Murder Mystery with Edgar Allan Poe 🐦‍⬛ and a Blah Romance 💔

 

    This week I read another excellent recommendation from a daughter, The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. It is a historical murder mystery centering around West Point in 1831. Retired New York constable Gus Landor has relocated to the Highlands for his failing health. He is called upon to solve a gruesome murder at West Point Academy, but he needs help from an insider. One presents himself--Cadet Poe, that would be Edgar Allen Poe. I gave this book five stars on  Goodreads because it is a masterful mystery. It captures the language and metaphors of the time. When Poe speaks or writes, it is with florid expressions and exactingly careful word choices that feel like his writing. I haven't read anything else by Bayard, but I'm curious if this is his imitation of Poe's voice or an extension of his own. Did he say to chatGPT, create a mystery in the voice of Edgar Allen Poe narrated by a grizzled former police officer set in 1831? I don't think so because it has an original voice and plot. It is dark, suspenseful, and gothically creepy. I admire what Bayard has crafted. I'm not alone. This novel won the Edgar Award in 2007. 

I think the book revolves around themes of death, revenge, poetry, and melodrama. It can be weighted down by its own words at times, but it has a rousing finish. 

🖌️📚🔵👀🔍

    Emily Hendry's newest story Happy Place sounded appealing. I had read one of her previous books, Book Lovers (https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Book+Lovers), and enjoyed it. Happy Place was disappointing. I found the characters uninspired. It starts with three college roommates, Harriet, Sidney, and Samatha, who bonded over their childhood hurts. From this inner circle, it grows to include their significant others who vacation yearly at a beach house in Maine. The house is being sold. They have spent a decade vacationing together, but this is their final summer. Everyone has secrets they're not telling, especially Harriet and her ex-financé, Wyn. They haven't told their best friends they've broken up. To make this final week perfect for everyone--but them--they decide to keep their split a secret and "act" like they're still together. Henry works hard on the atmosphere of Knott's Harbor, Maine, but the characters never animate, and the premise falls flat. There are some steamy encounters between Harriet and Wyn, but it feels gratuitous without the connection to back it up. 

☀️🌊⛱️ 💔❤️‍🩹❤️

A Week of Sci-Fi! 🛸👽🌵🤖🫖

 

    This week I got to read some of my favorite sci-fi authors. First was Connie Willis's newest book, The Road to Roswell. What I like about Willis is she writes stories that good-heartedly poke fun at things that people either disdain or are highly invested in, like time travel and clairvoyance. This one addresses alien conspiracy theories. Willis weaves several tropes together--road trip, romantic comedy, and The Code of the West --and creates a cohesive story stocked with zany characters. She must have spent COVID lockdown watching Alien and Cowboy movies because both are an intricate part of communicating with the tumbleweed alien that abducted her. It is a bit kitsch, but it's well-done kitsch.

👽🛸👽🛸🏜️🌵

    A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers is the second in her Monk and Robot series. It is short, but it doesn't feel brief, I think because the main characters Sibling Dex, a tea monk, and Mosscap, a robot on a quest, change and grow throughout the book. In the past, robots awakened (which I take to mean gained sentience) leading to a split with humans They haven't interacted for many years until Dex and Mosscap met in the forest. In this book, the two of them travel together and become deeper friends. I didn't understand the title until almost the end of the book, but it is a lovely metaphor. Even though I would characterize this as a gentle book, it wrestles with thorny themes like identity, family, purpose, and change.  I don't know if other Robot and Monk books are planned, but I hope so. Here is my review of the first book:  https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Becky+Chambers

🫖🍵🤖🦾🦿🌲

Tom Hanks, Bears, and Two Mysteries 🎞️ 🐻🔎🔍

 

 I like Tom Hanks because I'm not a monster. His novel The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is fun and informative. My involvement in movies is I've watched many from my couch. Tom Hanks's novel is a worthwhile read, but I find myself asking, would this have gotten published if the author wasn't Tom Hanks? Maybe not. The writing can be clunky; lots of description that doesn't further the plot, many simplistically rendered characters to keep track of. Though Hanks does try, his characters are either good guys or bad guys without much nuance or development. The book could have benefitted from multiple storylines and more tension. However, it was heartwarming. The good guys triumph, and the bad guys get their just desserts.

