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The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez

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aslittlewoodenbookshelf's review

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

hilarymercer's review against another edition

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4.0

Also titled :The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul

I just finished this book today. Started a little slow, but towards the end I couldn't put it down.

Really interesting glimpse into a completely different society. Interesting and likeable characters, who change and develop in a believable way.

diana_skelton's review

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2.0

"Bashir Hadi kicked a stone in the wall. He said, 'The only thing that makes the Afghan cry is war and hunger and losing an arm in a blast, and... people who think only about themselves. I am sorry, Miss Sunny, to talk to you this way. But there is a wise old saying that sums it all up: Shit happens. Excuse me, you are the boss, after all, but you Americans, I hear you talk in the coffeehouse every day and every night, revealing your personal problems. You expect so much, and you feel that you deserve good things to come your way, and yet you understand so little. You whine and moan over little things, and we're the ones who have to clean up after you."

noemikirch's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad

3.25

I can't say how accurate any of the descriptions in this book were because, as I've realized while reading, I know very little about Afghanistan. And I mean embarassingly little. It's definitely something I want to educate myself more on.
So, I can only really comment on the story and how I felt while reading.
It took a while for me to get into the book and it took even longer for me to form a connection to the characters, which failed to happen with a few of them. Candace and Isabel, for instance, I didn't really care about. And even the others I had mostly lukewarm feelings towards. It sometimes felt like the moments that would have made me believe in the relationships between the characters happened off the page. And so I didn't really feel the strong bonds that had allegedly formed between them.
However, Ahmet did make me tear up once toward the end.
There were devastating moments and wholesome ones. I could have done with a little less romance and a little more "sisterhood" to be honest. Sometimes I think the romance subplots took away from the severity of the issues the novel talked about.
Overall, I enjoyed reading about Sunny and her found family, although I found it to be a bit too cheesy at times considering the discussed topics.

teaqueen's review

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DNF at 23%

Saw the hype around this book a few years ago and got it as it was a good price at The Works.

I would like to finish this at some point, but I don't see myself picking this up again anytime soon.

As an escapist reader, I knew this would be a hard read so I saved it for summer, but it's been a rainy af summer so far and the news around the world just keeps getting worse. I started another heavy book that I'm slightly more excited to pick up as well as a non-fiction book so I'm finding myself reaching for lighter books with fantasy elements to read for fun and to prevent a reading slump.

Hopefully will return to it one day.