Last year, I had a baby... and finished all the books on my 2020 list! (With the caveat that my husband and I took up Cardinal Sarah's The Day is Now Far Spent as our shared Sunday readaloud book, so I get a pass since we're reading it slowly together). All in all, I read… Read More
Author: Leah Libresco
My Favorite Books of 2020
These are my favorite books I read in 2020, listed in roughly chronological order. Nearly all of them were read as ebooks, many as library books, as I (initially) read with a sleeping newborn on my lap and (later) read standing up, ready to run to pluck our adventurous baby off the stairs. I rely… Read More
Sing Out, America! An appreciation of Listening for America
One of my favorite books I read this year was Rob Kapilow’s Listening for America, a tour through the genius of American musical theater. I was delighted to get to write an appreciation for Fare Forward. Reading Kapilow took me one step further into appreciation. He has a gift for worked examples and teaches by rewriting… Read More
Defending Dependence
My essay, "Dependence: Toward an Illiberalism of the Weak" is part of Plough's Family issue. Everyone is dependent (at least some of the time) but women have a much harder time than men pretending not to be. Hiding dependence hurts us all. On January 21, I'll be joining Ross Douthat, Sarah C. Williams and Peter… Read More
Discussing Evangelization with Bishop Barron
In my day job, I was very happy to get to facilitate a conversation between Bishop Barron and the students of Princeton University. The event was hosted by the Aquinas Institute for Catholic Life at Princeton, and Bishop Barron fielded student questions about their challenges in evangelization for an hour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFWYMEA22Ek Read More
Bridging the Divide Within Feminism
At Newsweek, I'm discussing some of the tensions within modern feminism, and where we can find common ground across the abortion divide. Women are divided over how to respond to a world that treats us as defective men. Do we try to elbow our way in by adjusting our lives to a norm that may… Read More
Cheering on Superman Smashing the Klan
My husband and I were guests together on God and Comics to talk about Gene Luen Yang's Superman Smashes the Klan. The book is great, and I really enjoyed talking about it with the three nerdy clergymen of God and Comics. Yang is updating a Superman radio serial ("Clan of the Fiery Cross"), which was… Read More
‘Cuties’ Is Dangerous, Even If It Wasn’t Meant To Be
At The American Conservative, I'm talking about why visual representations of exploitation are almost always pulled into a kind of exploitation themselves. The initial advertising for Cuties presented the hypersexualization without any hint of critique. It showed the young actresses in provocative poses, and made it appear that the intended audience for the film was… Read More
Bad Art Warps Our Vision
At First Things, I take a crack at explaining why smutty art is bad in the way airbrushing and CGI Yoda are bad. It’s the same reason we should object to airbrushed skin and photoshopped waists. It’s the same reason we should object to sending barely pubescent girls or anorexic teens down the catwalks to model clothes ostensibly being… Read More
Tiny Book Club: My new newsletter
I've started a newsletter on Substack, called Tiny Book Club. Every month, I pick a good essay or article, invite in a special guest for a dialogue, and then host a discussion with all of the subscribers. It's a book club for readings much much shorter than a book. We kicked off in August with… Read More