Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series of Books - Sunday Salon

 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Healing fiction books

Post copied from my other book blog Book Dilettante (BookBirdDog)

Before the Coffee Gets Cold is the first of the five books in the series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. I have listed the books in reverse order. 

Genre: healing fiction

I have Before Your Memory Fades and Before We Forget Kindness, the third and fifth books. I think there is no need to read them in order as the stories are separate, but there are several coffeeshop workers who appear in all the books, so it might be useful to start with the first book, Before the Coffee Gets Cold. 

What is the series about? In each book, people visit a mysterious cafe, hoping to go back or forward in time for a very brief time. They are given a cup of steaming coffee  at a special table, are then transported to the past, and must return to the present time before their coffee gets cold. There are other strict rules for this to work, however.

I have read only a couple books in the series but I have found the themes - life lessons learned by the ones who time travel to meet loved ones. Relationships don't end with death, for example. Indecisiveness is self destructive. Each story gives a different lesson, and some show the dilemmas of having to make certain choices in life. 

Before We Forget Kindness has stories that explore Memories, Family Bonds, and Forgiveness. Before Your Memory Fades explores Grief, Healing, and Second Chances.

This next book is to be published May 2026

Comparable books with stories about people being helped in a magical place are the full moon coffee shop books include The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop by Takuya Asakura and the Full Moon Coffee Shop two-book series by Mai Mochizuki, which focuses on personal astrology.

 I was entertained by the books I've read so far in both series of books, and also intrigued by thoughtful stories that present life lessons as you read. 

What books are on your reading list now? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves 

Bookstore Browsing: Sunday Salon

 At the bookstore

 Book Display at the store 

Chairs and a cat on the Toshikazu Kawaguchi book covers; cats only on books by T. Shigematsu and Syou Ishida. The Japanese are certainly fond of cats. I bought Before Your Memory Fades, the most recent in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series by Kawaguchi.

How many of these have you read, if any?

 On a poetry binge, I couldn't resist this new collection or its colorful cover.

The New Yorker started as a weekly in the mid-1920s, and is now published forty-seven times per year, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Poems, cartoons, satire, and essays are included in each weekly. 

I like that there are many short and shorter poems on various subjects in the collection. makes for easy reading.

And  I had to get a thriller too

The House Guest by Hank Philippi Ryan, published 2023 by Forge Books.

Description: Alyssa Macallan is terrified when she’s dumped by her wealthy and powerful husband. She begins to suspect her toxic and manipulative soon-to-be-ex is scheming to ruin her—leaving her alone and penniless. And when the FBI shows up at her door, Alyssa knows she really needs a friend.

And then she gets a seductive new friend, one who’s running from a dangerous relationship of her own. 

Alyssa offers Bree Lorrance the safety of her guest house, and the two become confidantes and schemers. 

Currently reading/almost finished

I am enjoying the descriptions of the canals in the watery neighborhood of Venice, California, where The Water Lies (October 2025; NetGalley) takes place.

In this mystery, a heavily pregnant woman, Tessa, tries to find the link between Gigi, a woman she just met at a local cafe, and her toddler son who seemed to recognize her. 

When Gigi turns up drowned in the canal in front of her house, Tessa becomes unnerved and bent on finding out how her son was connected to Gigi, calling her by her name in the cafe. 

Enter Gigi's mom, Barb, also determined to find out how or why her daughter drowned in a shallow canal even though she had been a swim champion in school.

The two women, Tessa and Barb, work together, and so far there are so many twists and turns in the plot that I can't wait to find out what really happened. 

 

What are you reading this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves