Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme that was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and give the reasons why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

Blurb from Goodreads

Immigrant. Socialite. Magician.

Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society—she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She’s also queer, Asian, adopted, and treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.

But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how.

Nghi Vo’s debut novel The Chosen and the Beautiful reinvents this classic of the American canon as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice. 

Why I Want To Read It

It’s officially the first Monday of the last week of the first month of the year! In seven days, February will star. Wow. This year is on a rush it seems. But who wouldn’t, right? We all want for better days to come. Still, let’s focus on the present. A new week has started, and in seven day, a new month will start. It is the promise for better things to come. Let’s start the week right with some positive energy! I hope everyone is enjoying their own Mondays.

To kick off the week, I am posting a new Goodreads Monday update. For this week’s edition I am featuring Nghi Vo’s debut novel, The Chosen and the Beautiful. I first came across The Chosen and the Beautiful whilst researching for novels to include in my 2021 Top 10 Books I Look Forward To List. Even though I didn’t take particular note of the what the novel is about, I added it to my list for it seems to be a popular choice amongst fellow book readers. I was also reeled in by the book’s cover.

Now that I got to read more about the novel, my curiosity is further piqued. It has elements of F. Scott Fitzgerald – the title is a play on The Beautiful and the Damned, and the story is set during the Jazz Era. I’m interested in how Vo merged Asian and American elements in her novel. It’s also interesting to know how the novel’s main character, Jordan Baker, a queer Asian-American, is going to propel the narrative and how she will grow and develop over the course of the story.

How about you fellow reader, what book do you want to read? I hope you can share it in the comment box. For now, happy reading! Have a great week ahead!

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