I’ve had this book on my “TBR” list for a while. Big thanks to Net Galley for giving me a copy. I can’t believe I waited as long as I did to read this book. It was spectacular. There were moments in the book where I found her description and language choices just amazing. 5 stars from me!

Educated is the rare book that every single reader falls in love with. The story and honesty contained in these pages spills out around you as you read. It's overwhelming and breathtaking.

This book took me forever to get into after a stop and start. I initially had trouble keeping track of Tara's family, but on a second go around, I loved it. The book was equally horrifying and inspiring. Some similarities to Jeannette Walls' Glass Castle, but Tara's parents are religious fundamentalists whereas Jeannette's parents just seemed mentally ill.

The writing was good, the story was gut-wrenching, but still I was unable to fully connect with Tara Westover's "Educated." Her narration of the sad, unjust, tragic events of her life seemed detached and I felt that emotional void as a reader. Her account is no less intriguing and thought-provoking for this, but I felt as if the author invited me to view her life from a fixed vantage point on the other side of a solid glass wall, where I could see what she allowed, but could not delve or explore beyond that allowance.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I plunged into this memoir not knowing much about it, but found myself fully absorbed in Tara's complex and challenging situation. It takes serious courage to tell a personal story like this, and I hugely respect her strength and struggles. The writing is eminently readable (I actually missed a train stop, I was so hooked), and is a testament to her determination. There are some aspects that felt glossed over for me - I wanted to read more about her rise in academia in particular - but overall thought it was an engaging, thought-provoking read. Readers should note triggers for domestic violence.

I received a review copy of Educated via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book more than I thought I might. The author does a great job being relatable and easy to read despite the pretty outlandish material! I got through this book very quickly! However a part of me kept thinking of A Million Little Pieces. I hope that’s not the case here!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reading copy of EDUCATED: A Memoir by Tara Westover.

Tara Westover is lucky to be alive. She tells her story in bits and pieces with huge gaps in between. Her mother was a self taught herbalist and mid-wife, and her father was a survivalist, distrusting the American government, schools, hospitals, and public education.

Tara is the youngest child, and was raised, as were her siblings, to obey her parents, work hard, and follow the Mormon religion. Just like the television series "Blue Blood" starring Tom Selleck, her family strongly believed in "putting family first."

Tara Westover learned to be careful around her brother Shawn, and her father because they could be nice and loving one moment, and in the next second become dangerously violent. Years later she recognizes these outbursts as "Bi-polar."

EDUCATED has received lots of positive publicity and praise. There are several horrific happenings and unbelievable occurrences in this memoir.


Posted on Goodreads, NetGalley and iBooks on March 18, 2019

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read Tara Westover's Educated but it wasn't to my liking and really didn't hold my interest enough to finish. I thought it sounded quite intriguing though but it just didn't work for me. I might give it another chance sometime in the future.

One of the best memoirs I have ever read. Comparable to The Glass Castle. Amazing what this young woman overcame to become "Educated." Inspirational for all ages. Some of the details are somewhat graphic and could trigger those who have experienced physical and mental abuse.

This was intense at times but I enjoyed the book. It puts things in perspective in many ways. When you love your parents/family no matter how you are treated or brought up, it is hard to break away even if it's the right thing you need to do in order to "survive." This was a page turner for me because I wanted to see the outcome.

Very interesting account of the author overcoming barriers, many of which seemed insurmountable, to obtaining a formal education, Would have liked to hear more about her life once she went to college, such as how she managed to make up for having little education prior to that time, as details were a bit vague.

Wow. This book is un-put-downable. The way in which Westover attempts to understand the abuse and gaslighting she suffered within her family. And the complexity of her emotions as she struggled for their love and approval. This book is absolutely phenomenal and the author is a profile in courage.

This book was riveting, horrifying, and enlightening. I enjoyed reading it, though "enjoyed" seems the wrong word. I was inspired by Tara's story of overcoming a survivalist childhood and becoming a highly educated woman, yet horrified by the neglect and terror she faced in childhood at the hands of her family. I simply couldn't put it down.

Probably one of the best memoirs I have ever read and the strength and resilience of the author is very admirable. This is a profound book and I hope everyone gets the opportunity to read it. Deserves all the accolades it has received.

This had to be one of my favorite books of 2018. This memoir follows Tara Westover's upbringing from Idaho and the abusive relationship she had with her father and brothers. Her writing style is impeccable and truly provides you with the feeling of being there when she relates her family history. I was very touched by her character and how she overcame the odds of a rotten childhood. She maintained optimism and was able to work her way out of her home and upbringing. This is one I would read again.

I enjoyed this book. I found it really interesting and I wanted to read on to find out what happened to Tara. It was interesting to learn about someone who is secluded a lot from the outside world and whose father dictates to the family. I would have liked to learn more about Tara herself and her relationships with people outside her family.
I would recommend this book.

Earlier in the year I picked up a book because there was a character who seemed to be so much like me. I was dispirited because she was nothing like me, and because the book turned out to not have much depth.

When I started reading Educated I found a character who had a childhood that was more similar to mine than anyone I had ever met. Reading about her family struggles, and her choices, was less triggering and more liberating. It takes courage to be able to speak about the unspeakable. It takes talent to be able to transcribe the emotions and experiences in a way that would engage her readers rather than alienate them.

I do not think the writing was technically perfect at all times. I think there was some choices in using time that was not the most effective, and there was some times that I wished the writing was a little more polished. Yet, these instances were small and were pale compared to the actual overall work.

I would be interested in a follow up memoir, one less focused on her childhood and more focused on her adulthood. I feel like Westover has a lot more left to say, and I would first in line to read it.

