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:

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye

Blurb from Goodreads

A magnificent romantic/historical/adventure novel set in India at the time of mutiny. The Far Pavilions is a story of 19th Century India, when the thin patina of English rule held down dangerously turbulent undercurrents. It is a story about and English man – Ashton Pelham-Martyn – brought up as a Hindu and his passionate, but dangerous love for an Indian princess. It’s a story of divided loyalties, of tender camaraderie, of greedy imperialism and of the clash between east and west. To the burning plains and snow-capped mountains of this great, humming continent, M.M. Kaye brings her quite exceptional gift of immediacy and meticulous historical accuracy, plus her insight into the human heart.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! Are you still feeling a little sluggish after the weekend and after the holidays? I hope you are slowly getting your groove back. Accountants like me and our auditor colleagues have no choice but to pick it up where we left off last year. Thankfully, our audit is nearly done. We just need some finishing touches; at least we won’t be scrambling during the deadline which is about three months ahead. For my non-accountant, non-auditor friends, I hope you are all doing well and that you started the week right. I hope that in this coming week, you will be accomplishing everything you set out to achieve. I hope that your week will be productive. However, if you are not up to it, I hope you spend the week resting and recovering. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

To kickstart the blogging week, I am posting a new Goodreads Monday update. Like what I did in the first two months of 2022, I am utilizing the first few weeks of 2023 to catch up on books released in 2022 I am yet to read. Earlier today, I finished reading John Irving’s (my fifth by the prolific American storyteller) latest novel, The Last Chairlift. It was my third book for the year. I have just started reading Cleyvis Natera’s debut novel, Neruda on the Park. As Natera has Latin heritage, my expectations of the book and the story are already formed. Elsewhere, I have managed to complete my 2022 reading wrap-up series although I have yet to wrap up my 2022 Beat the Backlist Challenge, come up with a new list for my 2023 Beat the Backlist Challenge, and write my 2023 reading goals and challenges.

Speaking of the backlist challenge, one book I am contemplating reading this year is M.M. Kaye’s The Far Pavilions. I think it was either 2016 or 2017 that I first came across the book during one of my random trips to the bookstore. The book was rather thick, which was enough to capture my interest. There was something also about its aesthetics that reeled me in. It somehow reminded me of the image I have in my mind of what a Medieval book cover would look like. Anyway, there was something promising about the book that was fancied by the younger me. Unfortunately, like most of my books, it was left to gather dust on my bookshelf.

Over half a decade since I acquired the book, I was reminded of its presence while going over my bookish possessions. I was searching for the longest books on my TBR. It was, surprisingly, one of the books that first came to mind. At almost a thousand pages, it surely is one of the longest books I have. More than its length, I am curious about what the book has in store, about what made literary critics give their nod to the book which, I learned, was published when Kaye was already 70 years old. Many a critic has also sung praises for the book, further making me consider it for my 2023 Beat the Backlist challenge. I will see.

How about you fellow reader? What books have you added to your reading list? Do drop it in the comment box. For now, happy Monday and, as always, happy reading!

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