The Coffee Trader: Early Winter 2009 Reading Group

Take a whiff, pour a cup and sit down for a good read with some friends. The Highly-Rated Book Group is pleased to present its Early Winter Book Read: The Coffee Trader: A Novel by David Liss. We will begin reading this book January 5th 2009, and the reading schedule is posted below.

Do you take your coffee Black? Weak or strong? Cream? Sugar? Organic? Imported? Whole bean or ground? The Highly-Rated Book Group welcomes all coffee drinkers and drinkers of non-coffee beverages to our group with equal pleasure.

Your coffee moderator: vintage_books. Favorite coffee: RavensBrew Valentine's Day Blend; Favorite Tea: Mariage Fréres Marco Polo Tea
Your coffee blender, and jack of all trades: TheTortoise. Favorite Tea: Rooibos Tea


 
Our Sponsor
Dianne Sweeny, coauthor of
Cabin 28: The Keddie Murders, a real California horror story.
Visit the book and film site here.
Dianne has graciously donated a single copy of her signed book as a prize for one of our Book Group members. Can you solve the murders?

Our Sponsor
Pat Doolittle is a fantastic painter and printmaker. Visit her site here.
Dianne has graciously donated a single painting of her hand-painted tulips as a prize for one of our contests. This is such a gorgeous one-of-a-kind unique painting we have decided to give it as a prize for a paid LibraryThing member for one of our Book contests.
 
Our Sponsor
We are very honored to have our first sponsor from Hong Kong! Grandtea.com is a Hong Kong based company specializing in high quality teas from China. What started as a shop in Shatin in 2002 by two brothers passionate about tea, has grown into an expanding online business serving small to medium businesses such as coffee shops, restaurants, gourmet food shops and markets. Grandtea.com has graciously awarded a $20 Gift Certificate to a member of our Book Group!


 
Our Sponsor
We are so lucky to have our first coffee sponsor!  With each sip of delicious coffee from the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company, you can enjoy their fantastic Coffee, whether it be their Fair Trade or Organic Beans.  Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company has generously donated a gift certificate to shop their online store to one of our lucky Book Group Readers.
 
Anonymous
   
Our Sponsor
An anonymous donor donated a bag of freshly roasted gourmet coffee + shipping to a USA LibraryThing Highly-Rated Book Group member.Thank you for your generous
donation!

 
Our Sponsor
FunAlliance.com is a great website run by
the smiling and tea-expert Kam in Hong Kong.  He scours the tea shops in Hong Kong and tastes teas for you, bringing the best tea and Chinese artifacts to your door.  FunAlliance has generously donated 2 bags of 3.5 ounces each of Tie Guan Yin tea (think Oolong) to two lucky winners in the US!


About this book
Amsterdam, 1659. On the world’s first commodities exchange, wealth is won and lost in an instant. Miguel Lienzo, a crafty trader in the city’s close-knit community of Portuguese Jews, knows this too well. Once among the most envied of merchants, Miguel has lost everything in a sudden shift in the sugar markets. Impoverished and humiliated, living on the charity of his petty younger brother, Miguel would do anything to change his fortunes.

Flouting the rulings of the Ma’amad, the restrictive and mysterious governing body of the Jewish community, Miguel enters into a partnership with a seductive Dutchwoman who offers him one last chance at success – a daring scheme to corner the market on an astonishing new commodity called coffee.

To succeed, Miguel will have to risk everything he values and test the limits of his commercial guile as he faces not only the chaos of the markets and the greed of his competitors, but also a powerful enemy who will stop at nothing to see him fail. And he will learn that among Amsterdam’s ruthless businessmen, betrayal lurks everywhere and even friends hide secret agendas.

Product Details
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 3, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375760903
ISBN-13: 978-0375760907
Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces

You can choose to purchase the book on Amazon.com and give a small cup of change to LibraryThing here.

Sit back, take a sip of your coffee and prepare to begin a great Online Group Read with friends.