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, we asked for you.
Anna Cherkaeva, student, 19 Book: Smarter, Better, Faster: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
Stop: St. Patrick Anna Cherkaeva just started reading Smarter,
Better, Faster by New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg. She hopes it will teach her to manage her time better before starting college next year.
Her takeaway from the first dozen pages: “You don’t need to work harder to be more productive; you just need to make certain choices.”
She borrowed the book from the library after enjoying Duhigg’s 2012 bestseller The Power of
Habit, which helped her kick her midnight snack addiction.
Annakay Green, aspiring sous-chef, 29 Book: Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Stop: Lawrence Assata Shakur (née Joanne Chesimard) is an “icon of black power enthusiasts,” who was found guilty of killing a state trooper in 1977, but always maintained her innocence, according to
the Washington Post. She escaped from prison after serving two years of a life sentence and later resurfaced in Cuba.
Parts of Shakur’s story still resonate with the emergence of Black Lives Matter groups, Green said.
“I think a lot of people misunderstand people who are part of the Black Lives Matter movement. They assume that they’re angry, that they hate white people, that they’re violent. That’s just not true. They just want their voices to be heard.”
Chris Moran, works in logistics Book: After She’s Gone by Lisa Jackson Stop: St. George
Moran picked up After She’s Gone from her library branch after seeing it recommended by another subway book reviewer, she said. A voracious reader and fan of mysteries, she said she just started the book and that it’s made a good impression so far.
The thriller is “about the bond between two sisters and their shared dream that becomes a harrowing nightmare of madness, hatred and jealousy,” according to its summary on Jackson’s website.
Eryca Pope, server, 20 Book: The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon Stop: Dupont
Pope was reading a torn and dog-eared copy of The Fiery Cross, the fifth in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, on her way to work. “I had it in my purse one night, and my friend put a bottle of wine in my purse and it broke, ruining my pages,” she explained. (The book is still readable except the last 10 pages, which fell out.)
“It’s about a lady in England who’s a historian and she goes to Stonehenge and she wakes up and suddenly realizes she’s 200 years in the past, in Scotland,” Pope said. “It’s a good read, a good story to pull yourself out of reality.”