Month: June 2022

Review: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Tashikazu Kawaguchi

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review4 Comments

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In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.
In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling 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 . . .

I’ve wanted to read Before the Coffee Gets Cold for a very long time, and I recently finally picked it up (on audio, of course…). I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to feel about this book, but it is a beautiful story of wanting to spend every last second with a person, even if you know going back in time isn’t going to change the present, or future.

This book (and I believe, the one that comes afterwards) reads almost like short story collections, following a set of characters as they visit a cafe where they can go back in time, with some (many) restrictions. I loved how this book played with an idea I think about a lot – that people all around us have lives just as complex as our own. We see a number of different characters with completely opposing narratives, but they all face different struggles, and have different loves.

She wanted to do things without having to worry what others thought.

I read this one on audio and I really liked the narration. The book itself isn’t very long and each chapter of the story was told as one continuous audio chapter of around an hour each – perfect for a long run or car journey. I liked the opportunity to have these snippets of somebody’s life in one go, and be able to fully absorb myself into their story.

These characters are ever so slightly intertwined, but are merely mentioned in one another’s perspectives – leaving the full attention on them and their story. The focus on each character left me so invested in each story that I found myself feeling quite emotional as I discovered certain aspects of their life, or left them at the end of the chapter.

She simply lived for her freedom.

I can see why this book might not be for everybody, as it does have a balance of magical realism I haven’t seen before, and could sometimes become confusing with many different characters. I do also wish we could have re-visited the characters at the end of the book, as some of the endings felt quite abrupt. But overall, I really loved these stories and I will definitely be reading the second book.

★★★★★
4.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: That Green Eyed Girl by Julie Owen Moylan

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1955: In a cramped apartment on the Lower East Side, school teachers Dovie and Gillian live as lodgers, unable to reveal the truth about their relationship. They guard their private lives fiercely – until someone guesses their secret.
1975: Twenty years on, in the same apartment, Ava Winters is desperately trying to conceal her mother’s fragile mental state from the critical eyes of their neighbours. But, one sweltering July morning, Ava’s mother escapes.
Alone after her mother’s departure, Ava takes delivery of a parcel. The box is addressed only to ‘Apartment 3B’, and contains a photograph of a woman with the word ‘LIAR’ scrawled across her face.
Seeking refuge from her own crisis, Ava determines to track the owner of the photograph down. And, in so doing, discovers a shocking chain of kindnesses, lies and betrayals – with one woman at the centre of it all…

Thank you to the publishers, Penguin, for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As soon as I read the synopsis for this book, I knew I wanted to read it. I was so drawn in by the idea of this parcel turning up on a doorstep, and a journey of finding out was in the photograph…

And this book definitely didn’t let me down. I picked up the audiobook, which I really enjoyed and would definitely recommend if this one appeals to you. I really liked the multiple points of view in this book and the way it flicked between time periods in the same apartment. I find sometimes with multiple POV, I end up being more invested in one character than another, and although I did prefer reading about Dovie and Gillian more, I still found myself invested in Ava’s story. Ava was the only part of the story that let it down slightly though, and I did find her voice to be a tad immature in comparison to the rest of the book.

It’s difficult to define the exact genre of this book – thriller seems too harsh, but is probably the closest. It’s more like a historical thriller with an edge of tragedy which courses through the story and feels inevitable from the very beginning, but also had a great New York atmosphere that I loved. The characters are such a big focus of this book but don’t take away from the plot or the pacing, instead making it easy to sympathise with and follow their stories. I was left feeling emotional as I learned more about their backgrounds and lives.

This is more gentle than a thriller, more atmospheric than a historical, and more character-driven than a mystery. It is many things rolled into one, but I enjoyed it all the same.

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

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Review: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

On By Beth JonesIn Book ReviewLeave a comment

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This novel is about a woman called Martha. She knows there is something wrong with her but she doesn’t know what it is. Her husband Patrick thinks she is fine. He says everyone has something, the thing is just to keep going.
Martha told Patrick before they got married that she didn’t want to have children. He said he didn’t mind either way because he has loved her since he was fourteen and making her happy is all that matters, although he does not seem able to do it.
By the time Martha finds out what is wrong, it doesn’t really matter anymore. It is too late to get the only thing she has ever wanted. Or maybe it will turn out that you can stop loving someone and start again from nothing – if you can find something else to want. 

This book isn’t one I’d necessarily pick up, but after hearing it has tones of Dolly Alderton’s Ghosts (which I adored!), I really wanted to give it a go. I picked up the audiobook for this one and I really enjoyed it, and the narrator really engaged me.

