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:

Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ

Blurb from Goodreads

A bittersweet story of love between two women, nested in an artful exploration of language, history, and power

May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.

Soon a Taiwanese woman―who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name―is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the “something” is.

Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday, everyone! Just like that, we are already through the first quarter of 2026. Today is the first Monday of April. Woah—how time flies! As always, time takes its natural course, ever flowing forward, sans regard for any of us. It does not wait for anyone. As such, I hope the year is going—and will continue to go—well for everyone. I hope the year will curry favor with you all. Things are still erratic, whether at work or geopolitics. I sure hope the tension in the Middle East will start to de-escalate. I hope that peace will gradually be restored. Meanwhile, here in the Philippines, the stifling summer heat is making its presence felt. Anyway, I hope everyone has had a good start to the workweek and the year. I hope everyone is in a place of comfort. The new week beckons with hope and fresh starts. I hope it flows in everyone’s favor. Wishing you continued success and happiness.

I know—not many people get excited about Mondays (though I’m sure a few are out there). I, too, am not exactly a fan. I hope that as the week moves forward, you slowly gain a semblance of momentum. Still, I hope that everyone’s workweek will go smoothly. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well—mentally, emotionally, and physically. In March, I commenced a literary journey across the European continent. This comes after spending the first two months of the year reading works of Latin American and Caribbean writers. It took me some time to decide where to land next, but in the end, I chose to read European writers, since most of the books on my 2026 reading challenge list are by European authors. With the number of European works on my reading challenges, I decided to extend this journey to April; I am currently reading Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night.

For this week’s (late) Goodreads Monday update, I am deviating from my ongoing reading theme. Rather than a work by a European writer, I am featuring Yáng Shuāng-zǐ’s (楊双子) Taiwan Travelogue. I first came across the Taiwanese writer and her novel last year. The book was heavily advertised when it was released. It actually piqued my interest. However, I held back on securing a copy of the book, believing it to be a literal travelogue, a work of nonfiction. I often avoid works of nonfiction. I would again encounter the book early this year when it was longlisted for the International Booker Prize. It was then that I learned that it was actually a novel. It has then become imperative for me to secure a copy of the book and read it. Apparently, Shuāng-zǐ is a pen name, which literally means twins. She was born Yang Jo-tzu and had a twin sister, Yang Jo-hui. Jo-tzu specialized in Taiwanese literature while Jo-hui studied history. Still, the sisters shared the dream of opening a publishing house dedicated to yuri novels. Yuri is a Japanese term describing the affection between women that goes beyond friendship but falls short of romantic love.

Unfortunately, in 2015, Jo-Hui passed away after battling cancer, hence her sister’s pseudonym. A year after her sister’s passing, Jo-tzu published her first novel 撈月之人 (The Man Scooping Up the Moon). Meanwhile, Taiwan Travelogue was originally published in 2020 as 臺灣漫遊錄. Both these novels are yuri novels. These details then add a dimension as to why I want to read the book. Besides, it has made it to the International Booker Prize shortlist. Honestly, I am not sure if I have read any works by any Taiwanese writers, although I have been on the lookout for their works post-pandemic. I now regret having initially dismissed the book. I now have to secure a copy of the book; the local bookstore has run out of copies of the novel. I am now crossing my fingers that I obtain a copy of the book before the International Booker Prize winner is announced.

How about you, fellow readers? How was your Monday? What books have you recently added to your reading list? Drop your thoughts in the comments. For now—happy Monday, and as always, happy reading!