative, Levi often relies on info dumps by making a character read, say, a magazine article. The entirety of its contents is then included in the narrative. By page seventeen (of a grueling 384 pages), I was sorry to see Theo’s first letter to a portrait recipient, fearing that the book would be filled with the letters to all 92 of his beneficiaries. At least I was saved from that fate.

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Eventually Theo will play (unlicensed) psychologist to a number of the town’s inhabitants merely by listening and always knowing the right questions to ask and the right things to say. These inhabitants are as onion skin thin as he is. Levi tries to round out one of them—a Vietnam War veteran—by eventually detailing his trauma and PTSD. The problem is that the episode and its dialogue feel very unnatural and it doesn’t come off. It’s just another info dump. The man, a bookseller, is supposed to be seen as a kindly curmudgeon, but Levi is unable to manage it. The character is mostly irritating, his better nature never surfacing.

Other briefly-appearing characters are cringeworthy. A Black man—other than a Nigerian doctor, he appears to be the single Black person in the novel (in Georgia, remember)—speaks in dialect. Another “little man” who is an “illegal,” causes a car accident that kills a woman. (No worries--everything is forgiven in the end.) Where, oh where, is the editor?

The single three-dimensional character in the novel is Ellen, the self-described homeless woman. We learn about her worries over her bicycle and the chance that it might be stolen, her creative talents and how she employs them, and her grammar policing.

As the novel mercifully ends, there are explicit comparisons between Theo and Jesus, including Theo’s springtime (Easter) death. And this is the deeper reason why I’m repelled by this novel. Here we have a savior who does not embody radical notions of love and sacrifice, never mind one who flips a bird to the religious and political authorities of his day. What Levi gives the reader is a man he finds as a better iteration of a savior: Santa Claus, with limitless resources to bestow just the right gifts to all the childish adults in his sphere.

Ultimately, the publishing industry is not a meritocracy. It’s a business and the purpose is to make money. While I can’t be sure, I suspect Simon & Schuster knew Theo would be a cash cow ‘as is’ and didn’t bother with an editor. Still, I admire any author who is able to make a living from writing. As my mother used to say, when Levi is criticized, I’m sure he’s crying all the way to the bank. I imagine we will hear more from him. I saw this reported in Deadline:

Warner Bros Locking Down Film Rights To Allen Levi Bestseller ‘Theo Of Golden’ With Tom Hanks To Star

“The book was published wide by Simon & Schuster last October and has sold over 3.5 million copies stateside. It has been published in 43 languages and was a No. 1 bestseller in places like the Netherlands, Italy and the UK. Now it will be headed for the big screen, following the trajectory of books like Robert James Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County and a few others. Like that novel, Theo of Golden is particularly popular with a mature crowd of readers.”

Hanks is the perfect vehicle for the character of Theo, especially if he can bring off a Portuguese accent. But one thing this article made me consider is that the novel is a worldwide hit. It’s not just Americans, then, who read like children.

I couldn’t find professional reviews of Theo except a commentary published on Slate. Most of the things I had thought about were echoed there. I, too, thought that the vast response to this moralizing and saccharine Christianity could be compared to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I read Stowe’s novel as an adult already knowing that it wasn’t a great piece of literature. However, Uncle Tom has historical value as a force in the abolitionist movement, having had a profound effect on readers of its time. Theo won’t be driving a political movement for human rights and will not be remembered in the future.

When I thought about Theo being the worst book I’ve read in twenty years, the previous worst was Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven, published in 2006 and recommended to me by a coworker and friend. Rebecca Onion, author of the Slate commentary, says the books are not alike because Theo has a plot. However, the plot is resolved in a sort of afterthought to the bloated book. So the two books linked in my mind as plotless. At least Five People was short.

I mentioned a few weeks back that Joe Ponepinto wrote about the fact that people enjoy reading poorly written books. While not suggesting that Theo is an AI-authored book (it isn’t), he briefly suggests that it’s as bad as an AI book. And if that’s what we like, then maybe AI will take over publications.

Reading Theo pushed me to a thought experiment. Let’s all bring forward our recollections of The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, a novel written over 100 years ago for elementary school readers. I believe just about everyone has read it or has had it read to them. To jog your memory:

Four orphaned kids decide to live in the forest because they are afraid of their grandfather, whom they believe to be cruel. They find an abandoned boxcar that they make into a home. After one of them falls ill, a local doctor figures out that they are his friend’s grandchildren and he gives grandpa, who is actually wealthy and kind, the heads up. The kids then live with gramps. They miss the boxcar, so he has it moved to his backyard. Afterwards, the kids use it as a clubhouse. They live happily ever after with the nice rich guy and have many thrilling adventures.

Now: if the boxcar children were adults, would you read and enjoy the story? Because it seems that is what we are spending our lives doing—reading The Boxcar Children over and over again, looking for that same warm feeling of being cared for by the miraculously appearing rich relative. A particular paragraph in Theo struck me as I thought about this:

“‘It’s hard enough to define what art is, much less “good art.” I wonder if there is such a thing. Maybe there are just good responses. But I guess if a work of art makes us see something familiar in a new way or makes us feel something we ought to have felt all along or shows us our place in the world more clearly, maybe then it qualifies as “good.” If it makes us better somehow, maybe that’s what gives it value.’”

Perhaps Levi workshopped Theo and was given some constructive criticism. Rather than do the hard work of revision, he curated this response, one that readers worldwide appear to wholeheartedly agree with.

What (Else) I’m Reading

Just after I finished Theo, I had the pleasure of reading one of the best books I’ve come across recently, John of John by Douglas Stuart. I read a lovely review by Ron Charles in his Substack that made me run out and buy the book.

What a contrast. The characters are complex, complicated vessels of good and evil, imposing their worldviews on one another. They are very much like the real people we meet and know, our families and friends, our enemies. Every action they take, every thought they have drives the narrative forward. But their community is so small, lonely, and isolated that it compounds their troubles. I wondered how this book could ever resolve when so much about custom, social norms, and traditions imprisoned the characters. And yet it does resolve. Beautifully. Don’t miss this novel, longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit victoriawaddle.substack.com

Hello Friends,

I’m putting on my librarian hat today and, rather than writing an essay, I’m providing some sources that discuss what’s next for the publishing industry concerning AI. I hope my organization of the articles means that one leads into another. Before I get into today’s topic, I figured we could all use some good news, so I’m linking to a recent article on Reasons to Be Cheerful. (Is there any better creature than a dog?) Lastly, I have some reading recommendations. Please click the title to view the whole article or listen to the audio.

Good News

Meet India’s Four-Legged Wildlife Detectives from Reasons to be Cheerful

“Sniffer dogs are emerging as the secret weapon of Indian wildlife authorities,” says Nitin Desai, director (Central India) at WPSI. “When there are no eyewitnesses, dogs find evidence that no human eye can detect.”

Since 2008, WWF-India … has trained more than 120 wildlife sniffer dog squads … . Deployed across 22 states, they assist forest departments in detecting poaching and wildlife trafficking, helping seize tiger skins, pangolin scales, ivory and live animals while also deterring poachers in vulnerable landscapes.

