June Reads!
Oh what a lovely start to summer
After an embarrassingly slim reading list in May (which I couldn’t justify writing a substack about), I’m back. Though rainier than usual, the long days and bright evenings of June served as the perfect setting for a nostalgic work of fiction and I found I was racing through book after book including a fun little break for a Percy Jackson spin-off series reread. In a moment of missing school I read a book by an author I recognized from a religion class and now miss it even more and may start to expand into more historical books instead of just novels.
The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter
I have always been a sucker for a pretty cover and when I was reading the New Yorker’s “what we’re reading this week” and saw this, I had to check it out. Not only do I want the painting for my bedroom, but it so perfectly captures the feeling conveyed in the story that it makes reading it even better. The book is about a man remembering his childhood at a time when his father was having a crisis, while he is simultaneously having his own mid-life crisis. Very beautiful writing and his use of memory is so fascinating, like what I loved so much about the Virgin Suicides.
Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels
Besides all the Russian lit classes, one of my all time favorite courses was a class called Sex and Religion taught by a brilliant professor (Christopher MacEvitt). He encouraged us to forget everything we thought we knew about Christianity and instead look at it through the lens of early Christianity, completely turning so many seemingly mainstream aspects of the religion on their head. In the course we read the Gnostic Bible by Pagels (which I loved) so when I saw she came out with this, I had to read it.
She looks at Jesus as a historical figure and helps the reader understand who he was in his time, how he has evolved, and why he is so important to so many different groups of people still today. I found it particularly interesting given how significant of a role Christianity plays in current US politics to understand how many core tenants of the practice stem from the politics at the time or convenient authorial changes etc.
Silver Elite by Dani Francis
Okay I’ll admit it. I am occasionally into a terrible YA fantasy. I was at an event speaking with two of my friend’s coworkers who are in publishing and they said this is the next big book in a romantasy dystopian trend that is expected post-Fourth Wing / Court of Thorns and Rosees. I read it so fast and it is terrible but I was obsessed. If you want to have a brainrot romantasy summer this isn’t a bad place to start.
Good Girl by Aria Aber
This debut was pretty amazing. The novel follows a teenage girl growing up in Berlin as the child of Afghan refugees. She is drawn to photography and night clubs and a middle-aged American author who is past his heyday as she comes to terms with her own identity and who she wants that to be. I think had I read this in college it would’ve been even more impactful but I still thoroughly enjoyed.
Recent / Current Reads
Gifted and Talented by Olivie Blake (bad), Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner (sorry Jamie I will finish one day and we can have our book club), Sleep by Honor Jones (just started)
PS that ptg looks exactly like the house on Mulholland Dr up in LA where a hollywood talent agent boyfriend lived in the 80’s.