What do you think?
Rate this book
The Satisfaction Café
Joan Liang’s life is a series of surprising developments: She never thought she would leave Taiwan for California nor did she expect her first marriage to implode—especially as quickly and spectacularly as it did. She definitely did not expect to fall in love with and marry an older, wealthy American and have children with him. Through all this she wrestles with one persistent question: Will she ever feel truly satisfied?
As Joan and her children grow older and their circumstances evolve, she makes a drastic change by opening the Satisfaction Café, a place where people can visit for a bit of conversation and to be heard and understood. Through this radical yet pragmatic business, Joan constructs a lasting legacy.
As Joan and her children grow older and their circumstances evolve, she makes a drastic change by opening the Satisfaction Café, a place where people can visit for a bit of conversation and to be heard and understood. Through this radical yet pragmatic business, Joan constructs a lasting legacy.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2025
718 people are currently reading
30263 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 663 reviews
June 11, 2025
Your life was the most terrible thing to give away. Day after day, when you passed it not as you wanted, when you spent it as a compromise.
I'm a big fan of Kathy Wang's books, though they seem to hover around a 3.2 average rating on Goodreads, which is uncommonly low. But, looking over the reviews, I see a lot of misplaced expectations. People disappointed that Family Trust was not Crazy Rich Asians; others disappointed that Impostor Syndrome was not a thriller.
I don’t say this to dismiss those readers who genuinely just don’t enjoy Wang’s writing, but I do think it is very helpful to know what kind of story you’re getting. And what Kathy Wang writes are intimate and slow-moving character studies, sometimes about unlikable people. I find her books to be less about what happens, and more about how the characters process and respond to events psychically and emotionally. It's not Kevin Kwan or Harlan Coben. It's more Celeste Ng, Ann Patchett or Angie Kim.
This kind of storytelling works for me. I enjoy it. I can see why it would be boring as hell for a reader in the mood for a thriller or soap opera.
The Satisfaction Café is another slow-moving character-driven story-- primarily about a woman's life, but also about the cast of characters she meets over the course of her lifetime. While we're setting expectations, I think it's worth noting that the titular cafe does not make an appearance until later in the story. Before that, we see Joan coming to the United States from Taiwan, having a quick and disastrous first marriage, then eventually marrying Bill, an older and very wealthy American.
I found Joan very easy to sympathise with, and I eagerly followed all the ups and downs of her life story. She faces hardships, and sometimes she gets very lucky, while through it all Wang weaves in the stories of all those around her with emotional intelligence and empathy.
The actual cafe, when it does emerge, is a kind of talking therapy cafe dedicated to offering a compassionate and listening ear to all those who enter, a similar idea to the Chatty Cafe Scheme but with its own base (i.e. not hosted by other businesses.) Joan's observations throughout her life have been that most people are just looking for someone to talk to, to make them feel listened to, and so the cafe becomes her passion project.
Not a propulsive pageturner, but I found The Satisfaction Café to be a quietly compelling novel that rewards patience. If you appreciate nuanced character studies that explore the complexities of human connection and the subtle ways people cope with life’s challenges, this book will likely resonate deeply.
August 12, 2025
Sometimes Joan wished there was a place she could visit to feel less alone: a restaurant with very friendly servers, perhaps , where she might order a bowl of spaghetti and casually surrender her insecurities . When she was little, she used to daydream of a place she named in her head the Satisfaction Café, which had friendly employees and nice food and pretty toys; even as a child, Joan’s imagination had not stretched to fantastic outcomes but, rather, a reasonable amount of happiness.
The Satisfaction Café follows Joan as she settles down in California, through her difficulties in the first few years including a divorce, to her life as a rich white older man's wife, slowly moulding her life around her children and her house, until she starts creating something new based on a childhood wish.
Yes, Joan was fortunate. But she knew this only meant danger, because eventually good luck turned to bad. And really, there was so much to go wrong in a life: you could cross the street and be hit by a car; a random bubble might travel into your brain and then, well, you needn’t worry about anything anymore.
The slow plot focuses on Joan's introspection more than even her misfortunes, finding her feet again after the death of her husband and her house burning down, and throwing herself into raising her children. The character sketch of Joan is very well done, showing incredible fortitude and a sense of practicality through her troubles, but more importantly in how she goes against this inertia to create something new - opening The Satisfaction Café in her later years.
More than just a simple café serving coffee and pastries, Joan builds around a beautiful concept, simple yet not easy to create - an ambience of contentment and conversation. Kathy Wang does a brilliant job in weaving the beautiful premise, Joan's practical character arc and her stately writing to tell this story.
Youth didn’t understand, however, how much luck played into it, that loneliness wasn’t always a choice. Whereas at Joan’s age, you knew it was always somewhere ahead, waiting. It could happen to anyone.
The secondary characters are all also quite vivid, some a little too vivid and caricatures of the rich and privileged. While most of Joan's reactions to events resonated, there were some aspects of the story, like her life in Taiwan with her parents ending in cutting off contact, and the circumstances behind her adoption of her daughter Lee felt a bit too far fetched. However, as a whole, the novel is a quietly impactful read, recommended for anyone interested in an introspective story of shaking off inertia and trying something new for contentment.
