This is one of the best memoirs I've read in a long time.
This story is captivating and while we all have a level of dysfunction in our families, this goes beyond imagination. That Tara could rise above all the roadblocks that life handed her and excel, is absolutely amazing! Her tenacity and resilience is amazing.

I would love to know how her life is continuing.

Just. Wow. No words, but I'll try. This was a moving, incredible story (as in, superbly written, raw, and full of events that strained my belief) about a woman who was raised in a strict, abusive, misogynistic, paranoid survivalist/conspiracist family whose children were not allowed to attend any school or ever be treated by doctors. She was 16/17 when she passed college admissions exams and began attending university classes (the first time she ever went to school, I believe). She goes on to receive a PhD from Cambridge.

I went snooping immediately after I finished it and came across an interview with the author. This is a direct quote from her: "We think about education as a stepping stone into a higher socio-economic class, into a better job. And it does do those things. But I don't think that's what it really is. I experienced it as getting access to different ideas and perspectives and using them to construct my own mind. An education is not so much about making a living, as making a person." And that's pretty much what I took from the book. It's going to be almost impossible to top it this year.

In the spirit of THE GLASS CASTLE and THE GREAT ALONE, Tara Westover shares her story of abuse and neglect by her fundamentalist father, compliant mother and cruel siblings. Tara was raised in a hovel in Idaho, ruled by her father, an insane survivalist who forced her to do manual labor, and never allowed her to attend school. His desire to evade the dark tentacles of government even kept his children from having their births registered or being vaccinated.

He also allowed brutal physical abuse against his daughters by their brother. Shawn. Her mother was a gifted midwife and herbalist, but totally afraid of her husband. Ironically, her ability ultimately made the family wealthy, but not sane.

It was the courage of one of her brothers who fled to college that allowed Tara to attempt to get an education. Despite her lack of schooling, she was able to succeed at BYU, CAMBRIDGE and HARVARD. From total ignorance, her scholarship, brilliance and will, propelled her to an eventual Ph.D.

This is a stirring memoir. Westover tells the story with clarity and frightening details. We have to cheer for her triumph and wish her a bright future. I will be using this book in my education seminar. Bravo!

Coming of rage story!

Harvard and Cambridge educated Tara Westover details a lifetime of systemic abuse by survivalist parent-sibling/captors.

Ms. Westover lays bare decades of harsh physical and mental abuse particularly by one of her siblings and her father. The mother turns a blind eye or blames the victim for prompting the cruelty. Westover shows us exactly what you get in an America that normalizes and tolerates the notion that women are chattel.

There is no true way for Ms. Westover to escape. Early on you realize she can't leave without funds and a support system of which she has neither. But I found myself repeating the mantra, "just leave, please go, just leave, you're going to die if you don't."

Westover's salvation comes in the form of education. How she goes from living in the house of evil to matriculate at Harvard and Cambridge is admirable. But on the shadow side, you see that Westover will never escape in full the hell she lived through. It is a true wonder that she wasn't killed by her father's lack of attention to safety and her brother's violent temper. Frankly after this book comes out I would still be very concerned for her safety.

Educated will engage and enrage you and make you realize that evil in the name of God and religion doesn't lurk among us - it deliberately makes itself known in the name of righteousness.

I enjoyed this memoir of growing up in a family that was more-or-less off the grid, with a father who distrusted the government, science, and outsiders. While the final goal is formal education, includes a number of vignettes about the informal education the author received as the youngest member of a large family, working for her parents and being "homeschooled".

The memoir offers interesting glimpse into what it means to go from being "homeschooled" to attending college, the struggles students encounter, and the challenges of moving away from your family and home. This book has something for students of all kinds.

Raised by a devout Mormon father with bipolar disorder on a remote mountain in Idaho, "Educated" is the story of Tara Westover's triumph over her abusive childhood. I was amazed at the resilience of the author and kept having to remind myself that this was a work of nonfiction, like I did with Janet Walls' Glass Castle. Truly inspirational.

Educated is powerful - both captivating and very difficult to read. I found myself putting it down several times to process what I was reading/feeling. I needed to talk with others before I could go on. A child has no choice about the environment he/she is born into, but that environment makes a profound imprint on the child and the adult he/she becomes. Tara Westover has survived/overcome a very strict, abusive childhood, and it was not an easy journey.

Educated should spark lively discussions in classrooms or book discussions about nature vs nurture, abuse, religious fanatics, mental health, and the power/guilt of love, just to name a few. This book will stick with me for a long time, and I will definitely recommend it to others.

A hard book to read, but you can't stop. It is one unbelievable disaster after another, you keep thinking someone will wake up and put a stop to this disfunctional family. That the author survives , educates herself, lives to tell her story is a testament to her strength

This memoir was very interesting. it tells a story of a woman who was born to a survivalist family in Idaho and went on to get a college education and beyond. Along the way, she learns that she has been raised very differently than other people around her and that she is ignorant to many events that have happened. I was very interested in reading her experiences and seeing how she reconciled having a very unusual upbringing with who she wanted to become in life.

