Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme that was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is now currently being hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. 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:

Segu by Maryse Condé

Blurb from Goodreads

The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishing, fed by the wealth of its noblemen and the power of its warriors. The people of Segu, the Bambara, are guided by their griots and priests; their lives are ruled by the elements. But even their soothsayers can only hint at the changes to come, for the battle of the soul of Africa has begun. From the east comes a new religion, Islam, and from the West, the slave trade. Segu follows the life of Dousika Traore, the king’s most trusted advisor, and his four sons, whose fates embody the forces tearing at the fabric of the nation. There is Tiekoro, who renounces his people’s religion and embraces Islam; Siga, who defends tradition, but becomes a merchant; Naba, who is kidnapped by slave traders; and Malobali, who becomes a mercenary and halfhearted Christian.

Based on actual events, Segu transports the reader to a fascinating time in history, capturing the earthy spirituality, religious fervor, and violent nature of a people and a growing nation trying to cope with jihads, national rivalries, racism, amid the vagaries of commerce.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! A new week has started! I hope you all had a healing time this weekend and that you started this new week with flying colors. Else, I hope that things will start looking up and that the rest of the week will be a good one. COVID19 situation in the Philippines is certainly starting to look up after that Omicron surge that has swept us in January. These are small rays of light but they still provide hope in these dark times. I hope that this good trend will continue in the coming months. Hope, after all, springs eternal. With this, I pray that you are all doing well, in body, mind, and spirit. I can’t wait for this pandemic to end.

With Mondays comes a new Goodreads Monday update. Like most of you, Monday is my least favorite day of the week. However, the new week comes with it an opportunity to share books that are part or have become part of my perpetually growing reading list. My Goodreads Want To Read list is still continuing to grow as I encounter books that pique my interest. In the past week alone, I have added nine new books to this list. There are just too many good books out there and too little time. I guess I will take it one step at a time. For the past Goodreads Monday updates, I have been featuring 2022 books that I have recently added to my reading list. However, since March is International Women’s Month, I will now be featuring works by female writers. For this week’s update, I am featuring Maryse Condé’s Segu.

Guadeloupean writer Maryse Condé first piqued my interest in the lead-up to the announcement of the 2018/2019 Nobel Prize in Literature winner. While she did not win the award, she left a deep impression on me. In 2021, I finally read my first novel by Condé, Crossing the Mangrove. I was impressed, immediately assuring me that my choice to venture into her brand of prose was not for naught. It didn’t take long for me to encounter another novel by Condé. From what I have read, Segu has been lauded as one of her best works. This only added to my anticipation of the book, hence, its inclusion in my 2022 Top 22 Reading List. The fact that the book is a work of historical fiction further adds to my interest in the book; it is just right at my alley.

How about you fellow reader? What book written by a female author are you looking forward to? I hope you could share it in the comment box. For now, happy Monday, and as always, happy reading!

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