Tales from the Cafe: Before the Coffee Gets Cold

This book is one with four short stories, that are woven around the cafe Funiculi Funicula of Tokyo. A cafe, that allows people to travel in time, even though nothing in the present can be altered yet people travel, to let things happen better!
I loved the narration style of the book. It narrates stories of lost opportunity in making peace with a relationship to lost conversations that could have made parting not as sad as they had been even though not happier.
At the end, when dear ones die, you shouldn't loose your chance at happiness as that makes their days futile; rather being happy makes their stay worth-while.
I would highly recommend this book. I read the translated version, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot.

The way author wrote this is really amazing. The café owner and customers link thru travel in time with particularly written rules makes the story interesting and make us get involved into it.

"I swore to myself that I would make sure that I was happy."
Trigger warnings for suicidal tendencies, terminal illness, loss of a family member, miscarriage
I do not know what happened with the first book. I couldn't get into it even after trying again. I just had to give it up sixty percent into it every-time.
I do not know if it's the translation or something else. I want to love the book.
However, I am so glad I was able to read the second book the third time I tried reading it. I would say the writing is more accessible and well etched out than the first.
I still feel I would have loved the book more if read in its original language.
One issue as with the first book is that the author seems to think the readers have short term memory and tends to remind us time and again about the rules of the cafe.
I find the characters not as engaging and interesting even though their stories sound interesting enough. Maybe their stories do not do much for me personally.
Well I am glad I was able to read this book until the last page. It is short and entertaining to read for a supposedly sad book. I just wanted to get connected with the writing and the characters more than I got.
It was all but lukewarm.

What a heartwarming read this one is!
I loved this one much more than the first book. In the first book, we were newly introduced to the cafe and its staff and also the regular customers. I was neither fond of any of the characters nor was invested much in the story during the first time. But this time, the stories hit pretty hard and I found myself bawling almost for the entirety of the book.
There were a lot of recurring characters which made me easily fall back into the fictional world. Also, this time around I was so much more invested in these characters. The newly introduced characters were also exciting to read.
As we already know from the first book, this is not really a plot driven book, it's more of a character driven one. So, there isn't much going on plot wise but the character development is worthy of note.
Kazu is my favourite character at this point and getting to know her past was really emotional. I am very invested in her journey and cannot wait to read more about her in the next book.
Meanwhile, all I can say about this book is it's a really good sequel. I can only hope the next one is better than this.

I enjoyed this book as much as the 1st book. The print is good too. Will buy the 3rd book for sure!!!