For now that she was a widow with children, Joan felt she understood with real clarity the cycle of life— the ultimate end and all that currently lay in between and the eternal problem that there didn’t seem to be enough there.
Thanks to NetGalley and the Scribner publishing group for an ARC, the review is entirely honest.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
[One star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the characters and their arcs; Half a star for the plot and themes; 3/4 star for the world-building; 3/4 star for the writing - 4 stars in total.]
The Satisfaction Café follows Joan as she settles down in California, through her difficulties in the first few years including a divorce, to her life as a rich white older man's wife, slowly moulding her life around her children and her house, until she starts creating something new based on a childhood wish.
Yes, Joan was fortunate. But she knew this only meant danger, because eventually good luck turned to bad. And really, there was so much to go wrong in a life: you could cross the street and be hit by a car; a random bubble might travel into your brain and then, well, you needn’t worry about anything anymore.
The slow plot focuses on Joan's introspection more than even her misfortunes, finding her feet again after the death of her husband and her house burning down, and throwing herself into raising her children. The character sketch of Joan is very well done, showing incredible fortitude and a sense of practicality through her troubles, but more importantly in how she goes against this inertia to create something new - opening The Satisfaction Café in her later years.
More than just a simple café serving coffee and pastries, Joan builds around a beautiful concept, simple yet not easy to create - an ambience of contentment and conversation. Kathy Wang does a brilliant job in weaving the beautiful premise, Joan's practical character arc and her stately writing to tell this story.
Youth didn’t understand, however, how much luck played into it, that loneliness wasn’t always a choice. Whereas at Joan’s age, you knew it was always somewhere ahead, waiting. It could happen to anyone.
The secondary characters are all also quite vivid, some a little too vivid and caricatures of the rich and privileged. While most of Joan's reactions to events resonated, there were some aspects of the story, like her life in Taiwan with her parents ending in cutting off contact, and the circumstances behind her adoption of her daughter Lee felt a bit too far fetched. However, as a whole, the novel is a quietly impactful read, recommended for anyone interested in an introspective story of shaking off inertia and trying something new for contentment.
For now that she was a widow with children, Joan felt she understood with real clarity the cycle of life— the ultimate end and all that currently lay in between and the eternal problem that there didn’t seem to be enough there.
Thanks to NetGalley and the Scribner publishing group for an ARC, the review is entirely honest.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
[One star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the characters and their arcs; Half a star for the plot and themes; 3/4 star for the world-building; 3/4 star for the writing - 4 stars in total.]
July 22, 2025
On the first page of “The Satisfaction Café,” Kathy Wang writes, “Joan had not thought she would stab her husband.”
I’ve just met Joan, but I already like her spontaneous style. And it turns out, she’s not really such a menace to civil society — or even to husbands. But don’t push her too far.
Joan, the heroine of Wang’s winsome third novel, is a Chinese graduate student at Stanford in the 1970s. Although she ranked at the top of her Taiwanese high school, her parents had no intention of sending her abroad — until her three brothers flamed out. Now, on weekly long-distance phone calls, her miserable mother and philandering father hound her to start making money.
A less-dutiful daughter studying in America might just stop calling home, but “Joan was grateful, as she was a girl and thus not entitled to anything.” At first, she brings that same sense of compliance into her marriage with a handsome Chinese architecture student. “Being an adult was delightful,” Joan thinks. “Each new milestone was remarkable and thrilling.” The trick, she knows, is to “award your spouse a victory each day.”
Wang slathers on the giddy submissiveness pretty thick in these opening pages, which is particularly funny since we know this matrimonial bliss is about to get literally pierced. But don’t assume you know much about Joan — at least not...
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
I’ve just met Joan, but I already like her spontaneous style. And it turns out, she’s not really such a menace to civil society — or even to husbands. But don’t push her too far.
Joan, the heroine of Wang’s winsome third novel, is a Chinese graduate student at Stanford in the 1970s. Although she ranked at the top of her Taiwanese high school, her parents had no intention of sending her abroad — until her three brothers flamed out. Now, on weekly long-distance phone calls, her miserable mother and philandering father hound her to start making money.
A less-dutiful daughter studying in America might just stop calling home, but “Joan was grateful, as she was a girl and thus not entitled to anything.” At first, she brings that same sense of compliance into her marriage with a handsome Chinese architecture student. “Being an adult was delightful,” Joan thinks. “Each new milestone was remarkable and thrilling.” The trick, she knows, is to “award your spouse a victory each day.”
Wang slathers on the giddy submissiveness pretty thick in these opening pages, which is particularly funny since we know this matrimonial bliss is about to get literally pierced. But don’t assume you know much about Joan — at least not...
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
July 13, 2025
You're On the Guestlist
In “Satisfaction Cafe,” Kathy Wang presents an extremely complex and compelling protagonist, Joan Liang. She was born in Taiwan to parents who never liked her and considered her a liability. By a stroke of luck, it was she, and not her more valued brothers, who was sent off to California to study at Stanford. Her marriage to a Chinese man is short lived, ending abruptly when she stabs him. Soon afterwards, she accepted a marriage proposal from Bill, a wealthy older man with three previous marriages. Their union faced considerable scrutiny from both their families, especially Bill's children.
At this point in the story, Joan’s life seems to have followed a haphazard path, not anything she could have planned. In many respects she seems to have been passive, more an observer of what is happening. However, she demonstrated assertiveness when she confronted her first husband and later took drastic action to protect her son from a bully.
