Welcome to Litsy!

“A Well-Trained Wife” is Tia Levings‘ memoir about narrowly surviving abuse at the hands of her husband and under the leadership of the fundamentalist church. For nearly 15 years, she hides her longing to “awaken as ONE Tia, a woman with a name.” With this book, she‘s made a name for herself, which is no small thing.

While timely and illuminating, the narrative is relentless. 👇🏻

The years of processing and healing between Tia‘s escape and the writing of this book made this memoir incredibly powerful. Tia clearly lays out all the steps that led to her horrific marriage and how she became mentally trapped in it. I was able to escape my patriarchal religious group as a young adult but have spent years dealing with the damage from it. I‘m so glad women like Tia are strong enough to share these painful stories.

Nothing makes me happier then a combo pet snuggle during reading time 🐕🐈📚

[edit] My husband has asked me to clarify that the trim in the window is not done, but will be soon so don‘t judge him 😂🔨

Powerful, raw, terrifying, beautiful. So many parallels with Educated, so many things I now realize slip through in conversations and little casual things. Terrifying how many people would be totally ok with this becoming a reality for our daughters.
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I‘ve been in a reading rut for a while now, but I just discovered this graphic from StoryGraph and I‘m kinda loving it. Here‘s hoping October is a better reading month. #readinggraphic #StoryGraph #Readingstats

UNPUTDOWNABLE! A must-read memoir!
This was heart wrenching, maddening, inconceivable, and mind-boggling.
One chapter hit way too close to home and I was balling. The rest of the book left me with my mouth agape the entire time.
“Today it hit me when he hit me, blood shaking in my brain. Maybe there wasn‘t a savior coming. Maybe it was up to me to save me.” ~ Tia Levings

1. I have an iPhone from Apple.

2. The tagged book is the last book I read on my phone because I had a Netgalley ARC for it. Now, the one I‘m currently reading that I have a Netgalley ARC for is Empresses Of Seventh Avenue. I need to finish it before it gets published on August 27 but it‘s taking me forever because the chapters are so long and it doesn‘t have any pictures of the fashion from WWII.

#two4tuesday

I started following Tia on insta a couple of years ago. She posts anti-evangelical and anti-fundamentalist (IBLP and the like) content. This is the harrowing story of her abusive marriage to a man who jumped through many of these fundamentalist groups looking for “enlightenment”. TW for physical abuse, religious trauma, and gaslighting/verbal abuse. She has an important story to share and a warning about people with these beliefs coming to power.

I just watched this documentary series on Prime Video. The author of the tagged book is in the series. I wanted to watch this because I just read the tagged book this month. It was published on August 6th. I had a Netgalley ARC of the tagged book. I‘ve watched The Duggars before and there was a lot that I didn‘t know.

For #weeklyfavorites, I‘m sharing the tagged book that was published on August 6. I started it on August 1 and I didn‘t finish reading it until publication day. This is a memoir by a woman who left the church. She was married to a Fundamentalist Christian. It wasn‘t the easiest book to read. It made me sad and angry but I couldn‘t stop reading it. I found it very interesting. This makes me want to watch the docuseries Shiny Happy People.

Happy Publication Day to this book!

On Sale: 8/6/24

I‘m almost done with this book. I‘ll be finished tomorrow. I‘m going to bed. I had a feeling that I probably wouldn‘t finish this book before publication day on August 6. I wasn‘t in the mood to read it in July. This book hasn‘t been the easiest book to read because of how sad it is. Maybe posting my review on publication day will actually be good for the book because everyone will probably be talking about it.

I just started this. This is a Netgalley ARC I was accepted for. I have the ebook and the audiobook. It‘s interesting so far.

Tia‘s memoir is one of the most gut-wrenching and infuriating I‘ve read. She describes her experiences so vividly that I‘ve had to take my time and walk away from this book many times to process.

So glad this book exists to serve as a testament for how dangerous and damaging extreme religions are for women. And to show that another life is possible.

Pub Date: 8/6/24 #arc ##NetGalley

And we‘re back…This book is too much, I‘ve had to walk away a few times.

This book is so infuriating, but mostly sad 💔

Hope you are ready for me spamming your feed while I freak out about this book… 🤬

This is already wild and I‘ve only read the prologue…

#arc

Moving and well-written, and well-narrated by the author. It made me realize I‘ve come to expect memoirs by those who‘ve left (or at least are critiquing) Evangelical/fundamentalist cultures to also be deep dives into the specifics of those cultures and their institutions. This really isn‘t that, and of course that is 100% okay. It‘s her story to tell exactly as she wanted to, and I admire her openness about the many challenges she's faced.

I am both very much looking forward to this one and also intrigued by this cartoony cover on a memoir that I know will be tackling some tough topics. New trend?