International Book Club

Our International Book Club returns with Mai Mochizuki's The Full Moon Coffee Shop, a novel about a mysterious café that appears only at night, where strangers gather, orders arrive unasked for, and something in the people who find their way in begins to mend. It is a book about loneliness and warmth, about the rituals that hold us together, and about the particular way Japanese storytelling makes space for the things we carry but rarely say aloud.

Joining us as cohost is Catherine Ami, a former educator who lived in Japan and now calls Staunton home, where she is raising her family. Catherine will help us move between the world of the novel and the real textures of Japanese daily life, the coffee shops, the courtesies, the silences, and the culture of care that gives this book its emotional weight. Come ready to talk about what you read, what surprised…