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 Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Blurb from Goodreads

Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! Just like that, we are in the first week of the second month of the year. How time flies! It still feels like yesterday when we greeted 2025 with a warm welcome. But then again, time is fluid. It keeps moving forward. We can neither slow it down nor freeze it. Sadly. Anyway, how has the new year been so far? I hope that 2025 is showering everyone with positive news and blessings. If the first month of the year went otherwise, I hope you get to have a reversal of fortune in the coming months. We have eleven months to make up for what we lost in the previous month. It also allows us to go after our goals and dreams. Today is also a Monday. Yeah. I know. It is nearly everyone’s least favorite day of the week. Nevertheless, I hope everyone started the work week on the right note. I hope you all had a good start to the workweek. I hope everyone makes it through the week. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in mind, body, and spirit, not only this week but for the rest of the year.

With the new year come new goals and resolutions. For those who were not able to craft their goals during the Gregorian New Year, I hope you were able to craft them during the Chinese New Year. Nevertheless, I hope everyone gets to complete all their goals this year. Reading-wise, I have quite some lofty goals. For one, I have already set my reading goal to 100 despite historically initially setting it at a more conservative level. I want to challenge myself and maintain the reading momentum I built in the past three years. If the past three years are any indicator then I can do it again this year. I also plan to read more translated works to reduce the gap between books originally published in English and translated literary works. Despite the new year, some things never change. As customary, I am kicking off the blogging week with a fresh Goodreads Monday update. This has become an essential part of my weekly blogging ritual.

This week, I am featuring Ocean Vuong’s latest novel, The Emperor of Gladness. Vuong first captured my interest in early 2019 when I included his debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous on my 2019 Top 10 Books I Look Forward to List. I loved the book despite the bleakness that hovered above it. It made my heart clench with its examination of uprootedness, the heritage of war, and the intricacies of mother and son relationships. What impressed me the most was the language. Apparently, Vuong started writing poems before foraying into prose. It was an impressive crossover; I remember Lang Leav’s lukewarm pivot to prose. Anyway, I think I first heard of Vuong’s new release back in 2024 or maybe even earlier. Now, I can’t wait to read The Emperor of Gladness.

The Emperor of Gladness has an interesting premise although it palpably explores a theme that Vuong also explored in his debut novel, that of memory. It is even more imperative in his sophomore novel because the main character suffers from dementia. I hope that it will be as exemplary as Vuong’s debut novel. For now, I am just going to look forward to obtaining a copy of the book which is slated to be released on May 13. How was your Monday rather? 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!