New Books | June 2020

Hello my fellow bookworms, it is nearly the end of June, so it is time to share with you the new books I was lucky to get my hands on over this month.

First, I was lucky enough to get accepted, on NetGalley, for an arc copy of this:

The Queen’s Rival by Anne O’Brien (2020)

‘England, 1459: Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, is embroiled in a plot to topple the weak-minded King Henry VI from the throne. But when the Yorkists are defeated at the Battle of Ludford Bridge, Cecily’s family flee and abandon her to face a marauding Lancastrian army on her own.

Cecily can only watch as her lands are torn apart and divided up by the ruthless Queen Marguerite. From the towers of her prison in Tonbridge Castle, the Duchess begins to spin a web of deceit – one that will eventually lead to treason, to the fall of King Henry VI, and to her eldest son being crowned King Edward IV.

This is a story of heartbreak, ambition and treachery, of one woman’s quest to claim the throne during the violence and tragedy of the Wars of the Roses.’ (Image and description taken from NetGalley)

Over the last couple of years, Anne O’Brien has become my go-to-author for my historical fix and I have now enjoyed four of her historical novels; with the most recent being: Queen of the North, last year. So, as you can imagine, I am thrilled to get my hands on a copy of her latest.

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Then I snapped up these two e-books for my Kindle at a bargain price from the SmileAmazon UK website:

Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions by Rachel Held Evans (2014)

‘Eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial made a spectacle of Christian fundamentalism and brought national attention to her hometown, Rachel Held Evans faced a trial of her own when she began to have doubts about her faith.

In Faith Unraveled, Rachel recounts growing up in a culture obsessed with apologetics, struggling as her own faith unraveled one unexpected question at a time.

In order for her faith to survive, Rachel realizes, it must adapt to change and evolve. Using as an illustration her own spiritual journey from certainty to doubt to faith, Evans challenges you to disentangle your faith from false fundamentals and to trust in a God who is big enough to handle your tough questions.’ (Image and description taken from Amazon UK)

How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People by Pete Greig (2019)

‘Pete Greig has been teaching on prayer – and leading a non-stop prayer movement – for twenty years. Now, for the first time, he puts his life’s work into a response to the question everybody ultimately asks: how do I pray?

This down-to-earth introduction to life’s greatest adventure will guide you deeper in your relationship with God, helping you to become more centred and still, clearer in discerning God’s voice, more able to make sense of your disappointments and more expectant for miraculous breakthroughs too. It’s full of honest, hard-won wisdom interspersed with real-life stories – some humorous, others moving – to equip and inspire your prayer life. Journeying through the Lord’s Prayer, and accompanied by online videos from The Prayer Course, which has been used by more than a million people, it unpacks nine essential aspects of prayer: stillness, adoration, petition, intercession, perseverance, contemplation, listening, confession and spiritual authority.’ (Image and description taken from Amazon UK)

I couldn’t resist Faith Unraveled, after having loved another of Rachel Held Evan’s books: Searching For Sunday, last year. While How To Pray is by a new-to-me author, which I downloaded as it is the next book for my church’s book club. We will be reading and meeting to discuss it, via Zoom, next month.

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So plenty to look forward to. Now I’d love to hear from you: Do any of these tempt you? Which of these do you think I should read first? What new books have you got recently?

I have linked this post into the weekly meme, Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga’s Reviews & Reading Reality.