Ceri Louise Reads

I’m not calling this month a TBR because I think everything going on this list I am already reading… June is a month for trying to finish what I’ve already started. I have fifteen books on my currently reading shelf – about half of which are for my research – and I want to finish as many as I can. If I get to pick up anything else, it will be a bonus. One book, Seven Mercies, is from my May TBR and I should be able to finish it before we get to June, especially as I need to take it back to the library before then!

So what are the books I’m hoping to finish? I’ll tell you about the research books first, then move onto the more fun ones!

1. Literature: An Introduction to Theory and Analysis

I’ve been working on my methodology for my thesis and as I’m analysing novels it requires brushing up on literary theory. This book has short essays on a number of aspects of literature and has been really interesting and helpful so far.

2) Uses of Literature by Rita Felski

Another book on literary theory which I read about in the above book. This one is more about why people read, what they are hoping to get out of reading. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far, and it’s quite short so shouldn’t take too long to get through the rest.

3) The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction

This is a really useful book for my research so far as it outlines the history and conventions of romance novels. It also has chapters on different subgenres which has been quite useful. I’m about halfway through this one I think.

4) Reading Evangelicals by Daniel Silliman

This book came out last year and looks at five novels that are fairly representative of Christian fiction publishing since the 1970s, one per decade, and assesses why they were popular and what they can tell us about evangelicalism. While he focuses on different novels to me, there is some overlap with the work I am doing so it is interesting to see how he approaches the topic.

5) Bathsheba by Jill Eileen Smith

This is one of my primary texts for my research, looking at romance retellings of the story of King David from the Bible. This is a reread as I am making notes on it as I go this time.

6) Solomon’s Son by Roberta Kells Dorr

This is a sequel to another of my primary texts, David and Bathsheba, and actually will likely feature in my analysis too. It is not a difficult read but I can only cope with it in small chunks as it is somewhat problematic from my perspective.

7) The White Princess by Philippa Gregory

From the Cousins War series, this is a retelling of the story of Elizabeth of York’s marriage to Henry VII. I picked this up on a friend’s recommendation as a parallel read for my research as it contains some similar elements, but it is another one I can only read in small doses as I really don’t like Philippa Gregory’s writing.

Okay onto the non-fiction I need to finish…

8) Unmasking Autism by Devon Price

This is a book I received from NetGalley for review and it is really interesting. It is about the less commonly known elements of Autism, particularly amongst those who don’t fit the stereotypical presentation among straight white cis men. I’m really enjoying it, I just keep forgetting to pick it up!

9) Kingdom of Fools by Nick Page

My dad lent me this book ages ago and I really need to give it back to him… It is about the earliest days of Christianity, when it was a small movement in a backwater of the Roman Empire. Nick Page writes in a really engaging way and breaks down some of the debates among theologians and church historians to make them much easier to understand. 

10) With Passion and Compassion

This is a collection of essays on theology written by women from the majority world. I always want to learn from theologians who are different from me and this looks like a super interesting collection – I’ve only read the introduction so far!

And finally the fiction:

11) The Ladies’ Paradise by Emile Zola

I’ve been trying to get through this for ages – I’ve been parallel reading it in French and English but the French is really complex and the chapters are super long so I’m rarely in the mood or have the attention span to pick it up. At this point I probably should give up on trying to read it in French but I’m a completionist so we’ll see what happens…

12) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

I read the first couple of chapters a few months ago with the intention of reading a little bit every day and chipping away at it slowly, but it didn’t work. So I think I’m just going to focus on it as my main fiction book for June and see if I can get through it.

13) The River of Silver by S A Chakraborty

This is a collection of short stories set in the Daevabad world. Daevabad is one of my all time favourite series so it has been lovely to step back into this world and fill in some of the backstories. I just keep picking up other things as it can be hard to get momentum with short story collections.

14) Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

I received an eArc of this from NetGalley and it was one of my most anticipated books of 2021 due to how much I loved The Deep, but I kept not getting to it. I started it at the beginning of May but have been distracted by library books. I’d also forgotten how uncomfortable reading a Rivers Solomon book can be with their dystopian style worlds. But a little discomfort can be good in reading, if you are in the right mood. Hopefully I will be in June.

So that’s it – those are all the books I’m currently reading that I’m hoping to finish in June. Let me know what you’re planing to pick up!