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Educated

Tara Westover (Goodreads Author)

4.47 · Rating details · 1,153,701 ratings · 88,143 reviews

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to ...more

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Kindle Edition, 335 pages

Published February 20th 2018 by Random House

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· 1,153,701 ratings · 88,143 reviews

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Mar 22, 2018 Will Byrnes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, biography, religion-and-sprituality, autobiography, religion

On the highway below, the school bus rolls past without stopping. I am only 7, but I understand that it is this fact more than any other that makes my family different. We don't go to school. Dad worries that the government will force us to go, but it can't because it doesn't know about us. Four of my parents' seven children don't have birth certificates. We have no medical records because we were born at home and have never seen a doctor or nurse. We have no school records because we've neve

...more

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Dec 03, 2018 Bill Gates rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I’ve always prided myself on my ability to teach myself things. Whenever I don’t know a lot about something, I’ll read a textbook or watch an online course until I do.

I thought I was pretty good at teaching myself—until I read Tara Westover’s memoir Educated. Her ability to learn on her own blows mine right out of the water. I was thrilled to sit down with her recently to talk about the book.

Tara was raised in a Mormon survivalist home in rural Idaho. Her dad had very non-mainstream views about ...more

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Mar 17, 2018 Debra rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

"It's strange how you give the people you love so much power over you"

I am in the minority on this one, but this did not blow me away. I wanted to read this after seeing so many high ratings. I was expecting to love this book but ended up feeling meh about it. I actually wanted to hurry the book up in parts and other times found it to be a little repetitive. There were other times I wanted her to go into more detail or explain things more. One thing I had an issue with is that her family is desc "It's strange how you give the people you love so much power over you"

I am in the minority on this one, but this did not blow me away. I wanted to read this after seeing so many high ratings. I was expecting to love this book but ended up feeling meh about it. I actually wanted to hurry the book up in parts and other times found it to be a little repetitive. There were other times I wanted her to go into more detail or explain things more. One thing I had an issue with is that her family is described as survivalists who educated their children at home - many of which do not even have a birth certificate - but then they had many modern conveniences. Her father has a junkyard and a huge distrust of the government. Her Mother becomes a midwife at her husband's urging and makes tinctures and uses herbs to cure those in her family and in their community. I do realize that the family acquired the telephone due to her Mother's job as a mid-wife but then I wondered how they paid for everything. .

Tara grows up free or wild. She didn’t bathe that often, didn’t wash her hands after using the restroom, and is unaware of world history, and is quite comfortable living around bad odors and smells. She is abused by an older brother and no one seems to notice, intervene, or even care. They seem to be a reckless group - example: multiple car accidents, etc.

I had a hard time believing some of the information presented. Case in point the first car accident in the book, Tara's father offered to pay for the damaged tractor. Where did they get the money? Just how much does farm equipment cost? It's not cheap, I know that. Even if the farm equipment purchased is used it still must be pricey. Plus, the damage to their car would mean they would need to purchase another. Then the family has another car accident. More money, lots of injuries, possible need for another vehicle, etc. I am not saying that none of this happened, but I had a lot of questions about how things were paid for

Plus, this family seemed to be very accident prone, falling from surfaces, fires, head injuries. Was this because they were raised without any rules and became reckless, or did bad things just happen to them?

Tara does want a better life for herself. She does educate herself at home, so she can pass the test to get into College. College isn't cheap, nor are book, nor is housing or food. Again, I wondered how she paid for all of this. Plus, once she got to college, she didn't seem to mind that her roommates were upset with the smell in their home. Dirty dishes, not bathing, not having clean clothes. I get if this is the norm, in the home she grew up in but when faced with other's displeasure, I would think a smart girl like her would have taken the hint that being clean and living in a clean environment is the norm, not how she was raised. Plus, at home a young man even pointed out to her that her home smelled as did she.

There was a part of this book that I did enjoy. Tara's thirst for knowledge and teaching herself and gaining entrance to college without a formal education. I appreciated her struggles and having to learn how to "learn". She went on to achieve a lot in her life and it is impressive and commendable. Tara definitely was an under dog and I did root for her. She definitely changed her life and sought for better for herself. Even without a lot of support from her family, she found strength and kept going. This is what shined for me in this book with otherwise left me with questions. Who doesn't want to root for her? I did. Having said that, there were just too many questions raised why reading this. I don't care if someone is a survivalist, I would think one would still want their children to be safe and free of harm. The turning the blind eye to abuse was despicable. The family also had a lot of modern conveniences which did not gel with my idea of what a survivalist family would own or not own. But I am no expert on survivalist families. Her father clearly had some mental health issues and they contributed to his beliefs and possibly to their way of life. Yes, she suffered abuse. Yes, she grew up in a home with an untreated mentally ill parent, yes, it is all very sad but it was still not enough to make me enjoy the book.

