In the 21st century, the term "critical" has attached itself to numerous aspects of literacy research. However, what critical means remains commonly anchored to Freire and a primary critical reading practice--suspicious critique. Expanding critical literacy research (CLR), this article advances "reading orientations" as a conceptual tool for drawing attention to the phenomenological aspects of our critical reading practices and for exploring alternative "methods" and "moods" for reading power in literacy studies. Through three "re-turns" to previous publications within the field of critical literacy, I position myself as an exploratory case. The first re-turn surveys four leading models of critical literacy, which I encountered in my graduate training, and highlights how critique and suspicion function in these models. The second re-turn zooms into my own work, re-reading three previous publications to illustrate how suspicious critique has influenced my research. Experimental, my third re-turn presents previously unpublished data to engage an alternative reading method--reparative description--and illustrates how we might read power otherwise in CLR. Together, these re-turns emphasize the possibilities of accounting for reading orientations in CLR and for exploring additional methods and moods of reading within the field.