Best Books Set in Cafés

I'm a coffee drinker. Day or night. Hot or cold. Fresh or sitting-in-the-pot-all-day. I love coffee.

So what would be one of my favorite settings for stories? Well, cafés, of course.

Here are the best books I've read set in cafés. Most are fiction, though the last two, both of which discuss philosophy, are nonfiction.

The Never Open Desert Diner by James Anderson ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Ben Jones lives a quiet, hardscrabble life, working as a trucker on Route 117, a little-travelled road in a remote region of the Utah desert which serves as a haven for fugitives and others looking to hide from the world. For many of the desert's inhabitants, Ben's visits are their only contact with the outside world, and the only landmark worth noting is a once-famous roadside diner that hasn't opened in years. Ben's routine is turned upside down when he stumbles across a beautiful woman named Claire playing a cello in an abandoned housing development. He can tell that she's fleeing something in her past - a dark secret that pushed her to the end of the earth - but despite his better judgment he is inexorably drawn to her."

In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modino ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"The daughter of a single mother who works in the Moulin Rouge, Louki grows up in poverty in Montmartre. Her one attempt to escape her background fails when she is rejected from the Lycée Jules-Ferry. She meanders on through life, into a cocaine habit, and begins frequenting the Café Condé, whose regulars call her "Louki". She drifts into marriage with a real estate agency director, but finds no satisfaction with him or his friends and so makes the simple decision not to return to him one evening. She turns instead to a young man almost as aimless and adrift as she, but who perhaps loves her all the same. Ever-present through this story is the city of Paris, almost another character in her own right. This is the Paris of 'no-man's-lands', of lonely journeys on the last metro, or nocturnal walks along empty boulevards; of cafés where the lost youth wander in, searching for meaning, and the older generation sift through their memories of their own long-gone adolescence."

Chocolat by Joanne Harris ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Chocolat is a timeless novel of a straitlaced village's awakening to joy and sensuality. In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parish no longer cares, as it abandons itself to temptation, happiness, and a dramatic face-off between Easter solemnity and the pagan gaiety of a chocolate festival."

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Through every family run memories which bind it together - despite everything. The Tulls of Baltimore are no exception. Abandoned by her salesman husband, Pearl is left to bring up her three children alone - Cody, a flawed devil, Ezra, a flawed saint, and Jenny, errant and passionate. Now as Pearl lies dying, stiffly encased in her pride and solitude, the past is unlocked and with it, secrets."

The Handsome Man's Deluxe Café by Alexander McCall Smith ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Motherhood proves to be no obstacle to Mma Makutsi’s professional success. As she settles into her role as partner at the agency, she also launches a new enterprise of her own: the Handsome Man’s De Luxe Café, a restaurant for Gaborone’s most fashionable diners. But even Miss 97 Per Cent isn’t fully prepared for the temperamental chefs, drunken waiters, and other challenges that come with running one’s own business. Help may come from an unexpected source, if only Mma Makutsi can swallow her pride and ask."

Meet Me at the Cupcake Café by Jenny Colgan ⭐⭐⭐

"Issy Randall can bake. No, more than that - Issy can create stunning, mouth-wateringly divine cakes. After a childhood spent in her beloved Grampa Joe's bakery she has undoubtedly inherited his talent. So when she's made redundant from her safe but dull City job, Issy decides to seize the moment and open up her own cafe."

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"It's first the story of two women in the 1980s, of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women-of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth, who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder."

The Van Gogh Café by Cynthia Rylant ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"At the Van Gogh Cafe, anything can happen. Clara's dad owns the cafe, and she's seen it all--from food that cooks by itself to poems that foretell the future. This award-winning collection of vignettes by Newbery medalist Cynthia Rylant is a treat to be relished. So bring your appetite for the unexpected, because at the Van Gogh Cafe, your order of tea and toast comes with a side of magic!"

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"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."

Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"When Hope and her aunt move to small-town Wisconsin to take over the local diner, Hope's not sure what to expect. But what they find is that the owner, G.T., isn't quite ready to give up yet - in fact, he's decided to run for mayor against a corrupt candidate. And as Hope starts to make her place at the diner, she also finds herself caught up in G.T.'s campaign - particularly his visions for the future. After all, as G.T. points out, everyone can use a little hope to help get through the tough times... even Hope herself."

