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 a couple of serious classics and a tale built around a cheap food of questionable origin.
Pink Slime
By Fernanda Trías (translated by Heather Cleary)
Scribner
$19
July 2025
Purchase
From the publisher: In a city ravaged by a mysterious plague, a woman tries to understand why her world is falling apart. An algae bloom has poisoned the previously pristine air that blows in from the sea. Inland, a secretive corporation churns out the only food anyone can afford—a revolting pink paste, made of an unknown substance. In the short, desperate breaks between deadly windstorms, our narrator stubbornly tends to her few remaining relationships: with her difficult but vulnerable mother; with the ex-husband for whom she still harbors feelings; with the boy she nannies, whose parents sent him away even as terrible threats loomed. Yet as conditions outside deteriorate further, her commitment to remaining in place only grows—even if staying means being left behind.
An evocative elegy for a safe, clean world, “Pink Slime” is buoyed by humor and its narrator’s resilience. This vivid and unforgettable novel explores the place where love, responsibility, and self-preservation converge.
From Mo Kirk, staff: The protagonist and her entire city are being engulfed by ecological catastrophe, but she is also being engulfed by her inner ghosts. Will she summon what it takes to leave this doomed place? “Pink Slime” will appeal to fans of dystopian fiction, but is not an action-adventure story at all. Although the absurdity of this reality and the author’s dark sense of humor do come through, this novel’s vibe is grim. Think “Children of Men.”
Contempt
By Alberto Moravia
NYRB Classics
$17.95
July 2004
Purchase
From the publisher: “Contempt” is a brilliant and unsettling work by one of the revolutionary masters of modern European literature. All the qualities for which Alberto Moravia is justly famous—his cool clarity of expression, his exacting attention to psychological complexity and social pretension, his still-striking openness about sex—are evident in this story of a failing marriage. “Contempt” (which was to inspire Jean-Luc Godard’s no-less-celebrated film) is an unflinching examination of desperation and self-deception in the emotional vacuum of modern consumer society.
From Clare Pearson, book buyer: This is exactly what I look for in a summer read: a rich narrative driven by mounting psychological tension set in a glittering Mediterranean landscape. Moravia’s prose cuts to the heart of human nature while also protecting the mysteries and distances that endure in human relationships.
The Portrait of a Lady
By Henry James
Penguin Classics
$12.09
September 2011
Purchase
From the publisher: Regarded by many as Henry James’ finest work, and a lucid tragedy exploring the distance between money and happiness, “The Portrait of a Lady” contains an introduction by Philip Horne in Penguin Classics. When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy the freedom that her fortune has opened up and to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. Then she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond. Charming and cultivated, Osmond sees Isabel as a rich prize waiting to be taken. Beneath his veneer of civilized behaviour, Isabel discovers cruelty and a stifling darkness. In this portrait of a “young woman affronting her destiny,” Henry James created one of his most magnificent heroines, and a story of intense poignancy.
This edition, based on the earliest published copy of the novel, is the version read first and loved by most readers in James’ lifetime. It also contains a chronology, further reading, notes and the Horne introduction.
From Clare Pearson, book buyer: I love James’ rich descriptions and brilliant dialogue. This classic has everything: rich luxurious sentences, sharp insights into the full range of human psychology, and humor to carry it along. Even if you’ve read it before, there is always more to be gleaned in James!
THIS WEEK’S BOOK RECS COME FROM:
Explore Booksellers
221 E. Main St., Aspen
(970) 925-5336
As part of The Colorado Sun’s literature section — SunLit — we’re featuring staff picks from book stores across the state. Read more.
Type of Story: Review
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