In David Brooks's op-ed today, praising Alan Jacobs's How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds, he cites what I'm pretty sure is Jacobs citing me! Brooks discusses C.S. Lewis's essay on the Inner Ring, and how the desire to belong to a group can warp our character as we compromise to be… Read More
Category: Blog
Trappist monks discuss my book
I was pleased and surprised to find that a group of Trappist monks at New Melleray Abbey have been discussing my book, Arriving at Amen: Seven Catholic Prayers that Even I Can Offer. One of the monks described their impressions: This evening several of us gathered to watch a segment of The Gist in which Leah Libresco talks… Read More
Absent Absolution (a triptych)
I was struck recently by a similarity between three articles on three different topics: the experiences of people who accidentally kill someone, problems with the disease model of addiction, a soldier who tried to contact the family of a civilian he killed in Iraq. Each of the articles is worth reading in full, but I've… Read More
Speaking on “Wizardry and the Wounds in the World” at Doxacon
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be giving the keynote speech at this year’s Doxacon (a Christian convention on fantasy and science fiction)! Tickets are on sale now (with a special rate for students, priests, and consecrated religious). My husband will also be speaking at this year's Doxacon, and here’s what we’re both speaking on: … Read More
How do you throw a fasting and silence party?
The New Yorker has written a profile of Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option, and my husband and I were interviewed as part of the article. (It was very funny overhearing the New Yorker fact checker asking Alexi to confirm he was wearing a bow-tie when we met with the author, and that the mac-and-cheese we ate could… Read More
Lenten disciplines draw on our weakness, not our strength
The most aggravating thing I've given up for Lent was jaywalking. I'm from New York, originally, and it's habit to step into the road regardless of whether the light is green for me. Jaywalking was a good discipline for me because it's clearly not a very big sacrifice. There's no way for me to think… Read More
Books on deck for me for 2017
Getting married meant I read a lot fewer books this year than usual. According to my Goodreads account, I read 195 books this past year (that comprised a total of about fifty-eight thousand pages). And eleven and a half of those were books I specifically set out to read in last year's Books on Deck post. (Ok,… Read More
My Favorite Books of 2016
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
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
“Didn’t you ever break on the floor?”
This post is a follow-up to a reflection on how going to rationality camp made me really grateful for my college debate experience. “Break on the floor” is, I’m pretty sure, part of the Yale Political Union vernacular, so a definition is probably in order. Our debates operated by Robert’s Rules of order, but our parliamentary debate style bears… Read More