The needles on my Christmas tree are falling rapidly now. If someone runs too closely to it, a handful will come off. If you bump it, hundreds pour down. I’m dreading the vacuuming job required after we carry it out the door. I doubt there will be many needles left on the branches...just a bare trunk to be tossed to the curb.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I went to see a play based on C.S. Lewis's (very trippy and often confusing but still profound) book, The Great Divorce. The script and the acting brought truths to light in a way I can easily miss while reading the book.

At one point, I had to pull out my phone to type out this line so I could hold onto it and ruminate over it a little longer:

“Either joy prevails or misery infects it.”

I've been turning that phrase over in my mind for the last week, and I looked up the full quote in Lewis's book. Here, the narrator's guide is leading the narrator around the outskirts of a sort of celestial space and explaining the meaning of what they're seeing. The guide says:

“Either the day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it: or else for ever and ever the makers of misery can destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves.”

There's so much to dig into there, and so much in the context of the book that's worth reading. But here's the simple truth I want us to hold onto: Joy will prevail.

I have a stack of books on my desk…and the side table in my office…and my nightstand…and another stack on the floor. I’m a bit unrealistic about the time I actually have to read in a day, but I still can’t help surrounding myself with good books. Maybe you can relate.

So, I thought I’d share a few books that are on my shelf (or soon will be). Some of these have been out for a while, some are newer. But I think all of them will be worth reading, and I can’t wait to dive in.