In a little coffee shop in one of the most dangerous places on earth, five very different women come together. Sunny, the proud proprietor; Yasmina, a young pregnant Afghan woman; Isabel, a determined British journalist; Candace, a wealthy American and Halajan, the 60 year old den mother whose long hidden love affair breaks all the rules.

As these five discover, there’s more to one another than meets the eye, they form a unique bond that will forever change their lives and the lives of many others.

The term Chick Lit has an accepted presence in today’s list of genres, and although we know it can come under many umbrellas; mystery, fantasy etc … it came as quite a surprise to our group that this ‘Little Coffee House’ counted among them.


There was a general underlying disappointment in this light and fluffy look at Afghanistan and its people, but then again, the book’s enjoyment factor rated high and contrived or not, there was value in its insightful information, particularly for the audience it was aimed at.

The majority of us were not really interested in Sunny’s love interests, and in fact we thought the story may have been more digestible without it! We are not known for our romanticising by any means! But the coming together of cultures, the character of Halajan, the 60 year old den mother, and the volatile setting of Kabul was enough to keep all of us reading, even if the tension and danger was down-graded.

The author, Rodriguez, was found to be fascinating and a few of our members actually believed the interview at the back of the book to be more interesting than the novel itself. She had spent time in Afghanistan, so this gave some credibility to her story, but it was suggested that the book’s approach may have been publisher driven, focusing on what we said earlier, the Chick Lit brigade.

Regardless of who the book was written for, our group derived something from the reading and had an immensely enjoyable discussion on the life of women in places such as Kabul and even here in Australia. And after dissecting every character; the good, the bad, and the unbelievable, we came to the conclusion that Little Coffee Shop was worth the read.

Just don’t expect to be blown away … you will only be gently lifted in to a world where everything turns out just fine!

February - Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister, 11 year old Harrison Opoku lives on the 9th floor of a block of flats on an inner-city housing estate. The second best runner in the whole of year 7, Harri races through his new life in his personalised trainers – the Adidas stripes drawn on with marker pen – blissfully unaware of the very real threat all around him.

With equal fascination for the local gang – the Dell Farm Crew – and for the pigeon who visits his balcony, Harri absorbs the many strange elements of life in England; watching, listening, and learning the tricks of urban survival.

Our first book for 2012 raised little in the way of enthusiasm for this debut novel. There were numerous comments of its disjointed narrative and lack of character empathy which kept our club scores down, ranging from 3 to 8 points.

Joan mentioned the paradox of Harri and his family moving from the violence of Ghana to the toxic world of gang warfare in a south London estate. She also found an all too real glimpse of immigrants coming to a new country for a fresh start only to be alienated and separated from loved ones.

Viti picked up on a subtle atmosphere of menace that lay beneath the whole story and also pointed to the Lord of the Flies analogy of loss of rules and breakdown of family and social structures. Well done Viti!

Everyone took Harri’s pigeon to be the carrier of his thoughts and emotions. A small but meaningful balance to Harri’s new world of Adidas trainers and gangland murder.

By far the most condemning aspect of Pigeon English would have to be its failure to connect our readers with the main characters and their plight. As a whole, our group prefers to connect with and care about those within the pages, so no matter how clever, innovative or profound a work of literature is, if we cannot relate or feel compassion, our enjoyment level drops and so does our recommendation.

As always, we would be interested in your opinion. If you’ve read Pigeon English, make a comment and let us know what you think.