Introducing my Tiny Book Club

I grew up in a home where one of the love languages was clipping articles for each other. Reading alone is never enough—what’s good should overflow from one reader to another.

I love running long-haul bookclubs with friends, reading books like Kristin Lavransdatter, Middlemarch, Brothers Karamazov, and Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. But this newsletter is a space for shorter works.

Every month (with a little help from you), I’m going to pick one essay for our tiny book club and invite you to read and discuss it with me. I’m also going to bring in a friend to have a featured role in the conversation.

Starting off, we’ll have Micah Hendler, the founder of the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus, discussing John Ahern’s essay “Contrapuntal Order” from First Things. And then in September, we’ll have Brandon McGinley, author of The Prodigal Church, as the featured guest when we read an excerpt of Fr. Jean Danielou’s Prayer as a Political Problem. And here are a few other essays I’m hoping to share:

• Leslie Jamison’s “Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain” in VQR

• Ted Gioia’s “Gratuity: Who Gets Paid When Art is Free?” in Image

• Trey Popp’s interview with Andrew Gould, “American Byzantine” in The Penn Gazette

I can’t guarantee much about genre, just that I’m picking pieces I admire, that lingered with me after my first read. There’s no requirement that they be recent.

If you’d like to join me, then sign up below to join in for our first shared read. (And please feel free to send me your nominations for the future).

-Leah

In the meantime, tell your friends!