We read to free ourselves: a book review of Julianna Glasse’s “This is What Happens When Women Read”

I finished the book and one immediate thought was “I wish I’d had this book in my teens,” but I also think my 34-year-old self really needed it. This is for every person who’s ever felt oppressed by religion or the patriarchy and struggled to find our own footing amid everyone else’s judgement.

Reading “This Is What Happens When Women Read” by Julianna Glasse felt like a hug…and like healing I didn’t know I still needed, for wounds I’d long ago set aside. Turns out they might still need a bit of love and compassion.

My religious upbringing was waaaaay different from the author’s—she grew up in a conservative, fundamentalist evangelical environment—and I always think “it could’ve been worse for me” (and yes, it could’ve). But I did not escape the catholic guilt, the catholic shame, or the kind of “humility” that teaches you to make yourself smaller. Even now I still sometimes catch myself shrinking unnecessarily. Some damaging, internalized things we were told at ~6 years old are hard to get rid of. This book might help.

I was lucky to go to a non-religious school where I could ask the questions no one else would answer; elsewhere some adults would look at me like I should burn in hell or resort to “that’s just how god made it.” My little brain was never satisfied with that answer. Books have been my solace and my most loyal companions for as long as I can remember. To quote Julianna: “We read to free ourselves.”

Learning what Julianna went through and some of the things she had to do—including voting for DT the first time around “because god is watching”—is infuriating in many ways…especially because so much of it is still happening around the world, like “gay conversion therapy,” which cannot be called anything other than torture. And still, despite many things that could’ve led her in a different direction, her book is an invitation to live with love, and to be softer and kinder to one another regardless of our religions and beliefs.

The brutal honesty with which she shares every stage of her liberation is inspiring. Despite everything she went through, and how she was publicly treated after her separation (from religion as well as from her ex-husband), she reminds us that people can and do change—and that change, kindness, and compassion (for ourselves and toward others) are a decision we can all make.

Then, as I read, Julianna wrote something I’ve said for years, almost word for word: some of the best “Christians” I know are atheists. She goes on: “demonstrating to me that morality, inner strength, and virtue do not come from above but from within.”

And no, religion isn’t all bad, and it can be a lifeline for a lot of people. I’ve seen it in close friends and relatives—and the book holds space for those stories too. I respect your personal right to believe and follow whichever religion you want. It’s the institutional and cultist shit that is dangerous, violent, manipulative, and oppressive.

And that ending?! I felt I was there. I finished the book feeling so damn inspired.

Words are actions. Books are doors. Please read this one—and then plenty more 😉

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[I received a free digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review of this book]