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45th out of 137 books
—
500 voters
Favorite Wife: Escape from Polygamy
She had no choice in the matter-none of the girls did. Her mission was to give birth to and raise many children in devoted service to a shared husband. Susan was fifteen years old when she became the sixth wife of Verlan LeBaron- one of the leaders of a rogue Mormon cult engaged in a blood feud with his brother that, from 1972 to 1988, claimed up to two dozen lives and led...more
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
March 3rd 2009
by Lyons Press
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Sadly, while this story is remarkable, the writing is not. Susan Ray Schmidt's account of her life as part of Colonia LeBaron, plural-wife to one of the infamous LeBaron brothers, has all the elements of a juicy memoir. She is right in the midst of the warring fundamentalist polygamist communities, and her time with the LeBarons spans some fascinating, dark, real-life stories. Unfortunately, Schmidt tends to quickly gloss over the more interesting historical incidents and spend a good deal of ti...more
I wanted to educate myself to the world of Polygamy. This is a true story about a group of Mormons who broke away from the church in Utah in the early 70's and went to Mexico to start a cult called The Lambs of God. The book did go on an on sometimes, but I looked everything up and all of it was true. Story about 14 year old Susanna Ray who was married at the age of 14 to someone at least 20 years older. She was his fifth wife. By the time she was 23 with 5 kids her husband was on Wife No. 12 wi...more
This is the true story of a woman's experience of being the "favorite wife" of her fundamentalist mormon polygamist husband. It was pretty eye opening for me to see what it's like to live in a fundamentalist community with religious leaders who claim to be receiving personal revelation from God on a daily basis, especially when the bulk of their revelation has to do with which 14 year old God has commanded them to marry.
This darling girl was a true believer who would do whatever was asked of her...more
This darling girl was a true believer who would do whatever was asked of her...more
Very interesting story of a young woman growing up in a Mexican fundamentalist Mormon community. I found Susan Ray to be a fantastic narrator; not the best writer but not awful either. She slowly unwinds the history of the LeBaron clan's attempts to convert the masses and the eventual inner turmoil/philosophical differences that grew from them. Susan Ray's story plays out like an ill-conceived soap opera - romance, murder, polygamy, extreme poverty and contrasting wealth, exotic locations, sever...more
I had a hard time staying engaged with this narrative. I don't know if it is because I have read several books on this subject matter, the writing (which wasn't awful), or just because I was totally disgusted by Verlan and Ervil LeBaron's predatory way of "courting" these underaged girls. It just turned my stomach, as a mother of girls, I just felt so strongly that they were being groomed by pedophiles. Ugh, it was really hard for me to read all of the stuff that led up to her "marriage" and if...more
Because my ancestors were polygamists {a loooong time ago}, I wanted to know a little bit more about the lifestyle. Firmly against it {especially in regards to the FLDS/LDS church}, but wanted to know more.
Susan was able to tell her story in a way that made you feel upset about the events that surrounded and shaped her life, but not sorry FOR her. She never wrote in a fatalistic "woe is me" tone of voice which I think is an easy trap to fall into when writing a memoir. She was able to tell her...more
Susan was able to tell her story in a way that made you feel upset about the events that surrounded and shaped her life, but not sorry FOR her. She never wrote in a fatalistic "woe is me" tone of voice which I think is an easy trap to fall into when writing a memoir. She was able to tell her...more
This is an absolutely fascinating look into the LeBaron clan's polygamist lifestyle and chronicles the split of Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times and the rise of the Church of the Lamb of God. It's a brilliant and terrifying read.
We meet the writer when she is young, just barely 15, and follow her through a few courtships with senior church officials, to her marriage to Verlan LeBaron, and on through the birth of her five children. Along the way she lives in the jungles of Nicarag...more
We meet the writer when she is young, just barely 15, and follow her through a few courtships with senior church officials, to her marriage to Verlan LeBaron, and on through the birth of her five children. Along the way she lives in the jungles of Nicarag...more
A riveting, and at times completely infuriating, read. Susan has written a beautifully moving and humbly honest portrayal of her life as the wife of Verlan LaBaron, a influential leader of a misguided polygamist cult.
