Sometimes the simplest story has the most impact. That is certainly true of this book by Japanese author Toshikazu Kawaguchi. The story is spare, the characters limited and the action takes place mainly in a coffee shop, and yet there is something very compelling and powerful in that simplicity.
In a back alley in Tokyo there is a coffee shop that has been serving coffee for a hundred years. But there are rumors that it offers something else on the menu – the chance to travel back in time! But there are rules you must follow. For example, you must sit in a special seat in the coffee shop. Unfortunately that seat is usually occupied and you must wait until it is vacant. Once in the seat, you are able to travel back in time but only for as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.
During one summer four customers decide to take the chance this coffee shop affords them to travel back in time. One is the wife of a man who is slowly falling into dementia. He no longer recognizes her, and yet he still remembers the trips they took together and seems to have a message for her that he has forgotten to give her. Another is a child, whose mother died giving birth, who wants to go back in time to connect with the mother she never knew. Then there are the two sisters who were estranged before a fatal car accident. Can they reconnect one more time? With subtle humor, Kawaguchi, engages us in a startling piece of magical realism, filled with quirky characters, strange rules, and wistful whimsy. This is book one in the series and I am looking forward to reading more about this wonderful coffee shop!
Brenda’s Rating: ***** (5 Out of 5 Stars)
Recommend this book to: Marain, Lauren, Sharon, Keith and Ken
Book Study Worthy? YES
Read it in ebook format.
In the small ocean front community of Mattauk, Long Island three women are going through the change and for each one it manifested itself in different ways. For Nessa, who after her husband died and her twin daughters left for college, the house seemed so empty, until she began hearing voices of women crying out to her.
Justin de Quincy has a healthy aversion for Eleanor of Aquitaine’s second son, but when a letter surfaces implicating Prince John in a plot to assassinator his brother, King Richard, Justin must set aside his qualms and help Prince John clear not only his name, but Eleanor of Aquitaine’s as well.
It is 1964 and renowned actress Katie Barstow has married her childhood friend, David Hill, in Paris. They have invited their best friends to come with them on their honeymoon to the Serengeti for an African safari. The guests include fellow actors Carmen Tedesco and Terrence Dutton, a Black actor who was Katie’s love interest in the controversial but highly acclaimed movie, Tender Madness, her agent, a publicist and a few other friends. Everyone is looking forward to a civilized trip, with gin and tonics at dusk, warm water for baths and treks into the wilderness by Jeeps to see the animals in their natural habitat, with hopefully a few adventures to tell their friends back in Hollywood.
Five years ago, Andie Bell, a pretty, popular high school senior was murdered. Her boyfriend, Sal Singh, was a prime suspect and when he committed suicide everyone felt that confirmed their suspicions and the town and the police moved on. But for Pip, who knew Sal, things just didn’t quite add up. Even though she had been just a kid, Sal had been nice to her and seemed sincere, kind and thoughtful. How could he have been a murderer, too?
In the fall of 1777, the British army recaptured Philadelphia, the cradle of the revolution. The Beckett family has mixed emotions about this development. On the one hand Mr. Beckett, who owns and runs a vast shipping empire finds that his close connections with the British have always created a stable and profitable environment, on the other hand Martha Crowell, his sister, who is one of the darlings of Philadelphia society seems enamored with the rebel cause. Jonathan Beckett, too, questions “the right of kings,” but crippled with a club foot since birth, Jonathan is unable to fight for either side and must do whatever he can to keep peace in the family.
A woman is suddenly thrust onto the stage of social media stardom. Her postings on what she calls “the portal’ have resonated with million of followers and she embarks on a tour around the world to meet and connect with her adoring fans. But as existential threats- climate change, economic instability, and the rise of dictators- begin to loom, she begins to post even more, throwing out details, facts, figures, images and details, trying to encapsulate and document the growing threats she sees. Her efforts, however, are met with a mixed bag of responses, “Are we in hell?’ the people in the portal ask and seem to sink into an ever deeper sense of loneliness and isolation. Frustrated and isolated herself, the woman struggles to find ways to inspire and connect with the people of the portal. 
Jack Carver is a young lawyer in Houston. His new client, Ashley Marcum, wants someone to investigate the death of her brother, who died while working for large oil company. The oil company has been less than transparent about how he died, and Ashley might not have pursued things any further, but after his death she discovered a packet containing some old gold coins. With the coins as their only clue, Jack begins to pursue their provenance and files a wrongful death lawsuit against the oil company to compel them to release information on how and why Ashley’s brother died.
Anne Tyler is a great writer! Most of you may already know this, but for those of you who have never read her, or haven’t read her in a long time, French Braid is a great place to start. This is a story of a family, its secrets, its pain, and the ties that connect them through generations.
Albert Puddle is a mathematics professor at Princeton who is now a suspect in an investigation into a murder and burglary that occurred on campus. In order to clear his name, Albert begins searching for away to anticipate the next moves of the police and to unravel the mystery surrounding the murder. Albert thinks the key is in a cipher, that his mentor once showed him. With his gifted graduate student, his aging mentor and a strange “book club” in tow, Albert begins chasing the answer to the cipher that will give him the answers he seeks.
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