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 Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

Blurb from Goodreads

Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi , or life force, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .

Manchuria, 1908.

A young woman is found frozen in the snow. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes involved, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and men. Bao, a detective with a reputation for sniffing out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach. Until, perhaps, now.

Meanwhile, a family that owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments, but not the curse that afflicts them―their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. Now the only grandson of the family is twenty-three. When a mysterious woman enters their household, their luck seems to change. Or does it? Is their new servant a simple young woman from the north or a fox spirit bent on her own revenge?

New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about a winter full of mysterious deaths, a mother seeking revenge, and old folktales that may very well be true.

Why I Want To Read It

Hai. It is Monday again. There is just something that feels heavy whenever the first day of the work week comes around. Most of us feel sluggish. If only weekends are longer. But no, we have to troop to the office and be dealt with another ugly dose of reality. I understand why Monday is the least favorite day of the week by most of us. Nevertheless, I hope everyone had a great start to the week. Otherwise, I hope that the rest of the week will go smoothly. I hope everyone had or will have a great start to the work week. Oh weekend blues. I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit. I just realized. Today is the second to the last Monday of February. How time flies. Before we know it, we will be greeting March.

To officially kick off another blogging week is a fresh Goodreads Monday update. Ever since I started doing this update, it has become an integral part of my blogging week. No blogging week starts without one as it also sets the tone for the rest of the week. I guess I was able to sustain the reading momentum I gained in the past two years as my 2024 reading journey has been very productive. Even though I have slowed down over the past few weeks, I am now reading my 19th book of the year, Silvia Moreno Garcia’s Velvet Was the Night. I hope that I don’t lose this reading momentum as the year progresses even though I have quite lofty goals this year. But before I get lost in a sea of words, let me return to this post.

Like in the previous two Goodreads Monday updates, this week’s featured book is by a writer whose body of work I have not explored before. It was while searching for books to include in my 2024 Books I Look Forward to List that I encountered Yangsze Choo. I just learned that she was born in the Philippines to Malaysian parents with Chinese ancestry. Her nationality is American. She is literally a melting pot of different cultures. Apparently, her father is a diplomat. She made her literary debut in 2013 with The Ghost Bride. It was, however, her sophomore novel, The Night Tiger (2019) that elevated her to global recognition. In 2024, she made her literary comeback with her third novel, The Fox Wife which I included in my 2024 Books I Look Forward To List.

Learning that Choo is of Malaysian heritage (plus the fact that she was born in the Philippines) only piqued my interest in her works. This is in line with my goal of expanding my venture into Southeast Asian literature. On top of this, The Fox Wife is right up my alley because it is a work of historical fiction. From the title, I can also surmise some magical or perhaps mythological elements to the story. It also has piqued my interest, this prevalence of foxes in East Asian folklore; the novel, after all, was set in Manchuria. The convergence of history and fantasy can be quite interesting. The book was published last February 13. I 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!