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:

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Blurb from Goodreads

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle – and her followers are sick with envy. Her charming farmhouse on her working ranch is artfully cluttered, her husband is a handsome cowboy, her homemade sourdough boules are each more beautiful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers and industrial-grade ovens behind the scenes? What her followers don’t know won’t hurt them.

Then, one morning, Natalie wakes up in a strange, horrible version of reality. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Is this a hoax? A reality show? A test from God? Natalie knows just two things for sure: this isn’t her perfect life, and she must escape, by any means possible.

As darkly funny as it is shocking and gripping, Yesteryear is an electrifying examination of tradition, fame, faith and the grand performance of womanhood, from a thrilling new talent in fiction.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday, everyone! We are already in the ninth 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. Today is my first day reporting to my new job. Things are starting to look up for me professionally. For the first time, I am the head of my unit. While I am a little nervous, I am looking forward to what the future has in store for me. I hope that this will continue until the end of the year. I hope and pray that everyone is being showered with blessings and positive news as well, especially in the last stretch of the year. I also hope everyone has had a good start to the workweek. I hope everyone is in a place of comfort. Wishing you continued success and happiness. I hope everyone is doing well in body, mind, and spirit.

The new week beckons with hope and fresh starts, and I hope it unfolds in everyone’s favor. I know not many people get excited about Mondays (though I’m sure a few are out there). Here in the Philippines, the work week started on yet another damp note. The northern part of the country is still experiencing the monsoon season after a brutal summer. I wish the sun would make its presence felt. I also hope that as the week progresses, you gradually gain some momentum. I hope everyone’s workweek goes smoothly. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well mentally, emotionally, and physically. With the commencement of a new month comes a new literary venture. After touring across the Asian continent, I am now crossing the Pacific to the United States of America. Apparently, I have quite a lot of American books in my reading challenges. Still, I hope that this literary journey is going to be a memorable one.

My current read, Fannie Flagg’s Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! is part of my 2026 Beat the Backlist Challenge. To align with this month’s reading motif, I am featuring the work of an American writer in this week’s Goodreads Monday update. I am not exactly sure where or how I encountered Caro Claire Burke and her novel, Yesteryear. I believe it is listed by some literary pundits or publications as one of the best books of the year so far. Actually, I was only reminded of the book when I was perusing my Goodreads want-to-read lists. Apparently, Yesteryear is Burke’s debut novel. The book has also received positive reviews and feedback from fellow readers. Interestingly, despite being released just this year, it has already been rated nearly 900,000 times, with an average rating of 3.88 as of posting. It seems that the book is quite popular.

Anyway, the titular Yesteryear is a ranch occupied by the novel’s heroine, Natalie, and her family. The book’s cover art now makes sense. Natalie is a 32-year-old trad wife who has gained online fame for promoting traditional gender roles and homestead aesthetics. She has a sizeable online following to whom she sells raw milk and farm-life content. She wakes up one morning to find that she’s in the actual 1800s. This concept of time travel makes the novel’s premise interesting. Further, it is more than just about time travel. The novel, it seems, attempts to dismantle the traditional wife concept. Apparently, the book has been hyped online; the ratings it has gained on Goodreads then make sense. For now, I hope I get to obtain a copy of the book. 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 and keep safe!