Dear Reader,

There was a little café about five minutes' walk from the house where my husband, my sons, and I lived in Hanoi last year. The place was quaint and cheery, with subdued lighting and rather nice artwork (still lifes and nudes, mostly, painted by the owners' brother). My kids and I often took our box of Monopoly there on winter afternoons. While we played, the boys drank kakao (cocoa), I sipped hot lemonade, and we nibbled on sunflower seeds, dyed red for good luck. I can't say that our café was any more special than the hundreds of others that dot the streets of Hanoi, but in that café we found exactly what we wanted.

I'm a café devotee. It took me about ten years to complete my novel, If You Lived Here, and I can't begin to estimate the number of hours I spent writing it while drinking coffee in a little spot called Folks Café in Wilmington, North Carolina. Cafés serve as important settings in my books, as well. In my memoir, The House on Dream Street, a significant kiss occurs in a café. And in If You Lived Here, the story's biggest secret is revealed, over fresh croissants and lychees, in a little café on Bat Dan Street in Hanoi.

Is it possible to compare a website to a café? I think so. Like a café, a website can offer an atmosphere where people gather to read, relax, and think. Here, visitors can read an excerpt from If You Lived Here, discover a list of wonderful books and travel tips about Vietnam, enjoy a sampling of reviews and essays, and much more. Plus, if you want to take the café metaphor to its logical conclusion, I've included a recipe--of course!--for the most delicious coffee. Enjoy!

Dana Sachs

Dana on North Carolina Public Radio