Although these are very different activities, we can say with certainty that both in reading and in the choice of how to drink a coffee, there is only one certainty: everyone has their own tastes, and de gustibus non est disputandum.
Imagine approaching the bar and asking for a cup of coffee: what do you order? A classic espresso? A macchiato? A cappuccino? A simple café au lait, perhaps? Or are you more of an American take-away type? Not to mention the choice of sugar (if you even take it!), or the temperature (boiling hot, lukewarm, or cold?).
And now imagine you have to choose your next read. Would you perhaps like a mystery? A historical novel? A horror? An intense love story? A current affairs essay? Or maybe a family saga?
So many nuances, so many different flavors and aromas, each capable of letting us live a different experience. Perhaps for this reason reading with a cup of coffee beside you is one of life’s small pleasures, able to shape very different experiences depending on the book chosen and the accompanying beverage.
In this article we propose a selection of novels to pair with your coffee, suitable for all tastes and all situations: from comforting and welcoming reads, capable of wrapping you up and invigorating you like a hot coffee after a rainy day, to books richer in mystery and emotion, where the coffee becomes a precious helper during long hours of reading, when you can’t tear yourself away from the pages; and finally to intense and introspective books, to be savored slowly, like a particularly fine coffee.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
In this list you will not only find coffee-themed books, but it seems right to start with one of the most famous novels set in a café, a reading perfect for regaining calm and reflection. This is the Toshikazu Kawaguchi series inaugurated by Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Garzanti, translated by Claudia Marseguerra), followed by Just One Cup for Happiness, The First Cup of the Day, See You for a Coffee and When the Coffee Is Ready.
The Japanese writer takes us to discover a centenary café with a special power. With a single cup it is possible to re-live the moment of one’s life when a wrong choice was made, but under one condition: that the coffee does not cool down. Each book centers on characters with very different stories, all united by a sense of remorse, fear, or disappointment. But page after page, sip after sip of coffee, it becomes clear to the reader as well: that it is our past that shapes who we are, and that the important thing is only to learn from it.
Norwegian Wood
Let’s stay in Japan with Norwegian Wood (Einaudi, translated by Giorgio Amitrano), one of Murakami’s most renowned and introspective books. Like a good coffee, this novel is rich in shades: melancholic, delicate, painful, intense; it tackles important themes such as death, youth, loneliness, and love through the memories of the protagonist, Tōru Watanabe. Tōru’s life changes forever with the meeting of Naoko, the girlfriend of his friend Kizuki, whose suicide left a deep mark on both. Alongside her appears Midori, Tōru’s classmate. Naoko and Midori are very different—the former shy and quiet, the latter sunny and exuberant—but both draw him with an irresistible force. Once again, the central theme is choice and the importance of living with what has been lost.
Fried Green Tomatoes
We continue our selection with Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg (Rizzoli, translated by Olivia Crosio), a 1987 book that can still today energize and warm you, just like a good cup of coffee. At the heart of the book is Whistle Stop’s cafe, a fictional town in Alabama just steps from the train station. Over the decades, the cafe run by the fearless Idgie and the reserved Ruth hosts a diverse clientele, facing the Great Depression and even a murder case.
The book moves on two timelines: the 1930s and 1940s of Idgie and Ruth and the 1980s of the elderly Mrs. Threadgoode, a former resident of Whistle Stop and a café regular, now in a nursing home. The old lady begins to tell the tale of Idgie and Ruth to Evelyn Couch, a middle-aged woman known a little by chance while visiting her mother-in-law. Between succulent recipes and cups of coffee, the book carries a sense of nostalgia and emotion for a time that is gone, teaching to fight for the people you love and to face every difficulty.
The Eight Mountains
Among the books to read with a good coffee is The Eight Mountains (Einaudi), winner of the 2017 Premio Strega, a novel in which Paolo Cognetti tells of friendship, solitude, and the deep relationship between man and mountain. At the center of the story are Pietro and Bruno, a city boy and a mountain boy, who first meet among the peaks of the Aosta Valley. The two boys, grown into men, will be bound forever, despite distances and different life choices.
A book to read slowly and carry with you throughout the day, just like a thermos of coffee to sip during a stroll through the shaded forests.
Chocolat
We continue with Chocolat by Joanne Harris (Garzanti, translated by Laura Grandi), a novel that smells of freshly baked treats: a perfect accompaniment to a cup of cappuccino. The everyday life of a small French village is disrupted by the arrival of Vianne Rocher and her new pastry shop, La Céleste Praline.