Joan’s situation changes and, as her children get on with their lives, she finds herself increasingly isolated. A chance conversation with a stranger prompts Joan to recognize the desire people have for communication and the need to tell their story to someone who listens. This resurrects an old fantasy:
“When she was little, she used to daydream of a place she named in her head the Satisfaction Café, which had friendly employees and nice food and pretty toys; even as a child, Joan’s imagination had not stretched to fantastic outcomes but, rather, a reasonable amount of happiness.”
Joan opens the Satisfaction Cafe with a simple philosophy: people want to be heard. She recruits various types of people for her customers to open up to. She tells her staff that people just want to be asked about themselves. “Ask questions— about them! If they look troubled, ask what is bothering them! Everyone is interesting— you just have to discover what it is.”
While the title might suggest the cafe is present throughout the book, it only appears in the final third. Also, this is character-driven with emotional depth rather than employing dramatic plot devices. Some may find this too slow, though I personally enjoyed it. It has been written more than once that Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout fans are likely to appreciate this book, which should give you a good indication of its style.
I just found Joan fascinating and unpredictable… in other words, very authentic. She is someone I would like to find myself at a table with.
Thank you to Scribner Books and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #SatisfactionCafe
In “Satisfaction Cafe,” Kathy Wang presents an extremely complex and compelling protagonist, Joan Liang. She was born in Taiwan to parents who never liked her and considered her a liability. By a stroke of luck, it was she, and not her more valued brothers, who was sent off to California to study at Stanford. Her marriage to a Chinese man is short lived, ending abruptly when she stabs him. Soon afterwards, she accepted a marriage proposal from Bill, a wealthy older man with three previous marriages. Their union faced considerable scrutiny from both their families, especially Bill's children.
At this point in the story, Joan’s life seems to have followed a haphazard path, not anything she could have planned. In many respects she seems to have been passive, more an observer of what is happening. However, she demonstrated assertiveness when she confronted her first husband and later took drastic action to protect her son from a bully.
Joan’s situation changes and, as her children get on with their lives, she finds herself increasingly isolated. A chance conversation with a stranger prompts Joan to recognize the desire people have for communication and the need to tell their story to someone who listens. This resurrects an old fantasy:
“When she was little, she used to daydream of a place she named in her head the Satisfaction Café, which had friendly employees and nice food and pretty toys; even as a child, Joan’s imagination had not stretched to fantastic outcomes but, rather, a reasonable amount of happiness.”
Joan opens the Satisfaction Cafe with a simple philosophy: people want to be heard. She recruits various types of people for her customers to open up to. She tells her staff that people just want to be asked about themselves. “Ask questions— about them! If they look troubled, ask what is bothering them! Everyone is interesting— you just have to discover what it is.”
While the title might suggest the cafe is present throughout the book, it only appears in the final third. Also, this is character-driven with emotional depth rather than employing dramatic plot devices. Some may find this too slow, though I personally enjoyed it. It has been written more than once that Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout fans are likely to appreciate this book, which should give you a good indication of its style.
I just found Joan fascinating and unpredictable… in other words, very authentic. She is someone I would like to find myself at a table with.
Thank you to Scribner Books and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #SatisfactionCafe
June 23, 2025
The Satisfaction Cafe
by Kathy Wang
You might think this story is going to be set in a café, and looking at the absolutely gorgeous cover, you'd be forgiven for thinking that, but actually the café is so tangential to the main narrative, it's a puzzling choice for the title.
The first 20% of this story really captured my imagination. It describes Joan as such a ballsy character I felt sure we were going to have a lot of fun with her. Her deft handling of her first husband felt like foreshadowing, however she soon settles into a boring life of wifedom to a much older, much wealthier man, and the Joan I was eager to read about collapses into herself.
There are lots of cute moments in this tale of immigrant-made-good, but it's difficult to discern what the message is. I think it's supposed to be about being true to yourself, but that's so contradictory to how Joan is presented at first.
I think it's trying to say so much, it's failing to say anything coherently.
It is, however, a nice easy read, cosy and cute, which I'm sure many readers will appreciate.
Publication date: 26th June 2025
Thanks to #Netgalley and #LittleBrownBookGroup for providing an ARC for review purposes.
by Kathy Wang
You might think this story is going to be set in a café, and looking at the absolutely gorgeous cover, you'd be forgiven for thinking that, but actually the café is so tangential to the main narrative, it's a puzzling choice for the title.
The first 20% of this story really captured my imagination. It describes Joan as such a ballsy character I felt sure we were going to have a lot of fun with her. Her deft handling of her first husband felt like foreshadowing, however she soon settles into a boring life of wifedom to a much older, much wealthier man, and the Joan I was eager to read about collapses into herself.
There are lots of cute moments in this tale of immigrant-made-good, but it's difficult to discern what the message is. I think it's supposed to be about being true to yourself, but that's so contradictory to how Joan is presented at first.
I think it's trying to say so much, it's failing to say anything coherently.
It is, however, a nice easy read, cosy and cute, which I'm sure many readers will appreciate.
Publication date: 26th June 2025
Thanks to #Netgalley and #LittleBrownBookGroup for providing an ARC for review purposes.
