#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University “Extraordinary . . . an act of courage and self-invention.”—The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW … Times
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • BILL GATES’S HOLIDAY READING LIST • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle’s Award In Autobiography and John Leonard Prize For Best First Book • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
“Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”—Vogue
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • O: The Oprah Magazine • Time • NPR • Good Morning America • San Francisco Chronicle • The Guardian • The Economist • Financial Times • Newsday • New York Post • theSkimm • Refinery29 • Bloomberg • Self • Real Simple • Town & Country • Bustle • Paste • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • LibraryReads • Book Riot • Pamela Paul, KQED • New York Public Library
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This was one of the best memoirs I have ever read. Tara is an incredible writer and the entire time I was reading about her childhood I kept thinking, how is this person ever going to break out of this life and become a person who can write such a well-written story. It really showed a type of life I am not familiar with but only have only heard hints of when hearing about families refusing medical care because their religious beliefs don’t allow it. But this story is about Tara’s family which is about as extreme as you can get with both religious beliefs and beliefs that the world is about to end.
I read the book for one of my book clubs. There were so many issues to discuss. 6 out of 7 members really enjoyed the book.
Tara Westover has written a haunting story of her childhood, growing up in the home of a bi-polar survivalist in Utah. Her lyrical prose puts you there with her. Despite the challenges and limitations of her family life and her total lack of schooling, I was amazed by her determination to go to college, to seek a world wider and more bewildering than one she knew. I emerged from this book with so much admiration for her. Tara Westover really is not a survivalist; she’s a survivor.
Interesting look at a family and the interactions between the family members, some of which had mental disorders.
Unforgettable lesson, that will change how you judge people live in different societies.
If you are a fan of Glass Castle, you will love this book. As you are reading, you can’t believe what goes on in this family. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a true story. It certainly shows what can happen in a family where mental illness is being hidden. I was so amazed by the author, her strength and insight into her very damaged family.
A beautifully crafted book of a woman who, despite all that was against her, pulled herself up and out. A person can overcome their beginnings and achieve their own greatness with grit and determination. Highly recommend that you read this book.
A good friend shared this insight years ago, “No does you like family!”. This book proves it in so many ways, both good and bad!
Amazing that this is so recent and that people live like this.
The BEST MEMOIR I’ve ever read………I give it 10 stars. My second choice is “Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls
Educated is a memoir that is a stark testimony to the effects of mental illness on entire families, and powerful evidence of the resilient strength possessed (or not) by individuals within such families. Tara Westover managed to rise above all she (miraculously) lived through and everything she was “taught” within her dysfunctional family. Even basic survival was not a given, so her subsequent academic accomplishments and successes are even more astounding. As a retired teacher who has seen a lot, I found this book to be a frightening reminder of how many children still today slip through the cracks. I am happy that Tara’s innate survival instincts and high level of intelligence enabled her to escape her lifestyle, but saddened to think any child should ever have to face all she did. Many do not find her success.
This was a very interesting read, and an eye opening look into the authors long road to discovery and to finding her own truth.
I am intrigued by the authors strength and how she was strong enough to leave her situation, but yet weak enough to always fall back into it. I guess it was always the hope that the family would change in some ways,her ingrained beliefs and also the pull of the land.
Tara grew up in a family that had very strong views about the world and religion and what could happen if those beliefs were challenged. It was a hard life of manual labor and and lack of schooling, as the father did not believe in public education, he was a person with no real empathy and seems to put his children at risk quite often with his need to get things done on his terms, this is explained more as you get into the story. The father is also a survivalist and always prepping for the doomsday scenario, stocking food ammunition and whatever might be needed to ride it out.
Her mother became a midwife and then an herbalist, something that took off as you will read later in the book, due to treating her husband after an accident.
The relationship between siblings, was good in some cases, but very bad in others. Half of the siblings went on to get a high education and others never left the beliefs the father had instilled in them. It was an interesting study to follow the family dynamics.
I loved how determined the author was to get a good education, even when she doubted herself. It is quite an impressive journey.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC of this book.
Wow. I cannot imagine living the life that Tara Westover has lived. She is BEYOND brave.
I thought I was picking up a book that was going to be about a girl from a rural, religious home and lacked formal schooling, and how her perceptions of the world changed when she went away to college. Dudes – this was WAY more. A look at how the BIG, forceful personalities in lives and families shape people and relationship dynamics, for better or worse. A case study in the ripple effects of mental illness, the trauma and years of aftermath from gaslighting and the enabling dangerous behavior, the total mindf**k that happens when your parents/guardians have gone off the deep end and nobody can reel them back in. And a really, really inspiring story of how humans can overcome it all and find their way out – by openness to learning, through sheer force of will to break cycles of abuse, by allowing people to help when you really need it, and by finding that small ember in the darkness that reminds you that YOU are worthy and capable and deserving of truth, love, and being who you truly are.
*Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, provided by the author and/or the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Educated
By Tara Westover
Review
By Larry Sells
This memoir wasn’t for me. I stopped reading less than half-way through. I couldn’t handle the way the family was misfit. Tara Westover wrote something powerful; the description of the family; their habits, actions. All of it, Westover showed it to you as if you were there in that household.
You watch them in their separate faiths as they develop and grow; the people and their faiths grow and adjust to each other.
There is one confusing element in the memoir that is the Grandma in Town and The Grandma on the Mountain. I’m not even sure I have it right when I refer it here, but it removes me from the writing as I’m trying to piece what the reference it is too.
As a writer, I would have removed the reference completely or at least once with a personal name than use the personal name.
Would I recommend Educated? Only if the reader knows that it’s a difficult, but powerful read.
Holy guacamole, what a story! A memoir of a woman who never set foot in a classroom until she went to college. Growing up in a Mormon survivalist family in Idaho, Tara both adored her family and suffered greatly from their isolation from the rest of the world. I listened to her narrate this book, and I think it was even better that way. You won’t forget this story. Ever.
I’ve been wanting to read this book for a long time, and once I started, I couldn’t put it down. Beautiful writing and a haunting story I’ll remember for a long time.
Outstanding memoir of growing up in a survivalist family in Idaho. No birth certificate, no schooling, no medical or hospital help. And yet…little by little…the author, Tara Westover, figures out what she needs to do for her own survival. A wonderful book.
This book is riveting. It’s amazing that this could really happen to someone but you have to respect the author for coming through it. Seriously, a must read.
Educated is a riveting memoir that captures Tara Westover’s life from her radicalized Mormon upbringing through her education. A harrowing read.
I have read books like this one many times but found this book to be quite intriguing and not able to really want to put it down. It’s a book where you sort of know where it’s going and almost what the end will be but I found myself not wanting to put it down. I needed to know for sure that the ending was what I expected. Well written and very informative!
If even half of what happened in this story is true it’s worthy of many medals. The will to overcome doubt, lack of money, resources, emotional and physical abuse is found on every page. It seems like a miracle for the author, Tara Westover, to have achieved so much without anything more than her own determination, intelligence and self reliance. A truly inspirational life.