🍿🎥🎬🎞️📽️

  My daughter asked me to read Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies by Hillary Morgan Ferrer, General Editor. It was written by seven Christian women to address what our culture teaches about spirituality and thought trends. Something I've seen depicted is wealthy people are evil, and that is discussed in a chapter on Marxism. The book is well-researched, and the women are passionate about defending Christianity and safeguarding their children. The format is designed for a study or class with questions and action points. The book proposes teaching a "spit and chew" method of evaluating cultural messages--keep the pearls, spit out the swine. Talking with our kids about world views of the things they consume is a great idea. 

  I found the book's voice somewhat uneven as it jumped from author to author. The writing of one would be playful and jokey, and another would be deadly serious. Mama Bear would be a great book to read and discuss with others, but reading it on my own was a bit of a slog.

    One of the contributors is Alisa Childers. I reviewed her book, Another Gospel, here: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Alisa+Childers  

🐻🧸🧸🐻

Sophomore effort, good continuation,

  Robert Thorogood's book Death Comes to Marlow is a good follow-up to his first effort. His characters are fleshed out with interesting backstories and problems. He keeps the tension throughout the book and even folds a crossword plotline. If you liked the first, you'll enjoy the second. 

Here is my review of the first book: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Robert+

🦆😵🕵️‍♀️

Third in the series, madcap fun, 

  My murder mystery book club is reading the first in the series by Elle Cosimano, Finlay Donovan is Killing It (review here: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Finlay+Donovan) for July, but I've been reading her latest book, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun. Cosimano's writing reminds me of Janet Evanovich, with crazy characters and madcap adventures. Finlay is a reluctant mystery solver propelled by circumstances, which adds to the insanity. 

🔎🔫🔍

A Typical Week of Mystery and Fantasy 🧩🧞‍♂️

 

    The River of Silver by S. A. Chakraborty is related to The Daevabad Trilogy. This book contains chapters that didn't make it into the orignal and contains more back story or further adventures. I found the Daevabad Trilogy books  a sumptuous feast and The River of Silver to be a leftover crumbs. It less satisfying than the trilogy, but it you love the characters, and I do, some is better than none. 

Here are my reviews of the The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, and The Empire of Gold: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Daevabad 

🧞‍♀️🧞🧞‍♂️

    Robert Thorogood's cozy murder mystery The Marlow Murder Club feels like a cousin of The Thursday Murder Club in that it is British and exceedingly entertaining. It features four women, each from a different generation, coming together to solve a series of murders in their town of Marlow. Thorogood combines the women's skills and speciality knowledge to catch the murderer. One is a dog walker who knows where everyone lives and is connected socially. Another is a young vicar's wife who is internet savvy and highly organized. A young female detective challenged to "figure it out" on a shrinking budget gives access to the forensic and background information. The ringleader is a 70-year-old eccentric who has a job setting crossword puzzles and has a masterful mind for mystery and odd clues. It is the first book of the series, and I'm looking forward to reading more. It is pleasantly diverting.

🧩🔍🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🇬🇧🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🔎🧩

Books about Home🏠🛖

 

    I suspect Gretchen Rubin isn't for everyone, but I like her. This week I read her book, Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life, and I liked it. This is a sequel to her book Happier which I reviewed here: theology-nihilism-and-self-help-or-im.html. She takes a large concept and breaks it down into pieces, and then explores each piece. She examines parenting, romance, interior design, and other things relating to the home. These are things that I am experiencing, and her book addresses my life right now.

"The pleasure of doing the same thing, in the same way, every day, shouldn't be overlooked. The things I do every day take on a certain beauty and provide a kind of invisible architecture to my life." 
― Gretchen Rubin, Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My Other Experiments in Everyday Life

    Both books revolve around her Eight Splendid Truths (link here: https://gretchenrubin.com/articles/the-eight-splendid-truths-of-happiness/). What she has to say encourages me to thoughtfully consider this life of mine. 

