Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is currently 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 explain why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman by Andrzej Szczypiorski

Blurb from Goodreads

A masterful novel that was a huge bestseller in Europe, The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman is a testament to the power of literature. Now with an introduction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who named it her “favorite book no one else has heard of” in the New York Times, the novel follows Irma Seidenman, a young Jewish widow in Nazi-occupied Warsaw in 1943, who possesses two attributes that can spell the difference between life and blue eyes and blond hair. With these features, and a set of false papers, she slips out of the ghetto, passing as the wife of a Polish officer, until one day an informer spots her on the street and drags her off to the Gestapo. At times a dark lament, at others a sly and sardonic thriller,  The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman is the story of the thirty-six hours that follow Irma’s arrest and the events that lead to her dramatic rescue as the last of Warsaw’s Jews are about to meet their deaths in the burning ghetto.

Why I Want To Read It

Ah. It is Monday again, the day everyone – at least most of us, including yours truly – dreads. It has been my fervent wish for weekends to be longer. For now, this remains wishful thinking as the bill for a four-day week is still pending in Congress. Anyway, happy first day of the seventh month of the year! How time flies. We are six months down in 2024 but we have six more months to go. We still have the second half of the year to work on ourselves or improve facets of our lives. We have six months to complete the goals we set at the start of the year. With this, I hope that the year’s second half will be brimming with blessings, good news, and positive energy. As we transition to the year’s second half, I hope everyone will be healthy, in mind, body, and spirit.

Oh. Mondays. While most of us dread the first day of the week, I see it as a window of opportunity. It means a fresh start or the commencement of a new week to go after our goals. With this, I hope everyone started the work week on a high note. Kicking off another blogging week is a fresh Goodreads Monday update. As I still have several works of European literature in line, I have decided to extend my stay in this part of the literary world this July. I am currently reading Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, my second book by the French writer but the first in over a decade. It is also part of my 2024 Top 24 Reading List. To align with the main reading theme, I have featured works of European literature I am looking forward to in my Goodreads Monday update. Speaking of European literature. I just learned that Albanian writer Ismail Kadare just passed away. I was saddened because I liked his works. I hope he rests in paradise.

For this week, I am featuring a writer who I recently encountered. It was during the recently concluded Big Bad Wolf Sale that I came across Polish writer Andrzej Szczypiorski. I had never heard of him before nor had I encountered any of his works. So when I came across The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman at the said sale, I didn’t hesitate to buy it; well, I did hesitate because I wasn’t planning on buying any books but I guess the temptation is too much. There was just something about the book that reeled me in. I admit, that the introduction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was an added incentive. This means that the book is highly regarded.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the book on the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. Now, I can’t wait to read the book and I just might include it in my ongoing foray into European literature. Besides, I haven’t explored Polish literature that much; except for Nobel Laureate in Literature Olga Tokarczuk, I can’t recall any other Polish writers whose oeuvre I have explored. The fact that this is a work of historical fiction and that it was set during the Second World War further piqued my interest. 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!