Tara Westover is an inspiration. The struggles she overcomes to break free; not only from her past but also the internal turmoil of guilt and rational justification for her own actions as well as her families proves the power of the human spirit.

This memoir highlights the importance of education, the value of shared history and the power of family. The author, Tara Westover is a fabulous writer and we, the readers are brought along on her journey of self discovery as she works through the physical and emotional abuse she endured at the hands of members of her family. More than a story of survival, this is a story of Westover's ability to rise above, challenge the barriers before her and to get educated. This is a highly inspiring, emotional read. Those who loved The Glass Castle or The Sound of Gravel will likely enjoy this one.

I absolutely loved this book from the beginning until the very end. Fascinating story of the author's life growing up and her journey!

If I never appreciated my education as a child, I do now. Most of us grow up going to school everyday and pretty much take this for granted. This memoir is about Tara Westover who is home schooled (barely) and fights tooth and nail to get an education and escape the world of her religious fanatic father. The cruelty she suffered at the hands of this man and her disinterested mother is heartbreaking. Against all odds she fights her way to a PhD from Cambridge University. A must read for everyone.

A reclusive, abusive, patriarchal family, awaiting the end of days in rural Idaho had seven children, all of whom were denied any access to education and were expected to assist their father in his varying ‘businesses.’ His work was unduly dangerous and resulted in constant injury, left untreated, because he believed hospitals and doctors were the work of the devil or socialists. If the work didn’t injure the children, his lifestyle choices for the family, unquestioned by his wife, resulted in severe accidents, which did. On top of that, one of the older brothers was repeatedly abusive to his younger siblings. This was a household as far from desirable as one could find. It did not fulfill the minimum requirements of safety for any of the children. Whatever religion was practiced within it, was purely the creation of the father, and had little to do with anyone else. It was a mishmash of Aryan beliefs, end of world fantasies, former Mormon philosophies and mental illness.

It would be most accurate to define this group as a cult. That would explain the very strong inhibition placed on the family members against seeking outside contact or assistance.

There is a significant literature about children raised in cults. About their difficulties in leaving and ‘mainstreaming.’ It is rare to find children able to leave and successfully navigate independent lives quickly; it takes time to process and develop the skills (mental, psychological, social) required to function without the other family members.

Tara leaves her family/cult because one brother is abusing her and she fears for her life, she vaguely hopes for something more and another brother helps her pass her college entrance exam. She enters BYU totally unprepared for life away from her family. The Bishop helps her and very slowly she progresses. The book is her tale of learning of the wider world through an elite education: BYU, Cambridge, Harvard.

Her M.Phil and PhD are fascinating because she delves into the varying historical roles and obligations people have had towards the family, community, society and the self. It is a topic she is uniquely challenged by as she struggles with her own issues. Her father’s own warped view of history has helped feed her hunger for an understanding of historical perspectives. Her education is her best method of understanding her own unique situation.

Of her family’s 7 children, 3 left and 4 remained with her parents. The 3 who left all obtained doctorates and none had any education prior to entering college. Of the 4 siblings who stayed behind, none have even a GED. It is an amazing fact to realize the capacity of the 3 siblings. Tara mentions them in detail and I can only admire them for their tenacity and accomplishment.

EDUCATED is a challenging book to read because it represents a journey that is incomplete in some ways. The family remains as it began and Tara struggled/struggles with it. How could she not? Some reviewers questioned her tale if she was able to obtain her PhD without previous schooling. But, then, that is the point of her story, its uniqueness. This is not a quick, clean story but it is a human one. I found it compelling and wish her the best as her journey continues. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Well written. I do enjoy reading memoirs especially those with such different lives to myself.

Incredible memoir of relentless self-discovery and an insatiable quest for knowledge despite limited beginnings. Highly recommend.

