Before the Coffee gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - Review

A review of Before the Coffee gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
What would you change if you could go back in time?
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 . . .
Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?

[@stenmaulsby5924]

I loved this book. I've read it twice. it's such a beautiful picture of what human love and human relationships are about. I agree with all the thinks you loved about it, and was not bothered by the other things. I think he's just not interested in those questions.

[@Tulpane]

I'm just finished this book and I'm going to read the next one which "Tales from the cafe" and I absolutely love it! The story, the cover and everything about this book it's so beautiful ❤️ btw the fifth book comes out this November which I'm looking forward to!
There is also a Japanese film based on this book, although the characters are slightly different from the book (the story about the wife and husband is shown in reverse, where He goes back to the past) but this absolutely does not interfere with how sweet and interesting what is happening in the cafe is shown

[@paradox8887]

I just finished this beautiful book and think that you have summarized and reviewed it perfectly.

[@Azoox]

Thanks for the recommendation. I will be traveling to Japan in April and I'll start the journey in Tokyo, so this book will be a nice companion! And my recommendation for you today is also a novel that has an interesting hidden thread connecting the four chapters/stories within. Caryl Phillips's Crossing the River is quite a gem. I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you decide to read it.

[@AnalysisWithAlex]

I love a good sci-fi novel that simply uses sci-fi as the vessel to explore the human condition, which according to your review, this is exactly that! Added it to my list! Your excellent review of this reminds me a lot of Karen Russell's Sleep Donation, which does a similar thing but with strange sleeping technology. You might dig that one.

[@rororeads]

Ooo! I’ll check that one out and maybe add to the list. Although, my currently TBR is over 30 books!! I must stop buying new books hahahaha. Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@youbutinreverse]

If you'd like to read something that matches yoyr comment, I'd recommend Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

[@joycejarrard6958]

I just read it today. I hope to discuss it with someone familiar with Japan. It all seemed.oddly detached.

[@technokippie]

I really loved this book! When you plan to read the second book, take some time in between the two books. I thought it lost some of its charm because I read them too quickly after one another.

[@rororeads]

Thanks for the advice. I’ll definitely do that.

[@Bavonc]

Thanks for this. I finished the first one and was planning to read the second one directly after, but I’ll wait.

[@shawkitty2524]

Is reading the second book worth it or just more of the same old same old? Thanks.

[@technokippie]

@@shawkitty2524 kind of worth it if you liked the first book, but also a bit more of the same yeah

[@ArtVandelay-av]

okay ive actually fallen in love with your reviews

[@rororeads]

Well that’s nice to hear! Thanks

[@doyle6000]

Thanks for the review, I like the sound of the book, I think I will read it! By the way, did you say in another video that you are a professor?? What do you teach?

[@rororeads]

Hey, Not a professor, but I think my position and qualifications would make me a professor in states. But over hear I’m just considered a lecturer. I teach theatre, performance and acting.

[@doyle6000]

@@rororeads Apologies, you must have said 'lecturer' and I remembered it as 'professor'. Cool subject to teach. I'm actually in the UK myself! I live in London. So do you have a background in acting?

[@rororeads]

@@doyle6000 I do. Along with teaching I run my own theatre company called bootworks theatre. We make and tour our own work. Although we are not as active on the circuit as we use to be…Covid was pretty tough on the arts and teaching takes up most of my time these days.

[@shawkitty2524]

Question before I decide to add to my TBR list: if the time travelers cannot change what happens in the past, what is the point of taking such a huge risk of becoming a ghost to actually go back to a previous time? Is anything worthwhile actually accomplished that makes this book "worth my time to read"? Thank you!

[@rororeads]

@@shawkitty2524 i suppose there’s therapeutic / cathartic uses to revisit people you’ve lost or arguments / moments in your life you wish you could do over… even if they don’t actually change anything. But no, not really haha

[@sallyarmstrong7825]

I have read the first three books. For me it was okay that the author did not explain everything as this makes kt more mysterious. Inloved this book and the nect teo. I toyslly tecommend it.

[@sallyarmstrong7825]

Sorry for the typos.

[@michaelwhite8031]

Japanese 'Mr Ben'.

[@aileniirina3335]

I just finished it, and I am sad to say that I was really disappointed with this book. The writing style just didn't work for me, the characters felt flat, and we didn't get to know them well enough in my opinion. I was so excited to read this, but I ended up feeling very bored. Reading 20+ pages in every chapter to get to the exciting part, which was only 2 pages long and not that interesting in the end, was a bit of a letdown...

[@sabihasayeed1670]

Same! I dnfed it cause I just can't waste my time on a poorly written book when I can enjoy something else.

[@Sarohoo]

I felt the same way. Thought I was the only was cz this book was overhyped SO MUCH.

[@Lovelee-yt4op]

Really? I loved this book. Even the writing totally immersed me, I felt like I was watching it with my own eyes. The situation of the characters are also realistic so I loved it!

[@gruesomedevil5062]

To know the characters well you need to read the next books in the series

[@aileniirina3335]

@@gruesomedevil5062 nah I had enough ahaha

[@chase9561]

Promo`SM