What is human?

That question sits at the center of the 2026 Resnick Aspen Action Forum. It asks us to consider what defines us, how we understand one another, and what humanistic leadership requires in a world shaped by rapid change, uncertainty, and competing ideas about the future.

This year, the Aspen Global Leadership Network is partnering with Aspen Words to bring a wider range of stories and perspectives into the questions Fellows will explore together. Drawing on its experience connecting writers, readers, and ideas, the Aspen Words team curated 10 books across fiction, memoir, history, and science.

Each selection offers a different way to reflect on what it means to be human, how we make sense of the world, and how we respond to the people and communities around us. The list complements the Forum’s seminar readings and invites Fellows to arrive in Aspen with another perspective to bring into the conversation.

Whether you are attending the Action Forum or engaging with its themes from elsewhere, we invite you to choose a book and see where it takes you. 

“What Is Human?” A Reading List Curated by Aspen Words in Partnership with AGLN

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

A diary carried across the ocean connects two people separated by geography, culture, and time. Through intertwined stories, Ruth Ozeki explores memory, belonging, and the responsibility we hold toward people we may never meet, including those who came before us and those who will follow.

Ozeki will speak at the 2026 Aspen Literary Festival this September 25-27.

Endling by Maria Reva

Winner of the 2026 Aspen Words Literary Prize, Endling begins with an effort to protect an endangered snail in pre-war Ukraine. As the story moves through invasion, survival, and resistance, it asks what people choose to protect when a way of life, a family, or an entire country is under threat. More on Endling from the Aspen Words Literary Prize. 

Culpability by Bruce Holsinger

After an accident involving an autonomous vehicle, a family is forced to reckon with responsibility in a world increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence. The novel raises difficult questions about accountability, choice, and where human responsibility begins and ends when technology becomes part of the decision-making process.

Culpability was longlisted for the 2026 Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara is an Artificial Friend who carefully observes the people around her while waiting to be chosen by a family. Through her attentive perspective, the novel asks what it means to love, what people owe one another, and whether care is defined by who, or what, provides it.

The MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut

Centered on mathematician and physicist John von Neumann, The MANIAC traces the ambitions and consequences behind some of the most significant scientific advances of the modern era. Moving from the development of computing to the match between Go champion Lee Sedol and AlphaGo, it asks what happens when human innovation begins to move beyond human understanding or control.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

What allows human beings to cooperate at such a large scale? Harari looks across biology and history to examine how shared stories have shaped societies, institutions, economies, and nations. The book invites readers to consider which beliefs hold communities together and how those beliefs influence the choices we make.

In My Time of Dying by Sebastian Junger

After surviving a near-fatal health emergency, Sebastian Junger turns toward questions of mortality, consciousness, and what may exist beyond what we can explain. Part memoir and part inquiry into the unknown, the book reflects on how coming close to death can change the way a person understands life.

Junger participated in the inaugural Aspen Literary Festival in 2025.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Drawing on his experiences in Nazi concentration camps, Viktor Frankl reflects on the human capacity to find meaning in the midst of profound suffering. His work explores dignity, agency, and the role of purpose when people face circumstances they cannot control.

The Vanishing Family by Robert Kolker

In this forthcoming book, Robert Kolker follows a family confronting a genetic condition that may help researchers better understand dementia. At its center is a deeply human question: what remains of a person when memory, personality, and familiar forms of connection begin to disappear?

Kolker will speak at the 2026 Aspen Literary Festival this September 25-27. The book is scheduled to be publish in late September.

An Immense World by Ed Yong

Humans experience only a small part of the sensory world around us. By exploring the different ways animals see, hear, feel, and move through their environments, Ed Yong challenges readers to look beyond the limits of their own perception. The book is a reminder of how much we may miss when we assume our experience is the only one that matters.

Bringing Writers, Readers, and Fellows Into Conversation

Reading, reflection, and dialogue have long been part of the AGLN experience. Our partnership with Aspen Words brings those practices into conversation with contemporary literature and with writers exploring some of the same questions Fellows are confronting in their leadership and communities.

Select books from the list will be available for purchase at the mobile bookstore during the Action Forum. Members of the Aspen Words team will also be on-site during select times to talk about the recommendations, their work, and the ideas that shaped the list.

The conversation will continue this fall at the Aspen Literary Festival, where writers and readers will gather in Aspen to explore the stories and ideas shaping how we understand ourselves and the world around us.

Explore the Aspen Literary Festival and learn more about the 2026 Resnick Aspen Action Forum.