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 for you

Phelisha Williams, 24

Vegan dessert maker Book: Monster written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa

Stop: Union Williams was immediately intrigued by this manga series about a brain surgeon who goes after a former patientturned-serial killer. “I like how in depth they get into human psychology,” she said. “And it’s really surprising. I read a ton of books, and I can usually predict what will happen — but not with this.”

The series also happens to be a “guilty pleasure” of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz, according to Time magazine. He describes the story’s villain as one of “the weirdest, most attractive psychotic masterminds in literature.”

Remya Bava, 32

Works in IT Book: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

Stop: Bloor-Yonge Leo Gursky, a character in Krauss’s novel, is an elderly Holocaust survivor who lives in Manhattan in fear of dying alone. Before the Second World War, he had been head over heels for a woman named Alma and had written a novel, The Histo

ry of Love. Sadly, by the time he made it to the U.S., Alma had married. His friend said his book was lost. Unbeknownst to him, a widowed mother called Charlotte is translating his novel from Spanish after his friend had passed it off as his own.

Despite the title, the book isn’t sentimental. “I’m not that kind of person,” Bava said. “I really don’t like romantic movies, but I kind of like this.”

Mel Payne, 31

Event manager Book: Animal Farm by George Orwell Stop: St. George Like many students, Payne was required to read Animal Farm in high school. Like many graduates, she has all but forgotten it.

She’s rereading Orwell’s political satire as part of a classics kick that also included Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5. Now, she says the book’s political message is clearer.

“You see a system that’s broken and you try to come up with an alternative solution, but you repeat the same mistakes over and over again,” she said. If only she could retake her tests.

Maria Juncos, 55

Ph.D. student Book: Exhausting Modernity: Grounds for a New Economy by Teresa Brennan

Stop: Dupont Working toward a doctorate in ecological economics, Juncos is reading Brennan’s book about capitalism’s exhaustion of scarce natural resources. “It’s about how it’s all actually leading us to death because of climate change,” said Juncos, her chihuahua mix yawning beside her on the subway.

“I hope there is a chapter full of solutions, because at the beginning it’s a little bit depressing.”