WORD UNDER THE STREET
You know when you see a stranger on the subway immersed in a book and you’re just dying to know what they’re reading? Well, Geoffrey Vendeville asked for you.
Tyleen Li, 30, artist Book: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Stop: St. Andrew Li boarded the Hogwarts Express for the first time after the novels were recommended by her school librarian. It wasn’t long before her whole family was hooked. This is probably her “30th time” reading the Philosopher’s Stone, the book that started it all in 1997. “It’s an escape from reality,” she says, “and with the way the world is, sometimes it’s nice to not have to think about everything that’s going on. It’s a different world and it’s nice to go there sometimes.”
Curtis Samuel, 27, publicity assistant Book: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Stop: Museum In her second novel, Ng returns to the place where she spent part of her childhood, the carefully planned suburb of Cleveland called Shaker Heights. Set in the 1990s, the starting point is a blaze at the home of the well-to-do Richardsons. Ng leaves it until the end to explain how the little fires in each of the six bedrooms started. However, reviews say the book has less to do with that mystery than it does with motherhood and the racial tensions boiling beneath the surface of the quiet suburb. “The characters are very interesting and complex,” Samuel says. Working in publishing, he reads about 50 books per year. He has some catching up to do if he wants to keep up with executives at the company, who read closer to 300 a year, he says.
John McComb, 45, works in mutual funds Book: The ONE Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan
Stop: Union Maybe you have a long list of New Year’s resolutions, but the authors of The ONE Thing say the secret to success is choosing a single important venture and sticking to it. McComb, like many people, knows what it’s like to be sidetracked by emails and phone calls. The one thing he wants to work on is starting his own “internet business,” though he didn’t elaborate. He highlighted passages in the book as he went along: “The right domino knocks down another and another and another. So, whenever you want extraordinary results, look for the levered action that will start a domino run for you.”
Dena Gouweloos, 24, works in public relations Book: A Column of Fire by Ken Follett
Stop: Lawrence West Kingsbridge once again serves as a backdrop for Ken Follett’s most recent historical thriller, but this time he takes the reader around 16th-century Europe. The hero of the story, Ned Willard, enters the service of the queen’s spymaster amid mounting tensions between Catholics and Protestants. “He’s a sort of 16th-century James Bond,” Follett says in a video describing his novel, which was published in September. Gouweloos, who says she loved Follett’s bestseller Eye of the
Needle, says A Column of Fire is equally gripping. “It gives you a whimsical and fun perspective on the time period, of being on the outside looking in,” she says.