What does it mean to be family? The answer to that question varies wildly and I'm fairly sure all of us have experienced some form(s) of conflict with our loved ones. As someone who has survived their family, I could really relate on some levels. I am in awe of this author and the sharing of her experience which really keeps the reader hooked. The writing flows wonderfully. Any break in that was entirely due to either my pausing to let the contents soak in, or a couple of times where I had to put the book down for a little while and get a grip on my emotions. It's at times uplifting and inspirational, and at others, so dark and devastating. It's only at the end of it that I realized the reader is balanced skillfully somewhere in-between for most of this read. It's the first book by Tara Westover but I dearly hope there's more to come. This should be on your reading list.

Westover's "Educated" is a must-read for anyone in education. Additionally, readers of Jeanette Walls' "The Glass Castle" will also see echoes of misguided (albeit passionate) forms of parenting present in this work too.

If the mental exhaustion for me as a reader is any indication, others should prepare before reading this harrowing true story of one woman’s life journey toward education.
Told in three parts, Westover details her upbringing without formal (public or private—not even homeschool) education as she was raised by Mormon parents. Her story is part familial education, part academic. As she gets older, she longs to attend school, eventually passing her ACT and earning acceptance to BYU. From there she eventually reaches Cambridge and Harvard both.
While her academic prowess is no doubt awe inspiring, it is her mental resolve throughout family trials and trauma that is most impressive.
I highly recommend this read for: educators, those with theological curiosity, victims of family trauma, and the socially and culturally conscious.
A remarkable book for all readers though, honestly; we can all gain and education from Educated.

"I am only seven, but I understand that it is this fact more than any other, that makes my family different: we don't go to school."

Not the most traditional opening for a book. Educated is written by Tara Westover the daughter of Morman survivalist who live in Idaho. Memoirs are funny things in that my mind tends to think they all must involve people who are older and the stories they are sharing are about people who are no longer alive. That is absolutely not true in this case because the Westover family is alive and well, and still living with their extreme survivalist nature. Memoirs also fascinate me in the sense that you can't judge them very easily because it would be like telling someone their memories are wrong or not worth sharing. When in reality everyone's story is important and worth sharing. That being said there are just some peoples stories that lend themselves to a book more than others, and Tara Westover's story most definitely lent itself to being written down in book form.

I got the amazing opportunity to read this book with a group of about thirty ladies through an online buddy read. It added to the reading experience of this book tremendously because we got to discuss it from everyone's different lifestyle and from each person's personal experience. Let me just tell you reading with others richens the reading experience by about ten thousand. I think the consensus is that we never need to read the word "tincture" again, but overall the book was well written and thought provoking in ways we did not expect.

This book was very different then I expected and each time I thought I knew how her parents would react to a situaion or how Shawn would somehow magically change his abusive behavoir I would be proven wrong. This book is filled with situations that make you turn the cover over and confirm that this it is indeed a true account because some of them or so tragic and intense you think they must be a figment of someone's imagination. Tara has a way of moving along through her story so we really got a visual of her life from a young age until current day. Educated is mostly about the fact that Tara was never put in school because her father believed the government was an organization never to be trusted, but it's also about so much more than that. It is about a young girl who lived a life shielded from the world and when she finally escapes her sheltered life she comes to terms with the fact that the lessons she "learned" growing up were placed into her head by a man who was not mentally stable. It's about a family who lives in fear of the world that they believe is coming to an end based on facts delivered to them by the only source they have, their father. It is a story about a girl who literally needs to navigate the world on her own because her family is unwilling to direct her on how to become educated in "worldly things." At its core, Educated is a story about family and how strong are family ties when the world is suddenly opened up to you and you realize is very different than the world that you were showed growing up. Is life better by living amputated from the world or is life meant to be lived in the world with the opportunity to choose your own thoughts and opinions?

Tara is "homeschooled" but so loosely and based solely on what her parents believe she should learn that she is left in the dark about nearly everything that was happening in the world and what happened in the past. When Tara's older brother breaks free of the family and gets himself into college he opens up a world to her that she truly never knew existed. Tara's journey through the education system is not mainstream in any way, and her path was riddled with family drama, but Tara would proceed to gain one of the best educations anyone can receive at several top schools.