I have always wanted to read a book about the experience of a polygamist's wife to understand that type of lifestyle more clearly and specifically, how it is justified in a woman's mind. Susan did a brilliant job gently guiding the reader through her thought processes as she eventu...more
I have always wanted to read a book about the experience of a polygamist's wife to understand that type of lifestyle more clearly and specifically, how it is justified in a woman's mind. Susan did a brilliant job gently guiding the reader through her thought processes as she eventu...more
I didn't actually intend to read this book. It wound up on my Kindle, and I don't remember why; but I opened it by accident fairly late last night. I finished it at 5:00, so it was obviously surprisingly good. It was an interesting story about life in a fundamentalist sect that was about far more than just polygamy. There were church politics, life off the radar screen -- mostly in small sect-based communities in Mexico, and life with too many children and fairly extreme poverty. One of the othe...more
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A revealing inside to the infamous LeBaron polygamist sect. This non-fiction follows the autobiographical story of Susan, beginning as a 14 year-old girl entering into a polygamy marriage to Verlan LeBaron as she bears him five children under unspeakable loneliness and poverty. Susan offers as to how people were brainwashed into believing that polygamy is the lifestyle to lead such that the more children a man can bring into a righteous household, the more value they'll hold in eternal life. She...more
Schmidt was born and raised in a Fundamentalist Mormon community, and entered into a plural marriage early on in her life. She details her adolescence in this memoir about her years living among the LeBarons. It's not the most prosaic memoir I've ever written, but it does involve Mormons, so that bumps it up the extra star.
***
The terror in my eldest daughter's eyes mirrored my own fear. She was so innocent, so helpless. How could she ever comprehend that her uncle, her own daddy's brother, desir...more
***
The terror in my eldest daughter's eyes mirrored my own fear. She was so innocent, so helpless. How could she ever comprehend that her uncle, her own daddy's brother, desir...more
I'm not sure I can say that I "enjoyed" this book given the subject matter, but it was an interesting glimpse into a subset/fringe of the LDS church. As Susan progressed through her life and became more aware of the discrepancies in the teachings of her group versus the teachings of John Smith, it was hard for me to know if she really felt that way or if she was just writing through the lens that she has now. Either way, it was an interesting read and I was glad that she was able to think for he...more
A very interesting and personal look into the polygamist lifestyle on communes in Central American and Mexico, the detailed writing reads like a novel, albeit a slow-moving one. Waiting for the main character, a child bride raped as much by her upbringing as her oft-married husband, to come of age emotionally and spiritually was interminable, but suffering along with her through poverty, isolation, turmoil, and fear kept the book compelling. I read it in a rush knowing thatif I left the book for...more
I liked this book. And I'm glad for my book club selecting it as it's not something I would have picked up to read on my own.
As a fellow book club member commented, the narrative was completely unapologetic. It was refreshing to read a book about someone's life without all of the "hindsight being 20/20" type of commentary.
I suppose my biggest gripe with this book would be that the end felt super rushed to me. The title leads one to believe that there's going to be somewhat of an equal focus on...more
As a fellow book club member commented, the narrative was completely unapologetic. It was refreshing to read a book about someone's life without all of the "hindsight being 20/20" type of commentary.
I suppose my biggest gripe with this book would be that the end felt super rushed to me. The title leads one to believe that there's going to be somewhat of an equal focus on...more
Worth reading if you are interested in the mindset of the FLDS people. The creep-factor is VERY high, so if you can't read stories about perverts and children, you'll want to put the book down and slowly back away.
Most of the time it felt like I was reading a novel or fictionalized account, maybe due to the style of writing. So when I got to the pages that had photos of the actual characters in the book I was taken aback.
If you liked the Selma Greene plot line from the HBO series Big Love, you'...more
Most of the time it felt like I was reading a novel or fictionalized account, maybe due to the style of writing. So when I got to the pages that had photos of the actual characters in the book I was taken aback.
If you liked the Selma Greene plot line from the HBO series Big Love, you'...more
The first 100 pages are extremely uncomfortable. Susan takes you back to the mindset of an innocent 14 year old girl and it reads like my junior high diary full of "Does he like me? Do I like him?" The main difference is, though, that the boys that are flirting and winking at Susan are actually grown men, old enough to be her father, and are doing it in the company of their current wives.
It is amazing to read about these women who are continually neglected and left to fend for themselves in, fi...more
It is amazing to read about these women who are continually neglected and left to fend for themselves in, fi...more
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Another fascinating story on Polygamy. This is the sister wife of the gal who wrote. Stolen dreams. It is fun to see their different perspectives on the same husband. I had to go back and read some of the Stolen Dreams book again.
The jacket says:
She had no choice in the matter-none of the girls did. Her mission was to give birth to and raise many children in devoted service to a shared husband. Susan was fifteen years old when she became the sixth wife of Verlan LeBaron- one of the leaders of a...more
The jacket says:
She had no choice in the matter-none of the girls did. Her mission was to give birth to and raise many children in devoted service to a shared husband. Susan was fifteen years old when she became the sixth wife of Verlan LeBaron- one of the leaders of a...more
Not as good as her sister wife's book, Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife. On it's own I would only give it three stars. However, it was more appealing after the above mentioned book so I gave it four.