🏡🏠🏚️🛖🏘️🏢

    Binti, Binti: Home, and Binti: The Night Masquerade, written by Nnedi Okarafor, are award-winning science fiction. The three books are more novellas than novels, but the story is rich and deep. With space science fiction, it is difficult to deviate from the formula of there's a war; how will the good guys win? Then a chosen one arises to bring order out of the chaos. The main character, Binti, a master harmonizer becomes more than she imagines or wants. Okarafor creates innovative characters that are fully orbed--they have desires and drives that are sometimes misunderstood, leading to unforeseen conflicts and consequences. I found the books absorbing and was so glad all three were available because it would have been hard to wait! 

    The central theme of her books is home--leaving, returning, and finding. Binti wants more than home can give her and her family wants her to stay. 

    Nnedi Okarafor's parents are from Nigeria, and she draws upon African culture to inspire her work. She coined the phrase African Futurism. Her work reminds me of Haruki Murakami, a Japanese science fiction writer, in its not-what-I-anticipated plots and characters. These will likely be the best science fiction books I read this year.

    The cover art on the three books is evocative of what happens on the pages, a great pairing of story and picture. 

👽🌍🛸🪐

In🐙Celebration🐙of🐙Octopuses🐙

    This has been Octopus Week at my house. I read two books where octopuses (Not octopi because octopus is an English word rising from Greek, so it doesn't take a Latin plural. plural-octopus) were the main characters.

     Many years ago, when I was in Germany, I ordered seafood spaghetti. It came with several small, intact purple octopuses that were so unexpected and unusual my husband and I started laughing, causing a waiter to come over and check on us.  I remember them being delicious, but Sy Montgomery's book The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness makes me sad to have eaten such an intelligent creature.  I enjoyed listening to Sy Montgomery narrate her book. During her research, she interacted with four Pacific octopuses at the New England Aquarium and visited octopuses in the wild. As a naturalist and a writer, her big question was, does an octopus have a soul or consciousness? The book displays a depth of research and also sincere contemplation. She conveys the different personalities of the octopuses she has befriended and moves them from scary monsters to fascinating specimens to intelligent companions.

   Octopuses are also amazing escape artists. Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IveCcHnNGwo

🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙

 

    It took a long time to read Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt even though it had been recommended by several significant people: my daughter, my sister, Anne Bogel, and finally, my writing mentor, and I wished I'd read it sooner. The writing is beautiful. The untraditional robust characters are endearing, wounded, and brave. The plot is unlike any other--it makes you long for a happy ending and lives outside the conventional formula enough to create the tension of uncertainty. It resembles A Man Called Ove, with an octopus playing the grumpy old man with a broken heart. As a child, some of my favorite books were about a connection between lonely humans and wise creatures, like Charlotte's Web and A Cricket in Times Square. Shelby Van Pelt has captured that element of magical realism those books contain. This might be one of the best books I've read this year.

🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙

    Freebie: One of my favorite Sci-Fi writers, Adrian Tchaikovsky, has a space book featuring octopuses as astronauts. It is called Children of Ruin, and it's stunning.

    We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange was on a list of juicy family dramas, a genre I didn't know I liked. I enjoy observing family's struggles and wondering how, or if they will resolve them. I think juicy family dramas make me wonder what a happy ending would look like? There is a saying that our secrets make us sick, meaning the power of the things we hide and conceal poison our relationships. I was not surprised to discover Tracey Lange has a degree in psychology. Many of her characters have shameful secrets that, as they're revealed, lead to good endings. We Are the Brennans isn't moralistic about therapy, but optimistic about the difficulties of living and loving others wrapped up in a well-told, entertaining story. 

🍀🍀🍀

Familiar Authors, Newer Works

 

crass, funny, insightful, strange, cringe

    I have mixed feelings about reading David Sedaris and Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020. Sedaris is masterful at comedic writing. He makes me laugh out loud. Part of his humor springs from observing how mean people can be to each other. He can gross me out talking about a seatmate who eats his boogers, tell crass jokes that offend me, and rail against George Bush continually, but he records his father's decline and his sister's death in its painful awfulness and brings tears to my eyes. We are very different and not so very different. 