I can't stop thinking about this book. I would absolutely love to hear Tara speak in real life and hear her story again in her own voice. This book is tricky to recommend because it is a very difficult book to read because of the situations that happen to her family that will shock and frustrate you. But it is also fascinating to see how Tara's father ruled their home in such a way that breaking free from living at home meant more than just getting out of the house to get an education, but rather by getting out of her fathers home she got an education in the world and gained the ability to form her own opinions.

"I had started on a path of awareness"

This book is a must read if you read and loved The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Similar story telling tone. Both books are stories about children who rise up from a neglected childhood and go on to accomplish some amazing things in spite of their upbringing.

Quotes:

"I don't understand why I wasn't allowed to get a decent education as a child."

"The word and the way Shawn said it hadn't changed; only my ears were different."

"To admit uncertainty is to admit to weakness, to powerlessness, and to believe in yourself despite both."

"I could tolerate any form of cruelty better than kindness. Praise was a poison to me; I choked on it."

"Clothes could not fix what was wrong with me."

"Maybe, she said. But sometimes I think we choose our illnesses because they benefit us in some way."

"The thing about having a mental breakdown is that no matter how obvious it is that you're having one, it is somehow not obvious to you."

"Why it's better tot think yourself lazy than think yourself in distress, I'm not sure."

First of all, I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review of this book. Educated by Tara Westover was an excellent memoir of a woman who transformed herself into an educated and reformed individual, despite having the background and upbringing of a family that did not believe in public education or education in general. With her determination and diligence, she was able to conquer the ACT Test and be admitted to Brigham Young University, despite having no public education or much of a homeschooling education at all. Her determination led her to great endeavors, such as Cambridge University and Harvard University. She speaks profoundly of her battles with her family members over her educational attainments and religious/homeopathic viewpoints, as well as her struggles to excel in her higher educational pursuits. This book reminded me closely of The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls because both women overcame poor backgrounds, mental illness in their families, and how they overcame these setbacks to achieve greatness.

Beautifully-written addition to the Dysfunctional Childhood Memoir genre.

It seems almost impossible that Tara Westover is an academician from both Harvard and Cambridge given that she had never been to school. Her story is important, revealing how women are treated and subjugated in fundamentalist societies.

Brought up in a survivalist, Mormon family, Westover speaks about a poverty-stricken, difficult childhood where education is seen as secondary and violence is rife. Her relationship with her abusive brother is horrifying, And moreso is her family's acceptance of his behaviour. So gaining scholarships to top universities in the world despite having had no clue about the Holocaust, the civil rights movement, and Napoleon, is no mean feat.

While parts are repetitive, it is engaging and harrowing to hear her inspiring story.

I received a free e-book copy of this title from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Tara Westover's Educated is a difficult, if fascinating, book to read. It is a memoir of the author's growing up in a strictly religious (Mormon, although many pecularities of the family aren't strictly characteristic for Mormonism) household with a survivalist father who deeply distrusted the government to the point of never sending the children to school (or doctor, even in cases of serious accidents). Thanks to inspiration/insistence from one of her older brothers, the author managed to go to a college, and turn her life around.

I'm always uneasy reviewing memoirs because I don't feel that I have the right to pass judgment other people's life choices. In Westover's book, a lot of judgment for her family is implicit rather than explicit; she tries not to condemn her parents for their choices, although some criticism is obvious to the reader . But what is most striking is how education truly lies at the heart of Westover's self-discovery. In the book, she arrives at college aged 17, having received only the most rudimentary home schooling (reading, writing, basics of mathematics). She is unfamiliar not only with classics of literature and art, but also with key facts of the 20th century history, such as the Holocaust or the Civil Rights Movement. Learning about them changes Westover's perception of herself and the world around her, while meeting people who offer her other ways of acting than those espoused by her family. Still, despite her academic success (a scholarship to Cambridge, and then participation in a PhD programme there), Westover finds it difficult to completely distance herself from her family, despite many instances of psychological and physical abuse they perpetrate. In the end, the break with the family comes because the parents refuse to believe that the author (as well as her other siblings) had been abused by one of their older brothers.