The first half of this read is pretty boring. It's mostly about the author's early teen years at Colonia LeBaron. Nothing much happens. The second half of the book moves much more quickly and kept my interest better.
Although all the events in this book are true, the author took the l...more
The first half of this read is pretty boring. It's mostly about the author's early teen years at Colonia LeBaron. Nothing much happens. The second half of the book moves much more quickly and kept my interest better.
Although all the events in this book are true, the author took the l...more
This book was pretty solid. It gave a good glimpse into life on the LeBaron compound. I would have liked if it focused more of Ervil LaBaron's attack on the colonies, but it was still informative. The author is really likable, and I found myself rooting for her the whole time whether she was trying to capture the heart of the much older man she married, was fighting with her sister wives, or was struggling to decide if she should leave Polygamy.
I don't know a lot about polygamy. I know a little more now. What I did know before reading this book is that it the lifestyle didn't interest me, however it did make me wonder. Having read this account, I know this gal couldn't have tolerated the experience. Not for anything. I found tho, that I may be interested in reading a book by Susan Schmidt's sister wife, Irene, as it would give a different point of view of the same situation from one of the sisters that I thought was portrayed as a stro...more
This story was immpossible (for me) to rate, mostly d/t the fact that it's a true story. Or atleast her version of the events. It's not my usual reading material but it was free (or maybe $2.99) on the kindle, and I was running out of stuff to read. It's a horrifying account of what this woman went through on a daily basis. It's a look into the poverty, isolation, abuse, and manipulation, of the Polygamist lifestyle...
Mar 08, 2013
Dawn Michelle
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
ANYONE who needs a reality check about their OWN life!
This was a good read. Not as good as "Shattered Dreams" by Irene Spencer [Susan's former Sister-Wife] was, but still was a good read. What these women had to endure was at times unbelievable, yet also very believable if you follow the news about cults/sects of this type.
I did have some problems with this book. Susan at time berated herself for not understanding her "husbands" position or why she had to live in poverty all the time. She was 15 when she was "married" to Verlan LaBaron and I think...more
This is a fascinating book about FLDS communities in Mexico. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. The vast majority of the book pertains to the first two years of the author's marriage and then quickly summarizes the remaining sevens years with far less detail. I was intrigued by the issues raised by the author regarding the religious basis for polygamy.
The only thing I know about fundamentalist Mormons and polygamy is what I've seen on Big Love. Susan Ray Schmidt offers her perspective as a young girl of polygamy and a fundamentalist Mormon sect as well as the emotional and physical toll this has on her. Schmidt writes with compassion and love of her experiences and when I found myself being upset with her for some of the decisions she made, I had to keep in mind that these were made by a 15 year old girl who had been brainwashed and raised on...more
This book was terrifying! It's an interesting story, though. Very strange. But.. there's a happy ending! (Not a spoiler - it is titled Escape From Polygamy, after all). I'm happy I'm finished with that, and I'm not eager to revisit the topic of polygamy or religious fundamentalism, but I will eventually read the other sister-wife's book too.
I thought this book was great. Very well-written, engaging, honest and generally fascinating. I don't know HOW this woman was able to recall do much, but she did s helluva job bringing it all together and actually really making it feel like it was all happening to you! The story was so shocking in do many ways but amazing to know it's all true!
The last thing is, I felt this book to be SO good and interesting that I've already lined up at least five more just like it om my "to read" list. I reall...more
The last thing is, I felt this book to be SO good and interesting that I've already lined up at least five more just like it om my "to read" list. I reall...more
I could not put this book down. Very interesting how and why women live this life style. They do it for God. They believe it is the only way. Polygamy life is not easy. It's "matter of fact" written. It draws you in. It's interesting how some family ended up in Mexico. I would recommend this book.
Interesting to learn about the mechanics of these fanatics. She didn't seem that self-aware, so it's hard to understand the level of veracity. I was surprised how for someone whose life is structured around religion, there seemed to be so little spirituality.
Still, it made feel compassion for them and her.
Still, it made feel compassion for them and her.
This book was given to me for Christmas and I have just started reading it, it's a very open look into a polygamist lifestyle. Very fascinating, it is hard to believe that a person could lead this kind of lifestyle. It is definitely not the way the sister-wives make it look on TLC.
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| Was Sue racist? | 2 | 11 | Apr 21, 2012 06:25pm |
Aug 11, 2012 09:55pm