“Educated” by Tara Westover is one of the most inspiring memoirs I’ve read. Westover was raised in a poor, rural, abusive survivalist family in which she never allowed to attend school. She then went on to attend college and earned a PhD from Cambridge. Her story of “education” deals with more than just her collegiate accomplishments, but her ability to cast aside the religious brainwashing from her family and think for herself. Empowering.

It is hard to review this memoir. It is well written, but difficult to read due to the experiences of the author. I found it was very well framed and the author did a good job of sharing such a personal story in a cohesive way. I appreciated her opening her life. It was a gift as a reader to read about a life and childhood so different from my own.

Educated is a memoir that reads like an abnormal psychology textbook. Westover’s account brought two similar stories to mind — The Glass Castle and Hillbilly Elegy. If we’re giving out awards for the craziest character, Tara’s father gets the trophy. He was a religious fanatic who didn’t trust the government and bought into all of the crazy conspiracy theories that go along with that mindset. Of the three books, I enjoyed this one the most. It’s a “miracle“ Tara escaped that lifestyle, albeit not totally unscathed.

I loved the first person narrative of this book. It read like a novel and grabbed me by the heart as well as the throat! It is a very compelling look at a different part of American culture, one that seems far removed from my own world. This is great reading for anyone interested in how other people grow up who want to explore the growth of memory and how one can color and change things to help them understand and survive their life.

This true story tugs at the reader's heart. Weaving the tale of the family in the woods and one girl's journey, the reader is taken on an adventure. As an educator I was shocked to learn about this families views on public education and I loved that the author got herself out of that situation and pursued a higher education.

What an accomplished novel: superb execution, raw unflinching dialogue, impressive character descriptions,and unrelenting tension. I am not sure there is going to be a better memoir in all of 2018. In Westover's searing novel, and I can't use hyperbole enough, she discusses her Mormon survivalist's family who refuse to vaccinate their 7 children, send them to public schools, or participate in anything that looks like an arm of the government. The children all have to help on the farm working with heavy machinery, scrapping for parts and enduring pain from accidents- the latter being the Lord's will. Early in Tara's life, her mother becomes a midwife and then develops oils and herb infusions to treat mishaps, as doctors and hospitals were mostly verboten. As the children were rarely exposed to others their age, they had no other frame of reference to know that their way of life was not the norm. Violence between one of the brothers and the author was downright scary, more so as the parents defended his actions and looked the other way. The story continues to unfold as Mary begins to find a sense of self, learning to read and write, going on to college and even securing a prestigious Gates scholarship. When one views the trajectory of her insular life to her final accomplishments, one can only shake his/her head in disbelief. From beginning to end this is a riveting, unwavering look at the power of family to define identity, and to explore the determinants of breaking free from deleterious bonds.Settle in and be prepared to be swept off your feet with this austere desolate novel that will scorch and penetrate your soul...and don't forget concurrently to be amazed!

This wasn't what I expected, and for the first third I wasn't even sure I wanted to keep reading.

But I did. And then I couldn't stop, reading long into the night, long past when I should have been sleeping, struggling for breath as the story unfolded, both wildly outside my experience and yet relatable.

That the author is alive at all is astounding. That she's remade herself into what she is now is nothing short of a miracle.

A well-written, absolutely fascinating memoir of a girl raised and homeschooled in the mountains of Idaho by her fundamentalist Mormon family and her struggles to be "Educated."

I was inspired by the grit of Tara Westover in this book. Coming from a family raised to shun the formal education system, Tara sets an example that you can achieve a lot if you set your mind to it.. Truly wonderful and inspiring.

This book is a heart wrenching tale of family, identity, separation, loss, and strength. The fact that the author was raised in a junkyard and ended up getting a doctorate is a testament to her clarity of mind, self-awareness, and strong sense of purpose gained partly from her junkyard life but more so from her intelligence and discernment. I was most impressed by the consistency of the voice in this book. It was such a great retelling of a dangerous and unique childhood. She also treats the topic of Mormonism with great respect, even though her father is a fanatic. As a BYU grad and a woman who spent many summers in the mountains of Idaho with my NRA-capped grandpa, this book resonated with me, and I just devoured every well-crafted word. Amazing.

