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:

Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

Blurb from Goodreads

Set against the translucent beauty of France in summer, Bonjour Tristesse is a bittersweet tale narrated by Cecile, a seventeen-year-old girl on the brink of womanhood, whose meddling in her father’s love life leads to tragic consequences.

Endearing, self-absorbed, seventeen-year-old Cécile is the very essence of untroubled amorality. Freed from the stifling constraints of boarding school, she joins her father—a handsome, still-young widower with a wandering eye—for a carefree, two-month summer vacation in a beautiful villa outside of Paris with his latest mistress. Cécile cherishes the free-spirited moments she and her father share, while plotting her own sexual adventures with a “tall and almost beautiful” law student. But the arrival of her late mother’s best friend intrudes upon a young girl’s pleasures. And when a relationship begins to develop between the adults, Cécile and her lover set in motion a plan to keep them apart…with tragic, unexpected consequences.

The internationally beloved story of a precocious teenager’s attempts to understand and control the world around her, Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse is a beautifully composed, wonderfully ambiguous celebration of sexual liberation, at once sympathetic and powerfully unsparing.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! Technically, it is already Tuesday. Nevertheless, how was your weekend? I hope you all had a restful one. I hope you were able to recuperate and prepare for the work week ahead. I know. Nearly everyone loathes Mondays; everyone includes me. On the brighter side, I also see Mondays as doors for new starts and opportunities. As such, I hope everyone is starting or has started the workweek – the second this July – on high note. I hope everyone makes it through – or survives – the workweek. I hope that the weekend equipped everyone for the tedious week ahead. I hope everyone gets to achieve something this week or at least makes significant progress toward their goals. I wish everyone a great week ahead. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in mind, body, and spirit, not only this week but for the rest of the year.

Over the weekend, I celebrated my 35th birthday. I can’t believe I was able to make it through this far. Nevertheless, I am grateful for all the blessings and for all the people who made my existence more bearable, if not memorable. You have all been amazing, integral parts of my journey. Let’s keep on cheering for each other. Anyway, as 2025 moves forward, I hope everyone be showered with blessings, positivity, healing, and growth. I hope the coming months will shower everyone with good news and kindness. I wish success and blessings for everyone. Reading-wise, I am on the right track. I am well ahead of my target of reading at least 100 books. However, I have been lagging behind in my reading challenges. Ticking off books from these reading challenges will be my priority in the second half of the year. I am about to finish David Szalay’s Flesh, the third book from my 2025 Books I Look Forward To List that I read.

With the start of the week is a fresh Goodreads Monday update. From Asia, my reading journey has next taken me to Europe; this comes after spending the first half of the year reading the works of Asian writers. This is quite interesting because I used to spend my birth month reading works of Japanese writers. Regardless, I am looking forward to the reading journey. In line with my reading motif, I will be featuring works of European writers in this weekly blogging update. This week, I am featuring Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse. I would have not come across the book had I not searched for recommended works of French literature. It was one of the books that came out. It immediately piqued my interest because I have never heard encountered Sagan before nor have I read any of her works.

What compelled me more to include the book on my growing reading list is learning that the book was published when Sagan was just eighteen. It was an overnight sensation that swept the nation. What a feat to accomplish at a young age! The book was translated into English as Hello Sadness and was adapted into film. Not too shabby for a book written by an eighteen-year-old. As can be surmised, the book is a coming-of-age story with overtones of romance. It is the story of a daughter – Cecile. in this case – unraveling the intricacies of parental relationships. For now, I just hope to acquire a copy of the book. 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!