The Drama and Trauma Caused by AI-generated Writing

I’m going to make some assumptions here, primarily that you have heard of book deals being canceled over suspicions that the author used generative AI to write. Readers and writers have been worried that the bookish culture we love will be replaced with AI texts. Now I’m wondering what we are all going to do about it. So, here are some recent articles that (sort of, kind of) seek answers. As to the articles’ mention that people enjoy crappy writing: I want to explore that soon by diving into a book whose author I can’t harm by commenting (a blockbuster bestseller that will probably get a film deal). I asked for Theo of Golden for my birthday because it’s so wildly popular, and someone I know loved it. And, man, is it a pile of stink.

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Writers Combat AI with Style

More Typos, Fewer Em Dashes: Writers Are Creating an Anti-AI ‘Literary Counterculture’ From Wired

Ellena Savage, an Australian novelist and academic … says … “AI has stolen several syntactical conventions I once held dear. I miss over-deploying the em dash. I miss the rule of three, which was so satisfying.”

Across magazines and digital publications, this anti-AI counterstyle is reshaping in-house style and editorial practice too. Richard Fisher, an honorary professor at University College London and editor at online culture magazine Aeon, says AI has prompted him to encourage writers “to be more human” and write more conversationally. “We don’t want to sand out the rough edges, because AI cannot write prose as spiky or idiosyncratic as humans.” …

[R]enewed appreciation for good writing might be one of the unexpected benefits of the AI writing era. Last April, John Warner, a veteran writing teacher, published More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI, in which he argued that rather than replacing writers, AI might actually come to reinstate the value of good writing and the style and process therein.

LLMs have introduced a new paranoia about style, and lack thereof, that might, at least in the short term, be a good thing. … it could provide a new incentive to improve in order to avoid being made redundant by LLMs.

But as AI keeps pace with human writing, potentially being trained on a corpus of anti-AI writing styles as they develop, it could soon necessitate the invention of an anti-anti-anti-AI style. “Whatever cosmetic counterstyle is created in response to AI, AI could mimic,” says McGarry. “The only true counterstyle is good writing.”

And Yet…Do People Prefer AI Writing?

AI stories preferred to human-written ones - study from the BBC

The study, published by Cambridge University Press, tested to see whether people aged 18 to 81 could tell the difference between human-written and AI-generated short stories.

Led by researchers at Villanova University (VU), USA, it found that participants could not tell which was which. …

In their first experiment, 1,682 participants read a story and were either correctly or incorrectly told it had been written by AI or a human. They then rated how engaging it was and its quality.

In a second and third experiment, 424 and 481 people received one human-written story and one by AI, and were not told the author. After reading, they were asked to identify them.

Weisberg said: “In our study, participants gave the highest ratings to stories that they had been told were written by humans but which were actually written by AI. … I’d argue that this reveals a bias towards narratives written by real people.” …

“AI writing tends to be clearer, more direct and easier to process,” said Weisberg. “By contrast, human-written stories are often more subtle and complex. … Perhaps people generally prefer predictability, because difficult or subtle material requires more brain power.”

How A.I. Books Sneak Their Way Into Stores from the New York Times (gift link)

A few years into the A.I. era, there is sobering evidence that a significant and growing portion of the novels being sold are written with or by chatbots, and that readers are buying them.

If True, is This the End of Creativity?

If the average person can’t tell the difference between human-created and AI-generated art, then people and companies and corporations will use AI-generated art because it incurs no human costs, for example health or retirement benefits. …

Why bother to write anything truly creative if you can make money just asking AI to churn out a couple hundred pages of garbage and design a cover to match? … [I]t only takes a few greedy abusers to change the system… . Remember, the average reader usually can’t tell the difference. If they could, books like Fifty Shades of Grey and Theo of Golden would never have become popular. And AI has no trouble replicating bad books like that. …

Young people will no longer aspire to be artists, because they’ll know it will not be them producing the art, but the AI assistant that they are forced to work with. Forced? Yes, because corporations will find a way to acquire the AI technology that produces almost all the art in our country, and they will provide most of the jobs in that field. With AI as the standard, more creative artists will be forced to abandon their more adventurous impulses [in order to] to survive.

Preserving the ‘Wholly-Human’ Author

Why is Anthropic destroying books? From The Guardian

The AI company apparently found destructively scanning ‘all the books in the world’ easier than dealing with copyright in its quest for training data

Should we destroy all the books in the world?

An answer to this question can be found in the court documents of Bartz v Anthropic PBC. The northern California district court case, decided in late July this year, highlighted the improbably named “Project Panama”, one of the AI company Anthropic’s efforts to improve its large language model Claude. “What is Project Panama?” court exhibit 21 asks, in an internal memo. The answer: “Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.” The memo advises discretion: “Why use a codename? … [B]ecause we don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.”

Destructive scanning was Anthropic’s solution to a problem: in order to “train” Claude, Anthropic had to procure a large, high-quality language dataset, preferably one created before 2022 and the corrupting influence of generative AI on contemporary text. … As the court’s decision relates, Anthropic hoped that books’ “well-curated facts, well-organized analyses, and captivating fictional narratives” would help “Claude write as accurately and as compellingly as Authors”.

Anthropic had a choice: it could have secured copyright permission to use existing e-books. This would have required the “legal/practice/business slog”, as Anthropic’s co-founder and CEO phrased it, of managing copyright. …

In the context of the court’s decision in Bartz v Anthropic PBC, destructive scanning is an effective mechanism to strip authorial involvement from printed texts, in order to use the content of those works to improve the functions of an LLM. It is both legal and less regulated than strip mining. …

If we take seriously the 2022 threshold, as a moment when AI-generated text began to make significant entry into the textual record, should we start to think of the “wholly human author” as an emergent category of collections preservation and stewardship?

… The risk with generative AI, as this single instance with Anthropic indicates, is that we cede the means of production of our large language lives: that we turn from creators to consumers, and hand the generative promise of our work to large language models and their proprietors.

The Fight Continues in Court

Book Publishers Sue Google Over AI Training, Escalating a Legal Standoff from ADWEEK

The most striking allegation in the suit holds that Google trained its AI models on books that publishers handed over to build Google Books. That agreement permitted Google to display snippets, the complaint argues, not to repurpose the material into training data for a competing business.

An Article Title that Suggests an Answer That Isn’t There

After the Cancellation of ‘Call Me, I’ll Hide The Body,’ What Comes Next? from Publisher’s Weekly

[Nigerian author Jerry Adedayo] Falade, who is currently a graduate student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas working towards a PhD, felt that he had won the literary lottery. His book starred a Nigerian immigrant protagonist, reflecting his research interest in Black masculinity in contemporary African American and African diaspora literature.

All of this came crashing down as a result of the accusation that his book was written with AI. … The book was pulled, and Falade reported that his agents and publishers cut ties with him.