March 4, 2025
4.5 stars. Such a quiet and powerful book. I will be thinking about this one for a long time.
July 18, 2025
This was a library book that I liked well enough to continue reading, but not enough to rave about. In fact, it was fairly mediocre, with just enough surprising things happening to keep going to the end. Joan was a person that things happened to, not one who made things happen, until her husband died and a few years later she opened the Satisfaction Cafe. This was a place for lonely people to find someone to talk to, or someone to listen to, or just to be around others.
A friend of mine listened to me once talking about taking my dog to a local dog park and talking with the ever changing people there for just a few minutes of socialization, for both me and my dog. "Aah", she said, "conversation without commitment." Exactly!
That was the Satisfaction Cafe, but that didn't come into play until the last third of the book. In short, this book could have been so much more, and I was disappointed that it wasn't.
A friend of mine listened to me once talking about taking my dog to a local dog park and talking with the ever changing people there for just a few minutes of socialization, for both me and my dog. "Aah", she said, "conversation without commitment." Exactly!
That was the Satisfaction Cafe, but that didn't come into play until the last third of the book. In short, this book could have been so much more, and I was disappointed that it wasn't.
June 21, 2025
3.5 Stars
First of all- love the colorful cover! The book begins with the main character Joan who was born in China, but is now a college student at Stanford in California. The beginning of the book "popped" for me with a first marriage and a riveting incident that took place in a video store. The rest of the book settled in for a "quiet read" where Joan's life pleasantly unfolded into a second marriage with a much older man of means, living in a lovely, expansive home. It wasn't until much later in the book that the so called "Satisfaction Cafe" appeared. I thought this business concept was financially untenable; the idea of hiring hosts that could sit and have conversations with you while you had a slice of lemon cake. It's a cute and therapeutic idea, but the black and white way I look at things made me cynical that such a business could prosper. Call me "devil's advocate", but I think it would have been very interesting to explore what was happening during the video store incident that exploded at the beginning of the book. This was an OK read that went a little off the rails at the end.
Thank you to the publisher Scribner for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
First of all- love the colorful cover! The book begins with the main character Joan who was born in China, but is now a college student at Stanford in California. The beginning of the book "popped" for me with a first marriage and a riveting incident that took place in a video store. The rest of the book settled in for a "quiet read" where Joan's life pleasantly unfolded into a second marriage with a much older man of means, living in a lovely, expansive home. It wasn't until much later in the book that the so called "Satisfaction Cafe" appeared. I thought this business concept was financially untenable; the idea of hiring hosts that could sit and have conversations with you while you had a slice of lemon cake. It's a cute and therapeutic idea, but the black and white way I look at things made me cynical that such a business could prosper. Call me "devil's advocate", but I think it would have been very interesting to explore what was happening during the video store incident that exploded at the beginning of the book. This was an OK read that went a little off the rails at the end.
Thank you to the publisher Scribner for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
July 8, 2025
4.5 stars. What a quietly compelling and comforting debut. The story observes a woman’s everyday life, those she meets in her lifetime, and her unexpected journey in which she ponders if she will ever be truly satisfied, and in turn, seeking that within herself. This enlightened tale gives you much to think on. Pub. 7/1/25
July 6, 2025
The Satisfaction Café is a beautifully layered and emotionally resonant novel that explores the intricacies of identity, reinvention, and human connection. At the heart of the story is Joan Liang, a complex, quietly powerful woman who navigates unexpected turns in her life—from immigration and divorce to motherhood and remarriage—with resilience and a curious openness to the world.
What begins as a tale of survival evolves into one of intentional living, as Joan ultimately opens a café not just for food, but for emotional nourishment—a bold experiment in connection and community. Kathy Wang writes with wit, empathy, and a keen eye for the rhythms of daily life, especially the quiet moments that build into a legacy. The novel asks—and gracefully begins to answer—what it means to live a satisfying life, especially in the face of change, loss, and aging. Joan is a heroine for anyone who has ever started over or dared to redefine what fulfillment looks like.
Kathy Wang’s The Satisfaction Café is an unforgettable literary gem that blends humor, heartache, and hope into a deeply satisfying story. With prose that’s both elegant and accessible, Wang captures the messiness of real life while offering a narrative full of insight and compassion.
Joan Liang is a quietly revolutionary protagonist—steadfast, funny, and deeply human. Her journey from disillusionment to purposeful reinvention is rendered with such nuance and grace that readers will cheer her on every step of the way. The creation of the café is more than a plot point—it’s a metaphor for what we all seek: connection, meaning, and a place to belong.
This novel is a celebration of second (and third, and fourth) chances, a tender examination of aging and motherhood, and a hopeful guide to finding satisfaction at any stage of life. If you’re looking for a book that makes you laugh, cry, and reflect long after the last page, this is it.
Highly recommended for fans of Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, and anyone who believes in the transformative power of storytelling.
What begins as a tale of survival evolves into one of intentional living, as Joan ultimately opens a café not just for food, but for emotional nourishment—a bold experiment in connection and community. Kathy Wang writes with wit, empathy, and a keen eye for the rhythms of daily life, especially the quiet moments that build into a legacy. The novel asks—and gracefully begins to answer—what it means to live a satisfying life, especially in the face of change, loss, and aging. Joan is a heroine for anyone who has ever started over or dared to redefine what fulfillment looks like.
