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:

Beyond the Blossoming Fields by Jun’ichi Watanabe

Blurb from Goodreads

As a young girl from a wealthy family, Ginko Ogino seems set for a conventional life in the male-dominated society of 19th-century Japan. But when she contracts gonorrhea from her husband, she suffers the disgrace of divorce. Forced to bear the humiliation of being treated by male doctors, she resolves to become a doctor herself in order to treat fellow female sufferers and spare them some of the shame she had to endure. Her struggle is not an easy one—her family disowns her, and she has to convince the authorities to take seriously the very idea of a female doctor and allow her to study alongside male medical students and take the licensing exam. Based on the real-life story of Ginko Ogino—Japan’s first female doctor—Jun’ichi Watanabe does full justice to the complexity of her character and her world in a fascinating and inspirational work of fiction.

Why I Want To Read It

Hello, it is the first day of the (work) week again! And woah, today is also the last Monday of the fifth month of the year! Just like that, we are nearly midway through the year. June is waving just over the horizon. Anyway, I hope that the year has been kind to each and every one of you. Else, I hope that there will be a reversal of fortune in the coming months and that the coming months will be filled with nothing but positive vibes and good news. More than anything else, I hope everyone is doing well, in mind, body, and spirit. While the World Health Organization announced the culmination of the global health emergency caused by COVID-19, everyone should still be cautious as the virus is still very much present; case in point, cases have been rising again here in the Philippines. As such, I hope everyone will still observe the minimum health standards.

Anyway, happy first day of the week everyone, not unless you are from the Middle East and your first work day is Sunday. Regardless, I hope that everyone started their week on the right note and with the right attitude. To kick off another week of blogging, I am sharing a fresh Goodreads Monday update. As it is the last Monday of the month, this will also be my last Goodreads Monday update for May. Reading-wise, the past two months were very Japanese, in a manner of speaking as I spent it reading the works of Japanese writers; Japanese literature is one of my favorite parts of the literary world, an annual reading pilgrimage I always look forward to. I just concluded the journey earlier today with my fourteenth novel by the ever-popular Haruki Murakami. Interstingly, I opened May with his fourth novel, Dance Dance Dance and I closed it with South of the Border, West of the Sun. This also means that I have one Murakami novel unread, his most recent novel which has not been translated into English yet.

But before I could formally close my foray into Japanese literature, let me feature one work of Japanese literature in my weekly Goodreads update. Like how it has been for the rest of the month and April as well, I am featuring a writer whose oeuvre I have not yet explored. Diving deep into Japanese literature inevitably led me to the many different Japanese literary prizes; they have tons. Along with the Akutagawa Prize, the Naoki Sanjugo Prize is considered to be among the most prestigious literary prize Japanese writers yearn for. It is this literary award that led me to Jun’ichi Watanabe, the 1970 first-half awardee – the award is given biennially – for Hikari to Kage (光と影, lit. Light and Shadow).

While Watanabe has written about 50 novels over the course of his long and fabled literary career, very few of his works are available in English. Among these works is Beyond the Blossoming Fields (花埋み Hanauzumi), a work of historical fiction originally published in Japanese in 1970 and translated into English in 1993. Interestingly, the novel was based on the true story of Japan’s first licensed female doctor, Ginko Ogino. Watanabe himself was formerly a medical practitioner. He left the profession following the scandal brought about by the first heart transplant operation performed in Japan in 1968; it was later referred to as the Wada incident. Watanabe then focused on his literary career. Watanabe, however, become more popular for a series of sexually explicit novels, among them A Lost Paradise (失楽園, Shitsurakuen, 1997). The film adaptation of A Lost Paradise was nominated for 13 Japanese Academy Prizes.

How about you fellow reader? How was your Monday? 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!