This book kept me absolutely engaged from beginning to end. Tara's writing style is beautiful, and she has a gift of storytelling that makes you feel like you are witnessing events first hand. Her story is at times devastating, always powerful, and ultimately inspiring. By the end of the book, I could relate to her emotional and spiritual journey in such a real sense, even though my background and education could not be more different. I hope she continues to write! I highly recommend this book to all who are on their own journeys of finding truth and hope even in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.

A brave, moving exploration of family ties and coming to terms with one’s own truth.

Tara Westover's account of being brought up by Mormon isolationists was a real eye opener. Her story of abuse at the hands of her brother must have been hard for her to share with the world. Tara shows us that anyone can achieve greatness.

Educated is a memoir about perseverance and tenacity. The author grew up in a very bizarre, dysfunctional family. She was never formally educated, yet received an advanced degree from Oxford. She endured much abuse from her brother and witnessed a fracturing of the family that continues to this day. A very interesting read.

Westover's life will make you feel like things are possible; you can accomplish anything, overcome anything, be anyone you want. Phenomenal. There are not a whole lot of words I want to say here, just these 5 stars and this quote that moves the world.

"...a single line written by John Stuart Mill that, when I read it, moved the world:
"It is a subject on which nothing final can be known."
The subject Mill had in mind was the nature of women. Mill claimed that women have been coaxed, cajoled, shoved and squashed into a series of feminine contortions for so many centuries, that it is now quite impossible to define their natural abilities or aspirations."

Tara Westover recounts her childhood and youth in her family of fundamental Mormons in Idaho, but the memoir is not about Mormonism. Terrified by the events at Ruby Ridge, the Westovers strive to live off the grid, preparing for the End of Days, being born at home, not attending school or consulting doctors or nurses. Four of the seven children don't have birth certificates and Tara uses pseudonyms for her parents and most of her siblings.
"Gene," the father runs a scrap yard and exposes his children to many hazards by forcing them to work there and mother "Faye" acts as area midwife and successful herbal healer. Despite a haphazard homeschooling, Tara manages to obtain a higher education on many levels.

A memoir of growing up with a parent with mental illness, that sidelines as a memoir growing up in a strict religious household.
Tara Westover’s family lived according to rules that stemmed from the Mormon religion, but morphed (by her father) into a tyrannical, suffocating, dangerous creed. The children didn’t go to school, have birth certificates for much of their lives, or get proper medical care for the litany of life-threatening injuries they experience due to their father’s worldview.
Tara finally takes her education into her own hands - this book tells that grueling tale. At times hard to read, this is an important story about mental health and the resilience of the human spirit.

Riveting! I was hardly able to put it down (had to because it's too close to Christmas and had other things to get done!). Tara Westover has written a brilliant memoir and takes us on her journey from a barely home-schooled young girl to her achievement of a PhD from Cambridge. But what a journey lies between. I'm still trying to process all that she has experienced, and am thankful that by the end of the book, she has achieved a healthy distance from those events.

Tara is the youngest child of 7, growing up in what is purported to be a strict Mormon home in Idaho. Her father is clearly disturbed, and her mother is a willing participant in his paranoid worldview. He doesn’t believe in public education or doctors; he declares that the children are home-schooled, and that means that he belittles them for wanting to learn from books, and has them working in his junkyard, or helping their mother with her herbal medicine business. (Ironically, three of the children eventually earn Ph.D. degrees; the others don’t even have a GED.) She is abused by one brother who nearly kills her, but the parents obliviously deny it. They have labeled the author as a tool of the devil and cut her off from the family, though she is still in contact with some members. She was so lucky to get help from some kind faculty members along the way, but clearly is scarred from growing up in this abusive situation. An intense and disturbing memoir.

It is amazing what one can do with the life they are given and this is shown fully in the life story of Tara Westover. This story is engaging, heartbreaking, and triumphant as you see Tara grow and change and take control of her life.

If I didn't know this was a memoir I would think it was fiction for how outlandish the story seemed at times. It was a great story of an interesting and intense life.

What a gripping story this was. Tara Westover's personal story of her unconventional childhood and how she rose above it was a very interesting, readable and inspiring tale. My only disappointment came from the fact that the book was slightly different than what I was expecting. When I chose the book, I did so because I was primarily interested in her educational experience. Her struggles and the effect that it had on her when her world started to open up. This was addressed in the book but was not the focus as I had expected it to be. However the focus on her family's story did not disappoint at all. It is the kind of book that opens your eyes and teaches you about the world while still being an engrossing read. This will be on my 2018 recommendation list for sure.