There is an indelible connection between reading and East Cafe. Old books with fading typography decorate the counter as you greet the barista. By the entryway, you find meeting times for book clubs, issues of local magazines, and advertisements for upcoming author tours. Reading, the cafe says, from your first sip to your last, is a collective act. It is community. You can always find people immersed in a text. At the communal table, on the sofa opposite the counter, and on the numerous small tables that dot the room.
What we read tells us who we are. What can we learn about East Cafe’s patron readers? The following is a sample of their latest obsessions. I hope you find a book that connects with you – more so, I hope this list helps you connect with the people flipping the pages. It isn’t an exhaustive list. If you’d like to be included in this community, comment below. Tell us what you are reading and what it’s about.
Image: Melanie Kage
Andrei is reading Who’s Afraid of Gender?, the latest work by queer feminist philosopher Judith Butler. The book explores how “gender becomes a phantasm.” Gender – in the imaginings of the “reactionary right-wing” – turns from empowering self-expression to a haunting specter, who then goes on to enact further violence on those already suffering under patriarchy and heteronormativity. Not an easy read, but in these times? Necessary.
Jack is a “book lover and science fiction connoisseur,” presently reading Leo Tolstoy’s tragic tale of love and loss, Anna Karenina. He compares it to Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables: there is a plot, there are characters, things happen, but really, “it’s about Russia.” Despite not being a “light read,” he says, it’s “funnier than expected.”
The following people chose pseudonyms.
“Susie” is reading Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko. A “moving, depressing” work of historical fiction about the Japanese occupation of Korea. Recommended by a friend, and now she recommends it to us. “It’s hard to be a woman.” It also has “great acting”, she says, citing from a review of the 2022 Apple TV+ adaptation.
“Talia” from Beirut rediscovered the Turkish classic Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali. Social media can do some accidental good. It’s an epistolary novel set in interwar Europe, but its themes of “social status and class and gender” ring just as true today. Talia found herself identifying with the protagonist, even though she “doesn’t usually read men.” She’s on the hunt for autofiction, a genre that blends fiction and memoir.
Image: Melanie Kage
After reading something emotionally heavy, “Mal” wanted a feel-good pick-me-up. She landed on A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. Mal places it in the “hopepunk” literary movement, characterized by change, optimism, and hope for our collective future. Psalm forefronts the otherwise downplayed struggles of our modern life: “What it takes to feel satisfied.” What happens if we chase something and finally find success, only to end up regretting it? Well, it’s never too late. Begin a new journey. “It also has robots and monks.”
Finally, Shrinal, the photographer for The East Cafe Chronicles. He’s on the second book, Words of Radiance, of the high-fantasy series The Stormlight Archive, by American author Brandon Sanderson. It’s “easy reading” – you can shut off your mind and get lost in a “cool fantasy.” Sometimes, that’s exactly what we need.