I really enjoyed this book, It broke my heart and made me feel inspired at the same time. Tara's family was fascinating but horrifying at the same time. Definitely recommend reading this if you haven't yet!

A beautifully written memoir about how Tara Westover goes from uneducated girl to student at Brigham and Young University without any formal education. The story continues to recognizing what having an education means and what should we suffer in order to have one.

This book was wonderful in every way! I love how the authir discussed the dynamics of her relationship with herself and her enviroments. This book I couldnt put down. Thanks Netgalley!

This is a hard read, but you won’t be able to put it down. The material is heavy, powerful, and beautifully written. It’s shocking to know that this isn’t just a fiction novel, and that Tara really went through these things. I’m so thankful she decided to share her story with us. Do yourself a favor and read this book. I dare you to not feel moved and inspired!

What a phenomenal story. Although I thought I had read stories of overcoming adversity, I don’t think it’s ever been anything like this. It’s hard to fathom that a child raised in such a severe environment ends up on Tara’s path. At times her youth seemed unbelievable because of the sheer eye-popping disconnect between her family’s life and the rest of the world’s reality. It still blows my mind that with no formal (or really informal education), she lands herself in a top-notch University, setting her path for unimaginable things. Her quest for knowledge was truly astonishing as was her will to be accepted. I must give it 4.5 stars because everyone should read this.

I absolutely loved Educated. There is no part of her life that Tara hides from her readers. One may have so many questions about a family such as Tara’s, but her writing includes everything you could ever want to know and makes it seem okay that her story is so bizarre that we may never know every ‘why’. Her personal journey is so touching, and the affects of it are evident in how she writes. I thought it was beautiful and heartbreaking to see that she still felt like she owed her family somewhat good reputations despite the terrible things that have happened to her.

I don't have the right words for Educated. I've been sitting and trying to think of how to explain my feelings about it, but it's eluding me. Everything isn't what it's supposed to be here. I thought I was going to come in and read about the triumph of education and how the need to learn saves lives. I got that to a point, but what I didn't expect was the abuse, the gaslighting, and the overall intensity of the family.

Educated is more than just a memoir about schooling, it's a true crime story, it's a drama about adversity and abuse, and the lasting effects that abuse has on people. It's deeply unsettling in a good way and I'm glad I've read it, but I never want to read it again.

For people who loved the Glass Castle or Flat Broke with Two Goats, this memoir is up your alley. Just be warned that it's brutal in its descriptions and more than a little hard to stomach at times. If the descriptions of the injuries don't get you, that uneasy feeling in your stomach about the abuse will.

I thought I knew what this book was going to be about when I started it.... Turns out, I was dead wrong! With my brain utterly confused, I initially had a difficult time getting into the story. That changed very quickly. The more I read, the more disgusted I became with a family who prevented their children from receiving an education. As a teacher, I know all too well how critical it is for parents to be "on board" in promoting academics. Despite my frustration, I kept rooting for Tara, hoping she would somehow break free from her family's control, finding a life for herself and learning on her own terms. Overall, I became deeply engrossed in this story, and have already recommended it to a few teacher friends!

The root of the word "Education" comes from Latin "educare", which means to lead out of. People called Benito Mussolini "Il Duce", which means "the leader". That is how powerful this word is. To be educated means to be brought out of the darkness, out from ignorance, and into the truth.

The title of this book describes the author's journey with precision. The author could've named it anything else, but she chose one word: Educated. Tara Westover lives behind his father's fear and misconception about the world. One day she finally gets a chance to get out from the house and strive for a bachelor's degree. You could imagine the struggle she feels when she doesn't even know how to write essays or behave in social situations.

In the end she has to pay a high price to be "led out". And that high price means that she never had a chance to go back from where she came from.

I would recommend all my students to read this book, especially the ones that are taking education major. This is a powerful memoir -not just about a person, but also- about Education and its impact to our lives.

