AI, Surveillance and Dreams Fill a Month of Free Literary Events Across Pasadena

A novel about predictive algorithms, government surveillance and the last refuge of human privacy — dreams — anchors a month of free discussions, lectures and film screenings at library branches, bookstores and research institutes across Pasadena.

Pasadena Public Library’s 24th annual One City, One Story program features “The Dream Hotel” by Laila Lalami, published in March by Pantheon Books and nominated this year for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel.

The program, which runs through March 31, connects the book’s themes to a slate of events exploring artificial intelligence, emerging medical science and the ethics of technology — subjects with specific local dimensions in a city home to Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Huntington Medical Research Institute.

The novel is set in a near-future America where surveillance extends into citizens’ unconscious lives.

“Pretty soon the only privacy we will have will be in our dreams,” Lalami said in a Q&A posted on her website. Elsewhere she described her approach: “Novels aren’t prophecies, but they are simulations. They’re a way to ask, what if this happened? What would we do, then?”

Lalami is a Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, and the author of six books. Her previous novels include “The Moor’s Account,” a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and “The Other Americans,” a finalist for the National Book Award.

The programming reaches beyond conventional book discussions. On March 7, Bridgid Fennell, a University of Southern California librarian and Pasadena Public Library commissioner, offers an introduction to generative AI at Linda Vista Branch Library. And on March 16, dream interpretation specialist Michael Lennox leads a session at Vroman’s Bookstore.

Eight community book discussions are scheduled at branches across the city and via Zoom, according to the library’s press release, and a three-film series — “Frequency,” “Déjà vu” and “Source Code” — screens Wednesdays at 1 p.m. at Lamanda Park Branch Library. A “Dreams of Home Wall” installation runs through March 31 at Santa Catalina Branch Library.

A 19-member selection committee of community volunteers, led by Senior Librarian Christine Reeder, chose this year’s book. Reeder told the Pasadena Weekly that the program’s purpose is direct: “It’s just really to get people to come together in the community and have a conversation. When they have conversations about different things, everybody becomes more engaged.”

The celebration’s centerpiece is a conversation between Lalami and Library Director Tim McDonald on March 21 at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. A Q&A session follows, and copies of “The Dream Hotel” will be available for purchase and signing. The novel is also available for checkout at all Pasadena public library branches and for sale at local bookstores.

“My intention with ‘The Dream Hotel’ was to write a futuristic novel that still felt tethered to a recognizable present,” Lalami said on her website — a description that fits a reading program asking a city shaped by scientific research to examine what that research means for the society it serves.

One City, One Story 2026 events run through March 31, 2026. All events are free and open to the public.

The conversation with author Laila Lalami takes place Saturday, March 21, 2026, at 2 p.m., with a prelude beginning at 1:45 p.m., at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd.

For more, call (626) 744-4066 or visit cityofpasadena.libguides.com/OneCityOneStory.