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.
Tommy Calderon, student, 18
Book: On the Road by Jack Kerouac Stop: College
On the Road came highly recommended by Calderon’s friends, family and teacher in a writer’s craft course. Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise’s adventures have kindled the wanderlust in Calderon, who says he’s ready to embark on a road trip of his own. “I want to explore Canada before I go somewhere else,” he said. “I want to see the mountains, Alberta.”
Atiye Kati, student, 21
Book: The First Stone by Don Aker Stop: Union
The First Stone was one of Kati’s favourite books as a teenager, but she could remember nothing about it other than that she had once loved it. She’s rereading it in whatever time she can spare in her busy schedule. The novel tells the story of Reef, a young offender reeling from the death of his grandmother. He hurls a stone at a car, hitting a girl. As fate would have it, he is sentenced to community service at the same hospital where the girl is being treated. “I kind of like the way that someone who’s been in such a terrible situation in life, his eyes open and he gets to see what life is really like,” said Kati. “It’s not all about suffering. There is beauty to it.”
Enna Hughes, vet, 44
Book: A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James Stop: Museum Hughes buried her nose in this retelling of the Cinderella story while sitting beside her husband of 20 years on the subway. “It takes you away from everyday worries and concerns, and you fall into an adventure of love and romance,” she told the Star. “It’s nice to read that love happens, people fall in love and stay together.” Asked if her husband is as romantic as the prince in the novel, Hughes shrugged: “He was when we dated.”
Belinda James, retired lawyer, 55
Book: His Whole Life by Elizabeth Hay Stop: Queen’s Park James was keen to read Hay’s 2015 book, His Whole Life, after reading some of her earlier work and hearing her speak at a writers conference in Mexico. The book is about a young boy whose parents are separating in the mid-1990s while Quebec threatened to separate from Canada. James loves Hay’s turn of phrase and has folded down the corners of pages to mark her favourite passages, including this one set in a museum: “They moved from telephone to telephone, exhibit to exhibit snooping on the past overhearing on the party line all the sad gossip about troubles deaths disappearance meagre food inexplicable loss.”