Strong Allies—a book that asks the question: What did God make women to be?
Rooted in Scripture and listening to the stories of artists, writers, teachers, homemakers, caregivers, shopkeepers—single and married, young and old—Strong Allies calls women in every walk and stage of life to love the people around them in the places where he has planted them, through creating, cultivating, and restoring.
About Strong Allies Carmen Joy Imes writes:
Leslie’s beautiful book not only shows us Scripture’s strong vision for women to be strong allies, but brings that vision to life in the
stories of dozens of women then and now in a wide range of life circumstances. Personal and tender, practical and inspiring—we finally have a guide to biblical womanhood!
Leslie Anne Bustard loved gathering people together, and this generous hospitality is woven throughout this book. While Leslie’s voice guides the conversation, she also invited over twenty different women to join her at the table: alongside Leslie’s teaching, Strong Allies features essays from Karen Swallow Prior, Luci Shaw, Christie Purifoy, and many others, all reflecting on how they have either sought to be strong allies or have been shaped by the strong allies they’ve encountered throughout history, literature, and their own lives.
By spreading this feast of examples before readers, Leslie reminds us that we are not meant to fit into one mold but to live out the endless variety and beauty of the Lord, each in our own particular way. Leslie’s vision is one of abundance—not a narrowing, but a broadening, a deepening, that fills the expanse Scripture gives to women without overflowing the banks God’s Word also lovingly provides.
Order this book through your favorite local bookseller or through independent bookstores like Hearts & Minds Books, Landmark Booksellers, and Nooks.
Tiny Thoughts—a not-so-tiny collection of essays, poetry, art, and more!
Tiny Thoughts That I’ve Been Thinking: Selected Writings of Leslie Anne Bustard is a magpie’s nest of reflections on art, faith, literature, community, caregiving, and mortality. This collection includes essays, poems (many taken from The Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living), recipes, and other miscellaneous musings—all lovingly edited together by Théa Rosenburg to show how one follower of Jesus lived life to the glory of God by adding to the Beauty in the world around. Artwork fills the book by artists such as Bruce Herman, Joshua Kiehl, Makoto Fujimura, Mary McCleary, Matthew L. Clark, Georges Rouault, Joe Sutphin, Vincent van Gogh, John Hendrix, Ross Wilson, Sandra Bowden, Craig Hawkins, Hannah Claire Weston, Stephen Crotts, Roberto Ghezzi, Jamin Still, Theodore Prescott, and others.
About Tiny Thoughts Luci Shaw writes:
Light has a miraculous way of illuminating whatever is in its path. Leslie Anne Bustard partook of this brightness—nothing superficial, more an inner gleam that showed up on her joyful face and got translated into her loving messages into the world, and especially to those of us who encountered her on her shortened path of life. For those who did not get to meet her, I’m thankful for this collection of writings which serves as an introduction to Leslie and to her luminous work. Thanks be to God!
Order this book through your favorite local bookseller or through independent bookstores like Hearts & Minds Books, Landmark Booksellers, and Nooks.
Listen to the Strong Women interview about this book.
Shadows of Glory: How the Sun Shines through Leaf-Filled Branches—Selected Photographs by Leslie Anne Bustard
Leslie writes: "I believe beauty helps to show us what real reality is. I also believe that our everyday lives have beauty in them, so I pay attention to the world around me, looking for what is beautiful." This book is a collection of photographs taken by Leslie during 2022.
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The Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living: Selected Poems by Leslie Anne Bustard
The Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living is Leslie Anne Bustard’s first poetry book. It is a collection of around eighty poems in various forms—free verse, tanka, and ekphrasis. These poems were written from October 2020-October 2023, while the author was dealing with the reality of cancer and the hard side effects of fighting it. Artist Ross Wilson says, "These poems exalt the wonders of the everyday, wonders we so often neglect. They bring inward and outward illumination to our eyes and to our hearts, encouraging us to hope, love, feel, to reach out again, and again."
Foreword by Hannah Anderson.
