Spotted: Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Where: R-train

Who was reading: A middle-aged woman with a sweet-as-honey face framed by a tidy black bob and an argyle scarf in kelly-green and picture book pink.

And for footwear? She wore fluffy blue socks rolled over the tops of black sneakers.

Why does this book sound so familiar? Because it was advertised semi-constantly on NPR a few months ago.

But I thought the whole point of NPR was that it doesn't run ads .... Think again. It'll add an extra note of bitterness the next time you have to suffer through pledge drive.