Kathy Wang’s The Satisfaction Café is an unforgettable literary gem that blends humor, heartache, and hope into a deeply satisfying story. With prose that’s both elegant and accessible, Wang captures the messiness of real life while offering a narrative full of insight and compassion.
Joan Liang is a quietly revolutionary protagonist—steadfast, funny, and deeply human. Her journey from disillusionment to purposeful reinvention is rendered with such nuance and grace that readers will cheer her on every step of the way. The creation of the café is more than a plot point—it’s a metaphor for what we all seek: connection, meaning, and a place to belong.
This novel is a celebration of second (and third, and fourth) chances, a tender examination of aging and motherhood, and a hopeful guide to finding satisfaction at any stage of life. If you’re looking for a book that makes you laugh, cry, and reflect long after the last page, this is it.
Highly recommended for fans of Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, and anyone who believes in the transformative power of storytelling.
July 23, 2025
4.5 stars
Oh my goodness this was just the sweetest story. I love Joan and getting to know her, her family, friends, and her wonderful little Satisfaction Cafe. A place you could go for a sweet treat, a hot coffee/tea, and good conversation. Sign me up! Not a lot happens, it’s a quiet story, and that’s ok. I’m thankful for authors who write these style stories. It amazes me at times when I stop to think about the words I’m reading and how they land just when you need them. I’m thrilled this book landed on my radar.
“ That’s how it is with such moments: we don’t always know which will stick around, and sometimes they are so vivid we must pack them away for a while. Joan would think about this later— how few truly surprising, lovely moments one receives in a lifetime. Surely there must be ways to have a new connection, a satisfying connection. Joan would devote a great deal of herself to this question; it would become one of her life’s obsessions.”
Oh my goodness this was just the sweetest story. I love Joan and getting to know her, her family, friends, and her wonderful little Satisfaction Cafe. A place you could go for a sweet treat, a hot coffee/tea, and good conversation. Sign me up! Not a lot happens, it’s a quiet story, and that’s ok. I’m thankful for authors who write these style stories. It amazes me at times when I stop to think about the words I’m reading and how they land just when you need them. I’m thrilled this book landed on my radar.
“ That’s how it is with such moments: we don’t always know which will stick around, and sometimes they are so vivid we must pack them away for a while. Joan would think about this later— how few truly surprising, lovely moments one receives in a lifetime. Surely there must be ways to have a new connection, a satisfying connection. Joan would devote a great deal of herself to this question; it would become one of her life’s obsessions.”
June 26, 2025
Kathy Wang provides a completely binge-worthy experience in "The Satisfaction Café," pulling me so deeply into Joan's journey from Taiwan to America that her struggles and triumphs feel like those of a close friend rather than fictional constructs.
Through richly textured flashbacks, we witness Joan's complicated childhood morphing into her adult decision-making, creating this haunting sense of generational echo that feels both inevitable and heartbreaking. Her marriage to a wealthy, older American becomes not just a plot point but a canvas for exploring how we learn to love despite our wounded pasts. Wang crafts these relationships with such psychological depth that Joan's growing capacity for forgiveness feels earned rather than prescribed.
What makes this novel particularly affecting is how it captures the quiet devastation of midlife loneliness. As Joan navigates grief and the increasingly complex terrain of parenting teens and adult children, there's this palpable ache that Wang never rushes to resolve. The creation of The Satisfaction Café emerges as both practical solution and profound metaphor—a space where genuine human connection becomes both business model and spiritual salvation.
Katharine Chin's audiobook narration elevates the experience further, her nuanced accents bringing Joan and the supporting cast to vivid life. The shifts between Joan's Taiwanese-inflected English and the voices of those around her create this subtle emotional geography that text alone couldn't capture.
The novel ultimately asks us the questions we're often too busy to consider: What constitutes a satisfied life? Are our disappointments failures of circumstance or imagination? The answers may differ, but the asking—that's where Wang's true genius lies.
Special thanks to Simon and Schuster Audio and Atria Books for providing the free book and audiobook for review, though all opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Through richly textured flashbacks, we witness Joan's complicated childhood morphing into her adult decision-making, creating this haunting sense of generational echo that feels both inevitable and heartbreaking. Her marriage to a wealthy, older American becomes not just a plot point but a canvas for exploring how we learn to love despite our wounded pasts. Wang crafts these relationships with such psychological depth that Joan's growing capacity for forgiveness feels earned rather than prescribed.
What makes this novel particularly affecting is how it captures the quiet devastation of midlife loneliness. As Joan navigates grief and the increasingly complex terrain of parenting teens and adult children, there's this palpable ache that Wang never rushes to resolve. The creation of The Satisfaction Café emerges as both practical solution and profound metaphor—a space where genuine human connection becomes both business model and spiritual salvation.
Katharine Chin's audiobook narration elevates the experience further, her nuanced accents bringing Joan and the supporting cast to vivid life. The shifts between Joan's Taiwanese-inflected English and the voices of those around her create this subtle emotional geography that text alone couldn't capture.
The novel ultimately asks us the questions we're often too busy to consider: What constitutes a satisfied life? Are our disappointments failures of circumstance or imagination? The answers may differ, but the asking—that's where Wang's true genius lies.
