Every day I get on the subway here in Toronto to get from one location to another and everyday I see people reading books, comic books and interesting looking magazines. Some of these books I’ve heard about through the power of social media, some are books I’ve seen front and centre at bookstores and sometimes I’ve never seen or heard about a particular book in my life. It got me thinking about how or why people pick up these books. Is it because they heard about it from a friend, did they read about it in the newspaper or were they inspired to pick up the book because of a fellow  subway commuter?

I’ll never know their reasoning behind picking up a book, but it is fun to see what the people of Toronto are reading. So I started making a running list of books that people have been reading in an attempt to introduce new literature to my overflowing shelves and piles of books. Then I thought all of you might enjoy hearing what’s being read underneath the busy streets of Toronto; therefore, I’m going to start a new tradition on these parts every Thursday, aptly named, Books in Transit.

So what are Toronto Transit patrons reading this week? Well a variety of interesting books and because I haven’t read any of them, I’m going to get Amazon’s help to describe them to all of you!

The Racketeer by John Grisham

Who is the Racketeer? And what does he have to do with the judge’s untimely demise? His name, for the moment, is Malcolm Bannister. Job status? Former attorney. Current residence? The Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland.

On paper, Malcolm’s situation isn’t looking too good these days, but he’s got an ace up his sleeve. He knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and he knows why. The judge’s body was found in his remote lakeside cabin. There was no forced entry, no struggle, just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. And one large, state-of-the-art, extremely secure safe, opened and emptied.

What was in the safe? The FBI would love to know. And Malcolm Bannister would love to tell them. But everything has a price-especially information as explosive as the sequence of events that led to Judge Fawcett’s death. And the Racketeer wasn’t born yesterday . . .

Nothing is as it seems and everything’s fair game in this wickedly clever new novel from John Grisham, the undisputed master of the legal thriller.

Sleep No More by Iris Johansen

Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan knows what it’s like to be haunted by the past. For years after her daughter Bonnie was stolen from her, she fought for closure. Now, as she strives to begin anew, she finds herself on another missing-persons case—one that is as mysterious as it is personal. A woman named Beth Avery, who has been locked away in a psychiatric facility for years, has vanished. And her connection to Eve is deeper than she can imagine. As long-buried secrets about Beth are uncovered, Eve begins to realize how their lives are entwined—and how Beth’s disappearance puts her in grave danger. Desperate, Eve enlists the help of profiler Kendra Michaels, whose uncanny ability to detect clues and solve puzzles leads her to the truth: That Beth escaped from the hospital—and the mind-altering drugs that held her prisoner for so long—and is on the run. Soon, Eve begins to see the threads of a twisted plot within the powerful Avery family, one that threatens to destroy not only Beth but anyone else who might jeopardize the high-stakes game that is already in play. And time is running out…

Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton

It was the middle of November. I was supposed to be out jogging, but instead I was sitting at my breakfast table talking about men, sex, werewolves, vampires, and that thing that most unmarried but sexually active women fear most… Anita Blake needs to be concentrating on a dangerous situation: The ardeur, the sexual power that flows between Anita and Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City, and Richard, the volatile werewolf who loves her passionately, is reaching new levels, perhaps evolving into something altogether new. The ardeur seems to be choosing new lovers for Anita, acting with a will of its own. As Jean-Claude says, the ardeur is hunting powerful prey. The unexpected effect of this is that Jean-Claude’s own power as a master vampire has grown to new levels – and Richard, never predictable, is changing, too. But as the days pass, Anita’s less interested in vampire politics than in an ancient, ordinary dread she shares with women down the ages: She may be pregnant. And, if she is, whether the father is a vampire, a werewolf, or someone else entirely, she knows perfectly well that being a Federal Marshal known for raising the dead and executing vampires is no way to bring up a baby…

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human.

Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter—Annawadi’s “most-everything girl”—will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call “the full enjoy.”

But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of Annawadi.

With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects human beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. The methodology of the late Paulo Freire has helped to empower countless impoverished and illiterate people throughout the world. Freire’s work has taken on especial urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is increasingly accepted as the norm. With a substantive new introduction on Freire’s life and the remarkable impact of this book by writer and Freire confidant and authority Donaldo Macedo, this anniversary edition of Pedagogy of the Oppressed will inspire a new generation of educators, students, and general readers for years to come.

We’ve got vampires, lawyers, illiteracy and much more in this list of books! Get inspired by the people of Toronto and stay tuned next week for
round two of Books in Transit!