The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul (originally published as A Cup of… (original 2011; udgave 2012)

Loved the characters, loved the setting, loved the story. I wish there was a little more character development, just because they were such interesting people, but then again, if there had been more details I probably would have complained about it being too long. Definitely a pleasant surprise--especially since it was free. :) I'll be adding her other book to my to-read list if it's not there already. ( )

An easy read, a bit sort of chick lit really ( )

It's never a good start when the cover declares 'includes recipes' - I clearly wasn't the intended audience for this one but was reading it for my bookclub. (although most of my bookclub also disliked it very much). It had moments that I thought were really interesting and if it had explored certain parts of the story in more detail I would have possibly really liked it. It did make me want to visit Kabul and experience the culture and atmosphere but that's probably not likely these days. ( )

It's never a good start when the cover declares 'includes recipes' - I clearly wasn't the intended audience for this one but was reading it for my bookclub. (although most of my bookclub also disliked it very much). It had moments that I thought were really interesting and if it had explored certain parts of the story in more detail I would have possibly really liked it. It did make me want to visit Kabul and experience the culture and atmosphere but that's probably not likely these days. ( )

This novel is, as you might expect, about a coffee shop in Kabul in Afghanistan. The novel is based on the authors own experience of running such a business in Kabul and she draws on her experience and the people she met there in this novel. There are issues raised in this novel about the treatment of women and how Afghan society is run that Deborah Rodriguez clearly wanted to bring up in the book and this can make it a little clumsy in terms of story telling at times.
Sunny runs the coffee shop with Halajan, who owns the property and Bashir Hadi who is the cook and Halajan's son Ahmet who is the security. Early on we meet Yasmina who Sunny gives a home to. Other characters are customers at the coffee shop, in particular Isabel a journalist from the UK looking for a story and Candace a wealthy woman recently divorced from the US and Jack, also from the US who is handsome, kind and everything else he should be. The other character is Rashif who has been wooing Halajan for many years with letters she cannot read. The novel has no back story, we are straight in and have no idea how Sunny came to be in Kabul. Much of the story line is very predictable and many of the characters are one dimensional with more trouble taking on describing their appearance than their character. Yasmina is accepted in to the family, Candace and Ahmet come good and most people live happily every after. That said if you don't know much about Afghanistan then this is a gentle introduction to the country at the period of the American invasion and after the Russian invasion. ( )