Educated by Tara Westover not only takes you on a journey through the life of a survivalist family and it's members, but opens your eyes to things many of us can't believe still goes on in the world we now live in. How easy it is for these children to slip by school systems, etc.
Tara did not go to school...she knew only what her parents told her. She had no friends as a child growing up, working with her father and helping her mother.
At 17, she takes a test to enter college and a whole world explodes open for her. Eye opening in many ways...for her and her readers.
#Educated # NetGalley

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

It took a while to get into this book, and I admit I stuck with it because of all the buzz the book was getting online. I had a hard time relating at the beginning, but as the author unrolled the narrative, I immersed into it and found my rating going from a 4 to a 5 by the end. We go from seeing to feeling as the narrative expands, and we wind up as fully gripped by the end. You'll want to talk about this one, so find some other friends who've read it to exchange thoughts. You'll think about your own education, ask a lot of 'what if?' questions and look up Westover to see what else she's written.

This book is quite honestly one of the most heartbreaking, lovely, hopeful, empowering, raw memoirs I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Tara Westover's writing style is a joy, and despite the often difficult subject matter, she kept me reading through her own sheer willpower and refusal to look away from the messy parts of life. She didn't gloss over the difficult stuff, but rather, wrote with a raw power that made me in turns pissed off and upset. And made the ending of the book that much more triumphant when we read about how far she came from the beginning of the book. I would read her grocery lists if she published them, that is how much I loved her writing - so I definitely cannot wait to read whatever she comes out with next.

Although it was published just two years ago, "Educated" has become a true contemporary classic which will be read by many generations to come. I had personally read it over a year ago and couldn't stop thinking about Tara's story ever since.

Growing up with a survivalist family in Idaho, Tara didn't go to school until she was seventeen. Although she was technically home-schooled, in practice she learned little more than how to work physically and read and write. Despite (or perhaps as a result of) the abuse that was going on at home, she decided to take her future in her own hands. Although Tara encountered extreme personal and academic difficulties, not only did she manage to pass her GDE but also graduate from college and get her PhD from Cambridge University.

I was deeply moved by this memoir because I myself went to great lengths to gain a truly well-rounded international education despite my humble background. Tara Westover is a living proof that resilience and hard work pay off, especially when the world around you seems to fall apart.

This memoir is engrossing not only because the author has quite a story to tell, but also thanks to her skillful writing; the vivid prose managed to transport me to Ohio and Cambridge and made this book unforgettable. I will certainly be re-reading it in the coming years.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and I have not been paid for the review. The following is my unbiased opinion of this book.

Educated by Tara Westover is a book that surely disturbed me, and made me question myself in a lot of ways.

Each page brought different emotions out of me. Some pages made me think of the conviction with which people (including me) believe in some things and hold on to their belief that it is the truth and the only truth in the world. Even though we are exposed to the other side of the story, we simply hold on to what we know, and pretend that they don't know the truth.

On one hand, the complex human behavior (of the author's parents and siblings) can be explained away using medical terms like schizophrenia and bipolar disorders, on the other, I wonder if you really can explain these behaviors away because of the layers of complexity involved in such cases. Human behavior is an amalgamation of its surroundings, and there is no ONE reason that shapes it. The author explains this disturbingly well - she sees her parents have a huge following of believers, who completely trust and follow in their footsteps, and on the other hand, by comparing other families and experiences to hers, she deduces that her experiences are not the norm, in fact, they are abuse.

Coming to the book and the writing itself, I felt like the author wasn't sharing the whole story for obvious reasons - the incidents happened a long time ago, and the author is presenting her perception of them after the fact (she admits that too, in the book). Also, it is impossible to write about every single detail and connection in a book, so it is understandable.

Some of the incidents don't make sense though... she also spends a lot of time describing the accidents and other abuse, but not enough time about her 'education' - HOW she went from homeschooled kid who knew nothing about Math to acing her ACT test. For a book named EDUCATION, I wanted to know more about the process of her education and journey to the top.

All in all, it is a good book, documenting the experiences of a family that choose to go against the government and everything that represents the govt/authority, and the consequences of it. Some parts of the book are disturbing, which was the intention of the author - no sugar coating the harrowing effects of parental and sibling abuse.