At the Existential Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"At the Existentialist Café tells the story of modern existentialism as one of passionate encounters between people, minds and ideas. From the ‘king and queen of existentialism'–Sartre and de Beauvoir–to their wider circle of friends and adversaries including Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Iris Murdoch, this book is an enjoyable and original journey through a captivating intellectual movement. Weaving biography and thought, Sarah Bakewell takes us to the heart of a philosophy about life that also changed lives, and that tackled the biggest questions of all: what we are and how we are to live."

Socrates Café: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy by Christopher Phillips ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Christopher Phillips is a man on a mission: to revive the love of questions that Socrates inspired long ago in ancient Athens. "Like a Johnny Appleseed with a master's degree, Phillips has gallivanted back and forth across America, to cafés and coffee shops, senior centers, assisted-living complexes, prisons, libraries, day-care centers, elementary and high schools, and churches, forming lasting communities of inquiry" (Utne Reader). Phillips not only presents the fundamentals of philosophical thought in this "charming, Philosophy for Dummies-type guide" (USA Today); he also recalls what led him to start his itinerant program and re-creates some of the most invigorating sessions, which come to reveal sometimes surprising, often profound reflections on the meaning of love, friendship, work, growing old, and others among Life's Big Questions."

There are also a seemingly endless number of cozy mysteries and romances set in cafés, including Murder at the Blue Plate Café; Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse; The Lemon Tree Café; Death by Latte; A Brew to Kill; Summer at the Cornish Café; and on and on, with too many to list.

Thoughts on any of these?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

Challenges Update and Shall I Write a Book in November?

  

Last week I finished nothing except two picture books, and I was reading ten books. But this week...

I finished seven books last week, half of the books I was reading last week plus two more. I've listed these in the order in which I enjoyed them, with the most enjoyed at the top of the list. I loved the snarky voice of the author in Elizabeth and Her German Garden. You'd never guess this book was first published in 1899. The Council of Animals is for anyone with any interest in climate change or if you just enjoy a little fable. The animals meet to decide if they should kill off the remaining perpetrators of an apocalypse on Earth, the humans. I'm always on the lookout for books about happiness, and Chatter, Happy Habits, and The Comfort Book all offered lots of great ideas, some of which I've already put into play. Consider the Oyster is by the great food writer M.F.K. Fisher. Need I say more? I expected too much of Fox & I, I'm afraid. There's no doubt that author Raven is brilliant and a fabulous writer, but the story read like the author wrote down anything that came into her head, and I'm not sure I really wanted to know every single thing that popped into her mind. Maybe it's just me.

If you want to read my complete review, click on the link. 

Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Council of Animals by Nick McDonnell ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Comfort Book by Matt Haig ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Habits: 50 Science-Backed Habits to Adopt (or Stop) to Boost Health and Happiness ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Consider the Oyster by M.F.K. Fisher ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fox & I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven ⭐⭐⭐

Ten Stories by Katherine Mansfield (Short stories)

A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds by Scott Wiedensaul (Birds)

The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher (Food Nonfiction)

Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft by Natalie Goldberg (Writing)

Eager to Love: The Alternate Way of Francis of Assisi by Richard Rohr (Spiritual Nonfiction)

It's time to apply to be a Cybils judge! The Cybils Awards recognizes books written for children and young adults that combine both the highest literary merit and popular appeal. As one of the two original founders put it, between the brussels sprouts of literary merit and the gummy bears of popularity contests, we are the organic chicken nuggets--both yummy and nutritious! If you love children's and YA books, please apply to be a Cybils judge here.

The 2021-2022 Inprint Margret Root Brown Reading Series opens on August 30 with a reading from poet Rita Dove. Who else will be speaking this year? Lauren Groff. Ruth Ozeki. Anthony Doerr. Jonathan Franzen. Wole Soyinka. Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and Tiphanie Yanique. Olga Tokarczok. Yusef Komunyakaa and Carl Phillips. Hernan Diaz. All but two of the ten author readings will be held virtually. Tickets are only $5, or you can really support reading and writing and buy a season's subscription for $225. Included in the subscription are four books. For more information, take a look here. 

It's been a while since I updated my challenges. I need to read three more books for the Back to the Classics Challenge and two more books for the Nonfiction Reader Challenge.

Good Thing #1

I've rejoined the YMCA. 

Now, will I feel comfortable enough to attend an indoor class? 

Not sure.

Good Thing #2

I've decided to write a book in November

during NaNoWriMo.

What am I going to write?

I've got an idea...

Good Thing #3

Two of my most at-risk friends

have gotten a booster shot for the vaccine.

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Cookbook: When Pies Fly: Handmade Pastries from Strudels to Stromboli, Empanadas to Knishes by Cathy Barrow

 A good cookbook...what makes a cookbook a good one? Amazing recipes are all over the Internet. Fabulous photos of good eats are all over Instagram. So, I'd say amazing recipes and fabulous photos are two important elements of a good cookbook, but a good cookbook must have something more. And what is that something more? 

I'd define a good cookbook as a creative spark. A good cookbook is an idea book that a good cook can study and think about and build on. 

When Pies Fly is a creative spark for me. I'm a longtime pie baker, baking fruity as well as meat pies, and I've been making empanadas since my teens. But When Pies Fly opened up the idea of a pie for me, and suddenly I could see pie as author Cathy Barrow does---anything wrapped in pastry. 

So what if I took a recipe I love and have made many times and adapted it into a hand pie? 

I started with my recipe for Taquitos that I have been using for thirty years. A roll of pork sausage, six eggs, two green peppers, an onion, a dash of Worchestershire sauce, and salt and pepper, all cooked up in a skillet. I then usually roll a 1/4 cup of this along with a handful of cheese into a flour tortilla. 

I took a close look at a recipe for Bacon, Egg, and Swiss Hand Pies. It is similar to my Taquitos but the filling is put into a pastry and baked at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

So I made up Everything Spice Pie Dough the day before so the dough could get very cold overnight. And I replaced the flour tortillas with the pie dough. The recipe for the pie dough can be found here.

The final result? Delicious!

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Weekend Cooking was created by Beth Fish Reads and is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). It is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Eleven Books I Loved and Might Read Again One Day Soon

Right now, on Goodreads, I have 186 Favorite Books. 

Lots of these are books I've read multiple times, like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Good Earth,  My Name is Asher Lev, A Wrinkle in Time, and The Little Prince.

But many of them are books I've only read one time. I'd like to read some of these again. 

To keep this idea fun, I chose only the books that might be less familiar to most of you. 

Here's my list of books I loved and might like to read again one day soon.

Happenstance: Two Novels About One Marriage in Transition by Carol Shields (fiction)

"These two unique novels tell the stories of Jack and Brenda Bowman during a rare week apart in their many years of marriage. Jack is at home coping with domestic crises and two uncouth adolescents, while immobilized by self-doubt and questioning his worth as a historian. Brenda, travelling alone for the first time, is in a strange city grappling with an array of emotions and toying with the idea of an affair. Intimate and insightful yet never sentimental, Happenstance is a profound portrait of a marriage and the differences between the sexes that bring life — and a sense of isolation — into even the most loving of relationships."

The World is Not Enough by Zoe Oldenbourg (historical fiction)

"With striking realism and powerful narrative, The World Is Not Enough brilliantly recreates medieval life. This first of Oldenbourg's acclaimed historical novels chronicles the lives of nobles in 12th-century France and the catastrophic upheavals of the Second and Third Crusades."

Shooting the Boh: A Woman's Voyage Down the Wildest River in Borneo (travel nonfiction)
"A thrilling, touching, and densely instructive book, Shooting the Boh is also a frank self-portrait of a woman facing her most corrosive fears--and triumphing over them--with fortitude and unflagging wit."

Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present (short nonfiction)

"From memoir to journalism, personal essays to cultural criticism - this unique, indispensable anthology brings together fifty unforgettable works from all genres of creative nonfiction. Selected by five hundred writers, English professors, and creative writing teachers from across the country, this collection includes only the most highly regarded nonfiction work published since 1970."

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (fiction)

"On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs. Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where she will spend her remaining days. Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of affection and snippets of gossip. Together, upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin enemies—boredom and the Grim Reaper. Then one day Mrs. Palfrey strikes up an unexpected friendship with Ludo, a handsome young writer, and learns that even the old can fall in love."

Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell (fiction)

"The wife of a successful lawyer in 1930s Kansas City, India Bridge, tries to cope with her dissatisfaction with an easy, though empty, life."

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (autobiography)

"In Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, Amy Krouse Rosenthal has ingeniously adapted the centuries-old format of the encyclopedia to convey the accumulated knowledge of her lifetime in a poignant, wise, often funny, fully realized memoir. Using mostly short entries organized from A to Z, many of which are cross-referenced, Rosenthal captures in wonderful and episodic detail the moments, observations, and emotions that comprise a contemporary life. Start anywhere—preferably at the beginning—and see how one young woman’s alphabetized existence can open up and define the world in new and unexpected ways."

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber (fantasy)

"How can anyone describe this book? It isn't a parable, a fairy story, or a poem, but rather a mixture of all three. It is beautiful and it is comic. It is philosophical and it is cheery. What we suppose we are trying fumblingly to say is, in a word, that it is Thurber. There are only a few reasons why everybody has always wanted to read this kind of story: if you have always wanted to love a Princess; if you always wanted to be a Prince; if you always wanted the wicked Duke to be punished; or if you always wanted to live happily ever after. Too little of this kind of thing is going on in the world today. But all of it is going on valorously in The 13 Clocks."

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (fiction)

"Excellent Women is one of Barbara Pym's richest and most amusing high comedies. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those "excellent women," the smart, supportive, repressed women who men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors--anthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky, and Julian Malory, the vicar next door--the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived in a vanishing world of manners and repressed desires. "

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky (fiction)

"Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate, and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art."

True Grit by Charles Portis (western)

"In the 1870s, young Mattie Ross learns that her beloved father was gunned down by his former handyman. But even though this gutsy 14-year-old is seeking vengeance, she is smart enough to figure out she can't go alone after a desperado who's holed up in Indian territory. With some fast-talking, she convinces mean, one-eyed US Marshal "Rooster" Cogburn into going after the despicable outlaw with her."

Have you read any of these? Thoughts? 

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

Two Pandemic Picture Books; Time to Apply for the Cybils; and A Wonderful New Granddaughter

 

You never know what's going to happen in life. Three weeks ago, we got a surprising phone call...we discovered we had a new seventeen-year-old granddaughter! Bailey (center) is beautiful, smart, and incredibly compassionate and kind, and we could not be more delighted to have her in our family! 

I read two excellent picture books last week, and both were about the pandemic. Outside, Inside by LeUyen was a gentle story of staying inside and the benefits of doing so during the pandemic. The Longest Storm uses the analogy of the pandemic to a terrible storm, and it's a little darker read, a little more realistic read than Outside, Inside. I enjoyed them both.

Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim (Fiction)

Ten Stories by Katherine Mansfield (Short stories)

Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë (Fiction)

A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds by Scott Wiedensaul (Birds)

The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher (Food Nonfiction)

Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft by Natalie Goldberg (Writing)

The Comfort Book by Matt Haig (Happiness)

Happy Habits: 50 Science-Backed Habits to Adopt (or Stop) to Boost Health and Happiness (Happiness)

Fox & I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven (Memoir)

The Council of Animals by Nick McDonnell (Fantasy)

Eager to Love: The Alternate Way of Francis of Assisi by Richard Rohr (Spiritual Nonfiction)

It's time to apply to be a Cybils judge! The Cybils Awards recognizes books written for children and young adults that combine both the highest literary merit and popular appeal. As one of the two original founders put it, between the brussels sprouts of literary merit and the gummy bears of popularity contests, we are the organic chicken nuggets--both yummy and nutritious! If you love children's and YA books, please apply to be a Cybils judge here.

Last week I posted here on Readerbuzz:

Favorite Places to Read

Wondrous Words: The Guns of August: War Words

The One Book List: What Single Book Was the Most Influential Book You Have Read?

If you have not shared your favorite book (just one, please), I'd love to have you comment and share.

Good Thing #1

Our new granddaughter, Bailey!

Good Thing #2

Our granddaughter, Annie, 

started school for the very first time.

We Facetimed her after school, 

and she said a little girl in her class came up to her

and asked Annie if she would be her best friend.

Annie said yes. 

We asked Annie what her new best friend's name was.

She said she didn't know. 😂

Good Thing #3

We took a trip up to East Texas

last weekend.

We passed through lots of tiny towns.

We were especially intrigued with Winona, Texas.

Population 576. Four liquor stores. One church. 😂

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.