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 Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa

Blurb from Goodreads

Welcome aboard the Hankyu Line train!

Come along on a heartwarming, funny, and perfectly cozy voyage with the charming and relatable passengers—including one dashing dachshund—whose lives intersect and affect each other on one of Japan’s most romantic railway lines from international bestselling author Hiro Arikawa.

Between the two beautiful towns of Takarazuka and Nishinomiya, in a stunning mountainous area of Japan, rattles the Hankyu Line train. Passengers step on and off, lost in thought, contemplating the tiny knots of their existence. On the outward journey, we are introduced to the emotional dilemmas of five characters, and on the return journey six months later, we watch them find resolutions.

A young man meets the young woman who always happens to borrow a library book just before he can check it out himself, a woman in a white bridal dress boards looking inexplicably sad, a university student heads home after class, a girl prepares to leave her abusive boyfriend, and an old lady discusses adopting a dog with her granddaughter.

With stories that crisscross like the railway lines, the Hankyu train trundles on, propelling the lives and loves of its passengers ever forward.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! How was your weekend? I hope you all had a restful one. I hope you were able to recuperate and prepare yourself for the advent of a new work week. I know: Mondays are nearly everyone’s least favorite day of the week. Nevertheless, I hope everyone is starting the work week on high note. Speaking of, today is the first school day here in the Philippines. This means that traffic is bound to get worse as a new school year just started. How I miss those days when my only concern is learning. But time, as we know it, does not move in reverse. It takes its natral course. Anyway, I hope everyone will have a great weeek ahead. I hope everyone makes through it. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in mind, body, and spirit, not only this week but for the rest of the year.

Woah, the time has been flying past us. We are already in the second half of the sixth month of the year. How time flies! Before we know it, we will already be halfway through 2025. With time taking its natural course, I hope that the year is treating everyone well. I hope that as 2025 moves forward, everyone will have a prosperous year. I hope that this year will be a year of healing, growth, development, and prayers answered. I hope the coming months will shower everyone with good news and kindness. I wish success and blessings for everyone. With the start of the week is a fresh Goodreads Monday update. As fate would have it, I extended my foray into Asian literature this month. Basically, the first half of the year has been all about works of Asian literature; I spent the first quarter reading works of East Asian writers.

I have just finished Azucena Grajo Uranza’s Bamboo in the Wind and I just embarked on a new journey, Can Xue’s Love in the Millenium. I have been looking forward to exploring the Chinese writer’s oeuvre especially as she has been gaining traction in Nobel Prize in Literature discussions. While Can Xue is an unfamiliar name, this week’s featured writer is not. It was in 2019 when I first encountered Hiro Arikawa. Her novel, The Travelling Cat Chronicles, was ubiquitous, prompting me to delve myself into the novel. I was in awe to say the least, heartbroken but charmed as well. In short, she gained a fan in me. Toward the end of 2023, I also got to read her short story collection, The Goodbye Cat. The last two stories in the collection whic involved the main character in The Travelling Cat Chronicles left me teary eyed during a flight from Tokyo to Manila.

It is for these very same reasons that I am looking forward to her latest work, The Passengers on Hankyu Line. I didn’t even know of her latest release until I came across an advertisement before my trip to Singapore. It literally made my heart jump because I have been waiting for a new Arikawa novel. From what I can surmise, her latest novel is going to be yet another heartwarming story, with the narrative structure that has become prevalent in contemporary Japanese literature: an interesting cast of characters going through some challenges but somehow hurdles them because they managed to establish authentic connection. At least this is how I see Arikawa’s latest work. Further, the novel is set on a train. I must say that I find the Japanese train system quite a marvel. It is a cultural experience as well. Thankfully, I was able to acquire a copy of the book and I can’t wait to read it.

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!