An empowering journey to self-actualization by a former Evangelical Christian pop star whose life was transformed when she began reading books that had been forbidden to her.

Julianna Glasse was an influential Christian pop star and author who sang at President Trump’s first National Prayer Breakfast, as well as an exemplary Christian wife. But when, out of curiosity, she began reading Plato’s Republic, something inside her shifted. She began asking questions and hungered to read more, hiding the forbidden books under her bed, in her linen closet, wherever they wouldn’t be found—books by Emerson, Dickinson, Rumi, de Beauvoir. When her husband discovered a pile of her books, he chastised her for her disobedience: “This is what happens when women read,” he told her, a phrase that liberated her. She left her marriage, the church, and her married name behind, and set off on a process of educating herself and working to reach other women trapped without agency within religious communities.

In this powerful, riveting memoir, Julianna writes of her very public and painful split from both the church and her marriage—the self-hatred, depression, and suicidal impulses that almost destroyed her; the books she read that inspired her to reclaim her life as an autonomous, independent woman and earn an advanced degree at Oxford University; and, finally, her path to self-discovery and purpose. With a suggested reading list at the back of the book, This Is What Happens When Women Read is at once a dramatic personal story, a conversation starter about women’s emancipation, and an inspiring paean to the power of books.