In many ways, reading this book can be eye opening. It's not always a pleasant read, but it is much recommended. And although it is not specifically aimed at the dangers of home schooling, I do believe it demonstrates many of the risks of this approach to education.

5 OMG How did she end up alive and educated? stars

[News flash: I see that this review is WAY too long! I’m such a blabbermouth! Feel free to skip sections. I went way overboard. Geez….]

Tara did a lot more than ride a pogo stick to get from a junkyard in Idaho to a Ph.D. in Cambridge.
Meanwhile, I’m bouncing on mine, going high and far to escape her whacked-out father and super-scary psycho brother. Plus, face it, I bring out the pogo stick when it’s a fantastic read and believe me, this qualifies. Holy moly what a tough and bizarro life this amazing woman has had, and oh what a writer!


She looks normal, whatever that means.
I was so jazzed after reading this book, I went online and watched every interview with Tara that I could find (and there are many; I’ve added a few at the end of this review). I just had to see and hear this woman, this woman who had a strange, horrendous, and dangerous childhood and lived to tell about it—and so eloquently. She’s only in her 20s—so young to be so successful. From the interviews, I see that she happens to be articulate, quick-witted, and confident, and she totally passes for normal, whatever that is. On the outside, you don’t see the scars, the scars that have to exist on her psyche after the hellacious childhood she endured.

Spare me the scenery, I want the juice!
I didn’t love this book for the first half hour or so of reading; I thought I was in deep do-do. Again, it’s that damn description—which just isn’t my style. The book opens with Tara describing the beauteous mountain that she grew up on. It was perfectly written; a creative writing teacher would have been damn proud of her. But I was screaming inside, “This is a memoir! Tell your story!! Give me some juice! Tell me what happened and how you feel. Save the mountain business for a poem, will you please?” Ha, the mountain was affecting me too—I didn’t like it because it was this giant barricade blocking me from feeling anything about this writer or her story.

Luckily, the mountain talk stopped and then I got pulled in real fast. And as I got into the story and forgave her for her brief stint with DD (description disorder, which some writers are afflicted with), I have to admit I sort of liked that she described the mountain and her love for it. The mountain gave her some feeling of safety and peace, and its beauty stayed with her as she trekked to places far away to get her education.

Refraining from spilling all the beans.
I could sit here and write a Cliffs Notes version of her life, just because I’m so excited to share it, but I’ll try to put a sock in it (one of the two that were knocked off my feet by the power of this story) because you really need to experience this book all for yourself.

Dad buried gas and guns.
Tara is the youngest of seven kids, all raised in the mountains of Idaho by a madman father who was a religious fanatic and believed the end of the world was coming. He buried gas and guns so that they could survive after the end came. He thought the government, schools, and medicine were all bull—and dangerous. It was all about God’s will and Satan’s grip. He was charismatic and forceful.

Although Tara doesn’t think of it as a cult, it sure seemed like a family cult to me, with her dad as the far-out leader. He brainwashed all of them. She says she’ll always have to stop and question whether what he said was true.

They are Mormons, but the type of religion is beside the point. Dad is an extremist, that’s all we need to know. Tara says right up front that the book is not about Mormons. I absolutely hate religious rantings, but luckily no one is pushing the religion; Tara is just telling us what it was like around her house. Tara doesn’t talk about her religious beliefs today; I’m mildly curious. At the time, she believed everything he said.

The state didn’t know Tara existed.
Tara doesn’t have a birth certificate and doesn’t know her birthday--just an approximation. How weird would that be? She was born at home and her father didn’t register her existence because he didn’t want the government to make her go to school. When she is seven, she says:

“…When I am nine, I will be issued a Delayed Certificate of Birth, but at this moment, according to the state of Idaho and the federal government, I do not exist.”

