Welcome to Litsy!

It‘s a perfect book to read with a mug of coffee on cold winter evenings. Short compelling stories. I like the writing style. 4⭐️

#bookspinbingo

Cool, simple concept with some great writing! I loved the style and the contents. Short and sweet.

Book swap haul from @Soubhiville ‘s Little Free Library. 🥰📚I seem to keep coming out even—brought three books and left with three more books. 😂 (One not pictured here was for my bestie). Although they‘re completely different books, these two are a nicely color-coordinated pair.

A chair in Tokyo in a back alley cafe leads the person who sits there to the past, but with very very specific rules. This novel weaves four stories together of moments in the past to be returned to. Long chapters, but beautifully character centered and time travel in a way that isn‘t sci-fi heavy. A charming meandering read.

#outtake from the photo earlier. Leo really wanted to help and by help I mean he wanted that birthday cake.

One of the ladies in my book club bought this one after we all read the first one and loaned it to me. It was good. I really need to watch the movie. And now I can go ahead and loan this copy to one of the other ladies in my book club. Share the love.
#beforethecoffeegetscold #talesfromthecafe

I absolutely loved this second installment of Before The Coffee Gets Cold. I‘m so invested in this cafe and the coziness and life lessons, I‘m craving more!! Photo: Dean Martin is featured on his heating pad, and Xena is in background.

This was read for my book club. This was a hard read for diff reasons. The translation at times was weird. At times it was boring and after losing my Dad almost a yr ago it made me think, "would I do this?" I didn't like all of the rules that went along with the coffee shop & sitting in that chair, such as history/future doesn't change. The characters had experiences that changed their heart, & isn't that changing history?

A bittersweet little book. Time travel in a cafe ? What if you could go back in time ? Say something left unsaid ?Cafe staff lets you know the rules include you can‘t change the future but could it buy you forgiveness?Peace of mind? A quiet , thoughtful, & enjoyable read .

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/mAchrI3HFh0

Enjoy!

Seasons flow in a cycle.
Life too, passes through difficult winters.
But after any winter, spring will follow.

Another amazing book from Toshikazu Kawaguchi. 🖤

It's an interesting premise: you can briefly travel in time, as long as you return before the coffee just served grows cold. This quick read has 4 vignettes of people who take that journey. The writing is awkward and, in places, repetitive, which may be a result of the translation. I do think I'll pick up the sequel and see how that goes. ☕😊 #fiction #timetravel #fantasy

Started this tonight. Interesting premise, but the writing is oddly stilted and repetitive (problems with the translation, perhaps?) Not sure if I'll finish or bail at this point. #fiction #fantasy #timetravel

#currentlyreading for #bookclub

#beforethecoffeegetscold #fiction #librarybookclub #applefritter #donut #tea #coffee

Seasons flow in cycle.
Life too, passes through difficult winters.
But after any winter, spring will follow.
Here, one spring had just begun.

• I loved it! This book is beautiful, beautiful just as the first installment.
• 5⭐️

I enjoyed this. Four different stories all interrelated by the cafe. I think I liked The Sisters the best. I have to get my hands on the follow up!

⭐⭐⭐⭐½ - Wow. At first, I wasn't sure what I was reading. I had some doubts. But by the middle of the second chapter I was #hooked! I was so moved by everything from that point forward. The tenderness, love, sorrow, and joy expressed in these pages is enchanting.

Kawaguchi's tale explores relationships, regret, and the power of love and the human heart. His writing is as magical as the seat in which his characters travel through time. ❤

Loved the sequel as much as the original! So heartwarming and lovely. Check out Before the Coffee Gets Cold, if you haven‘t yet. You won‘t regret it!

My #bookspin & #doublespin selections for September. Not seeing a theme this month but looking forward to reading then nonetheless.

This sequel to last year‘s Litsy hit has four new stories of visitors sampling the special brew at the time-traveling Cafe Funiculi Funicul in Tokyo. I love that the author spent more time on the lives of the cafe‘s owners than in the last book while still writing interesting time-travel stories. You may even find out who the ghost is in this one… 🤐

Unpopular opinion alert: I can‘t put my finger on it, but for me something was missing in this book. Or maybe it was just different than what I thought it would be.

You can time travel but there are rules. In a bittersweet twist, we see that you cannot change the things that happen but you can change how you deal with them.

A short, adapted, Japanese audiobook, it makes for a quick check off a book challenge. It's character driven so it's not for everyone but I really enjoyed the takeaway.

My only negative note is that I really wanted a story on the ghost woman but didn't get one.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

“At the end of the day, whether one returns to the past, or travels to the future, the present does not change. So it raises the question, just what is the point of that chair? “

The people in this book moved me. I feel like change isn‘t the point, it‘s the experience, and what you take from it.

Gentle exploration of change and relationships using the conceit of a cafe seat that allows you to travel in time. There are some things left deliberately unexplained, because the focus is on the different time travellers.

