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:

Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann

Blurb from Goodreads

Bachmann tells the story of lives painfully intertwined: the unnamed narrator, haunted by nightmarish memories of her father, lives with the androgynous Malina, an initially remote and dispassionate man who ultimately becomes an ominous influence. Plunging toward its riveting finale, Malina brutally lays bare the struggle for love and the limits of discourse between women and men.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday! It is like the weekend flew past us and before we knew it, it was already Monday. I know, most of us are feeling a little sluggish. There is a reason why Monday is not everyone’s favorite day of the week. The heat here in the Philippines has lately become very oppressive. As such, I haven’t really had a relaxing weekend. The past few weeks have literally been like a preview of hell; at least that is the joke. And there seems to be no reprieve as this dry spell is forecasted to last for a couple more months, something I am not hoping for. Anyway, I hope you are experiencing better weather than we do here in the Philippines. I also hope that you are starting the work week on a high note. I hope that the rest of the week will go well for everyone. Here’s to a great work week ahead.

I just realized that today is the last Monday of April. Time does fly fast. In two days, we will be welcoming the fifth month of the year. We are far down into the year already. I hope the year has been kind to everyone and that the rest of the year will be brimming with happiness and prosperity. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit. Reading-wise, April has been filled with works of female writers; it is an extension of my foray into women’s fiction. This journey also took me to different parts of the world, from Asia to the Americas to even the Australian continent. With the month slowly dwindling down to a close, I just hope I can finish as many books as I can.

Kicking off another blogging week is a fresh Goodreads Monday update. While I am still immersed in the works of women writers, I have opted to shake things up by featuring random books, i.e., there will be no theme, for my Goodreads Monday updates this month. With this, I am featuring Ingeborg Bachmann’s Malina. To be honest, I have never heard of Bachmann until today. It was simply suggested by the Goodreads algorithm to me. Nevertheless, it piqued my interest, hence, earning a feature in my Goodreads Monday update. Bachmann, I just learned, is an Austrian poet and writer. She is also regarded as one of the major voices of 20th-century German-language literature.

It is actually in poetry that Bachmann gained recognition. Her two major works are collections of poetry: Die gestundete Zeit (1953, Time Deferred) and Anrufung des Grossen Bären (1956, Invocation of Ursa Major). Malina then occupies an interesting part of Bachmann’s oeuvre; it seems to be the only novel she was able to publish during her lifetime. The prospect of exploring a new body of work is one of my primary motivations for adding Malina to my perpetually growing reading list. 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!