This book focuses massively on mental health and an undiagnosed mental illness that is never named in the book. This mental illness has a massive impact on the main characters life, but it doesn’t detract from the rest of the story either. I still found it super interesting to read about Martha’s family, friendships and relationship with her husband Patrick.

Everything is broken and messed up and completely fine.

I also want to point out that this book is really funny. It’s deeply, darkly, richly funny, but funny all the same. There are lines that have stayed with me since I read it almost a month ago, that stood out and I still chuckle at and repeat to people. Not only does this remind me how much I enjoyed this book, but it gives me so many chances to recommend this book to others because I do still recommend this one a lot.

Although I didn’t have many issues with this book, one of my major issues was the diagnosis itself. I didn’t, and still don’t quite, know how to feel about it. It is very natural to want to know what the diagnosis is, and I felt the same while reading it. I think it’s really important that this book does contain elements of a lot of mental illnesses because readers can see themselves in Martha, but I also feel like this book walked a fine line between building on a stigma that already exists.

There is a big element of this diagnosis that talks about the stigma surrounding Martha’s mental illness. And I feel like the best way to combat stigma is to talk about the mental illness. So there is a big part of my brain that feels like this book could potentially add to the stigma rather than detract from it.

That is what life is. It’s only the ratios that change. usually on their own.

I really enjoyed this book overall and I definitely will continue to recommend it. There is a part of me that still feels quite torn over the mental health aspect, but it made for a very interesting read.

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: What Time is Love? by Holly Williams

On By Beth JonesIn Book ReviewLeave a comment

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1947. 1967. 1987. When Violet and Albert first meet, they are always twenty.
Three decades.
Over the years, Violet and Albert’s lives collide again and again: beneath Oxford’s spires, on the rolling hills around Abergavenny, in stately homes and in feminist squats. And as each decade ends, a new love story begins…
Two people.
Together, they are electric and the world is glittering with possibility. But against the shifting times of each era, Violet and Albert must overcome differences in class, gender, privilege and ambition. Each time their lives entwine, it will change everything.
One moment is all it takes…
As their eyes first meet, for a split-second it’s as if the clocks have stopped. Nothing else matters. Yet whichever decade brings them together, Violet and Albert are soon forced to question: what if they met the right person at the wrong time?

Thank you to the publisher, Orion, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the concept of this book from the moment I picked it up. The concept of two people meeting in alternate universes every twenty years and seeing if this time is the right time really called out to me. Although this one isn’t necessarily a book I’d usually pick up, I found myself really intrigued about where this one might go.

However this did let me down a bit. I didn’t quite feel as immersed in the story as I wanted to be, and it took me much longer to read than I wanted it to. The writing was the best thing about this book and I must say I felt quite an affinity to the characters, even getting emotional and having tears in my eyes in places.

I think where this one started to let me down was after the first story. I enjoyed the first story a lot, but I then realised that I was just in for another two stories very much the same. As this book follows three different timelines, I started to find the other two stories quite predictable.

The fact this book takes place every twenty years made for a great concept, and so much of the story was involved around the time period and then politics throughout the years. Although I found this really interesting and I liked the concept, I’m just not sure it completely paid off all of the time. I did like it, and it did make me emotional at times, but I also felt a bit let down by the end of it.

★★★★
3.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

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Review: Piranesi by Suzanna Clarke

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review4 Comments

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Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect of Piranesi. But it wasn’t quite this.

Thank you to Jo for recommending the audiobook of this one to me, which was such a captivating way to absorb this beautiful tale. Although I do feel like I would have enjoyed this in physical format too, the audio was wonderful and the narrator felt perfect for the story.

The House is valuable because it is the House. 

I quickly found myself being engaged with Piranesi’s world. This story is one of mystery, and I felt like I had to absorb myself fully within the book to really enjoy it. I felt so focused on Piranesi as a character and curious about the world around him. I feel like if you try and relate this book to the real world and understand it as a real thing, it will lose you. But if you lose yourself within this book, you just might win. And become curiouser and curiouser.

It is enough in and of Itself. It is not the means to an end.

The writing itself was definitely one of my favourite aspects of this book. It was so beautiful and the descriptions of the house made it really easy to picture and still visualise in my mind. The writing was very lyrical, beautifully descriptive and engaging. I felt so involved in the story.

I would really recommend not just this book, but the audiobook version. It was such a wonderful mystery and I would recommend sticking with it until you become curious about where it’s going, because then you won’t be able to put it down!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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