Week of May 22, 2025

From the editor’s desk

Rebekka Makkai’s 2023 powerhouse of a novel, I Have Some Questions for You, is one of my favorite books. Among other accomplishments, it looks back on the then-normal-seeming, but now-squicky-as-heck gender-relation norms of the mid-1990s, and does meticulous, clear-eyed forensics on some of the questions that the #metoo movement necessarily oversimplified in its urgency.

Makkai delves into a pile of hard-to-parse complexities with equal doses of skepticism, compassion and unassuming brilliance. I can honestly say this book left me with a better-built worldview.

Makkai’s more recent novel, Boiling Point—about a climate scientist and her teenage daughter, an eco-activist who targets her mother’s wealthy clients—would seem to promise all the same delicious complexity and insight. This book, however, has a pretty serious problem: It does not exist.

Boiling Point is one of several novels on a summer reading list that the Chicago Sun Times published in its summer guide on May 18 that were either attributed to the wrong author, or altogether fabricated. The list was AI-generated and not factchecked.

Said Marco Buscaglia, the freelancer who compiled the list, according to WBEZ Chicago: 

Stupidly, and 100% on me, I just kind of republished this list that (an AI program) spit out. Usually, it’s something I wouldn’t do.”

“I mean, even if I’m not writing something, I’m at least making sure that I correctly source it and vet it and make sure it’s all legitimate. And I definitely failed in that task.”

Buscaglia admitted that he’s used AI to “write” other articles in the past, and that they also may not have been properly factchecked. Public mockery ensued. King Features, the third-party company that had hired Buscaglia, severed its relationship with him. The Chicago Sun Times issued a cloying non-apology of the “this isn’t the real me” variety, adding:

This should be a learning moment for all journalism organizations: Our work is valued—and valuable—because of the humanity behind it.

I assure you, dear reader, this is not a learning moment for the RN&R. 

“The humanity behind it” is what we do. It is why we exist. When you dive into our Summer Guide (our June issue, coming soon!) and read Jessica Santina’s theater recommendations, Bob Grimm’s movie recommendations, and all of our other content about what to do and where to go this summer, you will be reading real, well-informed opinions crafted by real, well-informed people who care about our community. No AI. Just IRL. And hours and hours of fact-checking.

Rebecca Makkai’s response to the fake reading list is excellent, by the way. Her Substack yesterday was “Fifteen REAL Books You Should ACTUALLY Read This Summer—Written by humans!” I can’t wait to dive in.

In related news, while we’re on the topic of actual, human-generated opinions, it’s time to express your own. The polls are open for Round 1 of our annual Best of Northern Nevada contest! Please vote here for your favorite businesses, personalities and all of the other things that give our region its own special flavor; the top vote-getters this round will advance to the final round, and we’ll share the results with you on Aug. 29, and in our September print edition. Be sure to tell your friends! 

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor