The third book in the Before The Coffee Gets Cold series, and what a great book.
If you haven’t read any of this series yet then i really, whole heartedly, suggest you get back to the beginning and give them a go. The time-travelling-chair-in-a-cafe really is such a great story telling device, especially with the rules that come along with it.
And it’s in those rules that the stories shine. The main one being that you cannot change anything in the present by going back to the past. This rule really does sort the wheat from the chaff and creates stories that are deep and meaningful for all of us.
This third book takes us away from the first cafe to another cafe in Japan with it’s own chair and ghost. The owner has gone away so some of the crew from Tokyo have taken over because only a female over the age of 7 years, from their family, can pour the coffee.
A lot of this book is about death, and how we all deal with the death of a loved one, and the ending is incredible: Toshikazu really nailed the ending, it’s so perfect and so moving. It’s not often that my eyes get soggy at the end of a book, but this one did it perfectly. While the whole book is really good, it’s only when you get to the ending that you realise that it’s all been about building up the ending, where Toshikazu brings everything to a perfectly sharp focus.
And don’t forget, the next book in the series, Before We Say Goodbye, is coming out in September 2023, so be sure to put that in your diary.
Bye for now.
A bit of a strange book. I like the idea of being stuck in limbo, just on the edge of death, and going through all your regrets and considering what you could have done differently; how it might have all worked out if only you’d gone for that cup of coffee, or hadn’t quit the band, etc.. But what i don’t like at all is why it had to be dumped into the parallel/multiple universe twaddle. Parallel/multiple universe twaddle is just twaddle and it really doesn’t need promoting.
As a bare foot runner myself i’ve been meaning to read this book for a very long time, but it just kept on sitting in my to-read pile always being overlooked for some exciting fiction to read instead. But now, finally, i dived in and got it read.
Just before Musashi died, he wrote a set of precepts for his favourite student. In this book the precepts are discussed one by one by five martial artists from different backgrounds and careers.
This trilogy is twaddle. I gave it a good a go but gave up on book two, didn’t get around to reading this.
I tried, i really did, but i just can’t take any more and i’ve given up on this stupid trilogy. It’s all too much young adult for me and, worse than that, it’s not even very good young adult. It’s just totally unbelievable nonsense.
A rather interesting book all about dopamine, and how it controls us and shapes our world.
Not the greatest story Alastair has ever told. It’s all very young adult-ish stuff, and it’s really not anything like what i love about Alastair’s usual sci-fi.