What worked for me in this book was Tara's drive for a better life. How with very little support from her family, she went out on her own and obtained an education. I appreciated her drive and determination. Her book is well written and I realize this is her account of how she remembers things from her perspective. I just was left with questions hence the 3 star rating.

Again, in the minority with this one. Most love this book. It just wasn't for me.

I received a copy of this book from Random House Publishing group and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

See more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com ...more

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Mar 02, 2018 Marialyce (absltmom, yaya) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: traveling-sisters

2 stars and I know, I am an outlier.

I have been born with a gene called the "doubting Thomas" gene. It has made me very leery of trusting and believing a lot of things and unfortunately this gene kicked in big time in this story billed as a memoir.

While I do believe that the things described by Tara Westover might have happened, I also have to think that this was a book of childhood memories. Sometimes, as children, we distort the truth, and sometimes grown to adulthood we only remember fragment 2 stars and I know, I am an outlier.

I have been born with a gene called the "doubting Thomas" gene. It has made me very leery of trusting and believing a lot of things and unfortunately this gene kicked in big time in this story billed as a memoir.

While I do believe that the things described by Tara Westover might have happened, I also have to think that this was a book of childhood memories. Sometimes, as children, we distort the truth, and sometimes grown to adulthood we only remember fragments of what happened and when confronted by others realize our memory was somewhat faulty.

There are actually quite a few things I just could not wrap my hands around in this story. For one, being a former teacher and having had the pleasure of teaching many gifted and brilliant students, I just could not see what, with the quantum lapses in Tara's education, how she could possibly have made it into both a fairly prestigious college and then onto the highest level of university in England. Learning builds upon itself and being a former math teacher, I can say that if one only
had the rudimentary knowledge of the four simple math functions, that going onto higher level math would be virtually impossible. Was it possible that her early education being home schooled was not as lacking as she described it to be?

The next issue I had was that of the number of injuries incurred by she and her brothers and her mother just snapping her fingers, using essential oils and other agents and then recovery occurred. Granted, I am not a medical professional, but the incidents described in one or two particular cases was life threatening and yet these techniques done by the mother worked? I know I still blame it on my doubting Thomas gene. I do also have a belief in both holistic and regular medicine being a partnership in the healing process.

Next up for me, was Tara's ability to obtain somehow the finances to attend college and then to travel overseas to England and back. Yes, I do know that she was awarded scholarships but what about the incidentals, travel, food not provided in school. Did she live like a hermit and never leave the confines of the school she was attending? From her writing, we know that is not true.

Lastly, if indeed these things were happening, where were the people who should have noticed the abuse? Where were the friends, the church goers, the people who did business with the father? Would they have not noticed untoward things happening to the Westover children. Would not at least one of them have come forward? Why are some of them coming forward now to defend this family?

So, sorry to say, I am going against the grain of many of my fellow much respected readers and reviewers, and saying that I just could not buy into what was being set forward in this book. I am not an advocate for her parents, nor do I think that things never did happen. Perhaps to me, this book just has not explained the circumstances well enough for the doubting Thomas in me to believe.

Thankful to my Traveling Sisters who read this book along with me. We all seemed to share the same ideas on this one and I am glad as always to have my thoughts and feeling able to be expressed to such a wonderful group of avid readers.

Also thank you to netgalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book. ...more

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Jan 14, 2018 Angela M rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley-reviews

Difficult to read. Impossible to put down. A powerful, powerful book that you shouldn’t miss. I can’t just leave it at that because Tara Westover’s story deserves more than those few words. I don’t often read memoirs, but when I do I want them to be told by extraordinary people who have a meaningful story to tell and that would be faint praise for this book. It sounds odd to say how beautifully written this is because we are not spared of the ugly details of what this family was about, but yet i Difficult to read. Impossible to put down. A powerful, powerful book that you shouldn’t miss. I can’t just leave it at that because Tara Westover’s story deserves more than those few words. I don’t often read memoirs, but when I do I want them to be told by extraordinary people who have a meaningful story to tell and that would be faint praise for this book. It sounds odd to say how beautifully written this is because we are not spared of the ugly details of what this family was about, but yet it is beautifully written. I had to remind myself at times that I wasn’t reading a gritty novel, that Tara and her family were real as I got more than just a glimpse of a life that was hard for me to even imagine.

