For Readers: Blog

These books might just be your cup of tea (or coffee)

As the weather becomes chillier there’s nothing like curling up with a good book and a hot beverage. Get even cozier by picking up a book that revolves around a delicious cup of coffee or fragrant cup of tea. These picks will warm you right up.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a cafe 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. Each of the cafe visitors is hoping to make use of the cafe’s time-travelling offer, in order to right old wrongs and see loved ones one last time. But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the cafe, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold. 

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez
This is the story of a remarkable coffee shop in the heart of Afghanistan, and the men and women who meet there: thrown together by circumstance, bonded by secrets, and united in an extraordinary friendship. After hard luck and some bad choices, Sunny has finally found a place to call home but it just happens to be in the middle of a war zone. The thirty-eight-year-old American’s pride and joy is the Kabul Coffee House, where she brings hospitality to the expatriates, misfits, missionaries, and mercenaries who stroll through its doors. She’s especially grateful that the busy days with her co-workers and cafe regulars allow her to forget Tommy, the love of her life, who left her in pursuit of money and adventure. 

The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore
If you like your cozy books with a side of spice (i.e. romance) then this book centered around the infamous PSL is your pick! When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Cafe in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job. Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs. But Jeanie's arrival disrupts Logan's routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her. Will Jeanie's happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won't fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes? 

The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski
Ever since the untimely death of their parents, Anne, Beatrix, and Violet Quigley have made a business of threading together the stories that rest in the swirls of ginger, cloves, and cardamom at the bottom of their customers’ cups. Their days at the teashop are filled with talk of butterflies and good fortune intertwined with the sound of cinnamon shortbread being snapped by laced fingers. That is, until the Council of Witches comes calling with news that the city Diviner has lost her powers, and the sisters suddenly find themselves being pulled in different directions. 

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
If you like your cup of tea with a big side of philosophy, this book about a tea monk making friends with a robot is for you. Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, and wandered en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend. Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. 

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
The tea shop in this book is set in limbo! When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead. But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days. 

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
If you crave more of a fantasy setting instead of the real world, look no further than Legends & Lattes. After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time. The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success, not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is. If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone. 

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki
In Japan cats are a symbol of good luck. If  you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon. This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and seemingly appears at random to adrift young people at crucial junctions in their lives. It’s also run by talking cats. While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes, coffees, and teas, the cats also consult them on their star charts, offer cryptic wisdom, and let them know where their lives have veered off course; because every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. 

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters, all complemented by love and good company. Unfortunately, Reyna works as one of the Queen’s private guards, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence and leaving their lives isn’t so easy. But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she’s thoroughly done risking her life for a self-centered queen. Meanwhile, Kianthe has been waiting for a chance to flee responsibility. Together, they settle in Tawney, a town that boasts more dragons than people, and open the shop of their dreams. What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum.

⏤Gina