Coffee (Object Lessons)

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Coffee—it’s the thing that gets us through, and over, and around. The thing—the beverage, the break, the ritual we choose to slow ourselves down or speed ourselves up. The excuse to pause; the reason to meet; the charge we who drink it allow ourselves in lieu of something stronger or scarier. Coffee goes to lifestyle, and character, and sensibility: where do we buy it, how do we brew it, how strong can we take it? How often, how hot, how cold? How does coffee remind us, stir us, comfort us? But Coffee is about more than coffee: it’s a personal history and a promise to self; in her confrontation with the hours (with time—big picture, little picture), Dinah Lenney faces head on the challenges of growing older and carrying on. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic Title Page Copyright Page CONTENTS PROLOGUE Chapter 1: THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE TASK Chapter 2: MY MOTHER IS COMING, MY MOTHER IS COMING THE QUESTIONNAIRE Chapter 3: COFFEE-MILK FROM THE COFFEE DIARIES #1 Chapter 4: MY EMERGING PALATE A COFFEE STORY (THIRD-HAND) Chapter 5: WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT COFFEE (TERESA WAS RIGHT) Chapter 6: COFFEE IN BROOKLYN Chapter 7: TWENTY-TWO HANDS . . . A COFFEE STORY (FIRST-HAND) RULES SHMULES (JUST A FEW, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER) THESE THINGS ABOUT COFFEE ARE TRUE FROM THE COFFEE DIARIES #2 Chapter 8: SERIOUS BUSINESS Chapter 9: SHOULDN’T COFFEE TASTE LIKE COFFEE? (IF YOU SAY SO) Chapter 10: COFFEE IN PARIS Chapter 11: EXTENDING THE METAPHOR Chapter 12: ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE Chapter 13: THE POWER OF SUGGESTION Chapter 14: ONE MORE PROMPT Chapter 15: AM I BLUE FROM THE COFFEE DIARIES #3 Chapter 16: A WORD ABOUT TEA A RIDDLE (EXCELLENT ADVERTISING) FROM THE COFFEE DIARIES #4 Chapter 17: REUNION COFFEE AND MY FATHER FROM THE COFFEE DIARIES #5 FROM THE COFFEE DIARIES #6 Chapter 18: COFFEE AND CATASTROPHE FROM THE COFFEE DIARIES #7 Chapter 19: COFFEE IN ECHO PARK Chapter 20: COFFEE AND THE JEWS COFFEE AND DAD Chapter 21: THE WIDOW Chapter 22: ALTERED STATES FROM THE COFFEE DIARIES #8 FROM THE COFFEE DIARIES #9 FROM THE COFFEE DIARIES #10 EPILOGUE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS MY COFFEE BOOK FORT (FURTHER READING) INDEX Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Coffee--it's the thing that gets us through, and over, and around. The thing--the beverage, the break, the ritual--we choose to slow ourselves down or speed ourselves up. The excuse to pause; the reason to meet; the charge we who drink it allow ourselves in lieu of something stronger or scarier. Coffee goes to lifestyle, and character, and where do we buy it, how do we brew it, how strong can we take it, how often, how hot, how cold? How does coffee remind us, stir us, comfort us? But Coffee is about more than it's a personal history and a promise to self; in her confrontation with the hours (with time--big picture, little picture), Dinah Lenney faces head-on the challenges of growing older and carrying on. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic . "An intimate look at how coffee comforts and inspires and restores-how it works against time, with time, in time, to wake us up, to slow us down, to let us savor, ponder, prepare, reach out, remember, resolve, and dream"-- Provided by publisher