Tara Westover was raised in a strict Mormon household by her herbalist mother and scrapyard owner father. Her overbearing father has a distrust of the government, education and conventional medicine and the Westover children are all home schooled, which in reality meant working in the family businesses, either facing the daily danger of the scrapyard or helping their mother as the self appointed (untrained) local midwife and herbalist. This book was an eye opening look at an uncoventional upbringing. Now at a distance from the family Tara, can recognise the violence, danger and suspected mental illness that she endured during her family life as a child and young adult. This book is so incredibly well written, you can feel the pull back that the author feels to her family, even as she realises their destructive relationships. An inspirational true story, we follow Tara on a path of self education as she ends up studying for a PHD at Cambridge, but also as she comes to terms emotionally with the scars left by her family. I will be recommending this powerful book to everyone I know and I can’t wait to read it again. Thanks NetGalley and Random House!

Really interesting memoir, and well written. At times, this memoir was truly painful to read. Growing up in an isolated, fundamentalist Mormon home, Tara Westover struggles to find her sense of self in an atmosphere that is controlled, bizarre, and at times - frightening. Westover's father was distrustful of the government, and many of his children grew up without birth certificates, vaccines, any type of medical treatment, schooling, and other trappings of what we call a "normal" life. The life described in this book was not the Mormonism I was familiar with, and it was jolting to hear about the lifestyle of Tara and her family. Even more disturbing is the way her father put her and her siblings in harms way scavenging in the family junk yard. Everything was rationalized by God - even the abuse that Tara and her siblings suffered at the hands of her brother Shawn. Reading the scenes of physical abuse, being held inside a toilet bow until Tara would call herself a whore - how did this woman ever come to grips with this? The fact that she did persevere, would not let her memories be rewritten, and how she doggedly pursued her education is an inspiration to all. A very unique read.

Author Tara Westover first went to school at the age of 17 much to the dismay of her survivalist parents. Prior to that she never attended school: college would be her first experience with formal education. Not only was going to college a way to get an education, but it also served as an escape from an turbulent family life.

Westover would grapple with being away at school and not being an obedient daughter; she felt the constant pull towards home and sought its acceptance. Even during very unhealthy times she still could not release her home life’s hold on her: to which she couldn’t fully emerge herself in to her new surroundings. It would be a long journey until Westover would embrace her own understandings of the world around her and not the ones her family decided for her.

Educated by Tara Westover was a profound read. Reading Tara’s story we learn of all the adversities she experienced in youth and she still went on to gain an education at the age of 17. Over the next decade she would go on to earn a PhD.

I can’t think of words to do her story justice. I am thankful she let us in on her life: her resilience is inspiring.

Her story teaches you to reflect and seek out experiences whether through reading, socializing, traveling, what have you. That life and being curious should not be taken for granted.

I truly hope Tara’s story is heard around the world and that she achieves critical acclaim. I will be shouting my recommendation from the rooftops for all to hear!

A stunning and wonderful book. I’m a frequent reader of memoirs by those who grow up within strict fundamentalist and/or dysfunctional families, and, like many, this was very horrifying/heartbreaking/inspiring. But Westover writes exceptionally well, and the intellectual depth both of her writing and of her analysis/understanding of her experiences makes it one of my favorite memoirs of its kind, and in general one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read.

I cannot recommend this memoir highly enough. Not since The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls has a true story gripped me, challenged my thinking, and changed my perspective like Tara Westover's first book. Raised in a strict Mormon family in the mountains of Idaho, Tara and most of her siblings were kept out of school, not to be educated at home, but to work in their father's scrap yard and their mother's homeopathic and unlicensed midwifery business. Luckily for all of us readers, Tara kept untold number of journals that detail her life: the abuse by her brother, the unending brainwashing of what world history entailed, the attempts by other brothers to break free, the utter lack of safety in her life, the horrific accidents that devastated her family, the total reliance on naturopathic curatives by her mother, and the impact on her family of her father's mental illness. And just when you think life cannot get crazier, Tara's college and graduate work takes us down another insane rabbit hole. It is a profound look at what happens when one doesn't educate a child on things we think are basic. What if a child has never heard of the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King? How does this skew their view of the world? How does the world look on this child, when as an adult their questions and comments show not only ignorance, but whiffs of racism and hatred? Whose fault is it? Parent, society, the individual herself? Can a lack of education, or conversely a formal education, fundamentally change society? This is a powerful book that will completely engross you, fascinate you, and in the end, Educate you. Do not miss this book!