    Here is a link to another Sedaris book I reviewed: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2022/11/looking-for-humor-finding-something.html

🐘🐘🐘

    I was fortunate to read the latest Louise Penny Inspector Armand Gamache novel, A World of Curiosities. If her writing is like her personality, I wouldn't mind meeting Louise Penny in real life. To sit at the Bistro in Three Pines and eat some of their delicious food while chatting would be amazing. As usual, Inspector Gamache ruminates deeply about his inner life, his monsters, and his motives. A hidden room is discovered in Three Pines containing odd, sinister artifacts. I liked this suspenseful book and was glad to revisit Three Pines, but it stretched my credulity at points--another mystery room? 

Here is a link to a previous Louise Penny review: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Louise+Penny&max-results=20&by-date=true

🌲🌲🌲

I Visit Ancient Rome and Communist China--Via Books

 

  If forced to say my favorite historical mystery writer, I'd give in easily. It's Lindsey Davis. I've been reading her excellent novels for over thirty years. In the Flavia Albia series, her eponymous protagonist is witty and intelligent, and the supporting cast is nutty. While Davis solves a mystery in each book, she also gives the next installment of Albia's life. In a previous book, on her wedding day, her new husband, Tiberius, was struck by lightning. Albia is a newlywed with a sick husband, moving into an unfurnished home while unexpectedly becoming the primary wage earner. She is relatable. Pandora's Boy is sixth in the Flavia Albia series. A fifteen-year-old girl mysteriously dies in her bed. The girl's father suspects poison and hires Albia to discover the truth. I've read a lot of mystery books, and I didn't anticipate the solution. The book is witty, clever, and a little naughty. There are many jokes about a statue of the Egyptian God of fertility Min. 

🔍🏺🏛️🏺🔎

  Dreams of Joy, by Lisa See, is the follow-on of Shanghai Girls. See writes vividly of life in China in the late 1950s. Her book feels authentic with sensory descriptions of the food, clothing, surroundings, and daily life. Nineteen-year-old Joy runs away to Communist China after learning her birth father lives there. Her mother, Pearl, follows to find Joy and bring her back. Mother and daughter become tangled in the political and economic turmoil of the time. I don't know much about Chinese history, but I remember a terrible famine. There are gruesome details of the horrendous things people do when starving. The women claim to be communists but still face persecution for being Imperialist Americans. Shanghai Girls describes the burden of American hostility and ill-treatment despite seeking to live as loyal Americans. Spoiler alert: Joy's adopted father kills himself, overwhelmed by being hounded by the FBI to confess to being a communist sympathizer. Dreams of Joy illustrate life under a totalitarian communist regime. As American Chinese, neither country entirely accepted them. See's characters fight for a good life free from fear and want in both nations. 

    To keep the grain crops from being eaten, Mao ordered farmers to bang pots continuously to scare away the sparrows until the birds died of exhaustion, leading to insects ravaging the crops. Pearl and Joy remind me of sparrows seeking rest, but being driven from place to place.

    I gave this book five stars on GoodReads.

🥢🏮🫕🍶🍚

Terrific Book Week!

    The three authors I read this week took me into places I would never see: an imaginary kingdom. Daevbad, the life of a classical violinist and a Chinese immigrant. Every book this week was superb.

 

    The greatest trilogy of all time, really no debate, is The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. However, I would put S. A. Chakraborty's The Daevabad Trilogy in the top five and maybe, number two. It's so very good. The final book was everything I'd hoped--thrilling, true to the characters, and satisfying--a balanced ending. It didn't tip over into sentimentality or betray the story. Instead, it had a good sense of an authentic finish.

   I found Chakraborty's ability to describe action--fight scenes, chases, banquets--easy to track and vivid. With many characters and locations, it could have been easy to lose track.  Chakraborty's willingness to sacrifice her darlings gave the book gravitas and tension. I didn't know if all the main characters would survive. 

