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 Pact We Made by Layla AlAmmar

Blurb from Goodreads

Featured on BBC Radio 4s Open Book Featured on BBC Radio 3s Free Thinking A cultural pick in ELLE Magazine Reviewed in the Observer Interviewed in The New ArabBeautifully written it cant be a debut. But it is Joanna CannonBrilliant What a debut Pandora SykesHow could I explain to her that nothing in my life felt real That in a country like Kuwait, where everyone knew everything about each other, the most monumental thing to ever happen to me was buried and covered over For the sake of my reputation, my future, my sisters and cousins; the family honor sat on my little shoulders, so no-one could ever know. Dahlia has two lives. In one, she is a young woman with a good job, great friends, and a busy social life. In the other, she is an unmarried daughter living at home, struggling with a burgeoning anxiety disorder and a deeply buried secret: a violent betrayal too shameful to speak of. With her thirtieth birthday fast-approaching, pressure from her mother to accept a marriage proposal begins to strain the family. As her two lives start to collide and fracture, all Dahlia can think of is escape: something that seems impossible when she cant even leave the country without her fathers consent.But what if Dahlia does have a choice What if all she needs is the courage to make itSet in contemporary Kuwait, The Pact We Made is a deeply affecting and timely debut about family, secrets and one woman’s search for a different life.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy first Monday of July everyone! I realize that Monday is the least favorite day of the week by most of you. Nevertheless, I hope everyone had a great start to the week. With the year halfway through, I hope the year has been kind to everyone. Otherwise, I hope there will be a reversal of fortune in the coming months. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in mind, body, and spirit. I am happy to see things slowly going back to normal but the virus remains a real threat so I hope everyone is still observing the minimum health protocols.

On another note, Mondays also mean a fresh start. The first day of the week also means the start of a new blogging week. To kick off another week of blogging, I am sharing a fresh Goodreads Monday update. After immersing in the works of Asian literature last month, I have decided to extend it this July. Ironically, despite being Asian, I recently realized how lacking my exploration of Asian literature is; the only exception is Japanese literature. My forays into Chinese and Indian literature, for instance, are lacking. My venture into my own Filipino literature is also starkly lacking. To redress this dichotomy is one of my goals in dedicating two months to works of Asian literature.

Since April, I aligned the books I featured in this weekly update with my current reading motif. As such, I will be featuring a work by an Asian writer for this Goodreads Monday update. Today, I am featuring Kuwaiti writer Layla AlAmmar’s The Pact We Made. The book was one of my random purchases during the ongoing Big Bag Wolf Manila sale; the book fair will conclude at 1 AM tomorrow. I had no iota about who AlAmmar was. Interestingly, I relied on Goodreads to gain an idea about the book. It had an okay rating so I bought the book. Later on, I learned that the book was branded as a #MeToo movement novel.

The book’s connection to the #MeToo movement makes it all the more interesting because of the book’s setting: Kuwait. Kuwait has a very conservative Arab society, with several restrictions on women, from clothing to how they should carry themselves in public. But I want to believe that the book is more than just a #MeToo novel, an expose of how women are treated in a highly patriarchal society. With what would be my first novel written by a Kuwaiti writer, I am hoping to learn more about Kuwait, its people, society, and culture. I just might include the novel in my foray into Asian literature this month.

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!