I love memoirs for the simple reason that I can step into someone else's life and live in their world for a short time.. That being said this memoir is one of the best that I have read in a long time. You sympathize with the young Tara trying to find her way and then you sympathize with the adult Tara being torn in two different directions as her education opens her eyes and introduces her to different ideas other than what her father has told her, her entire life. My heart broke at certain parts because you so wanted to help her. To cheer her on and tell her yes you are going in the right direction but these are life lessons that she had to learn for herself. Pick up this book on release day or pre order it. I can promise and guarantee that this book will stay with you long after you have read the last word. Happy reading!

It is gripping, terrifying, uncomfortable, and strange (an understatement). And I suppose inspiring, in that you cheer seeing someone overcome oppression. I completely celebrate her success, and the strength it took for her to break free of those poisonous family bonds.

Now I feel funny about this next thought, and I hope I am not setting myself up for ridicule…but that has never stopped me before, so here goes.

It is just that I can’t help thinking about similar families where the child is not quite so bright, and isn’t able to make that ACT score that gets them out of the abuse. Oh, to think of all the children that eventually buy into the paranoia and submit their souls to such a tortured unhappy life. And it comes across that while there may be petty victories, ultimately this is a very unhappy family. And how could they not be unhappy.

She does an incredible job pulling you into her world, and maybe she does her job so well I started feeling it to well. It was too personally. It is so, so real. So really you want to scream through the pages to her (I see other reviews say things along that line)….

[Toward the end around kindle location 4738]… I had retreated, fled across an ocean and allowed my father to tell my story for me, to define me to everyone I had ever known. I had conceded too much ground - not just the mountains, but the entire province of our shared history
It was time to go home.

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like yelling at the stupid kids in a horror movie you scream “Don’t GO THERE”!! But she does.
Well, she gets out unscathed on her last visit home…Barely.

She shows us the terror of the family, and our understanding grows with hers as she comes to recognize the absurdity of that world.

Why are you like this? Why did you terrify us like that? Why did you fight so hard against made-up monsters, but do nothing about the monsters in your own house? 3207

Damn straight!

Yeah, VERY effective writing. And they only reason I am going with 4 stars rather than 5 is because even though it is a powerful book, I feel there is some more to her story. Maybe she hasn’t lived it and that is why it isn’t there. I guess I am hoping for some insight or wisdom that takes her tale from a personal triumph to a revelation on the nature of mankind. Maybe I am asking too much.

I too wondered where the survivalist, end times / religious apocalypse, of the father came from and appreciated here observations…

[ …on the speculation that the Ruby Rindge encounter might be linked with bipolar disorder of the Weavers, and not because the government was attacking for home schooling their children as her father had said] …For one bitter moment, I thought Dad had lied. Then I remembered the fear on his face, the heavy rattling of his breath, and I felt certain that he’d really believed were in danger. I reached for some explanation and strange words came to mind, words I’d learned only minutes before: paranoia, mania, delusions of grandeur and persecution. And finally the story made sense. 3184

Some of us were more disciplined than others. I was one of the least disciplined, so by the time I was ten, the only subject I had studied systematically was Morse code, because Dad insisted that I learn it. “If the lines are cut, we’ll be the only people in the valley who can communicate,” he said, though I was never quite sure, if we were the only people learning it, who we’d be communicating with. 777

By the end of it I was just burnt out. It takes so much energy to read about the paranoia and anger... I was just so tired and depressed. All that energy and the only joy they have is in “knowing” everybody else will die, and those that don’t will be kept away by the family arsenal. Uggh, how depressing.

There is a lot more, but I need a break. I am plum wore out.


NOTE: I got this early edition from NetGalley and I am well pleased.

I received an ARC of Educated, by Tara Westover, via NetGalley.

This is a book that is difficult to rate because I hated everything about the path Westover took to get where she currently resides in her journey. No one in her family is likable, and there were points where I didn't much like Tara either.

Even now I struggle to consider a rating. But, after much thought, I rated the book on the courage it must have taken to reveal the level of sludge she had to dig herself out of to write it at all.

Having said that, while her ability to survive the crazy is commendable, it was still difficult for me to reconcile her ability to finally (and I do mean 'finally' in the most exasperated sense of the word) overcome the suffocating nature of her family's gross misuse of the terms 'love' and 'loyalty', with the trifling pace she chose to do so.