    I have wondered about Chakraborty's heritage. From her trilogy, it is clear she is knowledgeable about Islam and Muslim lands and respects their many cultures, myths, and fables. I assumed she was an American Muslim woman, and she is, but it's complicated. Here is a link to an interview with her: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/s-chakraborty/ and here is an excellent article discussing her being touted as an Arab writer, which she is not, and doesn't claim to be: https://www.themarysue.com/the-significance-of-s-a-chakrabortys-name-adjustment-in-upcoming-book/. 

🧞‍♂️🏰👑🐊

    The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb is an intense mystery. It vividly describes racial abuse. At times it was difficult to read because I liked the main character. Ray McMillan's love for his grandmother, perseverance in his art, and his striving to be respectful and kind to others in the face of mistreatment made me root for him. Ray has the talent to become a world-class violinist and an exceedingly valuable violin. Right before the most significant opportunity of his life, his violin is stolen. There are many viable suspects, and Slocumb keeps them all plausible and me guessing till the end. The book has a good-hearted center that makes it hopeful. 

“We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” 
― Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

🎵🎻🎶

    When I worked in a bookstore, I thought Lisa See's covers were eye-catching, with dazzling colors and beautiful women. I finally read one, Shanghai Girls, this week. It is historical fiction about two sisters living in Shanghai in 1937. Pearl and May are glamourous models depicted in ads for everything from baby food to champagne. Disaster after disaster leads them from China to Los Angeles, CA, and from carefree young women to becoming wives in arranged marriages with strangers. As a historical novel, I learned about the Angel Island detention center, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the dissolution of the USA's partnership with China after World War II by seeing it through the eyes of those experiencing it. My favorite way to learn history is wrapped in an absorbing story. Lisa See's ancestors immigrated from China to the USA. This book had depth and vibrancy springing from careful research and from participants' accounts.

🎥🛥️🐲🪭🐑

Big Week for Reading 📚🚀❣️⛪️🕵️‍♀️

 

    I like Becky Chambers' writing. It is thought-provoking and hopeful. To Be Taught if Fortunate is a stand-alone novella that addresses the question of space exploration. Why do it? The title is a quote by Kurt Waldheim, former UN Secretary-General, to extraterrestrials. 

"We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship – to teach, if we are called upon; to be taught, if we are fortunate."

    Four astronauts are on a scientific mission of exploration beyond our solar system to planets calculated to have life. Their struggles and triumphs are told from the perspective of crew member Ariadne. She is the ship's engineer giving her a pragmatic, problem-solving bent, but because she's not the captain, she has to be persuasive. They all understand that studying alien life disturbs and endangers, but may also preserve and protect it. When you lift a rock to look at worms, they are forced out of their chosen dark habitat into the damaging sunlight. 

    I'm making this book sound pedantic, but it is like a good Star Trek episode with Captain Piccard and Riker wrestling with the Prime Directive to help, but maybe harm. Differing opinions are honored, but the well-drawn characters give the story spark and interest. Chambers is good at the big picture of space exploration and the intimate portrayal of human costs. 

    Here is a review of another book by Chambers from an earlier post: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2022/01/excellent-app-for-book-people-is-where.html.

    I found I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (who also wrote 101 Dalmations) predictable and somewhat sexist. It may be because it was written and set in the 1930s. It is short and sweet, but irritating. I found the main character too helpless. Cassandra Mortmain is a lively, beautiful young woman with an even more beautiful older sister. They live in a castle with a younger brother, a famous, inept father, and a dotty stepmother in amusing poverty. So droll. The older daughter is contemplating marriage with a handsome, wealthy American suitor that she doesn't love to save her family.

    Hello, Jane Austen calling.

    It didn't work for me, but if you love JA, it is whimsically diverting.

🏰🎩👰‍♀️

   At my daughter's church is a lovely book table with well-curated and thought-provoking books like The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World, by Rosaria Butterfield (aliens-tennis-and-hospitality.html). It is one of the many perks of visiting them. On my latest visit, I picked up Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity by Alisa Childers. Childers grew up in a loving Christian family, sang in the Christian band ZOEgirl, and mostly interacted with people who affirmed her beliefs. Then she encountered a pastor who called himself a hopeful agnostic and challenged her fundamental understanding of her faith: like the deity of Christ and the trustworthiness of the Scriptures. This book arises from Childers wrestling with her doubts. She is a dedicated researcher reading many books and even auditing seminary classes to understand what was accurate and true. 

