You're Afraid AI Will Replace you

Want to squeeze in one last "summer" book or are an avowed people watcher

Hi friends,

Hope you had a great weekend! I spent Saturday at the National Book Festival. Highlights included:

• Gushing to Liz Moore about God of the Woods’ upstate New York setting.

• Telling Caroline O’Donoghue how much I love her podcast.

• Seeing my pal Destinee in conversation with Stephen Graham Jones.

This week, I’m spotlighting three books from my Bingo card. (You’ve seen some of these before and you’ll see more in the future.)

And, now, what to read if…

You’re Experimenting with ChatGPT

Searches by Vauhini Vara

In 2021, award-winning tech journalist Vauhini Vara asked a precursor of ChatGPT to help her write about her sister’s death. Working with the tec

hnology, she developed a surprisingly moving — but also distressing — piece that quickly went viral after it was published

.In Searches, Vara continues to reflect on her grief, her sister and her relationship with technology, with essays on her first experiences with internet chat rooms as a preteen and her time as the Wall Street Journal’s Facebook reporter. Interspersed are lists of the author’s Google searches over the years, as well as her Amazon reviews. Vara shares each installment with ChatGPT and includes its commentary and suggested recommendations. One of the strongest essays is a “conversation” between Vara and ChatGPT about a profile she’s writing of Sam Altman, the technology’s creator. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the AI encourages her to take a softer approach in her writing.

Searches is a weird book — and I mean that as a compliment. (My love of a weird book is well established.) It’s equal parts grief memoir, tech criticism and experimental nonfiction. It’s also just exceptionally written (I was not surprised to learn Vara’s previous novel The Immortal King Rao was a finalist for the Pulitzer). A great choice for anyone considering their own relationship with technology.

You’re Trying to Make Summer Last

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean

My office has been having the same debate since it cooled off in D.C. last week — absurdly early for us — if fall is here or if we’re experiencing false fall. (I’m on team #FalseFall but am hoping to be wrong.) If you’re hoping to extend the warm weather vibes into mid-September, grab Sarah MacLean’s These Summer Storms.

Alice Storm, the estranged daughter of tech titan Franklin Storm, hasn’t been home to her family’s private island (!) in years, when she receives news of his death. Alice plans to make a quick trip in for the funeral, spend as little time with her mother and siblings as possible and then return to her life as a painter/art teacher in New York. Unfortunately for her, the terms of Franklin’s will require each of his heirs to spend a week on the island to receive their share of his ginormous estate.

The giant mansion starts to feel claustrophobic as Alice is stuck with her icy cold mother, arrogant brother, crystal-obsessed younger sister — and Jack, her father’s mysterious second-in-command.

These Summer Storms is the first contemporary novel from MacLean, a veteran historical romance novelist. She’s brought many of her hallmarks — a strong heroine, a brooding hero — to this book. It’s not quite a straight romance, there’s a good amount of family drama, but it’s not not a romance. Pair it with a glass of rosé and/or a blanket in the park.

You Love People Watching

French Windows by Antoine Lorain

When Nathalia Guitry walks into therapist Dr. Faber’s office, the one-time photographer explains she’s been unable to work since accidentally capturing a murder on a film months earlier.

For Natalia to break her creative block, Dr. Farber prescribes an unusual course of treatment. Each week, she will write a story about the people who live in her building, starting on the ground floor and moving on up. Beginning with her first tale — about an actor-turned-YouTube life coach — Dr. Farber begins to suspect something is off about her writings and their sessions. Are they fact or fiction? As the tension rises, it becomes clear the two are playing a game of cat-and-mouse, but it’s unclear who’s taunting who.

What most impressed me about French Windows is the tension Antoine Lorain built over just 180 pages. When a book is that short, every word, every sentence matters. I was so caught up in the plot, I sat on my couch for 20 minutes to find out the ending. Pushkin Press began translating his work from French and publishing it in the U.S. this year, and I’m looking forward to reading more of it.

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