Burns and gashes and raccoon eyes.
I will say that this memoir reads like fiction. It’s hard to believe that it’s not. Expect to bite your lip and grimace and scream inside as you read detailed descriptions of MANY accidents that happened to Tara and her family members. Burns and gashes and raccoon eyes and brains hitting concrete. Some people say that she probably misremembered or exaggerated, but I say you don’t make up seeing your brother’s brain peeking out of his skull. How did they all stay alive?

Psycho bro.
And then there’s the mental and physical torture that her psycho brother Shawn inflicted on Tara and others. Oh, he’s a cutie all right. He broke her fingers, put her head in the toilet—normal stuff like that. If there was ever a need for a therapist….

Doesn’t every kid risk their life working in a junkyard?
Tara doesn’t play the victim. And she doesn’t hate her family—which at first seems hard to believe. But she says her life seemed normal to her: she had nothing to compare it to, for one. All kids must help their fathers work; her dad just happened to own a junkyard with dangerous equipment. How could she know that other families didn’t get injured all the time? How did she know that other families went to hospitals instead of using herbs to cure everything? (Her mom is an accomplished herbalist.)

And she knew her parents loved her and meant well. Dad couldn’t help it that he was crazy. He did the best he could. So despite growing up in this intense, isolated family with a mad father, an abusive brother, horrific accidents, and a fear of the apocalypse, she doesn’t think she had a terrible childhood-- and she has many good memories. Wow.

Isn’t Europe a country?
Her formal education began when she was 17 when, after studying on her own for the ACT exams, she got into Brigham Young University. Before this, she had never stepped foot in a classroom. She had never heard of the Holocaust or the civil rights movement. She thought Europe was a country. She didn’t think to read her textbooks; she thought she was supposed to just look at the pictures. Despite this, she ended up at Cambridge. She says getting an education is not about making money, but about making a person.

Hell-bent on getting educated.
I identify with her being hell-bent on getting educated and knowing she had to do it herself. My parents wouldn’t send me to college (they wanted me to be a flight attendant, but they did worry I was too short). I had an intense drive to go to college. I went to the library to find out which city had the most colleges and that was Boston, with 58 of them! When I was 18, I moved there, determined to get accepted into one that I could afford (I did.) But wait, I must stick to Tara’s story. I just wanted to say that I identified with her drive and her success in getting through college. (Ha, I wasn’t anywhere near as smart as her; I certainly didn’t end up at Cambridge University!)

Her education (for her, an awakening) included taking psych courses. She realized then that her dad was probably mentally ill, and this knowledge allowed her to forgive him. He couldn’t help being scary, controlling, and fanatical. And he didn’t purposely put her in harm’s way in the junkyard; he just didn’t have the ability to see danger.

Psych classes also helped her become super self-aware. I loved the parts in the book where she analyzes herself. One thing she talked about was gaslighting—the process of people denying your reality and making you feel crazy. For example, this happened when she tried to tell her parents what her psycho brother had done to her. Although her mom first believed her, she soon changed her tune and sided with Tara’s father, denying that such bad things happened. Tara says she started doubting her sanity—which has to be scary. She says she had a breakdown at one point. Not surprising.

Run, Tara, run!
The only frustrating thing about her book is watching her return, time and time again, to visit her family. Quick, Tara, jump on my back as we pogo-stick on out of there! NOW! Psycho, sadistic bro Shawn is just too damn scary! He cranked it up a notch every time she visited, and I was scared he would seriously mess her up—break a bigger bone, give her brain damage, throw her off the mountain, something really bad.

Part of her need to return was to win her family’s approval (and Shawn just happened to live there too, so there was no escaping him). But she also wanted to expose Shawn and to warn them about him, since he was attacking other people too.

Plus, people who live together a long time get imprinted on each other. We can’t underrate how much the existence of a history ties people together. I think the only way she would have severed ties would be if there had been sexual abuse.