A religious fanatic father, hoarding food and guns and bullets and keeping his family off the radar, not filing for birth certificates, not getting medical attention when they needed it, avoiding the government, the feds at all cost , keeping his children out of school, the paranoia, the preparation for the “Days of Abomination” - this is what we find in this place on a mountain in Idaho. There are horrible accidents and he won’t get medical help for his family. Her mother’s healing herbs and tinctures are used to treat the slightest scrape to the most horrible head injury or burns from gasoline to an explosion. If some thing bad happens it because that’s the will of the Lord. Her mother seems at times more sympathetic to her children, but she is complicit by her subservience to her husband. I don’t even know how to describe it other than gut wrenching to see the effects on this family of neglect in the name of religious beliefs and in reality mental illness. It isn’t just her father but the brutality by one of her brother’s which is more than awful and creates rifts between family members,

That she was bold enough and somehow found the will to rise above it all while she is torn with the sense of duty, of loyalty to her family, the ingrained beliefs, still loving her family is miraculous. Going to college was the first time she’d been in a classroom, not knowing what the Holocaust was, learning about slavery, the depression, WWII, the civil rights movement. She doesn’t just get a college education but ultimately a PhD from Cambridge, a Harvard fellowship. She struggles for years to discover who she was, who she could be - a scholar, a writer, an independent woman. This is a stunning, awe inspiring story that will haunt the reader long after the book ends.

Thank you to Tara Westover for sharing yourself with us. I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House through NetGalley. Thanks to my friend Diane for bringing this book to my attention. Without her review I might have missed this. ...more

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May 24, 2018 Emily May rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, memoirs-or-bios, nonfiction

Westover is clearly a decent writer, but I felt underwhelmed by this book. Some things didn't seem to add up. Such as how an uneducated mountain wildgirl clicked her heels together, magicked up thousands of dollars (yeah, yeah, scholarships don't cover everything, you know), and went on to some of the world's most prestigious higher education centres. Intelligence is not the main thing required to attend Harvard or Cambridge; being able to pass exams and perform the system's dance is. Someone wi Westover is clearly a decent writer, but I felt underwhelmed by this book. Some things didn't seem to add up. Such as how an uneducated mountain wildgirl clicked her heels together, magicked up thousands of dollars (yeah, yeah, scholarships don't cover everything, you know), and went on to some of the world's most prestigious higher education centres. Intelligence is not the main thing required to attend Harvard or Cambridge; being able to pass exams and perform the system's dance is. Someone without formal education should have no idea how to do that.

Also-- are some people magically cured by herbs and finger-clicking here or did I miss some medical intervention along the way?

But I think, overall, I was just a little disappointed because everyone seemed to find the survivalist aspect so dramatic and awful. I've read a few books about isolated communities that go off the grid and enforce their own laws and, I have to say, Westover's experience felt pretty tame. Her family were survivalists who spent months canning peaches and hunting for scrap, but is this really that odd? I heard all these promises of "wilderness" and "mountain survivalists", but they have a phone and TV. I would say this family is more "eccentric" than "survivalist".

Where the book does succeed is as a portrait of physical and emotional abuse. I think this was the most important part of the book and it's been glossed over in favour of people's delight at learning about weirdos running around wild in the mountains. (I'm not judging; I came for that too.) I also found it really interesting and sad when the author suggested that her father's paranoid delusions might have been undiagnosed bipolar disorder.

It's a quick read with crowd-pleasing writing, I'll give it that. But it's hard to not feel like something is amiss, and certain events were probably exaggerated. Or, alternatively, Westover's "survivalist" family were sitting on a few on-the-grid dollars that conveniently popped up when equipment needed repairs and people needed to go to college. It's also possible that the writing just lacked clarity.

