Thursday, October 24, 2024

Literally the Best Reviews: At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities

At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities - Heather Webber
Forge Books
336 Pages

The author of today’s book review will be at the Lockport Public Library on October 28th, at 6:30 to speak about her book. She will be signing books afterwards. It’s a part of the library’s “One Book, One Community” program. It is an excellent program and it’s introduced me to books I might have normally otherwise read.


Walking up the stairs at the Lockport Library a month or so ago, I saw the shelf by the elevator was full of the same book. It was the book that was being promoted as part of the “One Book, One Community” program. I always buy one of these books and desperately try to get to the author’s program. This year’s selection, At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber was not a book I would typically grab from the shelf, but it sounded interesting. So a copy came home with me.


When I got home, my wife saw the book and was intrigued by the summary on the back cover. She took it to read before I got the chance to, and spent the next week or two engrossed in its pages. I could tell she liked the book, and a couple of times she muttered a comment about something that was happening in it, or laughing at things. When she was about two-thirds through the book, she looked up at me and said, “I like this book, but I’m not sure if you will.” Of course, that comment made me want her to hurry and finish it so I could get a crack at it.


This book has a strange start with a strange letter to one of the main characters, Ava Harrison. It’s a hastily written help wanted ad with a special note on it that looks eerily like her dead boyfriend’s handwriting. Intrigued, she makes her way from her home in Ohio to a lonely shore in Alabama. Against her better judgment, she takes the trek to hopefully get her mind off the tragedy of her boyfriend. She arrives at a small town where everyone knows everyone else. She is a stranger in a tight-knit connection. 


Maggie Mae Brightwell runs Magpie’s, an eclectic coffee shop that seems to be the hub of the small community. There seems to be a touch of magic in both Maggie’s fingertips and in the coffee shop itself. It was Maggie who initially wrote the help wanted ad, more as a lark than for real, the watch over her father. He’d had some “incidents” lately that were concerning.


Over the course of the book, both Ava and Maggie have to learn to let go of the past in order to grow into the future. They find inspiration in the strangest of places, even when among the closest of friends. In the end, the surprise that ties them all together is heartwarming. Heather Webber brings the tales together in a wonderful tapestry of human kindness and compassion.


There were two things that really stood out for me with this book, both of which I look for when reading. The first are the characters. These characters are so well thought out. They are more than the words on the page. I feel their pain, their joy, their angst. I know people like the ones in this book. Their realism is captured perfectly by Webber. And their dreams and foibles drive the story. It is near perfection, in my opinion. I want to know the characters. I would love to meet them if they were real, live in their town, and laugh and cry with them.


The second thing is the small town vices that reverberates throughout the novel. Having lived in a relatively small town, I understand that feeling where it seems like everyone knows everyone else. There are not many degrees of separation. In this book, the town is even smaller than my hometown, and everyone is even more closely related. This feeling reminds me of sitting at the counter at LaPorts or in a booth at Tom’ Diner, and someone walks in the door. Everyone offers a greeting. That is this whole book. That underlying current, set against the rich characters made this book so much fun and so easy to read.


I loved At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber. I flew the book in two reading sessions. I could not wait to find out how the author drew the storylines together. The writing is engaging and intriguing. This is a book that easily makes it way into my top 10 books of the year. I liked it so much, I ordered another Heather Webber book for my wife and I to read. I am waiting anxiously for it to arrive.


Craig Bacon supports the “One Book, One Community” program at the Lockport Library. It’s always interesting to hear directly from the author about the creation of their masterpiece.