Macmillan’s Minotaur imprint purchased the book in the U.S., and editors had deemed it worthy of being a lead title in a forthcoming publishing season, according to reporting by the Bookseller. The quality of the work was confirmed by Hodgman, who said the book “dazzled” Europa and “top publishing professionals around the world.” [Literary agent Marc] Gerald concurred, telling the Bookseller that “everyone fell in love with” the book, and that “however it came to be drafted, it’s amazing.”

How exactly the book was judged to have been written by AI remains unknown.…

Falade has spoken with a variety of publications, including the Guardian, in which he suggested that the cancellation of his book may have been motivated by racism. …

Others have different theories. In his reporting on the situation for Deadline, Mike Fleming Jr. speculated that the deals were called off because AI-generated texts cannot be copyrighted. …

For its part, the American Association of Literary Agents (AALA) told PW that the responsibility falls on the author to be fully transparent, and when they are not, the agent has the right to terminate the relationship.

Another Article on Solutions that Offers None

Brian Murray Calls for Industrywide Solutions to Issues Around AI Authorship from Publisher’s Weekly

[HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray] called the situation “very murky,” explaining that generative AI differs from other technological innovations, such as e-books, which “didn’t impact the writing process.”

He explained that copyright is the foundation of publishing, but that books written with AI could very well be considered uncopyrightable. …

Murray doesn’t believe there is a technical solution to finding AI-aided books. Rather, he thinks that agents, authors, and publishers need to work together to establish best practices in being able to certify a book is written by humans.

And an Article that Actually Proposes Solutions

We’ve asked three industry professionals and writers—Kathleen Schmidt, Lincoln Michel, and John Paul Brammer—to weigh in on how scandals like these keep erupting, if AI use has any place in writing to begin with, and where publishing might go from here.

* KS: publishers should be conducting LLM training

* JP: [W]e don’t have a robust literary culture. … I don’t think the average person needs to be reading Proust in their spare time …, but the fact that the people in our culture who should be discerning readers are being proven time and again to be undiscerning makes me worried about the future of literature. AI is only accelerating and revealing it.

* LM: They have, perhaps naively, relied on the integrity of the author they work with. You can learn how to spot this stuff … . I expect publishers will be doing LLM training at some point.

* LM: I also think we’ll see people turn to customizable LLM slop, paying OpenAI or whatever directly for stories. So I think literary publishers would be smart to make themselves a home for the people who want human-authored work.

* KS: Authors need their receipts (notes and drafts). … Publishing companies need to form an alliance and create uniform AI policies.

And just for fun, here’s a Teen Magazine-style quiz from Becky Tuch at Lit Mag News.

Reading Recommendations

2026 Booker Prize Longlist: Of the 13 books, I have purchased two on audio that I haven’t gotten to yet.

Abolish the Top Ten Books List from The Walrus

We’re saying the merit of a book is relative to other books, not internal, eternal, but external. We are voiding the work’s intrinsic worth. …

Grading novels the way we do meat thermometers or winter tires erases the incongruence, wildness, and uncountability that define an artwork. …

Next time you talk up a book, experiment with constraining yourself to solely what’s between the covers. Don’t reach for a comparator. You are not a BookExpo catalogue.

What I’m Reading

Print

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi: Ugh. I’ll never get those hours back. I hope to discuss it soon. Both thumbs down!

We are Bridges by Cassandra Lane: creative nonfiction in which Lane reclaims her family’s history through reimagining the lives of her great-grandparents, and particularly, her great-grandfather’s lynching after he refuses to surrender his property to the white mayor of Holmesville, Mississippi. In giving voice to this story, she takes back her American story. Thumbs up.

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton: “There was a time when I knew nothing about hares and gave them little thought. The same can be said, I have realized, of the many other aspects of life that have opened to me as a result of this experience. It has been like acquiring a new set of faculties and a greater degree of perceptiveness towards my physical environment.” This story is a balm, a gift. Thumbs up.

Audiobooks

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow: I decided this biography was too long to read right now, so I opted to listen. Forty-four hours! Twain is so interesting. His capacity to change for the better, rejecting the racism of his youth and more, is a quality that feels sadly lacking (even vilified) in people today. However, I was surprised by Twain’s obsession with young girls. Not exactly creepy, but certainly weird. Thumbs up.

Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground by Zayd Ayers Dohrn: A well-researched book by the son of radical Weather Underground leaders Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. I hope to discuss it soon. Thumbs up.

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Hello Friends,

Today, I’d like to discuss a few banned and often challenged books: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, a YA multiple award winner and Lucky by Alice Sebold, which should be withdrawn from libraries, but not for the reasons it is being banned.

Before we dive into these books, I want to note that this week Utah banned another book in all of its public schools: Stephen King’s Different Seasons which contains four novellas, two of which were adapted for the films The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me.

Anyone who has read “The Body” or seen Stand By Me will understand why schools were using the collection in the classroom. It’s quite possible that this was the only story in the collection that was assigned. And now the students have lost access to studying it.

When such works are removed, it’s unclear that the goal is to protect the teens or tweens. What is clear is that relatable stories are disappearing from the curriculum.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Over the past few years, I have been discussing banned books most of which were published a decade or more ago. I thought it would be fun to read a more recent one and see what the issues are. I recently picked up Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo because it is so highly regarded and so often vilified. I wanted to know why.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (2021), the Stonewall Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a Michael L. Printz Honor, and was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. Wow. And so deserving.

Lily Hu is a Chinese American teen living in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1950s. While she deals with prejudice because of her race, her family is also afraid of the McCarthy-era milieu in which all people of Chinese heritage are suspected of having Communist sympathies. In fact, Lily’s father, a doctor, has been targeted by the FBI for not naming one of his patients as a Communist and his citizenship papers have been confiscated.

As a rising high school senior, Lily is awakening to her sexuality and thrills to an ad for a performance by Tommy Andrews, a male impersonator, at the Telegraph Club. She later learns that a classmate—smart and kind Kath Miller—has been to the lesbian night club. The two strike up a friendship over their common academic interests and later become romantically involved. They sneak out of their houses a few times to go to the Telegraph Club late at night. Eventually, the club is raided and Lily must decide whether to tell her parents the truth and support Kath, or live a lie.

I’m sure the reason Telegraph Club is so often censored is that, at one point, the two girls have a sexual encounter that is briefly described. It’s a natural development of their relationship and only a few paragraphs of the entire novel, which is full of: great character development; a keen perception of the racial prejudice and Communist hysteria of the 1950s; and a very moving first-love story.

After reading Telegraph Club, it’s hard to say how sorry I am that this novel is so often banned. It’s not only a great book, but its emotional pull will benefit all readers. I want to say that it’s very dear, but I’m not sure that conveys my sense of the book. The main characters are sweet, kind to one another, and fumbling through adolescence in the most real way. We love them and root for their happiness. All of which is to say that the novel has an uncommon tenderness. It’s just nuts to keep this excellent work of YA fiction away from teens.

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Utah Banning of Alice Sebold’s Lucky.

Apparently, Utah’s school districts are working backward in time to ban books. The recently banned Lucky by Alice Sebold was published way back in 1999. It’s the author’s story about an extremely violent rape and what followed—the arrest and conviction of a Black man for the assault. While the rape in fact did happen, the man convicted was innocent. This was only proven long after the memoir was published, long after Sebold became a bestselling author with her novel The Lovely Bones. When the alleged rapist was exonerated, the publisher, Scribner, pulled the memoir from distribution.

