And it is midweek again! Happy Wednesday everyone! Wednesdays also mean another WWW Wednesday update. WWW Wednesday is a bookish meme originally hosted by SAM@TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS. The mechanics for WWW Wednesday is quite simple, you just have to answer three questions:

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What have you finished reading?
  3. What will you read next?
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What are you currently reading?

My current read is one of the books I listed as Books I Look Forward to in 2021. While researching for books to include in the said list earlier this year, one of the book covers that blew me away was Nghi Vo’s The Chosen and the Beautiful. The premise also piqued my interest; it was set in the Jazz Age. In literature, when one talks about the Jazz Age, the first thing that comes to my mind is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Imagine my surprise when one of the characters was Daisy Buchanan (Jay Gatsby’s love interest). Then it started clicking. The primary narrator of the novel was Jordan Baker, who, in the original Fitzgerald novel, was Daisy’s friend. I was initially put off by the idea and I felt it was a getting a little superficial. However, I am willing to give the story a chance as it gives voice to one of the secondary characters in The Great Gatsby, with some twist of course.

What have you finished reading?

Ashley Adrain’s The Push was also part of my 2021 Books I Look Forward To List and was the second novel from the list that I read (after Cherie Jones’ How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House). I heard very positive things about the novel although I was a little spooked by the synopsis, at first. The Push was narrated through the perspective of Blythe Connor. The novel was written in the form of like a letter to Blythe’s husband who left her for his office mate. The former couple had two children before they split. The first born was Violet and the second born, Sam. Through Blythe, I saw the dilemma of some first-time mothers. It was a packed narrative about motherhood and trauma – Blythe also suffered a traumatic childhood. Complimenting the narrative is a mystery and a subtle psychological thriller which reminded me of Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, only better and more riveting.

The second novel I completed the previous week is a slender one. It has been years since I read Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake (which reminds me I should read some works of Nikolai Gogol). I was excited when I learned that Lahiri was releasing a new work this year. Whereabouts was originally published in Italian before Lahiri translated and published it in English. At the heart of the short novel is a middle-aged single woman. She narrated her story and was anonymous the entire time. There really was not much of a plot as the novel meanders, touching on and exploring one thing then another. It is basically the voices that filled the narrator’s mind, hence, it is a novel about nothing and everything. Nevertheless, her ruminations reeled me in. The backdrop was also vividly painted by Lahiri.

What will you read next?

I am lining up two writers who I have never encountered previously nor whose works I have never read previously. Gabriela Garcia and Torrey Peters are two names that piqued my interest this year. I have read several glowing reviews of Garcia’s Of Women and Salt, some even calling it one of the best novel of the year. I simply could not resist it. To be honest, it was the controversy surrounding Peters’ nomination for the Women’s Prize for Fiction that piqued my interest. I did recall encountering Detransition, Baby earlier this year whilst searching for books to include in my 2021 Books I Look Forwar To List. I just cannot recall why I passed it over.

Thus concludes another WWW Wednesday update! I hope everyone is having a great midweek! Do keep safe and as always, enjoy reading!

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