This book was so emotional! I don't usually read non-fiction or memoirs but this book had been recommended by so many different people that I wanted to read it. I was not disappointed, and now I am the one telling everyone about it! The challenges that Tara had to overcome seemed insurmountable, and this book is truly a testament to the human spirit and a very uplifting story of survival and overcoming the odds. Wonderful book, I would highly recommend!

Given the proliferation of memoir titles from big publishers over the last few years, you'd be forgiven for thinking that books of the genre all follow the same general pattern. Rags to riches. Stranger in a strange land. A difficult-time-in-my-life. You'd be forgiven for thinking that everyone's lives, to greater or lesser degrees, are set to some variation of an algorithm, and whoever can write that algorithm well and commit to setting it down on paper... well, they can have a book deal.
Not so with Tara Westover's book. In fact, 'Educated' upsets the paradigm in such dramatic fashion that you wonder how anyone else could have the audacity to write at all. Did you grow up in a secluded, survivalist Mormon cult in rural Idaho, face a torrent of abuse from your father and brother, get accepted to (arguably) the most prestigious university in the world, then emancipate yourself through the music of Bob Marley and books on intersectional feminism? No? Then keep your personal essays to yourself.
'Educated' is thoughtful, well-written, poignant, and strangely without closure. You get the feeling that in writing her trauma, Westover is continually upturning the soil on a past which is supposed to be dead and buried, and in so doing contradicts her assertion to the contrary that she is living a happy, normal life away from the tug of her family's dogma.
Whatever. This is still a phenomenal read, and I urge anyone who hasn't read it yet to seek out a copy immediately. It won't change your life, but it might make you realise that you're capable of changing your own.

Where do I even begin with this review? At first, I thought this book was about the power of learning. And it is. But, more than that, it is about the power of education to tear apart our identities and our relationships. I finished this book in one sitting and for days - weeks even - the story continued to linger inside of me. Undoubtedly, the story will make every “Books Everyone Should Read At Least Once” and “Best Books of the Decade” lists. Westover’s ability to articulate her story is unlike anything I’ve read in a memoir in a long, long time. Bravo, Dr. Westover!

Took a break from school work to start reading Educated by Tara Westover and finished it in one sitting. It is an unbelievable story of a girl raised off the grid in Idaho with a father who despised public or organized education and yet she ended up earning a PhD at Trinity College in Cambridge. That’s truly awe-inspiring.

Honestly, I was hesitant to start this book because there was so much hype surrounding it and it felt too unbelievable but it is as good, if not better, than everyone has said. I was surprised and startled by the norms of her family life and could not imagine living it.

Her writing is absolutely riveting and beautiful and I hope she chooses one day to write fiction one day.

First and foremost, this is not the genre I usually grab to read but I've heard so many people rave about that I put it on my tbr because I thought I should open doors to other types of books. I am very happy that I picked this one up. It was difficult to read but it was brilliant at the same time.

While reading I must say that it was captivating on one side, terrfiying on the other. Some chapter were hard to understand, hard to read, hard to put down. A lot of the time I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. Obviously this book describes Tara's life that has been so much different from mine. We meet her religious fanatic father who makes his family hoard food, guns and fuel waiting for the end of the world. We also meet her mother, who is forced by her husband to be a midwife, and then later who works with essential oils making homemade remedies. We see a lot of accidents not treated in medical environment, we see children struggling with self education because their father doesn't trust government and many other situations that are shocking.

Despite all this or maybe due to this environment Tara grew up in, we can see how resilient and how strong of a person she is. I was astonished by what she had to gone through, what obstacles she had to fought, physical and mental. It must have been incredibly difficult path to lead. She describes being torn between her new life and her family and it's shocking how strongly she feels towards them despite her childhood.

I don't want to sound like her family is evil because there were moments in Tara's story where I was shocked by the love and devotion between the members of the family. There were moments when I teared up because of her father or mother. That said, it made it even harder to read how her family distanced itself from Tara at the end when her situation changed and what effect it had on her.

To some degree it was even inspirational read. To see her, struggling with her life but fighting as hard as she could, running after what she wanted, battling with her destiny to change her life... in such conditions, with anxiety issues, panic attacks and family troubles is truly inspiring. Not to mention how well-written the book itself is.