This Is What Happens When Women Read
by Julianna GlasseGenres: Biography & Autobiography / Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography / Religious
Published on October 13, 2026
Pages: 240
Format: eBook Source: Library
An empowering story of self-actualization by a former Christian pop star whose life was transformed by reading.
At the peak of her fame, Julianna Glasse seemed to have everything she wanted: a successful career as a Christian pop singer and author, a high-profile marriage, and a respected place in the evangelical community that had shaped her understanding of herself and the world. But beneath the surface, questions she could no longer ignore began to challenge everything she had spent decades learning, teaching, and defending.
The books she started to read opened doors she could not shut. The certainties she had inherited over her lifetime no longer felt certain. She came to see how fear had shaped so many of her choices, and how freedom often begins with a question.
In this deeply personal memoir, Julianna writes of her very public and painful split from both the church and her husband—the self-hatred, depression, shame, and suicidal impulses that almost destroyed her; the books she read that inspired her to embrace life as an autonomous, independent woman and pursue her education at the University of Oxford; and, finally, her path to self-discovery and purpose. This Is What Happens When Women Read is for anyone who has outgrown a belief, a relationship, a role, or a version of themselves—and is beginning to imagine what comes next.
I chose to read this book based solely on the title. I had absolutely no idea who any of the people in the book were. She was a Christian pop singer and she was married to a baseball player. He was the MVP of a season. She never says his name but I looked it up and I still have no idea who he is. I don’t follow baseball but have never even heard their names in passing. But with the emphasis on reading as a basis for leaving religion, I figured this was right up my alley.
Those hard-line Evangelicals who want to keep women at home are quite right—if you let them out, they might learn about the world. They might start asking questions, they might get ideas, and they might start thinking for themselves.
As she started to see things in the world that didn’t fit in with her evangelical view of Christianity, she started to read more philosophy. She hid this from her husband but it was causing strain in her marriage. He eventually found the books and yelled at her, “This is what happens when women read!” thus naming her book and foundation.
I did enjoy the number of books that she recommends. There is an appendix with a list and there are others in the text. I need to add a few to my TBR.
She was a prominent enough singer to be invited to sing at the prayer breakfast for the first inauguration of Trump. She was in town during the Women’s March. She remembers that in the aftermath of his second election.
I remembered how terrified I felt to see women in their full power during the Women’s March in DC years before. They had waved banners and were insubordinate, outrageous, determined, loud. The Women’s March made me dig in my heels in spite of the nascent stirring of rebellion already growing in me, and I retreated—for a while, anyway—into my God-pleasing quiet humility. Today, the day after this disastrous election, I can see the ways that we progressives who so fervently wanted Kamala Harris to win had utterly failed at speaking to women like the me of eight years ago.
I could have done without the sexual part of her story. When she leaves her marriage she goes a bit wild. That’s fairly common for people coming out of restrictive religions. I didn’t need to know the details of her sex life with lots of other people though. That didn’t add much to the book for me.
And this is the work, I thought to myself. This is the mission. We will build a movement to show the world that this is what happens when women read. We notice the systems of oppression. We challenge those systems. We liberate ourselves from them, and then we fucking change them. The day we realize we can change ourselves is the day everything changes. We read to free ourselves. To unjudge, to unlearn. Instead of remaining static in certitude, we question. We read everything we can get our eyes, ears, and fingers on. We read to self-educate. To rethink, reclaim, and restore. No one can do this work for us. So we speak out. For unsuppressed knowledge. For breaking bread with our Pharisees. We make a meal of Plato. We pour a glass of Sappho. We read to awaken the liberation of women everywhere. It starts with a book … and I am only just beginning. This is what happens when women read.