The skeptics.
Some critics doubt whether her story is true, or they think it’s exaggerated. She admits that we can’t always believe our memories, that they are tricky. To try to make her story as accurate as possible, she looked back through her journals. Usually journals are full of fact, not fiction, so I believe it’s a good source for her truth. Also, a couple of her brothers have corroborated her memories.

I don’t think she made this stuff up. I’m not sure you can make this stuff up, especially the level of detail she gave for injuries and reactions to injuries. I buy her story—hook, line, and sinker.

Her interviews are factual, analytical. In fact, she’s a little stoical. She seems to have intellectualized her trauma, which is a common defense mechanism. I’m probably just full of it, but I’m thinking that if she were a storyteller who wants to wow her audience with a wild story, she’d appear more animated, less analytical. She’d want to dwell on the juice, which she
doesn’t do. In the longer interviews, she discusses her philosophy on education—not the kind of stuff that makes an audience wriggle in glee. I think of her as a reporter—she reports on the madness but she also reports on the scenery (remember the mountain talk that I didn’t love at first). She isn’t interested in creating fiction.

Airing dirty laundry
There are a few scathing 1-star reviews on Amazon by family members and friends of the family. They say that most of what Tara says isn’t true, that the family is wonderful and not so isolated, that Tara’s dad helped fund her college. Tara even says in her book that he helped her out financially. He didn’t want her to go to college, but he didn’t prevent it either.

These negative reviews say that Tara is unstable (let me say that in interviews, she does not in any way appear or sound weird). Of course they would say that. What self-respecting family wouldn’t be pissed at someone airing their dirty laundry? And again, it’s that memory thing. Put a bunch of siblings in a room and ask them about something that happened in their childhood, and they’ll all have a different memory of it. Plus there’s the truth that every sibling has a unique relationship and experience with their parents and with each other.

At this point, most of Tara’s family (parents and a few sibs) have shunned her. I’m sure that not having her family’s support is killing her; a family has such power over you. No one wants their family to shun them. Luckily, she is close to a couple of brothers. In the book, she gives them credit for helping her.

It’s not a woman, it’s a pencil!
Now for some silly cover talk. For the longest time, I thought this was an artsy cover showing the back of a woman. She has this little head with long dark hair, and she’s wearing a red skirt that’s way bigger than her head. Then, what? OMG, it’s not a woman, it’s a pencil!! Very clever! Days pass before I see that there’s a little person standing on the pencil! It’s supposed to look like a girl standing on a mountain side, like Tara and her mountain. Wow! What an enticing and cool cover.

Check out her interviews
Here are a few of the interviews I liked. (Warning: The one in Cambridge is really long.):

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tara+westover+video+interviews+CNN&&view=detail&mid=CC95E30A7605148FA0C7CC95E30A7605148FA0C7&&FORM=VRDGAR

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tara+westover+interview+video+in+cambridge&&view=detail&mid=217D7E70878D207B40BA217D7E70878D207B40BA&&FORM=VDRVRV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTLK5AEVCEc

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

People like Tara Westover, author of "Educated: A Memoir," vividly remind us all about the innate potential in people and the indomitable human spirit. In this powerful and emotion-filled book, Tara explains what it was like to not only survive her unusual upbringing but to thrive in a way that was inconceivable to her younger self.

Raised by survivalist, conspiracy-theorist parents in rural Idaho, Tara never visited a doctor or attended school. She suffered direct abuse from her older brother and in some instances neglect from her parents. Believing there was more to life than what was offered to her on her family's mountain, Tara embarked on a course of self-study to take the ACT and was admitted to Brigham Young University. She attended, in spite of her father's warning that the school was too liberal (!) Away from her family for the first time, Tara discovered just how much she didn't know and learned that much of what she had been told by her parents simply wasn't true. She continued her education -- eventually studying at both Oxford and Harvard.

Aside from her outward journey from Idaho to Utah and then the U.K. and beyond, Tara shares her inward journey. Where and how does she fit into her family? Can they accept her as she is -- and will they accept the truth she tries to get them to acknowledge?

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, what a wonderful read! This book is definitely going to be shortlisted for many book prizes, along with Goodreads Choice Awards, for sure. Yes, this book is so good and so important.

