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:

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

Blurb from Goodreads

From Rachel Kushner, a Booker Prize finalist, two-time National Book Award finalist, and “one of the most gifted authors of her generation” (The New York Times Book Review), comes a new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France—a propulsive page-turner of glittering insights and dark humor. Creation Lake is a novel about a secret agent, a thirty-four-year-old American woman of ruthless tactics, bold opinions, and clean beauty, who is sent to do dirty work in France. “Sadie Smith” is how the narrator introduces herself to her lover, to the rural commune of French subversives on whom she is keeping tabs, and to the reader. Sadie has met her love, Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian, by “cold bump”—making him believe the encounter was accidental. Like everyone Sadie targets, Lucien is useful to her and used by her. Sadie operates by strategy and dissimulation, based on what her “contacts”—shadowy figures in business and government—instruct. First, these contacts want her to incite provocation. Then they want more. In this region of centuries-old farms and ancient caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists who communicates only by email. Bruno believes that the path to emancipation from what ails modern life is not revolt, but a return to the ancient past. Just as Sadie is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story. Written in short, vaulting sections, Rachel Kushner’s rendition of “noir” is taut and dazzling. Creation Lake is Kushner’s finest achievement yet as a novelist, a work of high art, high comedy, and unforgettable pleasure.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! Yes, it is that dreaded day of the week again because it means we have to return to work or school. Monday is, without a doubt, the most, if not one of the most hated days of the week. Many are still feeling a little sluggish, especially coming from the weekend. Nevertheless, I hope everyone picks up their pace and starts their work or school week on a high note. I hope you get to work on that dream that you have been plotting. After all, Mondays also provide us a fresh opportunity to chase after our dreams or to start again. It is an opportunity to recalibrate, redirect, or take a new path. Whatever Monday means to you, I hope that the rest of the week will go in your favor. I hope that the week will flow smoothly. More importantly, I hope that everyone is doing well, in mind, body, and spirit.

Reading-wise, September is an extension of my foray into recently published works. This is a journey I commenced last August. The goal is to read highly recommended books and books that are part of my 2024 Top 10 Books I Look Forward To list. Further, the goal is to fulfill my goal of reading at least 15 new books this year. Actually, the main motivation for this journey is the announcement of the 2024 Booker Prize longlist. The list has provided me with several great reads. Interestingly, two of the books in my 2024 To 10 Books I Look Forward To List – Claire Messud’s This Strange Eventful History and Hisham Matar’s My Friends – were included in the long list. I cannot wait to read them.

Speaking of the Booker Prize, this week’s featured book, Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake, is also one of the thirteen books on the longlist; I also featured Booker Prize-longlisted books in the past two Goodreads Monday updates. Admittedly, I have not explored the American’s oeuvre before. It is the first time that she caught my attention although I might have come across her works in passing; two of her novels were finalists for the National Book Award while another one was already shortlisted for the Booker Prize. This makes me look forward to reading Creation Lake. Further, the premise also seems promising. It mixes science fiction and mystery. Sounds like an intriguing combination. I jut hope it won’t disappoint.

For now, I just hope I get to obtain a copy of the book and hopefully, soon. 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!