Special thanks to Simon and Schuster Audio and Atria Books for providing the free book and audiobook for review, though all opinions expressed are entirely my own.
July 28, 2025
Tough one. I wanted to like it more because the messages are good, but good messages don't necessarily translate into gripping stories. The writing is super clean but almost disaffected at times. I never felt a strong organic sense; things just kind of happened and we were told about it. There are a lot of stories out there and I couldn't necessarily recommend this one as worth the time. Simply ok
September 22, 2025
I was vested in the main character of the story, Joan. She comes to America as a new bride, with the grand ideal that she needs to make her marriage work, u til it doesn’t.
Joan kept taking turns backwards-leaving an abusive marriage that started in Thailand only to meet a white man with rampant sexual liaisons outside of marriage. She puts up with this, because well of course, ‘my husband is kind and provides for me and I am safe.’
While Joan makes mistake after mistake, never—-learning, there is no grand satisfaction,- just a sad disjointed-ness of a story..
2.5 stars
Joan kept taking turns backwards-leaving an abusive marriage that started in Thailand only to meet a white man with rampant sexual liaisons outside of marriage. She puts up with this, because well of course, ‘my husband is kind and provides for me and I am safe.’
While Joan makes mistake after mistake, never—-learning, there is no grand satisfaction,- just a sad disjointed-ness of a story..
2.5 stars
August 17, 2025
The title and cover are entirely misleading as the cafe doesn’t come into existence until near the end of the story. The cafe didn’t have much to do either with anything in the story. Cafe was disjointed and rambling and dare I say, pointless. Reviews talk about it being a character study and make comparisons to authors like Ann Patchett. I beg to differ. I had to force myself to finish this book with characters I really disliked.
April 12, 2025
I have mixed feelings about this book.
I loved the beginning and the first half of it, but once I got half way through it, I didn’t find it as captivating and intriguing as the first part was. I loved Joan, the center and main character of the story, and I liked how the story covers her entire lifetime, but I felt like there wasn’t really a turning point once she opened her café. I was hoping it would direct the story in a total different way, instead I found it a bit boring. Even though I enjoyed the realistic way in which certain topics are talked about (family dynamics, craving and creating true connections) I wish it kept me interested until the end.
Thank you Scribner for the copy
I loved the beginning and the first half of it, but once I got half way through it, I didn’t find it as captivating and intriguing as the first part was. I loved Joan, the center and main character of the story, and I liked how the story covers her entire lifetime, but I felt like there wasn’t really a turning point once she opened her café. I was hoping it would direct the story in a total different way, instead I found it a bit boring. Even though I enjoyed the realistic way in which certain topics are talked about (family dynamics, craving and creating true connections) I wish it kept me interested until the end.
Thank you Scribner for the copy
July 2, 2025
Happy pub day, Wang.
The Satisfaction Café’s main character, Joan Liang, immigrates from Taiwan to America, divorces her first husband in her early twenties, and at 26 marries a Bill (51). Bill is an upper-middle-class white man who serially marries women, and when Joan recognizes his infidelity, she ignores it. Instead, she focuses on navigating Bill’s rich friend group as a stay-at-home mom, attentively raising her kids and keeping the home. When Bill dies, the house he leaves her burns in a fire, and it turns out he didn’t accumulate enough savings for his family. Joan’s single-mother responsibilities pile on as her teenage kids experience normal teen probs, and their relationships continue through highs and lows until the end of Joan’s life. Before her planned death, though, Joan pursues a new dream of becoming a small business owner. Her Satisfaction Café offers a space for customers to schedule chats with employees to combat loneliness and isolation.
The novel moves quickly and never gives me the space to burrow into the characters’ minds. In other words, the pacing and intentional degrees of distance between characters (across the board) and the reader leave me mentally unstimulated. It remains unclear to me why Joan loses contact with her parents, and I’m assuming she requires the boundary from the adults who never loved her. It could be true that she’s able to cut ties completely, but this absence of filial piety seems culturally unbelievable to me, especially given the timing of the story. The plot also perplexes me: Wang introduces the café maybe two-thirds into the book; given the title, I expected the café to exist earlier on in the story so that it would feel more central. Additionally, I wasn’t believing the effectiveness of this space that draws the crowds. On the one hand, as successful as the store is, I didn’t witness the positive influence on customers’ lives, except that readers are informed that some become regulars. On the other hand, the café brings together the employees, including the two adult children, and maybe this emphasis matters more to Wang. Ultimately, Wang may have developed The Satisfaction Café more for my preferences, and her newest didn’t work for me. This confuses me because Wang is a seasoned author. What am I missing? Even the reviews about the complex characters as a feat don’t sway me; I imagine I could list a number of recent reads that excel at this particular task.
My thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an ARC.
The Satisfaction Café’s main character, Joan Liang, immigrates from Taiwan to America, divorces her first husband in her early twenties, and at 26 marries a Bill (51). Bill is an upper-middle-class white man who serially marries women, and when Joan recognizes his infidelity, she ignores it. Instead, she focuses on navigating Bill’s rich friend group as a stay-at-home mom, attentively raising her kids and keeping the home. When Bill dies, the house he leaves her burns in a fire, and it turns out he didn’t accumulate enough savings for his family. Joan’s single-mother responsibilities pile on as her teenage kids experience normal teen probs, and their relationships continue through highs and lows until the end of Joan’s life. Before her planned death, though, Joan pursues a new dream of becoming a small business owner. Her Satisfaction Café offers a space for customers to schedule chats with employees to combat loneliness and isolation.
