A tale of two booms: AI and book bans

Fei-Fei Li is the author of "The Worlds I See"

Fei-Fei Li joins L.A. Times Book Club readers Nov. 14 to discuss “The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI.”

By Donna WaresBook Club and Live Events Editor

Oct. 21, 2023 7 AM PT

Good morning, and welcome to the L.A. Times Book Club newsletter.

This coming month our community book club is welcoming three writers who help us find sense in the confusing onrush of artificial intelligence breakthroughs and their impact on our humanity.

Yes, perils and panic abound — along with many enticing possibilities, says Fei-Fei Li, author of “The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI.” Her new memoir pairs AI’s coming of age with Li’s own improbable coming-of-age story as a young immigrant overcoming every imaginable barrier.

As co-director of Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI Institute, Li has become a leading voice in California and on the national stage calling for a “human centered” approach to the rapidly developing technology. She has testified in Congress and in June was among the AI experts who met in San Francisco with President Biden, urging him to support a “moonshot mentality.”

Li also is co-founder of AI4ALL, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding opportunities to study computing and artificial intelligence for girls, people of color and those with limited means.

“The most exciting thing on AI’s frontier is not advertisement optimization,” Li says in an interview with The Times. “It’s discovering drugs to cure cancer or rare diseases, figuring out climate solutions, discovering new materials, deep under the ocean and deep into space.”

On Nov. 14 Li will join the L.A. Times Book Club to discuss “The Worlds I See.” She’ll be in a live streaming conversation with Joy Buolamwini, author of “Unmasking AI,” Times technology columnist Brian Merchant, author of “Blood in the Machine,” and Times audio head Jazmin Aguilera.

Li’s memoir will be published Nov. 7 by Flatiron and the Moment of Lift Books imprint, a partnership with Melinda Gates that showcases the work of women changing the world. I’ll share more from our other guest authors in an upcoming newsletter.

In the meantime, sign up for November book club night on
Eventbrite and please share your questions and comments in advance in an email to [email protected].

Books covers for "The Worlds I See" by Fei-Fei Li and "Unmasking AI" by Joy Buolamwini.

Scholastic bows to book bans

The book ban wars raging in Huntington Beach and other communities have moved to the popular Scholastic Book Fairs at schools across America. This fall Scholastic is allowing schools to opt out of providing diverse books at the fairs, drawing complaints from school librarians and authors, among them a “heartbroken” Amanda Gorman.

“It took me a while to sit in what felt like a betrayal,” the Los Angeles poet posted Thursday on Instagram. “As an elementary student, for weeks I’d save every single penny I had for the Scholastic Book Fair, because it felt like a free place that invited me to explore and choose for myself what books I wanted to read… It was one of the magic moments that made me want to write books for children in the first place.

“But the true depth of my disappointment came when I read about all the amazing, impactful books — predominantly by Black, brown, queer, and disabled authors — that won’t make it into the schools because there is now a clear pathway for prohibiting them from general access.”

Gorman’s children’s book, “Change Sings,” is among the titles relegated to a separate diversity bookcase, called “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice.” She acknowledged that Scholastic responded to complications of sharing some titles. Scholastic has issued a statement here. “But self-censoring the stories we need now more than ever is NOT the answer,” Gorman says. “And it certainly doesn’t feel like sharing every story, it feels like treating our stories as separate but equal.”

Tell us: Teachers, librarians, students and parents, what are you seeing at school book fairs this school year? Please share your experiences and how your community is responding.

Keep reading

Awards drama: When it comes to hosting the National Book Awards ceremony next month, Drew Barrymore is out and LeVar Burton is in. Here’s what you need to know.

Historical epic: Critic Justin Chang (mostly) savors Martin Scorsese’s adaption of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and also explains how the film diverges from David Grann’s acclaimed 2017 nonfiction book. “Scorsese doesn’t just achieve a sense of place,” Chang says, “he also pulls off, not for the first time, a passionate and meticulous feat of cultural anthropology.”