Back in the day, I used to ‘booktalk’ Lucky to high school classes who came in looking for memoirs. I also posted a review on School Library Lady, discussing why I thought the book was a good choice for high school students. Once the convicted man was exonerated, I removed the review from public view. So the banning of the book in all public schools in Utah (along with 36 other titles) has me thinking about how book curation and weeding in school libraries actually works.

Librarians remove books all the time. Otherwise, there would be no room for new ones. Common reasons for removal are the physical condition of the book (falling apart), lack of interest as shown by checkout stats, and outdated information. The outdated information usually pertains to the sciences (Someday, man will go to the moon!), but it can also be that the information in the book proves to be incorrect.

The easiest example I can give of books with bad info, one that everyone will understand, is memoirs and biographies by or about Lance Armstrong. Think of it—in my high school library, we had LOTS of Lance. Since our population included ESL students, we had biographies beginning at the third grade reading level and going through adult level. Lots of companies that published books specifically for schools sold Lance. He was included in all sorts of series—American heroes, top athletes, role models for our time, etc. And again, these were written at various reading and lexile levels. We talked these books up; they circulated well. And then we had to weed them all. Our role model into the recycle bin.

Lucky is a book with the same fate. Not because Sebold was a liar as was Armstrong—her story of being raped at knifepoint and beaten and the aftermath is true and horrifying. But the book is inaccurate because it tells us that the rapist was caught and imprisoned. So it belongs in the recycle bin. Even though Utah schools had the book in the last 25 years, if it was still in the collection, I’d be surprised. Maybe the schools don’t have a level of staffing that allows time for weeding. (This is a very common problem and was true of my job as a teacher librarian.)

The story surrounding Sebold’s rape and the conviction and later exoneration of Anthony Broadwater, is tragic. Broadwater was wrongfully imprisoned for 16 years and spent 22 years as a registered sexual offender. There are so many missteps and genuinely bad police work.

If read together, two articles give us a solid overview of the situation. One was published in the New Yorker in May 2023 “The Tortured Bond of Alice Sebold and the Man Wrongfully Convicted of Her Rape” by Rachel Aviv. A second came out a few weeks ago (June 30, 2026), That Guy is Still Out There by Joaquin Sapien in ProPublica.

The New Yorker article may be password protected (no gift link available to me, sorry.) The ProPublica article is free to all readers. They are pretty long, but I highly recommend reading them. Meanwhile, below I paraphrase and quote from each. These are only a few of the points the articles make, but they will give you a sense of what happened.

From the New Yorker

* During a police lineup, Sebold identified a different man—not Broadwater. After signing a form that confirmed her decision, she felt a wave of nausea. She sensed that she’d made the wrong choice.

* The assistant district attorney, Gail Uebelhoer, was a thirty-one-year-old pregnant woman whom Sebold saw as a role model, her guide through a court system dominated by men. Considering the terrible track record of the Syracuse (New York) PD in solving rape crimes, Uebelhoer was looking for a win and for a chance to help a young girl. She told Sebold that the reason she’d picked the young man in the lineup was that Broadwater had asked “an almost identical-looking friend from jail to stand in the No. 5 spot and stare at her, to scare and fluster her. (In fact, Broadwater was not friends with the man in the No. 5 spot, and they did not look the same.)”

* On the stand in a grand jury trial, Sebold said she wasn’t sure she picked the right man.

* Police and prosecutors pushed forward with the charges against Broadwater anyway, and Sebold ultimately identified him as her attacker in the 1982 trial.

* Broadwater was convicted primarily based on Sebold’s testimony and microscopic hair analysis. The hair analysis was a forensic technique that the U.S. Department of Justice later debunked as “junk science.”

* Following tireless efforts by his lawyers and the discovery of serious prosecutorial flaws, Broadwater’s conviction was officially vacated by Judge Gordon Cuffy in November 2021. He concluded that the conviction rested on a debunked hair analysis and a tainted lineup.

* Sebold released a public statement expressing deep remorse. She stated, “I will forever be sorry for what was done to him” and expressed regret that her pursuit of justice resulted in an innocent young man being brutalized by a flawed legal system.

* In March 2023, the State of New York reached a $5.5 million settlement with Broadwater for his wrongful conviction.

From ProPublica

The article “That Guy is Still Out There,” includes more recent discoveries, including the facts that there was at least one serial rapist operating in and around Syracuse University at the time Sebold was assaulted and that the police and the university attempted to hide this fact.

“What’s clear is that no part of the system in Syracuse at the time could be depended on. Police brushed off rapes. Prosecutors bungled confessions or were defeated at trial. Judges overlooked irregularities. And one of the most powerful institutions in the city, Syracuse University, seemed more interested in suppressing news of a rape epidemic than solving it. There were police reports of sexual assaults near the campus marked “no press.” A former detective testified that the files were marked that way at the university’s request.”

* At least one serial rapist was on the streets — and sexual assaults resembling Sebold’s continued for years, even while Broadwater was behind bars. There were at least three other sexual attacks in the immediate area in the same year.

“One woman had told police that a man dragged her into a wooded section of the park. When she resisted, the report stated, he “began to punch her in the face” and “ordered her to remove her pants.”

“As with Sebold’s case, the police report was dismissive. One officer asserted that the victim was “retarded” and had run away from a nearby halfway house. The staff there said that she had complained of a similar incident two weeks prior and that she was having “difficulty adjusting.” The case was put on ice just hours after it had been reported.”

* There was no indication in the police reports that these attacks might have been connected. The reporter found no articles about any of these assaults in newspaper archives.

* More than a dozen women reported being raped or attacked by strangers within half a square mile over four years.

“Women were being sexually assaulted in their dorm rooms and in student apartments, walking out of grocery stores or on their way to the library. A nursing student was attacked at the same spot as Sebold, on the same day that her roommate was raped in their shared apartment. A freshman was raped in a sorority house by a man who broke in through a window. The descriptions of the perpetrators were often eerily similar. They frequently carried a knife. And several were roughly the same height, weight and race.”

* In the 1980s and ’90s, a prosecutor would get into a scuffle, on live TV, with a candidate who had just won the race for DA. The police crime lab lost its accreditation. “The doctor who led the county medical examiner’s office resigned after an investigation found he had routinely removed organs from corpses without consent from the victims’ families. His employees had posed playfully for photos over the body of a woman who had died by suicide.”

* Former Syracuse detective Paul Clapper wondered whether the wrong man had been sent to prison. After he left the force, he raised the name of a confessed and convicted rapist with a lengthy and violent record who closely matched the physical description of Sebold’s assailant.

* “‘No press,’ Clapper testified in 2025, ‘means that Syracuse University put their foot down and said no press for any kind of rape, robbery, burglary … in the area of Syracuse University.’”