The novel moves quickly and never gives me the space to burrow into the characters’ minds. In other words, the pacing and intentional degrees of distance between characters (across the board) and the reader leave me mentally unstimulated. It remains unclear to me why Joan loses contact with her parents, and I’m assuming she requires the boundary from the adults who never loved her. It could be true that she’s able to cut ties completely, but this absence of filial piety seems culturally unbelievable to me, especially given the timing of the story. The plot also perplexes me: Wang introduces the café maybe two-thirds into the book; given the title, I expected the café to exist earlier on in the story so that it would feel more central. Additionally, I wasn’t believing the effectiveness of this space that draws the crowds. On the one hand, as successful as the store is, I didn’t witness the positive influence on customers’ lives, except that readers are informed that some become regulars. On the other hand, the café brings together the employees, including the two adult children, and maybe this emphasis matters more to Wang. Ultimately, Wang may have developed The Satisfaction Café more for my preferences, and her newest didn’t work for me. This confuses me because Wang is a seasoned author. What am I missing? Even the reviews about the complex characters as a feat don’t sway me; I imagine I could list a number of recent reads that excel at this particular task.
My thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an ARC.
January 26, 2025
It's going to take me a long time to unpack this book, but I was completely drawn in from the very first sentence and found myself fully sobbing by the end. What a beautiful and devastating character study.
Content warning: Brief scenes of domestic violence and child sex abuse
Content warning: Brief scenes of domestic violence and child sex abuse
January 7, 2025
The Satisfaction Cafe is such a stunning and comforting story, it has so much to offer its readers - love, courage, joy, kindness, forgiveness, and, most of all, hope. As soon as I started reading, I was hooked. Joan is such an incredible person, it's hard to think of her as a character in a book... she's so much more than that by the time you turn the last page. I enjoyed reading the love story of Joan and Bill, I enjoyed reading about their crazy family members and I especially enjoyed the cafe. This is definitely a book that I'll be recommending to many people.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read the free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read the free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
April 8, 2025
I became fully engrossed in Kathy Wang’s “The Satisfaction Café”—a book that could have been ordinary, but instead felt quietly extraordinary. Its focus on subtle, interpersonal reflection made me care deeply about Joan and her journey from Taiwan to California and the life she built in Palo Alto. Wang so richly developed Joan’s world—her family, her friends, and her inner life—that I found myself wanting to step inside it, to visit the Satisfaction Café and sit beside Joan.
July 31, 2025
2.5
This was ok, but not what I thought it was going to be about. The cafe doesn't even enter the story until 200+ pages in, and it's not the focal point. The cover makes you think that's what the book is about, a lovely cafe and the lives in it. I feel duped.
This was ok, but not what I thought it was going to be about. The cafe doesn't even enter the story until 200+ pages in, and it's not the focal point. The cover makes you think that's what the book is about, a lovely cafe and the lives in it. I feel duped.
August 19, 2025
2.5 Stars
Recommended by NPR. Waste of my time. I didn't connect with any of the characters and I'm bored with the story line.
Recommended by NPR. Waste of my time. I didn't connect with any of the characters and I'm bored with the story line.
2025
October 3, 2025ANHPI TBR
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner
August 16, 2025
Kathy Wang's The Satisfaction Cafe takes readers to a place where people pay to sit with a host and just talk over coffee and pastry. Sort of like my neighborhood Starbucks before a disastrous remodel and without the friend fee. Joan is Chinese. She has a bad first marriage and ends up in California. She manages to attend Stanford and becomes Bill's fourth wife. After his death she opens The Satisfaction Cafe. It takes a long time to get there. Parts of the book are boring. It's a long book, but by the end it's worth the trip.
August 27, 2025
This book reminds me of Mitch: it moves slowly and thoughtfully, but really forces you to appreciate the little things
May 21, 2025
“Sometimes we cry and have no idea why.”
I tend to be quick to write a review once I’ve finished a book but after finishing The Satisfaction Cafe I wanted to sit with my thoughts for a bit. Kathy Wang crafted a story that has me reflecting on my own life, the people in it and whether or not I’m satisfied.
“…happiness was only a concept, anyways: a clever, slippery creature that slips through your hands right at the moment when you think you’ve finally caught it.”
This is a story about Joan and her life she has created after moving to California from Taiwan. Her marriages, in-laws, step children and her own children all play a major role in her life at times joyful and others devastating. She poses the questions about satisfaction and can anyone feel truly satisfied.
“Sometimes there were people like this who might be a part of your life, who you wished could be a bigger part-but it wasn't meant to be, and you had only that limited share.”
I’m in a bit of awww how I journeyed through Joan’s life in 352 pages. I felt connected to not only her but other characters… Lee, Ellison, Misty, Nelson… just to name a few. I think it’s important to note… Yes the cover is stunning and bright, bold and beautiful… but this story is heartbreak with redemption written all over it. There is a Part… I believe it was Part 2… I sat up in bed and would not go to sleep til I reached Part 3. A bit of a pager turner. Yet quiet and reflective. This would make for a wonderful Bookclub pick. A book that feels inspiring and begging to be discussed.
