Explore Booksellers suggests titles built around work and reading some classics

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Explore Booksellers in Aspen recommends an examination of AI and two books about reading foundational and forbidden literature.

---

From the publisher: For all the general anxiety about computers taking people’s jobs, economists have long been optimistic about technology’s impact on employment. Historically, new inventions have always complemented human labor, helping rather than hurting workers. But with the emergence of artificial intelligence, acclaimed Oxford economist Daniel Susskind shows, all kinds of work are increasingly at risk—as is the structure of the entire world economy.

In a lively and approachable style, Susskind explains why this time really is different. Truckers and taxi drivers thrown out of work by driverless cars, for instance, cannot easily transition to become coders. Tasks that used to be far beyond the ability of computers, from diagnosing illnesses to drafting legal contracts, are rapidly coming within their reach. Eventually, the economy might have no need for human labor at all.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, Susskind emphasizes. Technological progress has the potential not just to upend the global economy but to bring about unprecedented material prosperity.

From Zoe Locke, staff: This well-researched take on what may be the most salient question of the 21st century— how our society should respond to the rise of AI—is a worthwhile read. While the book’s focus is on automation and the future of work, I appreciated Susskind’s comfort exploring topics ranging from inequality to human consciousness, and for prompting me to consider how we might better harness technology to foster human wellbeing.

---

From the publisher: For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were all former students whom she had taught at university. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their stories intertwined with those they were reading — “Pride and Prejudice,” “Washington Square,” “Daisy Miller “and “Lolita” — their Lolita, as they imagined her in Tehran.

Azar Nafisi’s luminous tale offers a fascinating portrait of the Iran-Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of women’s lives in revolutionary Iran. It is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, written with a startlingly original voice.

From Gina Odom, bookseller: The inspiration to pick up this book was my personal distaste for the book “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabakov. This brave professor’s perspective gave me an appreciation for my own privilege to pick up controversial books and discuss them openly. Despite finding certain books to be offensive, I don’t believe they need to be banned, simply read with discretion! The books referenced (other than Lolita) are: “Invitation to a Beheading,” “Great Gatsby,” “Daisy Miller” and “Pride & Prejudice.” I would recommend having a basic knowledge of those works to avoid any “spoilers.” 

---

From the publisher: For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents, by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally true.

Both of these approaches preclude an appreciation of its greatness as literature, its rich articulation and exploration of themes that resonate through the whole of scripture. Marilynne Robinson’s “Reading Genesis” is a powerful consideration of the profound meanings and promise of God’s enduring covenant with man. This magisterial book radiates gratitude for the constancy and benevolence of God’s abiding faith in creation.

From Bobby Moyer, bookseller: National Book Award winner, Pulitzer winner, and one of the greatest novelists still writing today turns her interpretive genius toward the most famous story ever written. For Robinson, the Bible is “a meditation on the problem of evil,” which must reconcile the darker sides of humanity with God’s goodness, and the original goodness of being. In her reflection, she exercises her wit and keen observational eye on the story of Creation. Dismissing the simple heuristics modern audiences bring to the table, Robinson challenges the reader to consider the profundity and promise of God’s enduring covenant with humanity.

Type of Story: Review

An assessment or critique of a service, product, or creative endeavor such as art, literature or a performance.