Pasadena Public Library’s 24th annual One City, One Story community reading program will feature The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami, a dystopian novel about government surveillance of citizens’ dreams through artificial intelligence, with free events throughout March culminating in a conversation with the author on March 21.
A 19-member volunteer selection committee led by Senior Librarian Christine Reeder chose the book. The novel follows a woman detained by a government agency that uses data harvested from her dreams and an algorithm to predict she will commit a crime, according to the press release.
“One City, One Story has always been about fostering meaningful dialogue within our community, and The Dream Hotel is the perfect vehicle for that conversation,” Reeder said.
Lalami, a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, is a Moroccan-American novelist whose work has earned multiple national awards, according to UCR Inside.
Her previous novel The Moor’s Account won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, according to UCR Inside. The Other Americans won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, according to UCR Inside. The Dream Hotel was nominated for the 2026 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel and named among the best books of 2025 by The New Yorker, NPR, The Washington Post, People, Time Magazine, and Vanity Fair, according to UCR Inside.
Three featured events anchor the March programming. Bridgid Fennell, an education librarian at USC Libraries and Pasadena Library Commissioner, will lead an Introduction to Generative AI presentation on Saturday, March 7, at 2 p.m. at Linda Vista Branch Library, 1281 Bryant St., according to the press release.
Dr. Rashid Alavi, the J. G. Boswell postdoctoral fellow at Caltech and Huntington Medical Research Institutes, will lead a discussion titled “Dreams, Data, and Destiny: How AI and Emerging Science Will Shape Our Future Lives” on Thursday, March 12, at 6 p.m. at HMRI, 686 S. Fair Oaks Ave., according to the HMRI website. The event is open to a general audience and will include a Q&A session and reception, according to HMRI.
The author conversation with Lalami takes place Saturday, March 21, at 2 p.m. at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd. Doors open at 1:45 p.m., according to the library calendar.
All events are free and open to the public, according to the press release. The novel is available in book, large type, eBook, and eAudiobook formats at all Pasadena Public Library locations. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Pasadena Public Library and the Pasadena Literary Alliance. For more information, visit CityOfPasadena.Libguides.com/
Last year’s selection was James by Percival Everett, according to library announcements.