* When Sebold picked the man standing next to Broadwater in the lineup, the case should have ended then and there, in the view of the DA today. “You know, she didn’t pick out the wrong guy. She picked out the guy. She picked out the guy that she thought had raped her. And it wasn’t Anthony,” Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told ProPublica. “Case is over. Stop.”

* At one point in the 1980s, a local news article reported that the district attorney’s office had suffered nine trial defeats in a row. Uebelhoer was quoted saying “juries are looking for a perfect victim, but they don’t exist.” She saw Sebold as a standout, writing in a memo as the case was transferred to Mastine: “Good luck. Victim is excellent witness.”

“The trial was peppered with irregularities. Broadwater and his lawyer had opted for a bench trial, hoping that a judge would see the paucity of evidence and wouldn’t be swayed by emotion. But the judge seemed to have a soft spot for Sebold. During a break in the proceedings, he spoke to Sebold privately, according to her memoir, expressing concern about how she was holding up and asking about her family. Had a juror done such a thing, they would likely have been kicked off the jury and a mistrial might’ve been declared. (The judge died in 2009.)”

A police report of a rape soon after Broadwater had been convicted sounded a lot like Sebold’s rape. This, I believe, is the most important addition the ProPublica article makes to the New Yorker article.

A young woman was jogging through a wooded section of the park when she heard someone behind her.

“Suddenly she was in the grip of a man dragging her by the neck behind a cluster of trees. He forced her to perform oral sex, then pulled her sweatpants down and raped her. She reported that her assailant was Black, about 5’9”, 140 pounds, muscular and around 16 years old.

“Those details did not draw a lot of notice at the time. But they fit the description of a rapist who would soon become well-known to the Syracuse police. Only four months after Broadwater was found guilty, a high schooler named Thomas Weakfall admitted raping five women. The crimes had begun in late 1981, he said in a statement taken by Clapper. Four of them occurred less than a mile from Thornden Park. Weakfall, according to police reports, had provided “certain facts only the perpetrator would have known.”

“There’s no evidence that Weakfall assaulted Sebold, but there’s no denying he matched key elements of the description she gave. Sebold had told police her rapist was Black, 16 to 18 years of age, about 5’7” and 150 pounds. Weakfall was Black, 16 years old, 5’9” and 140 pounds, according to police reports.”

DNA evidence wasn’t a possibility in 1982. It could have been used in the 2020s when the case was reviewed, but the physical evidence from her case was gone. And the statute of limitations on these rapes expired decades ago. What would be great right now is a book about Anthony Broadwater. His story has been in the works, at least as a movie, but has fallen through. But there is still the possibility.

The Job of the Library is Correction and Weeding

So, as to library books: yes, there is incorrect information in them from time to time. The librarian can’t know what is unknown. (She is not, after all, Donald Rumsfeld.) When she finds an error, she corrects. This is how weeding should be executed.

The fate of a library book shouldn’t rest on a scene where a couple of girls make out in a locked classroom, as is true of Telegraph Club.

Thanks!

Thanks for hanging with me on this one! Next week will be our ‘Library and Banned Books News’ roundup. After that, I hope to have a look at a project I completed last week, one I am very proud of—and one that tells a story in fabric.

On a personal note, I was found to have a melanoma but it was successfully removed and I am cancer-free! Yay!

If you’d like to read about a time when I decided to remove a book after a student complaint about sexual content (what my reasoning was):

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit victoriawaddle.substack.com

Hello Friends,

While this is not our “Library and Banned Books News” week, (that’s next week), I do want to mention that the Knox County, TN schools reversed the banning of Alex Haley’s Roots. And that was because of community and national blow back. Fighting back matters! Good job, book ‘freadom’ fighters!

I had another cataract surgery last week, and wasn’t seeing clearly again, so I had the chance to listen to several audiobooks. One of them was Daniel Kraus’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Angel Down. I read some remarks about the book questioning whether the Pulitzer committee was biased toward experimental work. Apparently, some critics found all the finalists to be similar in their approach. I don’t know—I haven’t read most of the books up for the award. However, Angel Down is unusual (I wouldn’t go so far as to say experimental) in that it is a single sentence. But, at least in audiobook form, it flows well. Pauses can be felt; there are chapter breaks (each starts with the word “and”).

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Angel Down

Angel is easy to follow and reminded me—in form, not in content— of the Academy Award winning film 1917 (Directed by Sam Mendes) which feels like it was filmed in one continuous shot. I haven’t read any interviews with Kraus, so I don’t know whether he was influenced by the film.

Angel is the story of a group of five American soldiers trying to stay alive during the Meuse-Argonne offensive of World War I. A weird lamentation is coming from the No Man’s Land between them and the Germans. The pitch and endlessness of the cry is driving the men mad. Their commanding officer—Major General Reis, a very bad guy—commands them to take care of the man, who is probably caught in barbed wire. He means they are to kill the sufferer.

No one wants to risk their life in No Man’s Land. Private Cyril Bagger, a con man and draft dodger who only landed in the war because he was caught in an illegal scheme, knows he can con his way out of being chosen for the risky mission. However, when the task falls to a teenage soldier named Arno, a mere boy who lied about his age in order to join the army, Bagger decides to accompany him. He has a soft spot for the poor kid after reading “The Son of Tarzan” to him. For a while, he believes he can make sure that Arno makes it home alive.

When the two venture out to find the suffering soldier, they are surprised to find instead what they think is an angel, a woman who is unable to walk but who emanates a beam of heavenly light. It seems she protects them as they rescue her. But once they arrive back with the others, the angel brings out both the worst impulses of each of them as well as their illusory dreams. Bagger and Arno make it their mission to protect the angel and deliver her to safety.

The story is full of vivid descriptions of the gore and horror of war—severed limbs, erupting guts, rotting teeth, pus and infections, burnt flesh—one atop the other, giving the reader a sense of the futility and darkness of the enterprise.

As a high school teacher librarian, I read many YA books that I would later ‘book talk’ to students. The way the horror and gore were described in Angel were familiar to me. Is this the Daniel Kraus who wrote YA novels that I used to book talk? I checked—and yes, he is the same man.

This Pulitzer winning novel has much in common with two novels I read for book talks—Rotters and Scowler. Perhaps this will lead some readers to think ‘how did Angel win the Pulitzer, then?’ But maybe another way to look at it is that some YA books are very good, and Kraus’s are among them. Maybe he was building the skills that landed that Pulitzer.

If you enjoy horror, you might enjoy those novels. You could recommend them to teens you know. Teens could impress their teachers with the fact that they’ve read books by Kraus. Here are some thoughts I had when I read the YA books.

Scowler

My thoughts in October 2013:

Scowler is a great October read, one in a YA branch of the true horror family. So—this is NOT your love triangle with some supernatural creatures thrown in ala Twilight and its progeny.

Scowler is Dark.

Scowler is Disturbing.

After nine years in prison, a psychopath returns to the family farm with one thing on his mind—revenge against his son, now nineteen years old, for having him locked up all those years ago. That father, Marvin Burke, has escaped when meteorites fall throughout the county. One hits the prison and chaos ensues. Though Burke is supposed to be in a more distant lock-up, another escaped prisoner comes to the farm and warns Ry that his father is out for his blood.

