Released late last year, Houses Built by Faith: Jailhouse. God’s House. Courthouse by Kaysia Monica Earley is one of the most inspiring books I have read in a while. It is a Christian memoir written by a Florida-based attorney who went from being incarcerated to defending others in court, and it covers the long, difficult road between those two points. If you are looking for a book that is honest about hardship without wallowing in it, practical as well as inspirational, and written by someone who has clearly earned every single word she puts on the page, this is it.
Let me begin with what the book actually is, because the title may mislead you if you let it. This is not a gritty prison memoir. It’s a biography, a full life story, beginning in the Bronx in 1982 and moving through Harlem, Howard University and an Arlington County courtroom, law school, and eventually a thriving legal career in Florida. The jail time is present and honestly dealt with, but it is a brief period in a much larger story, not the whole story itself. From her upbringing to her modern life as a successful attorney, Kaysia takes us through the many ups and downs of life, and how faith got her through it all.
While working one of several part-time jobs she was juggling to fund her education, a young Kaysia began offering discounted shoes to friends and family during her shifts, the kind of minor transgression that feels harmless. What followed was an embezzlement charge, a court appearance, and a sentence of fifteen consecutive weekends. Kaysia was months pregnant at the time, and just days away from her graduation ceremony. Fifteen weekends may not sound that bad to someone who has never encountered the American criminal justice system, but the author explains how unforgiving it can be to people who make a single mistake.
Where the book really shines is everything that came after. Kaysia’s journey to passing the LSAT and qualifying as a practising attorney is the kind of story that makes you question what you’re doing with your life. She applied to law school, raised children. She sat the LSAT after years away from formal study, failed it several times but never gave up.
The Tower of Babel? No, this was the tower of LSAT.
She battled the crushing and frankly staggering financial cost of higher education in America. By the time she passes the bar and walks into a courtroom as a defence attorney, having survived everything from house floods to hunger, you will be cheering for her.
The book is surprisingly practical in ways that lift it well above the standard inspirational memoir. As well as telling her own inspiring story, Kaysia looks outward and makes the book into a sort of self-help book. She includes the TRAPS acronym, designed to help readers understand how people inadvertently make themselves, as she puts it, just another statistic. It’s the kind of information that should be taught in schools. For anyone considering a career in law, or anyone in legal trouble, the book would also be a very useful account of how it’s possible to get into law for someone without family connections to the legal field.
Christianity is not a backdrop in this book, and I want to be direct about that. The biblical references are frequent. There are passages where the writing becomes notably richer and more formal in register, drawing on the language of Scripture and sermon. If you are not religious, or if you are a militant atheist, you may find the sustained emphasis on this too much for you at certain points. This is largely up to the individual reader, but it is worth pushing through either way, because the human story underneath is compelling whatever your religion.
The closing chapters provide a structured blueprint for personal rebuilding your life into a “house of faith”. This is one of the things I appreciated most about the book. Kaysia does not simply write a memoir and leave you with it. She writes you a toolkit as well, a set of specific and actionable steps drawn from her own journey. She is not just telling you what she did. She is actively trying to help you improve your life, and that intent gives the whole book a warmth that lifts it above mere self-congratulation.
One of the most affecting scenes in the entire book arrives late, when Kaysia describes encountering Judge Newman, the same judge who sentenced her years ago, and thanking him. Thanking him, because in the long arc of everything that followed, that sentence and that moment of hitting rock bottom became the pivot on which her entire life turned. It’s one of those moving moments that would make a great scene in a biopic.
The formatting and writing quality is strong throughout. Photographs are placed thoughtfully within the text, graduation images, stacks of law books, and they help bring the book alive. The writing itself is vivid and easy to read for people of all education level and all ages. The book is an ideal length, not too long or short, and easy to get through in a single day if you read quickly.
What this book does, more than anything else, is hold an honest mirror up to the American system. While the author rarely complains about it, the book shows the staggering financial demands on students, and its tendency to allow a single minor mistake to metastasise into a permanent professional obstacle. While simultaneously refusing to let that system be the last word, the book is a great insight into these issues, which was interesting for me to read as a European.
Whatever your background, Houses Built by Faith is an inspiring read for anyone in a difficult chapter who needs proof that it is possible to turn your life around. It is for people considering law as a career who want an honest account of what that path actually costs. It is for people of faith and people interested in Christianity. And it is for anyone who has ever had a mistake threaten to become the whole story of their life, and needed to see that it does not have to. Overall, a really worthwhile read.
Final verdict: For fans of Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins or Educated by Tara Westover, or true stories of individuals who rebuilt their lives from difficult times, this book belongs on your shelf.
You can get your copy of Houses Built by Faith or read for free on Kindle Unlimited here!
