IWIRC Virtual Programs Committee: Literary Society

The IWIRC Virtual Programs Committee is hosting the next Literary Society Meeting on September 10, 2026 at 9 am ET. The theme of this meeting is the role of women and their rights in popular literature. Please select a book from the list below to read ahead of the meeting. During the meeting, there will be guided discussion about these books and their themes led by Jennifer Lyday, our Virtual Programs co-chair.

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1. The Tradwife’s Secret – by Liane Child

A woman appears to have the ideal life: a devoted husband, beautiful home, thriving children, and a popular online presence built around traditional homemaking values. To her followers, she embodies the perfect trad-wife lifestyle. But beneath the carefully curated image are secrets that threaten to unravel both her family and her public persona. As tensions rise, the gap between appearance and reality becomes increasingly dangerous.

Discussion themes: social media performance, marriage, authenticity, domestic expectations.

2. Everyone Is Lying to You – by Jo Piazza

A journalist becomes fascinated by the disappearance of a former college acquaintance who has reinvented herself as a wildly successful trad-wife influencer. As she investigates, she discovers that the influencer’s seemingly perfect life may be built on deception. The novel combines mystery, influencer culture, and commentary on modern ideas of femininity and family life.

Discussion themes: online identity, ambition, friendship, media culture, truth versus branding.

3. Yesteryear – by Caro Claire Burke

A modern trad-wife influencer who celebrates nineteenth-century domestic ideals suddenly finds herself transported back to the mid-1800s. Confronted with the realities of the era she romanticized, she must navigate a world without modern conveniences, legal protections, or social freedoms. The novel explores the difference between nostalgia and historical reality.

Discussion themes: historical romanticism, women’s roles, privilege, modernity.

5. Trad Wife — by Saratoga Schaefer

Camille Deming has built a successful online persona around the trad-wife lifestyle, presenting a picture-perfect life of homemaking, marriage, and traditional values. Desperate to become a mother and complete the life she has envisioned, she turns to a mysterious force she discovers on her property. As her wish appears to come true, her dream life begins to transform into something increasingly unsettling and terrifying.

Discussion themes: motherhood, infertility, social media, religious and cultural expectations, the pursuit of perfection, identity.

5. Trad Wife – by Sarah Langan

A journalist investigates a charismatic trad-wife influencer whose online image has attracted a devoted following. As she digs deeper, she uncovers troubling questions about power, influence, and the movement surrounding traditional gender roles. The novel blends suspense with social commentary.

Discussion themes: charisma, ideology, media influence, gender politics.

6. A Well-Trained Wife – by Tia Levings

This memoir recounts the author’s years in an intensely patriarchal religious environment that emphasized female submission and rigid gender roles. She describes how she entered that world, how it shaped her marriage and family life, and the difficult process of leaving it behind.

Discussion themes: faith, authority, marriage, abuse, resilience, religious culture.

7. Economica – by Victoria Bateman

An economic historian examines common assumptions about women’s historical roles in the home and workforce. While not exclusively about trad wives, the book addresses many of the historical claims often made by advocates of the trad-wife movement, arguing that the past was more economically complex than modern nostalgia suggests.

Discussion themes: economic history, family life, labor, feminism, historical myths.