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? Geoffrey Vendeville asked
Brooke Williams, university student, 20 Book: Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution by Jennifer Cockrall-King
Stop: Dundas Canadian writer Cockrall-King has travelled from Vancouver to Cuba, and many places in between, to learn more about urban agriculture — how people are growing their own food down the street. Williams, who studies nutrition and food at Ryerson, was intrigued. The book includes a chapter on Cabbagetown, and Williams says she was surprised to learn that 40 per cent of Torontonians live in households that produce some of their own food. She only grows basil and mint in her balcony-less apartment, but she wants to own a farm and get into subsistence agriculture one day. “I’m vegan now, which is partially so I don’t create a (greater) demand for food in the supermarket,” she says. “If I grow (food) myself, it’s a step forward from that.”
Stephen Vescio, 20s, works in finance Book: The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World by Pedro Domingos
Stop: Queen When it comes to machine learning — a field of computer science often depicted as the next frontier in technology — Vescio is skeptical of the benefits. A bright shiny future with self-driving cars is further away than most people think, he says. “Our company deals with a lot of data,” he says. “In this day and age, there are a lot of snake oil companies that try to pitch you a solution that is machine-learning oriented, and you have to be able to ask the right questions.” That’s his reason for reading Master Algorithm by Domingos, a computer science professor at the University of Washington. The author writes clearly and uses examples so that even readers who can’t code will understand, Vescio says.
Connie Marras, neurologist, 47, and her son Alex, 11 Book: What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear by Danielle Ofri
Stop: Bloor-Yonge When details are lost in translation in exchanges between doctors and patients, it can have dire consequences. Dr. Ofri, a professor at the NYU School of Medicine, writes that doctor-patient communication need not be difficult as long as both parties are willing to listen. “Medical care is a shared endeavour and communication is its sine qua non,” she says. Dr. Marras says the book was sent to her by a colleague at a U.S. university. They are working on a research project seeking to understand how patients with Parkinson’s disease express their symptoms. She says the book has taught her a lot about interacting with patients. “Don’t talk so much, literally,” she says. “Ask the patient an open-ended question, like ‘What can I do for you today?’ ”
Tristan Ford, 26, server Book: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Stop: College The family memoir by gossip columnist Walls describes her upbringing at the hands of neglectful parents. “Questionable” hardly describes her free-spirited mom’s views on child rearing. Her dad, who has a drinking problem, can’t hold down a job and runs from the family’s debts. Walls describes a series of misfortunes, including six weeks spent in hospital after suffering a burn while cooking hot dogs. Ford says he’s enjoying the memoir, which meets his criteria for a good read: a story that packs an emotional punch.