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Tales from the Cafe

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 16:42 on 4 August 2024

This is book two of the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series that Mom was reading up to and during our family trip to Japan last year. I had seen the book in her collection and on Libby, and had started reading them.

This book continues Before the Coffee Gets Cold, with the same characters, different stories. Each of the four stories have different lessons, with the arching lesson to understand that by not choosing happiness, you are rejecting the gifts others have given you, in time, in love, in existing. Those who love you want you to be happy. Life lived in regret makes their love and sacrifice in vain.

I enjoyed this book as much as the last one. The stories are quick reads, perfect for a short quiet read before bed.

Location: 479
Perhaps they were two different people who just happened to look alike. Human memory is a vague thing, after all.

Location: 654
Shuichi had always been like this. It never mattered how tough the going was, he was the eternal optimist. Plowing on had always been the only the option. And like always, he was being the man who, even after just learning of his own death, could think of the happiness of others.

Location: 905
But while she did, her usual cool expression was temporarily replaced by the look of someone about to pass a carefully chosen present to a special someone with the hope that it will bring them joy. When people choose presents hoping to delight the recipient, they have in mind that special person’s reaction. And as they do, they often find that time has suddenly got away from them.

Mother-Daughter Murder Night

Book Notes Instead of being asleep at 20:40 on 14 January 2024, kitt created this:

I feel this is one of those books that caught my attention when I was in Libby looking at something else. I enjoyed the book.

It tells of Lana, the grandmother, Beth, the daughter, and Jack, the granddaughter, weaving their history through the immediate couple months of investigation of the death of a person found in the slough close to Beth's house, by a member of a kayaking excursion that Jack was leading. Lana is a high powered real estate executive estranged from her daughter. Beth is a competent nurse in a nursing home. Jack is the teenager with big dreams on the water.

The death is considered a murder, so, of course, we have the bumbling cop, the competent upcoming cop, the suspicious everyone else. We have land trusts and big ranches, many people with their own motives, and three different misdirections. Simon does a great job of introducing plausible suspects, introducing characters early, with motives, and with plenty of suspicious behaviours. Which is great for those misdirections.

The character growth is pretty good, without being forced. A couple situations were the of the kind of moments where someone realizes the other person is trying, and that receiving the offer with grace is going to help. I appreciated those moments written down, if they happened more in real life, we'd all be better off.

I am uncertain why the book felt long. I looked several times at the page number, wondering how much more I had left to read, which is either a sign the book is too long or, more likely, the author's writing style doesn't quite fit with my brain at this moment. Which is fine, the book is an entertaining mystery read with a strong female lead (always a win!).

“What?” Lana asked.

“You know how you told me winners never mumble?” Jack held up the book she was reading about Theodore Roosevelt. “He says you should speak softly and carry a big stick.”

The Convenience Store Woman

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 15:07 on 7 December 2022

This was a cute, short book recommended to me by Moazam. It is the tale of Keiko, a 36 year old woman who works in a convenience store in Japan. That she is a high functioning autistic is revealed very quickly in the book, so I don't believe I am giving much away by mentioning that part away. She is content with her life, but feels society's influence by the small jabs and comments made by her family and friends.

Not quite understanding society, Keiko is dependent on the actions of others to navigate the world, copying their styles and behaviours to fit in. When pushed in one direction, she goes. Pushed in another direction, she goes that way. As a result, rather than defining her life with what makes her happy, she follows others to fit in. One can guess where this story goes.

When reading it, I became more annoyed at Moazam for even suggesting this book. The sign of a good book, actually: that I became annoyed at some of the characters.

The ending, however, totally explained why Moazam recommended the book, and redeemed the book completely. Adorable tale, worth the hour or so it'll take to read it.

Feed

Book Notes kitt decided around 23:11 on 22 May 2021 to publish this:

This book, by Anderson not Grant, was indirectly recommended in the XOXO slack, after a fellow attendee, community member, slacker posted about how his kid was setting up a large number of privacy-focused technologies in the home, and how either proud or nervous the parent should be. The consensus was proud, but, hey, was the kid inspired (terrified?) by Feed by M. T. Anderson into being more privacy conscious? Something that could inspire a kid to be more privacy focused? Yes, I will read this book.

The book follows Titus and his friends as they venture off to the moon for a weekend jaunt. Without explaining the various technologies (they just are), Titus and his friends go to a big party, where their neurological connections to the internet, their feeds, are infected. There are repercussions from the infection (gosh, five of them go a whole week without constant distractions), mostly surrounding Violet who is the awkward social outcast of the tale.

While Titus's family is rich and privileged, Violet's is not. The book does a great job contrasting the two of them while exploring privilege, the obliviousness of the privileged, the exploitation of corporations for our attention, the abuses by corporations of the data we provide, the potential disaster of media with the suppression of journalism, the dumbing down of society as a whole even as technology progresses, and the absurdity of mindless consumerism. Violet is the breath of fresh air, the voice of reason in the disaster that is this American culture (and let's be real, a completely believable prediction given the us vs them mentality and anti-science rhetoric that pervades our current culture). As a result, we know that Violet shall be the tragic character in this tale.

Oh, look, she is.

The Eyre Affair

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 19:22 on 16 May 2021

Book one of the Thursday Next series, I don't think I will be reading the rest of the series. The book is a book about books, in as much as the plot revolves around a fictional England, mid-1980s, where time travel is a thing, and everyone is a book lover. I mean, let's start there with the difficulty of suspending disbelief, really.

The plot goes along the lines of Next being called to a secret service who is trying to apprehend Acheron Hades, who is immune to bullets, can waft through glass, and can control weak minds. Next is called up because she took a class from Hades in college. We learn of Next's history fighting in the Crimean War between England and Russian, of how her brother died in the war, and she went back for him after leaving him. Next's uncle is an inventor who has developed book worms who create worlds based on the words they consume (read: poetry and prose, fictional worlds made alive). Hades uses this invention to rewrite fictional characters, using the original manuscripts and the worms to make the fictional characters real. His rewrite of Jane Eyre would have had a large impact with me if I had actually, you know, read Jane Eyre and knew the original plot. I didn't, so I didn't have the same gut punch that other people may have.

Because of her personality (do the right thing, follow through, strong willed, etc.), Next helps a number of people in the story, which leads to the revelation needed to defeat Hades. Because, let's face it, the man was pretty much unbeatable.

I enjoyed the book, but not enough to continue reading the series.

The Midnight Library

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 14:32 on 20 April 2021

I expected the Caltech Book Club to be pretty much all science and technology. So, imagine my surprise when I read this book, about death and the opportunity to live a life that undoes your biggest regrets. Start with the biggest and see where you end up in life with that correction. Holy shit, that reality sucks. Well, what about this second biggest regret, undo that one. Huh, this reality isn't what I expected it to be. Continue with this regression, and eventually you learn the lesson that every life has its downsides, disappointments, heartaches, choices, and losses. No life worth living is without some sacrifice. By looping through all the regret-fixes she can stand, Nora figures this out, and decides she wants to live.

The timing of this book for me was good. I strongly recommend this book.

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