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:

What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt

Blurb from Goodreads

Siri Hustvedt’s What I Loved begins in New York in 1975, when art historian Leo Hertzberg discovers an extraordinary painting by an unknown artist in a SoHo gallery. He buys the work; tracks down the artist, Bill Wechsler; and the two men embark on a life-long friendship. Leo’s story, which spans twenty-five years, follows the growing involvement between his family and Bill’s – an intricate constellation of attachments that includes the two men, their wives, Erica and Violet, and their sons, Matthew and Mark.

The families live in the same New York apartment building, rent a house together in the summers and keep up a lively exchange of ideas about life and art, but the bonds between them are tested, first by sudden tragedy, and then by a monstrous duplicity that slowly comes to the surface. A beautifully written novel that combines the intimacy of a family saga with the suspense of a thriller, What I Loved is a deeply moving story about art, love, loss, and betrayal.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! The weekend is over and a new week has started! I hope you were able to recover during the weekend, that you were able to refill your manna and prepared for the week ahead. I know accountants are on the final stretch of the proverbial busy season. April 15 is just over the horizon; the end is in sight. Month-end closing is also waving. I hope you get to “survive” the next two weeks. Beyond the busy season, I hope everyone is doing well in body, mind, and spirit. I hope that the rest of the week will be a good one. Things are certainly looking up. There has been a steady decline in daily cases and the positivity rate here in the Philippines. I hope we get to sustain this and that we don’t get complacent once again. These are small rays of light but they still provide hope in these dark times. Hope still springs eternal. I can’t wait for this pandemic to end.

While Monday is nearly everyone’s least favorite day of the week, including me, I nonetheless see it as an opportunity to start afresh. It is also an opportunity to share books on my (perpetually growing) reading list through a Goodreads Monday update. My Goodreads Want To Read list is still continuing to grow as I encounter books that pique my interest. As International Women’s Day is celebrated in March, I have been featuring works by female writers in my past Goodreads Monday updates. I have just obtained two books written by female writers, books that are included in my 2022 Books I Look Forward To List: Xochitl Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming and Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake. Both books were featured in previous Goodreads Monday updates. Meanwhile, my current read is Agatha Christie’s Funerals are Fatal, my 29th book from the Queen of Suspense. It is also a part of my 2022 Beat the Backlist Challenge.

Oh dang, I lost focus. Anyway, for this week’s Goodreads Monday update, I am yet again featuring a writer who is unfamiliar to me, Siri Hustvedt, with her novel What I Loved. I first encountered Hustvedt and her novel when I was searching for books with “Love” on the title. The book’s premise immediately grabbed my attention. While the book’s premise sounds like a book I have previously read, I was enamored by what I perceived to be a profound message buried in the story. Without more ado, I included it in my reading list. This was despite the fact that I barely had any iota on who Hustvedt was. Interestingly, she is the wife of equally successful writer Paul Auster, whose book, The New York Trilogy, I thoroughly enjoyed. I just learned this today! This gave me more reasons to explore Hustvedt’s prose.

For now, I can only wish to obtain a copy of the book, which I just also learned was listed as one of the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. There is quite a lot of reasons for me to look forward to the book. The prospect of reading a new voice fills me with excitement. 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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