"She wanted to do things without having to worry what others thought.
She simply lived for her freedom"

Interesting premise and some good world building, but this was far from my favorite. An easy and quick read, but probably not worth it for me. Characters are pretty flat and female characters seem to exist only to show mad devotion.

#Japan #JulyJourneys
One of my favs of the year so far.

#JulyJourneys

Taught class all morning & then had to run to the post office by work so I stopped & grabbed a bento from a nearby sushi place for a late lunch. It goes well with today‘s #Japan prompt. I love Japan, although it‘s been years since I have been there & I love books set there. This is one of the latest I bought & loaded on my Kindle but haven‘t gotten around to reading yet.📚📚📚🤷🏻‍♀️📚📚📚📚📚

A simple but fun little novel about a strange basement cafe in Japan where time-travel is possible. But there are rules. If you could go back in time and revisit a moment, even if it wouldn‘t change anything in the present, what would you do? Would there be a reason to go back? Four people find reasons to travel in time in this story. A quaint, feel-good novel which I wouldn‘t be surprised to see as a Netflix series sometime soon.

I was super excited for "before the coffee gets cold", but hardly a couple pages in and this polymath who graduated from Waseda can't make level headed judgments because of a guy? Am I in for more of this?

This take on time travel was unique and enjoyable. In a small, three-table cafe, you have the chance to go back in time. You cannot leave the chair, you can only meet someone who has been to the cafe, nothing will change the present, and you must return to the present before the coffee gets cold. Here we get the stories of four people and come to know the reason they are in this cafe, hoping to connect with someone from the past. ⬇️

Very excited for this quirky book

2 very different books!

☕️: I think I might not have enjoyed it quite so much if I had eye-read the whole thing, but I listened to most of it and the narrator does such a lovely job. So I highly recommend the audio version. It‘s a little heartbreaking and a lot hopeful and very sweet.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

🧙🏼‍♂️: A really great end to the trilogy. I… love Eli. (More below 👇🏽)

Second book that I have read on my phone! The time travel premise is quite narrow in this book. The time traveler cannot leave the cafe, cannot change the future, and must return before the cup of coffee gets cold. This makes for small stories about small actions and inactions that lead to big misunderstandings and mistakes. I enjoyed the stories, but I found the translation a bit spare and repetitive. Very enjoyable overall.

This book is so good. Slow paced but I still liked it! Interesting story, made me cry on some part.

-- 4.5 ⭐️

I'm not crying, you're crying! because this book is a tear-jerker. I really really want see the movie version. it feel like a Japanese Hallmark movie.

I kept seeing this everywhere and was excited to run across it at Books-a-Million, but it just didn't do anything for me.

Started this morning. Not my usual read, but interesting nonetheless.

What a gem! 💜 #summerreading

Libraries rule! I heard a lot of good things about this and was just lucky to find it on the shelf.

“Oh gosh, is that the time? Sorry I have to go,” the man mumbled evasively, as he stood up and reached for his bag.” #FirstLineFridays

Aww this book was adorable. I loved it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I adored this book... far more than I was expecting. It was just the light, heartwarming book I needed after reading a long string of thrillers. Finished roughly 3 hours for #20in4 @Andrew65

Apparently I enjoy Japanese magical realism? Never knew that was a genre. (Some classify #Murakami as such, so I guess it makes sense because I ❤️ him.) In this novel, Kawaguchi explores how the past and future affect the present in the intersecting lives of quirky and engaging customers and employees that visit a cafe where one can sit in a specific seat and briefly time travel. An unpredictable and delightful novel. 4/5 ⭐️

Man, oh man! How I‘ve missed Litsy! My life has been a little crazy lately, but it‘s slowed down a touch now that we‘re mostly settled into our new home. I haven‘t been reading nearly as much as usual, but I‘m hoping the Litsy atmosphere will get me back on track! I‘ve still got loads going on with my etsy shop opening in June, and my job at the hospital, but I‘m so glad to be back now that my books are back on their shelves. ♥️

Hmm. Time Travel in a Japanese coffee shop.
Sounded interesting, particularly since it did receive love on Litsy. And, I am interested in translations. But, this was a disappointment. I could hardly finish it.
It is a beloved series in Japan, and was even made into a movie. It felt like a Hallmark movie, which for me is not necessarily a bad thing. Had a difficult time keeping the characters straight. Might have been better in a book. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The opening page reminded me to be grateful. I don't feel the need to return to the past because everyone I love and need are right here ❤

Found a fondness for short stories this last year... Although I enjoyed the family relationships and concept of this book, I still don't think it lived up to the hype. Easy, shorter read.

A poignant, almost wistful little book that feels more like four very closely connected short stories than a novel. This has made me think and ponder about what I would change if I went back in time knowing nothing would change the present. A very interesting reflection.

Book 1/5 for #NutsinMay