These are poems that are ardently porous to the wonders of the world, insistent on its plain poetic beauty, unafraid of its mystery. The art of the poems is their appearance of unworked candour
(in itself a hard-wrought skill), a transparency of heart, and an unwavering belief in the transcendent that lingers in this imminent realm. Beautiful, hopeful, honest, true to the grain of grace—this is a book to open the heart and the eye, giving us back marvel and joy in the land of the living.
—Andrew Roycroft, pastor/poet and author of 33: Reflections on the Gospel of JohnLeslie Bustard’s new poems are the stuff of a visionary reality, penetrating beyond life’s surfaces in the most generous way, expectant, full of the juice of a life of active reflection. She sees a scar as a sign of hope—grace celebrated in the midst of anguish. These poems illustrate so well how a poet penetrates beyond such surfaces (though even those surfaces have significance), opening up thoughtful responses to ordinary events, and finding ways to celebrate these “ordinaries” that are far from ordinary.
— Luci Shaw, poet and author of The O in Hope: A Poem of WonderLeslie Bustard is a miracle. In the throes of a grueling battle with cancer, when many of us might be tempted to turn inward or sullen, she has turned outward, grown brighter and effervesced reams of poetry. She evokes E.E. Cummings’ “i thank you God for most this amazing,” in which the speaker, after encountering the beauty of creation, concludes, “(now the ears of my ears awake and / now the eyes of my eyes are opened).” For Bustard, tangible news of her mortality opens her eyes, inspires close inspection of trees, flowers, birds of all types, skies of all hues, and the people in her life that mean so much to her. In these poems there is not a moment of anger, nor even a suggestion of bitterness. Dealing with cancer has brought the moments of her life suddenly, shimmeringly to life—her memories of beauty, too, have become beacons of hope: It seemed all the mysteries of the world / floated on the trill of katydids. Though she also devotes quite a bit of energy to looking at paintings and engaging other authors, Bustard’s own words are the starry night we didn’t expect. She joins Sarah who, she writes, was barren no more and all / her sadness had come untrue. Constant joy. May we all aspire to this condition, in rich communion with God and all the Saints, fully healed in the grace of Jesus.
—Aaron Belz, author of four poetry collections including Soft Launch (Persea, 2019).
This was a limited edition book and is now unavailable. Many of the poems from this collection are part of Tiny Thoughts I’ve Been Thinking.
NOTE: A deluxe, illustrated book by Hannah Weston of only the tanka poems from this book can be purchased or downloaded HERE.rs, and Nooks.
Wild Things and Castles in the Sky: A Guide to Choosing the Best Books for Children
Wild Things and Castles in the Sky: A Guide to Choosing the Best Books for Children gives the reader over 40 essays that examine specific types of children’s books and offer suggestions in each category. Among the topics covered are: imagination, faith, classic literature, middle school books, race, fantasy, contemporary children’s books, Shakespeare, art history, Newberry books, young adult novels, poetry, and more. Curated and edited by Leslie and Carey Bustard with Théa Rosenburg (a mother-daughter team and a children’s books blogger), Wild Things and Castles in the Sky will encourage and envision parents, grandparents, teachers, and friends—to know the power of a good story and to share it with a child they love.
In Philippians 4, the Apostle Paul calls us to think on things that are "commendable" or "of good report." Wild Things and Castles in the Sky is just such a book. Filled with essays to help you find other commendable books, it also manages to be commendable in itself, replete with wonder, beauty, and inspiration. But I suppose the greatest commendation I can offer is to simply tell you that my book budget grew ten fold with the reading of it.
—Hannah Anderson, author of All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of DiscernmentI find that many books about imagination turn out to actually be books about books. Yet, while in the guise of being a book about books, Wild Things and Castles in the Sky is actually a book about imagination. This is an inspiring and immensely practical gift from forty wise and well-read people to those who want to bring up children marked by meaning.
—Brian Lawrence Brown, executive director of the Anselm SocietyWe are lead by the hand by this thoughtful guide into the deeper layers of community life by way of story, a help for how to choose books for children. What we read at a young age shapes us, and it matters. Beautifully done, this collection is sure to be a well-worn reference.
—Sandra McCracken, singer-songwriter
CLICK HERE to read a sample essay from Leslie.
Order this book through your favorite local bookseller or through independent bookstores like Hearts & Minds Books, Landmark Booksellers, and Nooks.