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:

Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang

Blurb from Goodreads

Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. At the heart of Chang’s achievement is her short fiction—tales of love, longing, and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when Chang was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine an unsettled, probing, utterly contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity, with an intense lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature. Love in a Fallen City, the first collection in English of this dazzling body of work, introduces American readers to the stark and glamorous vision of a modern master.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! How was everyone’s weekend? I hope you were able to spend it wisely. For me, I was able to meet two long-time friends who were born in the same month as I did. In a way, it was a triple birthday celebration as well as an invitation to our friend’s upcoming wedding. It was great seeing familiar faces; it was our first meetup in a year. To everyone, I hope you were able to spend the weekend resting well in preparation for the challenges of the coming week. I do realize that Monday is the least favorite day of the week by most of you but I am still hoping that everyone had a great start to the week. I hope everyone will have a productive week. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in mind, body, and spirit.

To kick off another week of blogging, I am sharing a fresh Goodreads Monday update. Goodreads Monday updates have become a part of my weekly blogging ritual and I haven’t missed a week since I started doing this a little over three years ago. This July, like in June, I have been featuring works of Asian literature in my weekly Goodreads Monday updates. This is in line with my reading motif for the month; I have done this since my April Japanese literature month. With the exception of Japanese literature, I recently realized how lacking my exploration of Asian literature is. My foray into Chinese literature, for instance, is lacking. This is the main driver why I read three works of Chinese literature in the past six months,, including one by Nobel Laureate in Literature, Mo Yan.

I have still quite a lot of works of Chinese literature in my reading pipeline. One of the latest additions is Eileen Chang’s Love in a Fallen City. Originally published in 1943 as 傾城之戀, the book is a part of the New York Review of Books (NYRB) “Classics” series. NYRB has provided me a treasure trove of books I would ordinarily not take a second look at. To be honest, I came across the book while going through the Asian literature list on Goodreads. The book immediately grabbed my attention because I have no iota on who the author was nor have I read any of her works previously.

Another thing about the book that piqued my interest was its story. It is a love story set in 1940s wartime Hong Kong and Shanghai. To most, this is a story many might have heard of already. However, the story promises to be a step out of the typical story of love triumphing during one of the darkest times in history or of salvation typical in wartime stories of the time. This is something that I am looking forward to in the book. I want to know what makes it special. Reading the book would also be an opportunity to explore a literary voice I have not read previously. The inner adventurer in me is always up for exploring new works and new voices. By the way, there seem to be erotic undertones in her works. Or maybe my mind is playing tricks with me. Anyway, I can’t wait to explore her oeuvre.

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!