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:

Exemplary Humans by Juliana Leite

Blurb from Goodreads

Juliana Leite makes her English-language debut with a novel about one woman’s past and all of our futures

Ever since the unnamed threat took over, 100-year-old Natalia has been stuck inside her Rio de Janeiro apartment, alone. Well, not entirely alone—her loved ones may be gone but they never really left her, plus she’s pretty sure there’s a spy watching her every move through the window.

As she waits for the daily call from her daughter who lives halfway across the world, the old woman revisits scenes from her life. There’s her husband Vicente, who obsessively erased maps of Brazil; her best friend Sarah, the cookie seller; Jorge, who gave tarot readings for both humans and birds; and the comrades who joined her in resisting Brazil’s dictatorship, at least until they were forced into hiding. Exemplary Humans is an ambitious novel about the quirks of memory and the delights and horror of aging.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday, everyone! Just like that, we are already two-thirds through the seventh month of the year. How time flies! As always, time takes its natural course, ever flowing forward, with no 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 rest of the year will be kind to you all. Things are still erratic, whether at work or in geopolitics. I hope the tension in the Middle East begins to de-escalate and that peace is gradually restored. I also hope things start to slow down at work. They have been hectic lately, and I am hoping things will start looking up. Anyway, I hope everyone has had a good start to the workweek. I hope everyone is in a place of comfort. The new week beckons with hope and fresh starts, and I hope it unfolds in everyone’s favor. Wishing you continued success and happiness. I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

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. Still, I hope that as the week moves forward, you gradually gain a semblance of momentum. I hope everyone’s workweek goes smoothly. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well—mentally, emotionally, and physically. After spending the first two months of the year reading works by Latin American and Caribbean writers, I have spent the following four months reading the works of European authors. I chose to read European writers because most of the books on my 2026 reading challenge list are by European authors. I am thankful that I was finally able to complete all the books on my reading challenge lists. With the start of a new month, I also commenced a new literary journey. With July being my birth month, I have commenced a venture across Asian literature. I am currently reading Kiyoshi Shigematsu’s The Blanket Cats.

This week’s featured book, however, deviates from this month’s reading motif. As the year approaches its halfway mark, literary publications have begun sharing their lists of the best books of the year so far. This is how I came across the Juliana Leite and her novel Exemplary Humans. Honestly, it was only today that I learned about the Brazilian writer. Her novel was listed by the New York Times as one of their best books of the year, so far. Apparently, Leite is quite the literary star in her native Brazil. Her debut novel, Entre as Mãos, was published in 2018. It was an immediate literary sensation, earning Leite the prestigious Prêmio Sesc de Literatura. It was quite the literary debut. Leite is also the first Brazilian writer to receive the O. Henry Prize for her short story “My Good Friend,” which was also optioned for film. 

It was no surprise then that her sophomore novel Humanos Exemplares received the same critical success as Leite’s debut novel when it was published in 2022. It was then translated into English as Exemplary Humans in 2026, making it Leite’s first novel to be translated into English. At the heart of the novel is Natalia, a centenarian living alone in the same apartment in Rio de Janeiro where she got married and raised her daughter. Natalia is a retired high-school writing teacher and was widowed. Due to the emergence of an unnamed global threat (most probably the COVID-19), Natalia was forced to be confined in her apartment. This allowed a moment of introspection. Memory swirls as Natalia reflects on the life she has had and how her life interacted with other people. I guess this is where the novel derives its title. For now, I hope I can secure a copy of it. 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!