On Tea & Coffee

It's currently 14 degrees in Berkeley Heights, so perhaps these titles from this month's book display on tea and coffee will help warm you up:

Uncommon Grounds by Sandra Balzo. This is one of a couple of coffee-themed mysteries (the other being Cleo Coyle's). Author SJ Rozan wrote the cover quote: "If Nancy Drew grew up, got married, ditched her no-good husband, and opened a coffeehouse, she'd be Maggy Thorsen."

Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire by Roy Moxham, who managed tea plantations in Malawi when it was still a British colony. He begins with Europe's introduction to tea (which is originally from China) in the 17th century and ends with his experiences in Africa.

Coffee and Kung Fu by Karen Brichoux. A copy writer who is obsessed with Kung Fu has to choose between a sensitive guy who works at a coffee shop and a debonair sailboat dealer.

Tea and Sympathy: The Life of an English Teashop in New York by Anita Naughton and Nicola Perry. This is a memoir of the life of a teashop interspersed with recipes that made The Sunday Times of London call it "the most important British cookbook for a generation."