Book to screen: Chang also reviews “Nyad,” the new biopic starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster ( “Bening and Foster are so enjoyable to watch together”). The film is based on Los Angeles distance swimmer Diana Nyad’s memoir “Find a Way” about her 2013 swim from Cuba to Key West in shark-infested waters at age 64.

Unmistakable voice: Louise Glück, the witty former U.S. poet laureate who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in literature and a Pulitzer Prize in 1993, has died. Glück was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature since Toni Morrison in 1993. Her 2012 collection, “Poems 1962-2012,” won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and in 2016 President Obama presented her with the National Humanities Medal at the White House.

New noir: Tod Goldberg talks with the multi-talented David Ulin about “Thirteen Question Method,” the former Times books editor’s debut crime novel. “Ulin has captured the Los Angeles of noir dreams: a violent, desperate place filled with bad people doing worse things,” Goldberg writes at Crimereads. “It’s also a novel only a man who has literally walked all the streets could write: David is a master of minutia, the tiny telling-detail that reveals something larger about the world we’re in, or something smaller and more insidious, or both.”

Insider stories: Reporter Stacy Perman, who wrote the book on In-N-Out and why Julia Child kept a list of its restaurants in her purse, dives into the company’s unique history as the homegrown burger chain turns 75. In-N-Out heiress Lynsi Snyder also opens up in a memoir out this week.

How she did it: Estella González talks about the stories behind her new novel, “Huizache Women” which follows three generations of women from early 20th century Mexico to El Paso and finally contemporary Los Angeles. She wrote the book in spurts over 14 years. “This novel has been a quest with its share of obstacles along the way.”

Dystopian kitchen: Washington Post critic Ron Charles calls C Pam Zhang’s novel “Land of Milk and Honey” a gourmand’s dream and nightmare. The novel introduces a young chef at the end of the world who sacrifices everything to cook for a secretive billionaire. Zhang writes, “I quit that job to pursue recklessly, immorally, desperately, the only one that gave me hope of lettuce.”

New releases: October brought buzzy chronicles from Britney Spears (“The Woman in Me”); Jada Pinkett Smith (“Worthy”) and Mitt Romney (“Romney: A Reckoning”). Coming Oct. 31, history meets horror in Tananarive Due’s new novel, “The Reformatory.”

Join us: If you enjoy our community book club, please sign on as a benefactor through the L.A. Times Community Fund. Your contribution is tax-deductible and we’ll feature your name and organization on screen at book club nights. Here’s more about how to become a supporter.

Yes, the L.A. Times Book Club newsletter has expanded and is arriving more frequently in your inbox. I’m sharing stories about book club authors, our common reads and California-centric stories as always. And now Times books editor Boris Kachka has joined me to share more about The Times’ coverage and the stories behind the books and local booksellers. You’ll see Boris’ byline on Saturday editions of this newsletter too.

As always: Tell us about the books and authors that are keeping you up at night, the audiobooks that make the best companions on the freeway, and your suggestions for future guest authors as we look ahead to 2024 book club meetups and the Festival of Books. Save the date: The festival returns April 20-21 to the USC campus. Sign up for festival updates here.

We also love to hear what SoCal book clubs are talking about and what you’d like to see more of in the book club newsletter. Send your emails to [email protected] or reach out in the book club’s Facebook group.

ICYMI

Former Washington Post editor Martin Baron joined the L.A. Times Book Club Oct. 11 to discuss his new book, “Collision of Power.”

Times Executive Editor Kevin Merida, left, and former Washington Post editor Martin Baron at USC.

Baron opened up about his career leading newspapers in Washington, D.C., Boston and Miami and his thoughts on the future of journalism in a conversation hosted in partnership with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Baron also discussed his biggest regret at the Post and his interactions with owner Jeff Bezos and President Donald Trump.

You can watch the entire conversation here.