Ry had bested his father nine years earlier after climbing through a window and discovering his mother locked in her room, unable to flee. Her immobility is due to the twisted torture that her husband had devised for her in response to the fact that she has secretly done work to support the failing farm. (I can’t tell you—don’t want to kill the creep factor when you read it.)

Though the family—Ry, his mom and his little sister Sarah—nearly escape, Marvin Burke catches them. It is up to ten-year-old Ry to be a decoy, to risk himself through a freezing night. He has no jacket, none of the right clothing, in fact. No light. No nothing, except three toys that fall from his pockets. As his mental state breaks under pressure of his father stalking him in order to murder him, these toys come to life and direct him through his living hell.

One of Ry’s toys—Scowler—is an old cast-off, homemade from pipes, husks and shells. Hideously ugly.

It may prove his salvation more than once.

High school housekeeping: I think any teen might enjoy Scowler for a Halloween fright. Though there are several flashbacks, it takes place over a few days, just before the meteorite hits and then just after. Here, the reader finds himself in the mind of a sadistic psychopath as well as in the mind of his son, who, having suffered beyond ordinary human endurance, may well become a psychopath himself. The language is colorful, so if cursing offends you, you might take a pass. But this gives a sense of reality both to the brother-sister relationship and to the dire situation of the family. It’s a book of average length and average difficulty that will give you a taste of what adult horror fans read in the lengthier works of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and their ilk.

Rotters

My thoughts in June 2013:

Such a weird story! The combination of bullying and horror story compelled me to finish the book, and I think it will appeal to anyone who likes really quirky stuff.

Joey Crouch has lived with his mother all of his life in Chicago. They don’t go out much and he’s never been over the Illinois state line. But when his mother is hit by a bus and killed, Joey is removed to a small town in Iowa to live with a father he’s never known.

Things are very bad from the start. Ken Harnett, Joey’s dad, doesn’t bother to pick him up at the depot. He immediately leaves the house upon Joey’s arrival and doesn’t return for three days. Meanwhile, Joey sleeps on the floor, has nothing to eat and notices a strange, nasty odor in the shack that he can’t identify.

Dressed poorly, hungry and stinking, Joey immediately becomes a target of bullying in his new high school—not only by jocks but by a sadistic biology teacher as well, one who daily makes Joey stand in front of the class and then uses him to point out body parts and their functions. (Just a note here from the teacher in me: I had a hard time believing that any teacher anywhere could get away with treating a student the way Joey was treated—but if one tried, I would hope that someone in the class would speak up and tell outsiders.)

The situation only gets worse when we discover what that terrific stink is: Ken is a modern-day grave robber. With nothing to lose at school, Joey decides to learn the trade, and we enter the bizarre brotherhood of this underworld. They are criminals with a strange code of honor, and the one of them who has broken the code is terrorizing all the others. He may have the power to use Joey to get at the whole group.

Rotters are people—because all people will die, and then they will rot if they are not cremated. The descriptions of grave robbing, of disintegrating corpses, are the stuff of nightmares. (So beware.) Yet the story is oddly original and well-written. There are a lot of interesting facts about the history of grave robbing and the ‘resurrection men’ who dug up corpses for scientists and professors to use in study. (Remember Jerry Cruncher in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities?) When Joey has been bullied beyond endurance and he seeks revenge—well, imagine what a grave robber could do.

Reading

15 Essential Works of American Literature from Publishers Weekly

The most vital books published in the U.S. since 1776 as voted on by critics.

Of these 15 books, I’ve read 13. Which of them have you read?

AI and Writing Awards

‘Obvious markers of AI’: doubts raised over winner of short story prize from the Guardian

Granta publisher says ‘perhaps we never will know’ true authorship of work that won Commonwealth prize

A few syntactical tics – and the verdict of an AI detection platform – have sparked a furore over the possibility that a short story given a prestigious literary award was written by AI.

The foundation that awarded the prize and Granta, the magazine that published the winning story, said they had considered the allegations but had not reached a conclusion as to whether they were true. …

The Commonwealth Foundation and Granta have said there is a limit to their ability to detect whether the allegations around Nazir’s possible use of AI are true.

The foundation said it did not use AI checkers in its judging process because supplying unpublished work to them “would raise significant concerns surrounding consent and artistic ownership”.

It said all entrants to the prize had avowed that their submissions were their own work and “personally stated that no AI was used”, something it confirmed with “further consultation”. It added that AI checkers were “not unfailing and infallible”.

ands this article in Wired adds:

Besides Nazir, two more winning authors have drawn allegations of using AI in their work. Pangram finds that “The Bastion’s Shadow,” by Maltese writer John Edward DeMicoli, winner for the Canada and Europe region, is fully AI-generated; it scans “Mehendi Nights,” by Indian writer Sharon Aruparayil, winner for the Asia region, as partly AI-generated. Neither DeMicoli nor Aruparayil immediately returned requests for comment when reached through their respective social media accounts.

The other two short-listed stories, by Holly Ann Miller of New Zealand and Lisa-Anne Julien of South Africa, deliver “fully human-written” results from Pangram.

In a further twist, the Jamaican author Sharma Taylor, a judge for this year’s Commonwealth Short Story Prize, has been accused of using AI to craft her descriptive blurb that accompanied the listing of “The Serpent in the Grove” as a regional winner. Pangram evaluates Taylor’s text as “AI-assisted.” She did not immediately return a request for comment.

For fun, check out “The Prehistory of A.I. Slop” in the New Yorker

Before ChatGPT, there was the Plot Robot, Auto-Beatnik, and a century’s worth of schemes for automating authorship.

Writers

I saw this cross-posted on Narratively —a great list.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit victoriawaddle.substack.com

Hello Friends,

I hope you are feeling and doing well. I have several bookish things going on lately that I hope you’ll find interesting. But first, because life is rough, here’s something I found very hopeful on Reasons to Be Cheerful.

Endangered Butterflies Are Thriving Behind Bars

In the tender, methodical work of rescuing an imperiled butterfly species, incarcerated women are finding a sense of purpose.

My pandemic pups turned six years old.

Hard to believe, but here they are thriving, and this is another thing that soothes these challenging days. I was moving into a period of despair when they came into my life and helped me rally. I wrote about it in my chapbook The Mortality of Dogs and Humans. I promised on my ‘About’ page to post about the dogs once in a while, so here are a few nap time photos.

On Mother’s Day night, I decided to watch The Maltese Falcon because, somehow, I’d neither seen it nor read the book. This post from DocTalk, Allan N Schwartz PhD steered me to it:

As a retired psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, I cannot help but view this film through the lens of symbolism and human motivation. The black bird itself, the Maltese Falcon, is not merely an object. It becomes almost mythical. Everyone in the story is obsessed with possessing it. Men and women lie, betray, manipulate, and kill in pursuit of it. Yet what fascinates me most is that the falcon has power not because of what it truly is, but because of what people imagine it to be.

That is one of the great truths about human psychology.

People often chase symbols rather than realities.