Thank you Scribner
Releases 7/1
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Lyon.brit.A...
I tend to be quick to write a review once I’ve finished a book but after finishing The Satisfaction Cafe I wanted to sit with my thoughts for a bit. Kathy Wang crafted a story that has me reflecting on my own life, the people in it and whether or not I’m satisfied.
“…happiness was only a concept, anyways: a clever, slippery creature that slips through your hands right at the moment when you think you’ve finally caught it.”
This is a story about Joan and her life she has created after moving to California from Taiwan. Her marriages, in-laws, step children and her own children all play a major role in her life at times joyful and others devastating. She poses the questions about satisfaction and can anyone feel truly satisfied.
“Sometimes there were people like this who might be a part of your life, who you wished could be a bigger part-but it wasn't meant to be, and you had only that limited share.”
I’m in a bit of awww how I journeyed through Joan’s life in 352 pages. I felt connected to not only her but other characters… Lee, Ellison, Misty, Nelson… just to name a few. I think it’s important to note… Yes the cover is stunning and bright, bold and beautiful… but this story is heartbreak with redemption written all over it. There is a Part… I believe it was Part 2… I sat up in bed and would not go to sleep til I reached Part 3. A bit of a pager turner. Yet quiet and reflective. This would make for a wonderful Bookclub pick. A book that feels inspiring and begging to be discussed.
Thank you Scribner
Releases 7/1
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Lyon.brit.A...
July 10, 2025
The Satisfaction Cafe follows the quiet life of Joan Liang from her childhood in Taiwan, college at Stanford, marriages, divorce, children, death. In the United States, Joan struggles to assimilate and form connections and meaningful relationships with others. She’s always viewed as an outsider. The book starts out quite promising, but becomes a bit boring halfway through. It is well written and Kathy Wang is skilled at character development.
Thank you to Scribner and LibroFM for the ARC and ALC.
Thank you to Scribner and LibroFM for the ARC and ALC.
September 23, 2025
THE SATISFACTION CAFE by Kathy Wang is a story about Joan Laing, a woman who moves from Taiwan to California. It follows her life in America through the years, and touches on her two marriages, her motherhood journey, and her business, The Satisfaction Cafe. Joan experiences many hardships, obstacles, and challenges along the way. She doesn’t have the best of luck with men, that’s for sure. She encounters quite a few assholes in her life, which was a huge source of rage bait for myself! Grrrr! The actual cafe in the book’s title doesn’t really come into play until later on in novel, but it was a great addition to the story that added passion and drive to Joan’s character.
READ THIS IF YOU ENJOY:
- Marriage and motherhood
- Family drama
- Character-driven novels
- California setting
- Slow-moving plot
- Multiple timelines
- Immigration stories
- Themes of identity and race
Stories about women’s lives are my ultimate jam, and I truly enjoyed this one for the most part, but it didn’t necessarily wow me. Something seemed off, or perhaps missing. Joan’s life was eventful, but the plot moved a tad slow in my opinion. Some moments were sluggish, yet it did hold my attention from start to finish. Overall, it was a satisfying read, but not my favorite. 3.5/5 stars for THE SATISFACTION CAFE! It’s out now!
READ THIS IF YOU ENJOY:
- Marriage and motherhood
- Family drama
- Character-driven novels
- California setting
- Slow-moving plot
- Multiple timelines
- Immigration stories
- Themes of identity and race
Stories about women’s lives are my ultimate jam, and I truly enjoyed this one for the most part, but it didn’t necessarily wow me. Something seemed off, or perhaps missing. Joan’s life was eventful, but the plot moved a tad slow in my opinion. Some moments were sluggish, yet it did hold my attention from start to finish. Overall, it was a satisfying read, but not my favorite. 3.5/5 stars for THE SATISFACTION CAFE! It’s out now!
July 27, 2025
This was a very well written and easy to read novel which I enjoyed very much. It is definitely character driven so if you need a lot of action, it is not for you. I found it very insightful in exploring the dynamics of the main character Joan from so many perspectives, including immigrant , daughter , wife , mother and her search for her own identity. It held my interest throughout. It seems many reviewers who were disappointed in it had more of an interested in the cafe and who might be visiting it and that is only a very small and minor part of the overall story.
July 30, 2025
What a main character!
THE SATISFACTION CAFE begins with Joan Liang, 25, stabbing her husband. It's 1975, and they've only been married a short time.
The novel follows Joan over time, and I was there for the ride. I did feel that the title and cover were a bit misleading - this is really Joan's story, not that of the cafe (and I wish I'd have gone into the book expecting such!). I also would have structured the last 50 pages differently... But I think those who enjoy a character-driven novel will find a lot to like in Joan and her story.
Thank you to Scribner for a free copy of this title.
THE SATISFACTION CAFE begins with Joan Liang, 25, stabbing her husband. It's 1975, and they've only been married a short time.
The novel follows Joan over time, and I was there for the ride. I did feel that the title and cover were a bit misleading - this is really Joan's story, not that of the cafe (and I wish I'd have gone into the book expecting such!). I also would have structured the last 50 pages differently... But I think those who enjoy a character-driven novel will find a lot to like in Joan and her story.
Thank you to Scribner for a free copy of this title.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 663 reviews