In so many ways, Westover continually sabotaged her personal growth by blindly following ideals that were never based in reality or love of any kind.

Sure, her parents may have loved her, in some twisted way, but their execution of that love came with so many nasty strings, and frightening terms and conditions, until it was disgraceful to even see those words used in connection to her.

Her father clearly suffered from a severe mental illness, but instead of anyone making sure he was treated, they anointed him a "prophet" because, eh, why not, right? Every action that came to pass in a positive (or negative) way was 'Gods Will'--as opposed to being the result of the dumb decisions he continued to make.

As for her mother, she won't win any awards for parenting; she failed on so many levels--if this memoir is any indication--and she did so without one ounce of regret. Her complicity was disgusting.

And don't even get me started on her abusive, narcissistic, brother, 'Shawn'. A man so deluded about his place in the world, he felt he could play god.

Not only was he able to run roughshod over his siblings, without fear of repercussion, he did so with the blessing of his parents.

Ugh. Just reading about her experience took patience, because the ignorance was so overwhelmingly despicable, I didn't even wish to be a partial witness to it having took place.

I didn't want to be reminded how inhumane people are willing to be in the name of religion, and their own perverted sense of what is, and is not, 'righteous'.

I wanted to abandon ship on Westover's story so many times--mostly because I kept wondering what rational human being is as stupid as she kept deciding to be, in the name of her family's acceptance and love?

I mean, when your parents basically tell you to adhere to a set of false memories, as a condition of not being exiled from your entire bloodline, then it's time to leave on your own accord. But, no, Westover continually struggled with making that decision, and that made me beyond irate. I didn't even want to see how she finally emancipated herself from the trifling idiocy that was her family because I was beginning to think she was a glutton for punishment.

However, this one passage--related to her discovery of the history behind the "N word" gave me just enough faith to continue reading:
I had started on a path of awareness, had perceived something elemental about my brother, my father, myself. I had discerned the ways in which we had been sculpted by a tradition of which we were either willfully or accidentally ignorant. I had begun to understand that we had lent our voices to a discourse whose sole purpose was to dehumanize and brutalize others--because nurturing that discourse was easier, because retaining power always feels like the way forward.

Of course, by this point, I was skeptical she would ever wake up from the ignorance instilled by her father. But, it was a start.

It's nice to know Westover eventually got her act together, but the path she took was muddled as much by her need to stay connected to an abusive situation, as it was the result of her needing an anchor of familiarity to assist her through a world she was only just beginning to understand--the world in which most people live.

One thing is certain, she endured plenty and had a lot of growing to do--likely still does.

That said, her story further confirms two things: 1) the misuse and abuse of religious doctrine, in any way, is dangerous when placed in the hands of the ignorant, and 2) some people are so broken, it takes years to put them back together...and even then, you can't be sure they'll ever be completely healed.

This book was a whirlwind of emotions. I had so many feelings while reading this book, and I could not put it down. I needed to know what happened to Tara next. I keep wanting to say that I loved this book, but this book was someone's real life and I can't say I loved this book because of that. Because someone went through every awful thing that happened during this book, and I can't love that. I cannot love another person's pain. I can; however, love that Tara was brave enough to put out her story. I can love that Tara persevered through all the pain and trials she's been through so far in her life. I can love Tara's courage and endurance. I can love the strength Tara has. So I love this book for it's ending, for Tara's personality and future. For Tara's courage. Thank you for sharing your story with all of us, and opening my eyes even more to the world around me.

With 'Educated', Westover gives us a glimpse into her life growing up in a Mormon fundamentalist family in rural Idaho. Her parents don't believe in public schooling, or doctors, and are extremely mistrustful of the government. As a child, Tara lives a very sheltered life, rarely leaving her small town or interacting with outsiders. She and her siblings narrowly escape serious injury or death a number of times, but they are treated at home by their mother. She suffers abuse from her brother and neglect from her parents, although she blames herself whenever something happens.

Somehow, without any formal schooling and with a staggering amount of willpower and grit, she works hard and is accepted to BYU. This starts her on a path to a new life, and slowly she realizes just how sheltered she has been. She struggles to reconcile what she is learning in school with the realities of her life back home, and slowly begins to break from her family.

Westover has written a powerful memoir. There is a lot to think about in this book, about the power that parents have over children, the way that religion shapes families, and how difficult it can be to break away from expectations. Highly recommended.