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Jan 21, 2019 Cindy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

So good. So good. SO GOOD. Ok, I'll try to elaborate. Tara Westover's memoir is incredibly engrossing not just because of the rollercoaster of traumatic events that occur throughout her life, but also because of her ability to weave humanity and complicated familial relationships in her portrayal of events. While it's easy to take these events and market it like a thriller novel, it's that sense of reflection and poignancy in her carefully crafted words that is the book’s strongest asset. As awf So good. So good. SO GOOD. Ok, I'll try to elaborate. Tara Westover's memoir is incredibly engrossing not just because of the rollercoaster of traumatic events that occur throughout her life, but also because of her ability to weave humanity and complicated familial relationships in her portrayal of events. While it's easy to take these events and market it like a thriller novel, it's that sense of reflection and poignancy in her carefully crafted words that is the book’s strongest asset. As awful as her family is, she tries to make them as multifaceted as possible by describing both the horrific treatment she dealt with alongside the tender moments that have made it hard for her to let go. I have always been either apathetic or critical about our education system, but I loved Westover’s insights that her education has afforded her to expand her worldview and transform her into her own individual. I would recommend this book to anyone who comes from a dysfunctional family as proof that you don’t have to be trapped in your circumstances and can seek a better life for yourself.

A common critique is questioning how much of her memoir is embellished. My gut reaction is to take offense, as these dismissals have implications of not believing a victim of abuse and gaslighting her like her family did. But I know that all memoirs have degrees of embellishments, and it’s fair to have healthy skepticism. However, she peppers several footnotes throughout her memoir that point out contradictions in her memory based on different accounts of her siblings. This indicates that she is aware of how memories can be subjective, and the fact that she even clarified where her own perspectives differed and included different accounts showed that her priority was telling her story as truthfully as she can. That’s all you can really ask of someone bearing their life story. I believe the book and trauma she went through are completely valid, and her efforts in both staying true to her experiences while sharing different accounts reassure me in that validity. ...more

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Jan 27, 2019 Emily (Books with Emily Fox) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

I had a really tough time reading this book.

The physical and emotional abuse made me want to put it down and forget about it. The manipulation, the abuse she went through left me speechless. While not unique, family issues are still so taboo. Brainwashing your own self into thinking it's your fault, that it wasn't that bad or that you imagined it will hit way too close for comfort for a lot of people.

The author's writing was beautiful and her courage to get an education and stand up to her famil ...more

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Apr 13, 2020 Miranda Reads rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

“You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them,” she says now. “You can miss a person every day, and still be glad that they are no longer in your life.”

Tara Westover lived her life like everyday was her last - literally. Her dad was a doomsday prepper.

She spent her childhood stockpiling supplies, scrapping with her brothers and deeply in penance for her "sins".

Hospitals were forbidden, schools were forbidden, everything was treated with a homeopathic cure and a long ...more

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May 01, 2019 Matthew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: gr_awards_2018, 2019, biography, audio, favorites, library, non-fiction

Every second of this book is enthralling!

EVERY.

SINGLE.

SECOND.

The tales in here are true. The stories are mind-blowing. The events are not from a time long ago - they happened in the past 20 years! You will have to keep reminding yourself of that because the mindset and ideas discussed sound antiquated, but they are alive and kicking . . . and that is just crazy!

One thing that brought this story close to home is that at the time a lot of the events in this book we're taking place, I was living in ...more

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Jan 03, 2018 Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-reads, arcs, kindle-version

5 brilliant stars to Educated! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

I grew up in a home of readers with a teacher mom and a dad who questioned my effort when I made an A-minus on my report card. When I began reading Educated, I was floored that Tara and her siblings were not in school, and they were not homeschooled either. How could this happen in modern times with compulsory schooling put in place long ago?

Tara made it clear from the start that her family’s Mormon faith did not cause her father’s substantial paranoia; ...more

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May 01, 2020 Charlotte May rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-recent, biography-memoir

Update: Honestly the hate I’ve received for this review has blown my mind.

“you’re an idiot. And a bit of a dick. Grow up.”

“Maybe the fact you struggled with mathematics for 16 years mean you struggle to appreciate quality storytelling.”

Fucking hell. It’s my opinion. My review. You don’t agree that is absolutely within your rights but don’t start tearing me apart, because I will not argue with you. I’ll just delete your dick comments.

*********************

DNF on page 234

I feel like I’m not read ...more

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Feb 19, 2018 Elyse Walters rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: debut, biography-autobiography-memoir, non-fiction, family-relationships, great-discussion-pick, mental-health-psychology-self-help

Tara Westover’s book “Educated” is a distressing & discomforting - alarming & startling exposure of her Mormon fundamentalist family.