Books

I had the chance to talk to Marla Miller about how my work as a teacher and librarian influenced my novel Keep Sweet. So much depends on what happens away from the desk!

Sci-Fi Authors and Latino/Latine Writers

I’m reading speculative fiction for a special (extra) issue of the Inlandia Journal right now. Submissions are open through May 31. (Side note: Submissions are also open through June 14 for their Eliud Martínez Prize. If you are a Latine writer seeking publication of a full-length manuscript [150-300 pages], have a look.)

Review of Scouts’ Honor

And I wrote a book review for the teen issue of Inlandia, “A Vow to Hide the Truth,” about Scouts’ Honor by Carlos Cortés. In general, the teen issue is all teens except the managing editor—the readers, the editors, the submitters/writers/artists. If you know a teen writer, have them look for the next submission period next winter.

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Books on My TBR List

How the Fanatical Legion of Mary Secreted Young Girls Away to Toil in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries

LOUISE BRANGAN ON THE GIRLS WHO DISAPPEARED IN 20TH-CENTURY IRELAND

Excerpted from The Fallen: The Lost Girls of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries and a Legacy of Silence by Louise Brangan

I read the above linked excerpt on LitHub, and now I need to read the book. Or at least listen to the audiobook. Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These was my introduction to the Magdalene Laundries. The power of this slim book/novella cannot be overstated. If you haven’t read it, you must. It’s the best thing I’ve read in the last several years.

I’ve been checking out some recent ‘Best Of’ lists. I’m always hoping that I’ve read many of the books, maybe because it’ll make me feel like I have fine sensibilities. But honestly, there are many excellent books that critics, cuddled up in their sleeping bags in the Big Five tent, are wholly unaware of.

25 Books That Capture This American Moment Time Magazine

Of these, one that I haven’t read and look forward to is The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. I read and enjoyed (so to speak—I mean I found it powerful) her novel Kindred.

100 Best Novels The Guardian

The Guardian is posting “a countdown of the greatest literature ever published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide.” They add 20 books per week. So far they have posted 100-61. Another 20 will post on Thursday. No unexpected titles, but I have to say, I’m surprised that Pedro Páramo is only # 96. I think it might belong in the top 50.

What I’m Reading

I just finished Michael Pollan’s A World Appears, a nonfiction exploration of consciousness. I thought my kids might also want to read it, but they have a point: the final outcome of all books about consciousness is that we don’t understand it. Nevertheless, Pollan’s exploration is very interesting and wide-ranging. He interviews many scientists, philosophers, writers, and spiritual seekers and also incorporates his own experiences with consciousness-altering psychedelics.

“When neuroscientists began studying consciousness in the early 1990s, they sought to explain how and why three pounds of spongy gray matter could generate a subjective point of view—assuming that the brain is the source of our perceived reality. Pollan takes us to the cutting edge of the field, where scientists are entertaining more radical (and less materialist) theories of consciousness. He introduces us to “plant neurobiologists” searching for the first flicker of consciousness in plants, scientists striving to engineer feelings into AI, and psychologists and novelists seeking to capture the felt experience of our slippery stream of consciousness.”

I also just finished Here’s to You, Jesusa! which is a translation of the testimonial novel Hasta no verte Jesús Mío by Elena Poniatowska. The original Spanish was published in 1969. I was interested in reading Jesusa because I’m trying to get a sense of Mexico during the Cristero Wars. (Research for my own writing.) I can’t say it helped me much, but it is a strange book with a frustrating protagonist who is nonetheless admirable for her insights into politics and her ability to survive a variety of hells, including desperate poverty. If you want to read about a woman who fought in the Mexican Revolution and also survived the Cristero Wars, this is it.

“Jesusa is a tough, fiery character based on a real working-class Mexican woman whose life spanned some of the seminal events of early twentieth-century Mexican history. Having joined a cavalry unit during the Mexican Revolution, she finds herself at the Revolution’s end in Mexico City, far from her native Oaxaca, abandoned by her husband and working menial jobs. So begins Jesusa’s long history of encounters with the police and struggles against authority. Mystical yet practical, undaunted by hardship, Jesusa faces the obstacles in her path with gritty determination.”

Although No Way Home by T. C. Boyle is very good, I stopped reading it because I had to finish my library books and return them. I hope to get back to No Way soon.

What are you reading? Anything you’d like to recommend?

Please like and share. Thanks! I hope you have a good week.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit victoriawaddle.substack.com

Hello Friends,

There are some things I wanted to discuss about this crazy week, so I’ll put off the final discussion of Enshittification. Next week we’re starting the new schedule of alternating the “Library and Banned Books News” with these review posts rather than having both within one week. So—next Sunday is about libraries and censorship.

¡Sí, se puede! Yes, we can!

I read in two newspapers that California is changing its Cesar Chavez holiday to “Farmworker Day/El Día del Campesino.” I’m glad my state is continuing with the honor. I’m over being heartbroken over the loss of idols. I think it’s best to celebrate ideas and movements that have helped people rather than any particular man. If you need some helpful reading on the Chavez abuse news, these may be useful:

This guest post on the Contrarian by Maria Cardona.

Let us be absolutely clear: none of these horrific revelations erase the very real gains made in farmworkers’ rights through years of grueling, backbreaking organizing. Those victories belong to an entire movement. Yes, Chávez was a leader — but so much of the unacknowledged credit belongs to Dolores Huerta and to the women who powered that movement from behind the curtain.

And this:

However, the farmworkers movement is not defined by an individual — and never has been. As Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi noted, “A movement is about the people — not any one person — and its strength lies in the values it upholds. We can honor the farmworker movement — and the generations who sacrificed to build it — while also confronting painful truths. No legacy is above accountability.” While we are shaken to our core, we continue to honor the tens of thousands of farm labor activists.

Anne Lamott gives us hope, as always.

Thanks for reading Be a Cactus! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

And here’s some good news from this week’s Reasons to be Cheerful because it’s important to remember that everyday people work to correct past mistakes, even devastating ones.

The Native Seed Farm Safeguarding California’s Future

At Heritage Growers, every acre is being cultivated to repair ecosystems and help the Golden State meet its ambitious conservation goals.

California is widely recognized as one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, supporting thousands of endemic plant and animal species, more than any other US state. However, California’s Biodiversity Initiative notes that its wetlands, riparian woodlands and forests have “suffered extensive losses,” with “an estimated 80–90 percent” of its biologically diverse landscapes altered or lost in the past 150 years. Development, agriculture, invasive species, climate change and increasingly intense wildfires are among the culprits. Reestablishing native vegetation is crucial to reversing those trends.

Right after I posted Friday’s “Library and Banned Books News,” the librarian in Rutherford, TN said she will not move those 190 YA (mostly LGBTQIA) books out of the teen section because it violates the First Amendment Rights of the teens. We’ll see what ensues, but it’s a reminder that good people are out there fighting.

Iran and Its People

I read a couple of articles this week about the choices Iranians are now having to make.