A brutal memoir that pulls no punches detailing Westover's upbringing in a devout Mormon family in small-town Idaho. Her father, potentially suffering from undiagnosed bipolar disorder, is a staunch believer in the word of the Mormon church and also most major conspiracy theories, opting to have his family always prepped and ready for the impending apocalypse, eking out a living managing the family scrapping business, supplemented by his wife's midwifery and herbalist tincture business.
Home-schooled for most of her life, she doesn't step inside a schoolroom until the age of 17, by which point most of her education has been delivered by either one of her brothers or herself. By this age, she has learnt a lot of far harsher lessons at the hands of her family - physically bullied by her brother, and forced to work for the family businesses, from breaking down scrap and blending herbs.
Her childhood is decidedly unorthodox with a series of somewhat jaw-dropping decisions made by her father that always seem to end in longterm health issues for one of the family - two end up serious burns victims, two end up with serious head injuries, and none of them make it through without some serious scarring. Car crashes, heavy machinery incidents, falls, fires, explosions.... And throughout, a complete avoidance of professional medical help, with the belief that God will sort everything out.
As Westover seeks to better herself with education, a gulf starts to form between her more primitive background and her new life in the gilded halls of academia, forcing her to ultimately decide between her past and her future.
This is a fascinating book, filled with some extraordinary stories of life off the grid in rural America, and at its heart the amazing story of Tara's journey from the scrapyard to a PhD at Cambridge University. Hugely recommended.

Tara Westover was born sometime in September of 1986, the youngest of seven children. She's not exactly sure of the date as she was born at home in a remote mountainous area of Idaho; an area popular with other off-the-grid folks living in the western US area known as the Mormon Corridor. There is no formal record of her birth; no birth certificate was issued until she was nine years old. Like most of their remote neighbors, the Westover family were, in name, Mormons.

Now in her early 30s, Tara shares her moving story. She begins with her apocalyptic childhood leading to her adult life off the Idaho mountain and alienated from most of her family. Her journey is harsh and painful but offered to the world openly and honestly. She exposes a side of life most people have no idea exists and tells us how difficult it is to question your parent's authority and concern for your well-being. She expresses the contradictions she finds herself facing; rebel against her parent's way of life thus alienating herself from those she loves and freeing herself to discover the past, present and future available to her through education.

I have floundered with this review. I really enjoyed the book but find it hard to tag it. It's not the usual "woe is me" memoir. Tara openly expresses love and affection for her family; something I am not sure I would feel under the circumstances. It is my opinion that the author had more than the general public in mind when she wrote the book; she wanted to educate the world about the fundamentalist culture, the bizarre and dangerous life she faced with eccentric parents and she needed to justify leaving her loved ones behind to allow herself the freedom to control her own life as she saw fit.

By the time she was born, her mother, overwhelmed with the number of children and the hard work of a subsistence lifestyle had given up on home schooling. She felt her job was done if she taught the children to read. To be fair, there was never a restriction on the children's reading interests, but any child with an itch to read did so discretely after a full day's chores. Tara had access to her older siblings aged text books and rabidly self-educated herself.

Tara Westover was not raised in a traditional Mormon family. Her father demanded total obedience in all matters and maintained control over his family's daily routine. The slightest action could turn him into a demonic authority pontificating his own version of Mormon fundamentals. In this markedly patriarchal environment, male siblings held power over the girls; one particular brother was a cruel bully. Another brother was helpful in encouraging Tara to find her true north.

Imagine a world where your parents told you that everything outside their front door was corrupt. That something called the Deep State had eliminated personal freedoms and the "Medical Establishment" could not be trusted. The family would avoid hospitals and doctors regardless of the severity of the illness or injury.

Her father consumed with an "End of the World" theory, built massive supplies of food, weaponry, and ammunition to protect his family from renegades unprepared for survival in an apocalyptic world. He worked his children like indentured servants in a dangerous junkyard to pay for the supplies. Horrific physical injuries befall several family members; treatment restricted to mother's self-created herbal medicines. If a sick or injured person failed to survive on their own at home, it was just God's will.

Over time, Tara's older siblings peeled away from the family home, escaping their father's control leaving a very young Tara to fill their shoes in the junkyard. By the time she was fifteen-years-old, she began planning her own escape. She found odd jobs in a nearby town, made friendships outside the survivalist culture and devoured any and all sources of literature to prepare to take the college ACT test. At seventeen-years-old she enrolled at Brigham Young University, and discovered how much of life she knew nothing about.

One of first lectures, I raised my hand and asked
what the Holocaust was because I had never heard of it.

Encouraged by "outsiders" who recognized her potential, Tara Westover has achieved a first-class education. It was a struggle at first to fill in the blank slate but she graduated from Brigham Young University with honors in 2008. Following graduation she was awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and earned a Masters in Philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009. In 2010 she became a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to Cambridge University where she was award a PhD in history in 2014.

Recommended reading. An excellent book club selection.

I would relate Tara Westover's childhood to fitting heartbreakingly in between The Glass Castle and A Child Called "It". Westover's Educated is a soul-bearing work that will leave readers shocked and appalled. Educated is not only one young woman's life with a bipolar father, but also an abusive brother, a misguided mother, and a warped sense of self. The lengths to which Westover's father goes in order to remain a purist of the Mormon faith leaves a tragic trail of pain, confusion, and fear for his children. The memories Westover shares are so painstakingly detailed that readers will feel they are a part of her experience instead of mere observers. There were times I wished I could reach out and shake her, punch her abusive brother, and scream at her parents to wake up and see what was right in front of them. Much respect to Tara Westover for reliving these horrific memories in order to share her outstanding story with the world.