2026-2027 Book Club Reading Schedule

 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold// Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Hello May! 🎕

Up next for June is Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys. We have several copies, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated? Thank you for your help! 

 

Speaking of June, we may plan to meet at Paul Miller Park for the summer months again, and we may kick that off with our June meeting. We'll keep an eye on the weather as the day gets closer and let you know!

 

A BIG thank you to everyone who nominated and voted this year~ this was our biggest voting year to date!! How fortunate we are to have such a fantastic group of readers! The new reading schedule for 2026-2027 is now ready and finalized~ bookmarks will be available at June's meeting and at the front desk, along with copies of the reading list, thereafter. I'll post it here in the blog as well for easy access and reference.

 

 

 

Onward!

 

 

 

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a cafe where we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-traveling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . . 

 

We all agreed this book was a quick read, and that was nice following James. Kawaguchi breaking the book into 4 different story lines was fun, the segment about the mother and daughter was a favorite. The general sense was that if you could put aside reality and believablity, and go along with the fantasy of it, this had a feel good vibe and was a fun read. We had good conversation about who we would want to visit from the past or future if this sort of cafe really did exist, at least as much as we discussed the book itself.

 

On the other hand, there were several members who either could not get into it, or did not finish it. The writing was cited as disjointed and choppy (though we acknowledge that could be possibly be due to translation), and even long-winded for such a short book. The characters didn't really have any depth or development, and the fantasy genre, for some, just reads strange in and of itself. 

 

Let us know what you think below! 👇

 

Did you enjoy Before the Coffee Gets Cold? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Days at the Morisake Bookshop, by Satoshi Yagisawa, I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman, and If Cats Disappeared from the World, by Genki Kawamura. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!    

 

The votes are in!

Would we recommend this to a friend to read?  No

 
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?  Yes

                                                                                                                                             Rate the book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating:  3 stars