With her independence, her captivating appearance, and her detachment from parish activities, the pastry chef arouses the suspicion of the young curate Francis Reynaud, determined to restore order in the community. But with her innate ability to help others, Vianne will manage to make the village happier, even if a little more rebellious. This book was also the basis for the famous film of 2000, with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.
The Shadow of the Wind
To tackle reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Mondadori, translated by Lia Sezzi), equip yourself with a big cup of coffee and prepare for a night of non-stop reading. The book takes us to mid-century Barcelona, wounded by the Civil War and oppressed by the Franco dictatorship. On the eve of his eleventh birthday, Daniel’s father takes him to a secret place: the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a vast library where thousands of books are kept to save them from oblivion.
It is in this moment that Daniel first encounters the story that will become inseparably linked to his own: a book entitled precisely The Shadow of the Wind, an enthralling novel by a mysterious author, Julián Carax, who would seem to have disappeared along with all copies of his novels. As the years pass, a terrifying-looking man who claims to be named Laín Coubert, like one of the characters in the book, harasses Daniel with the goal of destroying all the enigmatic writer’s works. What will lie behind Julián Carax’s story?
Amor and Secrets at the Pumpkin Spice Café
This list cannot be complete without a love story, just as a pinch of cinnamon cannot be missing from the cafe latte offered by Jeanie in her café. The heroine of the novel Amori e segreti al Pumpkin Spice Cafè (Love and Secrets at the Pumpkin Spice Café) (Newton Compton, translated by Laura Mastroddi), the first book in the Dream Harbor series, has inherited her aunt’s shop, taking the chance to trade a life in the big city for a calmer life in the countryside. Everyone in Dream Harbor loves her spiced cafe latte. Only Logan, a farmer with a gruff character, does not seem to appreciate Jeanie and her shop. If not for a mystery to solve that will force the two young people to spend a lot of time together, and to discover they are more alike than expected… perhaps it’s not only Jeanie’s drinks that are spicy!
Laurie Gilmore has published a series of comforting and light romantic comedies, perfect to accompany a coffee latte and a slice of cake, including Sweet Mysteries at Cinnamon Bun Library, New Beginnings at Strawberry Patch Pancake House, A Sweet Magic in Dream Harbor, A Ginger-Scented Love and The Flower Shop and Unexpected Loves.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
And now we move to some darker reads, just like an espresso—un-sugared and with a bold flavor. For fans of the classic, even in reading, we suggest The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the darkest novels featuring the investigator Sherlock Holmes.
A curse seems to haunt the Baskerville heirs: a malediction shaped as a monstrous hound, apparently responsible for the deaths of many descendants of the family: most recently, Sir Charles, found dead beside the tracks of a huge dog. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are tasked with venturing into the fog of the Dartmoor moor to shed light on a case with gothic and almost demonic overtones. What (or who?) lies behind these frightening deaths?
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Stay within Gothic atmospheres with We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (Adelphi, translated by Monica Pareschi). At the heart of the story are sisters Merricat and Constance Blackwood, who live with their uncle Julian in the large family house, isolated from the world after the other family members died, horribly poisoned. In the eyes of the village, despite having been acquitted, the one responsible for the tragedy is clearly Constance, who remains withdrawn inside the vast house, never venturing outside, tending to her ailing uncle and her younger sister. But the arrival of cousin Charles breaks their fragile balance, turning the already secret-filled house into the stage of a new tragedy. A book to devour on a gray rainy day, chasing away chills with a steaming cup of coffee.
The Aroma of Coffee
We conclude this journey among the books to read with a historical novel that carries with it the aroma of roasted beans: The Aroma of Coffee by Anthony Capella (Beat, translated by Maddalena Togliani). We find ourselves in London in 1896, where the young Robert Wallis, a languid aesthete and aspiring writer, discovers he possesses an innate gift: an extraordinarily refined palate, capable of recognizing and describing every nuance of taste. It will be this very ability that brings him to the Café Royal, where the coffee merchant Samuel Pinker proposes an ambitious project: to create a universal language for describing coffee aromas.
Beside Wallis stands Emily, Pinker’s daughter, intelligent and determined, with whom an unexpected feeling blossoms. While destiny calls Robert to distant Ethiopia, the world changes frenetically, and the love between the two young people seems to be buried under Emily’s new battle for women’s suffrage. But is it really possible to extinguish a feeling as intoxicating as the aroma of coffee?
