These are my favorite books I read for the first time in 2016 (here's last year's list). Well, technically, my favorite books I read from December 2015-November 2016, since I always put this list together in time for people to grab Christmas gift ideas. And, if you're looking for other book recommendations from me, you… Read More
Author: Leah Libresco
The Lazy Way To Fall In Love With Others
"Having someone come into my home offers me an opportunity to learn to love them better—by a process a bit gentler than aggressively willing myself to love them. Simply having someone over gives me a chance to cultivate what C.S. Lewis calls a storgé sort of love: the love born from familiarity and shared circumstances. Storge… Read More
Is Pope Francis a failure? Not so fast.
"Take a second and make a guess about how much participation in Lenten rituals has diminished for American Episcopalian or Lutheran millennials over the same period covered by CARA’s research. Ten percentage points? More? Less? I don’t know the answer, but I would be surprised if it is only Catholics that are falling away at… Read More
‘You Are What You Love:’ Accentuate the Ordinary
"In Smith’s diagnosis, one of the ways we neglect God is by refusing his humblest gifts. We might meditate on the readings at church, do a little devotional reading at home, and keep tabs on blog posts online, but we run the risk of 'approach[ing] discipleship as primarily a didactic endeavor—as if becoming a disciple… Read More
What They Didn’t Tell Me In Sex Ed
"I was intending to read the book [Toni Weschler's Taking Charge of Your Fertility] as an instruction manual, but I kept recognizing myself in the stories of the women who she worked with. At least twice, I dog-eared a page not because it would be relevant to charting for my married life, but because Weschler… Read More
Hamilton, Temptation, and Grace
"The grace of forgiveness is larger than the horror of losing a child or the betrayal of adultery. It’s so large as to be unimaginable until (and even after) the moment that it is offered. Perhaps one reason that Hamilton couldn’t imitate St. Therese and flee temptation is that he had no idea what he… Read More
Beyoncé And The Fertility Of Forgiveness
Beyoncé doesn’t take second swings at her targets, she seems to have no particular animus for anything she smashes. In fact, when she knocks the top off of a fire hydrant, children rush forward to play in the spray; a perfect realization of 'My wounds are fertile!' from Leslie Jamison’s 'Grand Unified Theory of Female… Read More
Give Us This Day Our Daily Hedgehog
"After Aslan is resurrected [in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe], he travels to the witch’s castle and frees the animals she had turned to stone. A lion he rescues is so overwhelmed by this grace that he doesn’t quite know what to do with himself. The most pleased of the lot was the… Read More
Modern Weddings Have Lost Interest In The Marriage Bed
"[The Knot Book of Wedding Lists] recommends planning (and planning to attend) a second party after the reception winds down, telling spouses-to-be: “An after-party is more than just an extension of your wedding day—it’s a great way to show off more of your wedding style with surprising details and personal touches.” [...] It can’t be… Read More
Engagement, A Bibliography
On Easter Sunday, my boyfriend proposed to me at Belvedere Castle in Central Park. And I feel the best way to invite you all into my joy is to share the bibliography of our courtship — the favorite books we asked each other to read, the books we read for the first time together, the… Read More