Coffee

Object Lessons

By: Dinah Lenney

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.

©2026 Dinah Lenney (P)2026 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc