SEATTLE (AP) — Helene Cooper's "The House at Sugar Beach", a memoir about growing up in Liberia during that country's civil war, is the latest book selected by Starbucks to be featured at its stores across the United States.

Cooper's book, published by Simon & Schuster and to go on sale at thousands of Starbucks cafes in early September, marks the second time the coffee chain has chosen a memoir by a West African.

Ishmael Beah's "Long Way Gone", about being a boy soldier in Sierra Leone, was picked last year and became a best seller despite questions over how long Beah actually fought.

"I remember going into my local Starbucks on K Street in Washington for my morning coffee on my way to work, and seeing Ishmael Beah's 'Long Way Gone' on the counter," Cooper, a New York Times reporter, said in a statement released on Thursday by Starbucks.

"I was thrilled for him as a fellow West African — and so envious myself at the same time!" she said. "I'm not ashamed to say that I stood in line daydreaming that one day it would be me. I'm absolutely thrilled 'The House at Sugar Beach' is a Starbucks selection."