Happy midweek everyone! Woah. I hope that 2024 will usher in more blessings and good news for everyone. I hope that everyone will be happy and healthy, in body, mind, and spirit.

With the midweek comes a fresh WWW Wednesday update, my first this year. WWW Wednesday is a bookish meme hosted originally by SAM@TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS. The mechanics for WWW Wednesday are quite simple, you just have to answer three questions:

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What have you finished reading?
  3. What will you read next?
www-wednesdays
What are you currently reading?

My 2021, 2022, and 2023 reading catch-up next brought me to another unfamiliar name, Juhea Kim. Her debut novel made quite such a noise upon its publication in 2021 that it was a no-brainer for me to include the book in my own reading list. Adjudged by many literary pundits and publications as one of the best books of 2021, it took me over two years before I could finally read it. I just started reading the book as I just finished reading Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait. The prologue, however, immediately caught my attention. I will be sharing more of my impression of this work of historical fiction in this week’s First Impression Friday update.

What have you finished reading?

The past week has been another prolific reading week. It seems that I could successfully carry over the reading momentum I gained toward the end of 2023. A three-book romp commenced with Nita Prose’s The Maid. Before 2022, I have never heard of Nita Prose nor have I encountered any of her works. Apparently, The Maid is the Canadian writer’s debut novel. I would have not thought much of it had it not been included in several Best Works of 2022 lists. Albeit I was a little apprehensive at first, I included the book on my growing reading list.

The titular maid is Molly Gray. Her devotion to her job at the Regency Grand Hotel earned her the nickname Molly the Maid from her colleagues. Anyone would have been insulted by this but Molly took pride in it. While everyone around her rants about their job, Molly takes pride in hers. Her job and loyalty, however, were put to the line when on a typically ordinary day, she walked into the penthouse suite and discovered the lifeless body of a revered hotel guest, Mr. Black. Mr. Black was murdered. A series of unfortunate events led to Molly being tagged as a prime suspect. As the novel slowly unraveled and the murder investigation went deeper, the secrets hidden underneath the facade of regality that the hotel projected were slowly unearthed. These secrets threaten to destabilize the hotel. Meanwhile, there were a couple of individuals willing to stake their lives to help Molly. A plot twist toward the end catches the readers off-guard. Overall, it is a riveting crime fiction.

From one 2022 novel to another. Like Prose, I have never heard of Mottlebeforeto 2022. Had it not been for the Booker Prize, I would not have encountered her and her novel, Nightcrawling. Nightcrawling, Mottley’s debut novel, was longlisted for the prestigious literary prize; Mottley also made history by becoming the youngest author to be nominated for the Prize. It then piqued my interest, as almost all books nominated for the Booker Prize do. I was able to obtain a copy of the book but, unfortunately, it was left to gather dust on my bookshelf. The time is ripe for me to read the book.

At the heart of the book was Kiara Johnson. Only seventeen when the story started, she was forced to find work to support herself, her brother, and their neighbor Trevor. She grew up in a modest home but her father died young while their mother was in detention. Meanwhile, Marcus, her brother, was disillusioned by grandiose dreams of musical success. Trevor, on the other hand, was abandoned by his family. As rent prices skyrocketed, Kiara worked as a sex worker. Mottley then takes the readers into the murky underworld of Oakland. It is a scathing commentary on a system that undermines the weak. It is about racism and at the same time, it is an expose of the corruption that pervades the police force. The novel was based on a true crime in 2015 which involved institutional exploitation, brutality, and corruption perpetrated by the Oakland police department. With Mottley’s background in poetry, Nightcrawling is a lyrical work that powerfully probes into inconvenient truths and riddled with random tender moments.

What would you do if you realized that your husband is out to kill you? This was the quandary that Lucrezia found herself in in Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel, The Marriage Portrait. Set in 16th-century Italy, this historical novel charted the fortune of Lucrezia, the youngest daughter of Cosimo de’ Medici, the founder of the influential Medici family of Florence. Her story started with the fear of a death threat cast on her by her husband. The story then transports the readers to the past, from Lucrezia’s birth.

Of Cosimo’s daughters, Lucrezia was somewhat the odd one out. because of her odd demeanor, she was treated differently from her siblings. She was a feisty character, unshackled by the responsibilities that came with her family’s position. Her life unraveled when, at the age of thirteen, she found herself arranged into marriage with Alfonso d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara. Alfonso was supposed to marry Maria, the eldest of Cosimo’s daughters but Maria’s untimely demise and Isabella’s bethrotal left Lucrezia the only viable prospect for the future Duke of Ferrara. However, at thirteen, she was still too young for marriage but a scheme postponed the inevitable until she was sixteen. Alfonso seemed a sweet and caring character, at the onset. However, there was a dark side to him that caught Lucrezia off guard. The Marriage Portrait paints a vivid picture of how women have effectively been muted by the patriarchy. Those who deviate are often persecuted. Despite the passage of time, it is still a reality that women confront in the present.

What will you read next?