When you’ve finished your morning paper, pick up one of these books to join in on New York City’s largest unofficial reading group: The Subway Book Club. Get in a visual mood on your commute with these new graphic novels, memoirs and colorful nonfiction books.
‘The Customer Is Always Wrong’
By Mimi Pond
It’s Oakland in the late 1970s, and artist Madge is working at a decrepit diner. The oft-told story of a creative trying to make it in a tough world feels fresh with Pond’s signature black and green drawings, interspersed with honest, witty dialogue by her characters.
‘Trust No Aunty’
By Maria Qamar
Also known as @Hatecopy, Qamar’s comic guide to Desi life is relatable and hilarious to anyone who has navigated cultural differences in America. The 26-year-old Pakistani-Canadian shares her advice on dealing with the meddling “Aunties” who tell you what to do with pop art-esque illustrations brought to life with sometimes shocking dialogue bubbles.
‘Things Are What You Make of Them’
By Adam J. Kurtz
While the illustrations in the newest book by the artist (aka @adamjk) are just notepad sheets with life advice neatly written on them, the rainbow pages are lush with digestible inspiration and creative wisdom to soak in between train stops. Pages are lightly perforated, too, should you want to remove one and share the sagacity.
‘Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too’
By Jomny Sun
A graphic novel for the Twitter age, this black-and-white-illustrated story of an internet-famous alien, told with contentious misspellings and the type of obvious humor that makes you press retweet, is the perfect feel-good story to page through on a stressful commute.
‘Escape from Syria’
By Samya Kullab and Jackie Roche
This fictional account of one family’s flee from war-torn Aleppo and six-year seek for refuge and asylum in Lebanon and, eventually, the West puts a timely, often hard-to-process topic into images that will stick in your mind long after putting down the 96-page story of survival.
‘Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home’
By Nicole J. Georges
The “Marley & Me” of its genre, this graphic memoir tells the story of Georges and her corgi/shar-pei mix, Beija, whom she adopted during her troubled teenage years and eventually grew up with.