I can't give you enough reasons as to why you should read this book, but nevertheless here are the 5 reasons as to why you should read this :D

1. An unimaginable and horrific story
Tara Westover, along with her other siblings was not allowed to go to school because their father thought that it is the government's scheme to impose its rules and it is against God's wish. She had a family who was obedient to her father. No one was able to say or do anything against his will. They took every word of his as divine and the final truth. He led them to believe that the world is going to end soon and asked them to prepare for "end of the world". This whole story was really unimaginable that still, such families exist. It was horrific to read all the encounters of that family, to read about their thinking. At one point it literally shook me and I was kind of afraid to know her story.

2. Engrossing and amazing storytelling of one's own experience
Tara Westover has done an incredible job of telling such a horrific personal story. I can't imagine myself telling the world my story if it was so.. disturbing? But Tara has done a brilliant job. With the easy words and easy narratives, you would find yourself totally engrossed in her story. She will take you to the mountains of Idaho and will make you feel how old that whole of her world is, though it's too contemporary outside those mountains.

3. Importance of Education and its relevance
As the title suggests, the story is about education and how it transforms you. I recently wrote a post on women's day saying that how education is important for all. I guess, this book exactly proves that. Tara believed in lies that she was told throughout her life. It was her education that helped her to travel across continents and make her able to see the truth behind those lies. It was the education which made her capable of thinking about her life outside those mountains of Idaho.

4. How a family can make you what you are
Besides everything else, this story is about family and how it can affect your life on the whole. If you have a good family with good education then you can almost certain to have a nice life. But what if your family is screwed up and believe in something crazy? It is definitely hard to imagine all the things that Tara and her siblings went through in that family. If a family can make your life and future good, it can equally destroy it.

5. Includes every aspect of a story you can think of
This story has everything. Even if you don't read non-fiction normally, you would be captivated by the number of things that this story includes. It talks about blind beliefs, gender discrimination, physical abuse, religion, race, mental health, self-discovery and what not. You name any other aspect of life, it was there.

Final Thoughts
Educated by Tara Westover is an unthinkable tale of how education changes you and gives you courage to even cross the oceans and to achieve your dreams. This story is so difficult to read because of the things that it is covering, but it is also difficult to put down. This is not like a typical memoir but has a story to deliver. It has been told, as it is, with all the ugly details of her family but still beautiful. This story definitely deserves more recognition.

Whether you are a nonfiction reader or not, I urge you to read this. I am sure it will make a huge impact on your life.

I had read a review of this book and was interested in it. I was absolutely thrilled when I was approved to review it through Netgalley. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the honoring of being allowed to read this book for free in exchange for a fair review.

Tara's story of a family working together in a small town and surviving hardships and health crises reminded me of "Little House on the Prairie" if Pa Ingalls was a sadistic maniac. Like the Ingalls, the Westovers lived an isolated life but were deeply bonded as a family. Unlike Pa Ingalls, the Westover family's hardships were all caused by Mr. Westover's capricious, irresponsible actions.

I was completely engaged in this unbelievable story. Tara is a terrific storyteller and her story is unique and worth reading. I learned about scrapyards, Mormonism, and higher education. I can not fathom how Tara survived and eventually thrived in the environment she was born into.

Although Tara received no formal education she now has a PHD from Harvard. This is absolutely amazing. I have huge respect for her.

The author, Tara, was raised in the middle of nowhere in Idaho.  She never went to school and wasn't even home schooled.  She never saw a doctor even though she broke bones and had fevers and infections.  Tara's desire to learn about the world outside her secluded mountain home propels her to defy her family, friends, and town to try to get into college without even graduating high school.  Her tenacity to teach herself algebra and science was truly enlightening.   This was truly an inspirational book about how if you set your mind on something, even if it seems impossible and everything and everyone is against you, it can be done.  I have several teacher friends that have read this book but i think it would also be a great read for high school students or anyone thinking about going to college.