“Educated” is a memoir of nonfiction - but names and identifying details have been changed. Aaron, Audrey, Benjamin, Erin, Faye, Gene, Vanessa, Judy, Peter, Sadie, Shannon, Shawn, Susan, Robert, and Robin are pseudonyms.
Tara tells us in her authors notes:
“This is not about Mormonism. Neither is it about any other form of religious belief. In it there are many ty ...more

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Feb 21, 2018 PorshaJo rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: challengereads-2018, challengereads, netgalley

This one first came to my attention via a GR review. I thought wow, I need to read this now. The wonderful Traveling Sisters group set it up as a slow read and I was in. Grabbed a copy from NetGalley and was ready to go. BUT.....and a big BUT......I didn't like this one, I had to force myself to finish. Had it not been for the group read, I'm sure I would have DNF'd this one.

So I'm probably in the minority in not liking this one. It was more of a 'having a hard time believing the story' kinda th This one first came to my attention via a GR review. I thought wow, I need to read this now. The wonderful Traveling Sisters group set it up as a slow read and I was in. Grabbed a copy from NetGalley and was ready to go. BUT.....and a big BUT......I didn't like this one, I had to force myself to finish. Had it not been for the group read, I'm sure I would have DNF'd this one.

So I'm probably in the minority in not liking this one. It was more of a 'having a hard time believing the story' kinda thing. Tara details her life growing up in the mountains. She paints a picture of this wild child who doesn't bathe, or wash her hands after using the toilet (her grandmother had a fit about this), is quite ignorant, but yet...she self teaches herself to get into a prestigious college. She talks about her childhood and her parents seems so bad - no schooling, must work and earn money, her father seems to be a religious zealot who harbors a fear of the govt, her mother creates tinctures that cure people from near death. It just became a bit much and I was having a hard time believing it all. Multiple car accidents, severe burns, head trauma, and all cured with herbs. But then she wants to go to school, so she does...college, gets a PhD. Where did she get the money? They didn't seem to have much money. Yet, being in the 'mountain' rustic home, they had a phone, tv, internet. I dunno, it was just getting to be a bit much for me to believe. She ended up having multiple siblings teach themselves, go to college, and get advanced degrees. Really?

A memoir is defined as an autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events. Maybe this is how she remembers everything, maybe it really all happened this way. I really don't know. But it all just did not add up for me. I had so many questions about everything. I have a family member who remembers his childhood different from how I remember HIS childhood. So it happens. I'll just say thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of the read and this in no way influenced my review. ...more

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Mar 26, 2018 Darwin8u rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, nonfiction, memoir-autobiography-diary, aere-perennius, american

"Not knowing for certain, but refusing to give way to those who claim certainty, was a privilege I had never allowed myself. My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs."
- Tara Westover, Educated: A Memoir

description

This book feels like it was written by a sister, a cousin, a niece. Tara Westover grew up a few mountains over from my dad's Heglar ranch. I don't know her. Don't know her family. S "Not knowing for certain, but refusing to give way to those who claim certainty, was a privilege I had never allowed myself. My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs."
- Tara Westover, Educated: A Memoir

description

This book feels like it was written by a sister, a cousin, a niece. Tara Westover grew up a few mountains over from my dad's Heglar ranch. I don't know her. Don't know her family. She grew up about 70-80+ miles South East as the crow flies, but realistically, it was a 1.5 hours drive difference, and a whole planet of Mormonism over.

I didn't grow up in Idaho. I was born there and returned there yearly. But this book is filled with the geography, culture, behaviors, mountains, religion, schools, and extremes I understand. She is writing from a similar, and often shared space. I didn't just read this book, I felt it on every page. Her prose was amazing. The memoir danced at parts, while a couple pages later, I would be sent up for air. I often found myself having to talk through parts of the book with my wife while reading. It flowed. Some books seem to remove friction while you read. My wife abandoned work for a day to read it. It consumed us.

This book reads like a modern-day, Horatio Alger + The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography. However, it isn't just a book about how a girl with little formal education from a small town in Idaho makes it to Cambridge. It is also a tale of escape, and a historiography. Westover is using her own life to do a popular memory study on herself. She is looking at how she viewed her religion, her background, her parents, and her education. She explores how those memories and narratives change and reorient based upon proximity to her family, her father. These narratives especially begin to reorient as she becomes "educated."

I bought a copy and before I even read it, I gave it to my father to read (He grew up in Heglar, ID). Then I bought another couple and yesterday and today my wife and I raced to finish our respective copies. We bored our kids talking about it over two dinners. We both finished it within minutes of each other tonight.

