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:

Hard By A Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili

Blurb from Goodreads

Amid rubble and rebuilding in a former Soviet land, one family must rescue one another and put the past to a stirring novel about what happens after the fighting is over

“My mother stayed, so that we could go.”

Having fled conflict in the former-Soviet Republic of Georgia as children, Saba and his brother have fought to make peace with the past. In particular, they struggle with the sacrifices of a mother who remained in a war zone so that their father could get them out. Now, years later, the brothers are young adults, their mother is dead, and their father has been lured back to their beautiful, decaying homeland – only to disappear. Then Saba’s older brother, chasing after their missing father, vanishes too.

Left alone to figure out what has happened and to find his family, Saba sets off on his own urgent, haunted search across his homeland. Accompanied by new friends and old ghosts as he follows a breadcrumb trail of clues, he must wrestle the present from the past as he crosses into the kind of danger zones – both physical and emotional – that he thought he had left behind. 

Harrowing and tender but leavened with humor and an appreciation for the absurd, Hard by a Great Forest offers a unique story about traumas of war felt even decades after the fighting, and the long-term effects on those families driven not just to survive, but to remember.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! It is Chinese New Year Week. Gong Xi Fa Cai! As we are about to enter the Year of the Dragon, I hope that everyone will have a great year. I hope everyone will be showered with blessings and victories. Woah, today is also the first Monday of February. I hope that this year will be great for everyone. I hope that this will also be the case for the rest of the year. As it is the first day of the week, I hope everyone had a great start to the work week. I know, Mondays are our least favorite day of the week, at least the majority of us. I still hope that weekends are longer. I still feel a little sluggish. Oh weekend blues. I hope that the coming days will also be great for everyone. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

Kicking off another blogging week is a fresh Goodreads Monday update. Goodreads Monday updates have become an integral part of my blogging week. It also sets the tone for the rest of the week. So far, my 2024 reading journey has been productive. This is because I was able to sustain the momentum I gained in the past two years which were my two most producing reading years. I hope that I don’t lose this momentum as the year progresses although I must say that I have quite lofty goals this year. For one, my reading challenges are brimming with thick books. As such, more than lofty goals, I have set realistic goals. But before I get lost in a sea of words, let me go back to what this post is about.

This week’s featured book is by a writer whose oeuvre I have yet to explore. It was while searching for books to include in my 2024 Books I Look Forward to List that I encountered Leo Vardiashvili. From his last name, I was able to glean that he was from Georgia. It was unsurprising when I learned he was born in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital His family moved to London as refugees when he was just twelve years old. He is making his literary debut with Hard By A Great Forest, a book that was also a familiar presence in most anticipated 2024 book release lists. It was a no-brainer for me to include the book on my own list. Besides, I can’t remember reading any books about Georgia.

Hard by a Great Forest was just released last January 30 and it has been receiving positive feedback from literary pundits. I just hope I get to obtain a copy of the book. 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!