      Here are some of my takeaways:

• Attacks on the essentials of the faith are not new. New challenges to belief are old heresies redressed: Manichaeism, Gnosticism, and Pelagianism, to name a few.
• Christianity has its defenders. They may not be the loudest voice, but they are out there.
• When facing doubts, reach out instead of pulling in. 

    I appreciated Childers book, which made me consider my essentials and how I define them. If Christianity is authentic (and I believe and trust it is), it will withstand doubts and questions, emerging more robustly than before.

    Many years ago, I heard Tim Keller speak about his book, The Reason for God. In his talk, he mentioned going under for thyroid surgery and having a fleeting moment of doubt about whether Jesus was real. While recovering, he read N. T. Wrights's book The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol. 3). Keller said it moved his doubts from 15% to 8-9%. My doubts will exist, but instead of being ashamed and suppressing them, I want to drag them out and contend with them. Alisa Childers does this and does it well. 

    On a side note, Timothy Keller passed away this week from pancreatic cancer. His life and teachings have informed and strengthened my faith. I am sad to lose a stalwart Christian man, but I am grateful for his ministry.

📖🪔🤨 

    The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware is the June pick for my murder mystery book club. I wasn't excited to read it. I assumed the main character, Lo Blacklock, a travel journalist, would be an unreliable narrator. Unfortunately, I misjudged this book on many levels. One: the cabin is not in the woods, but on a boat (ship?). Two: Lo Blacklock has her issues--it adds tension and complexity-- but she is fierce and dogged in defending the weak. As I read, the book only improved from my original assumptions. 

    My false ideas were based on the excellent books Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and the myriad of books that came out in the early 2000s with "girl" or "woman" in the title. Here is a list: https://www.listchallenges.com/books-with-girl-or-woman-in-the-title

    Anyways, I recommend this suspenseful, twisty story. It's a good one.

🔎🛥️🔍

Space ships 🛸 and Time Travel 🕰️

 

    Another trilogy week. I might need an intervention. I have pivoted this week from fantasy to sci-fi; however, I'm still reading giant bricks of books with another 600+ pages. Adrian Tchaikovsky is excellent at science fiction. He is inventive, vivid, and knowledgeable enough to create worlds with credible technical details that give them life. I have read his Children of Time and Children of Ruin--both excellent books. Now I'm caught in his trilogy, The Final Architect series. 

Here is my review of Shards of the Earth:  its-beginning-to-look-lot-like-book-time.html

Tchaikovsky's story works well and keeps me invested because of his characters. There are the tropes of space warriors, madmen (women? people? space creatures?), politicians, and idealists, but Tchaikovsky gives them life through their mixed motives and desires, but facing a common threat. Will they set aside their differences and pull together to save, well, everything? The stakes couldn't be more significant--the survival of sentient life--resting on the shoulders of an odd band of misfits. It could be stale, but the story is fresh, with relatable characters. I have the third book, The Lords of Uncreation, and will read it soon, but first, some shorter stand-alone to cleanse the palate.

😁

👩🏽‍🚀👽🚀🛸🪐☄️👨🏻‍🚀

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a lovely book, and I liked it a great deal. It is a sci-fi/fantasy book about time travel. In an underground coffee cafe in Tokoyo, the possibility of time travel exists. However, there are limitations. You can only travel back to that cafe. You must sit in a particular chair, but only when vacated by its ghost for a bathroom break. No matter what you do, you can't change the present. You can't leave the chair. And you can only stay until your coffee gets cold. When the rules were laid out initially, I doubted it would be much of a story. I was wrong. Kawaguchi deftly creates a series of interrelated stories using those parameters. The book is brief, but explores the idea of why time travel if nothing changes? I would do it even though I'm not a fan of coffee. 

☕️🕰️☕️🕰️☕️🕰️☕️