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:

Half a Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang

Blurb from Goodreads

“Shanghai, 1930s. Shen Shijun, a young engineer, has fallen in love with his colleague, the beautiful Gu Manzhen. He is determined to resist his family’s efforts to match him with his wealthy cousin so that he can marry the woman he truly loves. But dark circumstances–a lustful brother-in-law, a treacherous sister, a family secret–force the two young lovers apart. As Manzhen and Shijun go on their separate paths, they lose track of one another, and their lives become filled with feints and schemes, missed connections and tragic misunderstandings. At every turn, societal expectations seem to thwart their prospects for happiness. Still, Manzhen and Shijun dare to hold out hope–however slim–that they might one day meet again. A glamorous, wrenching tale set against the glittering backdrop of an extraordinary city, Half a Lifelong Romance is a beloved classic from one of the essential writers of twentieth-century China”–

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! How was your weekend? I hope you were able to spend it resting and preparing for the tough workweek ahead. I know, Monday is nearly everyone’s least favorite day of the week. How I wish weekends were longer. Nevertheless, I hope you had a great start to the workweek, or at least you kicked the ground running. There are still four days before the weekend so I hope you conserve your energy for the rest of the week. I hope everyone started the work week on a high 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.

As has become customary, I am opening the workweek – and by extension, the blogging week – with a fresh Goodreads Monday update. I can’t believe I have already featured 271 books. I have to check my reading statistics on how many of these books I have already read but that is quite a lot. Anyway, I have been reading works of East Asian writers in the past three months. This is to make up for my not being able to hold a Japanese literature month last year and also because of my goal to read more translated works than works originally written in English this year. It also happens that March is Women’s History Month. In line with this, I am going to feature works of female East Asian writers in this month’s Goodreads Monday updates. Yes, South Korean writer Han Kang is the first female Asian writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

This week, I am featuring Eileen Chang’s Half a Lifelong Romance. Apparently, this is not the first time I am featuring a work by the Chinese American writer; she was born Chang Ying in Shanghai before immigrating and settling down in the United States. Half a Lifelong Romance was initially serialized in a Shanghai newspaper Yi Bao (亦報) in 1948, under the title Eighteen Springs (十八春) before it was published as a collective in 1950. Several facets of the story captured my interest. Well, the most obvious is that it was written by a female Chinese writer; unfortunately, I have read only one book written in Chinese by a female Chinese writer. Apparently, Chang is one of the essential voices in twentieth-century Chinese literature. I see the book as an opportunity to expand my foray into Chinese literature which, despite its extensiveness, remains a largely unexplored territory for me.

One more reason I added the book to my perpetually growing reading list is that it is a work of historical fiction. It is just right up my alley. I see it as an opportunity to learn more about the China of that period; the book is set in 1930s Shanghai. But what also piqued my interest is that the book is a romance story. I am not really that much into romance stories but the story promises more than just being a typical one. For now, I have to try and look for Chang’s book; this or Love in a Fallen City which I also featured in a previous Goodreads Monday update. 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!