Iranians Weigh Tough Choice: Stay or Flee from the LA Times

What the War Has Done to Iranians from the New Yorker

And one closer and more personal, a text convo between the New Yorker Journalist Cora Engelbrecht and “Hadi” in Tehran. There’s Hadi’s early sense of hope about the war, the fulfillment of a lifelong wish for the death of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which later turns to despair when the regime itself stays in place. I’m not sure whether you can access the article if you’re not a subscriber, but it’s very worthwhile. Here.

“As for me, my situation is clear,” he added. “I want to remain close to what’s happening. I’m staying here in the middle of the war until the very end, until my home, what I consider my home, is taken away from me.”

After reading these, I thought of a wonderful memoir about Iranian culture and history, about leaving Iran after the 1979-80 revolution. Exit Prohibited deals with the same question: should we stay or should we go? I know the author, Ellen Estilai, through the Inlandia Institute, a literary nonprofit.

Opening the Door on Iranian Culture

Exit Prohibited by Ellen Estilai

At the end of July 1980, Ellen Estilai, her husband, and their two daughters are leaving Iran. The decision isn’t easy. Ellen met and married her husband, Ali, in Davis, California, a decade earlier when they both attended university. Ali always planned to return to his homeland after earning his PhD in genetics. As a “first student,” his foreign education was paid for by the Iranian government on the promise to return and with his father’s house as collateral. After Ali graduates, Ellen goes with him, later giving birth to their children. Though she plans to spend her life in Iran, the 1979 revolution and its repressions make staying impossible. And while all four members of the family have permission to leave, Ali is detained at the airport. His passport is confiscated, and he is told he’s on the mamnou’ol khorudj — exit prohibited — list.Ellen and her daughters take off for Switzerland with plans to continue on to the United States. But they’ve no idea when they will see Ali again. She wonders: “Who would want to prevent Ali from leaving Iran? Which officious bureaucrat, which backbiting colleague, which sly neighbor could have written the letter or made the phone call? And just what is Ali being accused of? Having an American wife? Not being Islamic enough? Working on saffron?”The author moves from these thoughts to an examination of her life in Iran. Though hijab is not required under the shah’s rule, many Iranian women continue to wear headscarves, knee-length coats with long sleeves, and pants underneath. Those that don’t are eyed suspiciously as too westernized. As one of them, and a foreigner to boot, the author is sometimes distrusted. Yet she immerses herself in the culture and learns Persian. Her in-laws are a large, happy group who welcome her without hesitation. Their open-heartedness and gatherings, “a celebration of connectedness, of old roots and new growth,” satisfy a need that is not met in her small family of origin. Unlike her mother’s anxiety over hosting gatherings or guests, Iranians believe that a guest is God’s gift.Life in Iran is far different from what the author is used to. With few convenience foods available, she finds herself cooking much of the day. Itinerant street vendors call through the neighborhood selling coats and pants, watermelon, crystal dishes, and more. Though she is not convalescing, Ellen feels like Jimmy Stewart’s character in Rear Window. As she watches the drama in the courtyard and on the balconies, she discovers a good deal about her neighbors’ lives.

The author also learns cultural norms. Taarof is the necessary offering of compliments and ceremonial courtesies (“these endless streams of pleasantries took so much valuable time”). The fatalistic worldview that everyone has their own ghesmat (kismet) prevails. Nonetheless, this view allows for a tradition of warding off the evil eye by preparing hot coals in a brazier and tossing in esfand (wild rye) seeds. And, of course, there is the ever-present samovar because tea is a part of all interactions, business or pleasure.Ali lands his dream position as a professor in the Biology Department at the University of Tehran. He secures funds to create a new department, the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, and to purchase new equipment. Though his hopes of improving Iranian education appear to be coming true, some people are envious of him.Meanwhile, Ellen completes her education in English Language and Literature and begins working at the new Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art as Manager of Education. The author’s discussion of the museum — architecturally, it’s a paean to Iranian culture, but the artwork has dual foci in Iranian and western art — peeks into, and is a harbinger of, the cultural conflict that comes to consume Iran a few years later.As the author learns about Iranian culture, readers do as well. They are immersed in the beauty of Isfahan, its art and its “exquisite, sublime, and ethereal” interlocking patterns. The friendliness of Kerman, Ali’s hometown, is on display as is the routine of daily life, of being a working mother and being part of “a large, boisterous family that was endlessly interested in one another’s business.”

The narrative is infused with humor. (“As dull as it was, Days of Our Lives provided me with many random but potentially useful phrases, such as ‘Mickey aqim-e?’ [Mickey is sterile?]”) Like most Westerners, Ellen knew little about the modern political situation in Iran. Along the way, she unearthed historical imperialism. During the previous century, both Britain and Russia/the USSR had meddled in Iranian politics. The CIA led a coup in 1953 that overthrew a democratically elected prime minister. After moving to Iran, the author hears stories of the SAVAK, the shah’s secret police, and its engagement in political repression. With her newfound knowledge, she wonders — along with everyone she knows — how life under Khomeini could be any worse.During Ali’s sabbatical of 1978–79, Ellen and Ali travel back to the home of their alma mater and their meeting place, Davis, California. Thus, they are out of the country during the fall of the shah and the installation of Khomeini. Uncertain of the reality of daily life in Iran, they choose to return to Iran at the end of the sabbatical.Still, overall, readers understand the melancholy of Ellen’s departure from Iran. While she has enriched her life in a new landscape, with a new language and new traditions, and with a large, loving family, there’s no doubt she must exit. She’s worried about the future of women with talent and energy in the Islamic Republic, including her own daughters. “I knew what I wanted for them. I wanted them to know their foremothers. I wanted their voices to be heard. I wanted them to have a place at the table.”With their dreams no longer attainable, the Estilais have a new challenge in negotiating Ali’s exit. The complexity of the author’s experience and her relationship to Iran before and after the revolution makes a compelling memoir. Readers learn not only about a culture and its history but also about the dual immigrant experiences of Ellen and Ali and their inspirational ability to restart their lives.

Writer Issues, Reader Issues

AI

The NYT posted a little quiz with five sets of two paragraphs. The object is to pick the one of the two paragraphs in each set that you think is better. One is AI-generated. One is from a fairly well-known writer. It’s interesting to see how good AI paragraphs are—keeping in mind that they are generated from a vast store of real human writing. But I wonder if AI generation could sustain a complete short story, an essay, a novel, memoir, or any nonfiction book. What’s the cumulative effect?

Apparently Hachette found a horror novel worthy of publication which it has now canceled after reports that parts were AI-generated. The author claims that someone she hired to edit the self-published version used AI. She is pursuing legal action.

Horror Novel ‘Shy Girl’ Canceled Over Suspected A.I. Use from NYT (Gift link)

On Thursday, a day after The New York Times approached Hachette citing evidence that the novel appeared to be A.I.-generated, the company said it was pulling the book from publication. By Thursday afternoon, the novel was removed from Amazon and the Hachette website.

And Here’s the quiz if you’d like to try it. (Gift link)

Great literature may not strike us as the best reading in a single paragraph:

Thanks for reading! Take heart. I believe the old ‘darkest before the dawn’ proverb. We’ll see you out on the streets on Saturday.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit victoriawaddle.substack.com