Tara Westover's memoir hit me hard because of the struggle she has owning her own narrative. Through many vectors I related to her (we both graduated from BYU with Honors, were both were from Idaho, educated Mormons, and both have preppers in the family). My family, while sharing similar land, a similar start, and a similar undergraduate education, however, are not Tara's. And that is what made this memoir so compelling. It was like reading a Dickens novel, but one that was set in your neighborhood. It was moving, sad, and tremendous. In the end, I was attracted by how close the story felt, but I was also VERY grateful her story wasn't THAT close. ...more

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Aug 04, 2018 Yun rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Here's the thing: when I read a memoir, I'm looking for something real, something that encapsulates enough of the truth as to be authentic. But the events in this book are pretty unbelievable.

Tara had never gone to school before applying for college. Her mom tried to homeschool her, but gave up early on. Without ever having studied or developed the discipline for learning, Tara teaches herself a variety of subjects well enough to ace the ACT and get into a good university. This all happens whil Here's the thing: when I read a memoir, I'm looking for something real, something that encapsulates enough of the truth as to be authentic. But the events in this book are pretty unbelievable.

Tara had never gone to school before applying for college. Her mom tried to homeschool her, but gave up early on. Without ever having studied or developed the discipline for learning, Tara teaches herself a variety of subjects well enough to ace the ACT and get into a good university. This all happens while she's simultaneously working for her dad at a junkyard, getting injured herself and watching others be grievously injured too, and being physically and emotionally abused by her brother.

I believe people can do a lot if they put their mind to it, but this is pretty far-fetched. It's natural to embellish the truth in order to tell a good story, but I have to wonder how much of it was really true and how much was the embellishment. Sure, there is a small possibility that everything happened exactly as described. But it's so remote that I have trouble suspending my disbeliefs. If this was fiction, I'd be okay with it. But since it's billed as nonfiction, I'm kind of skeptical.

But for me, the most frustrating thing about this memoir is reading about Tara justifying her brother's abuse towards her, and her parents' choice to turn the blind eye to what was going on. She's constantly rethinking what happened, with each subsequent version being more and more watered down until she no longer remembers if her brother even hurt her in the first place. She follows these people like a puppy, begging for their love and attention, even as they continue to mistreat and threaten her.

Am I the only one who thinks that's just bananas? She's essentially using the book as a form of therapy to justify the behavior of people who abused her. I'm sorry, but I just can't get on board with that. It was exhausting to read, and it's not clear she made any real progress on getting past this. Even at the end, she seems ready to forgive her parents if they ever say the word.

The writing style is philosophical and ruminating, with overly ornate language at times. There are so many passages in which she's overthinking things, but without gaining any of the key insight she really needs.

It's ironic this book is called "Educated," when it never makes clear if and what exactly she has learned through all of this. ...more

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Jan 13, 2020 emma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-ya, 4-and-a-half-stars, owned, nonfiction, recommend, reviewed, memoir

To be honest, I don’t even know why I’m bothering to review this.

There is no scenario in which I am a more trusted source than Obama, Oprah, the New York Times Book Review, and the Goodreads Choice Awards combined, and if they’ve all already told you to read this (which they have) then I don’t know why my recommendation would push this whole thing over the edge for you.

If I am a more trusted source than all of those, then I just don’t know what to tell you. Besides the fact that I’m concerned fo ...more

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Feb 10, 2018 Liz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of-2018, book-clubs, netgalley

I grew up with my nose perpetually in a book. So, the idea of not being able to go to school, of being deprived of an education, hit me really hard. It was hard for me to grasp that things I take for granted, like knowing what the Holocaust was or who MLK, Jr. was, were black holes to Tara.

Tara Westover is the child of a religious fanatic, someone who sees the government as pure evil. And by government, he means schools, hospitals, vaccines, seat belts, car insurance, etc. Everything we think o I grew up with my nose perpetually in a book. So, the idea of not being able to go to school, of being deprived of an education, hit me really hard. It was hard for me to grasp that things I take for granted, like knowing what the Holocaust was or who MLK, Jr. was, were black holes to Tara.

Tara Westover is the child of a religious fanatic, someone who sees the government as pure evil. And by government, he means schools, hospitals, vaccines, seat belts, car insurance, etc. Everything we think of as civilization. His family awaits the Days of Abomination. There is a similarity here to The Glass Castle. Once again, we see how a mentally unbalanced father holds sway over an entire family. He thinks he speaks for God. Tara struggles with the knowledge that for her to go to school will mean a total separation from her father because he will never acknowledge that his ideas are not the correct ones.

Parts of this book are cringeworthy. I found myself shaking my head that folks would allow severe suffering rather than a trip to the hospital or the use of real medicine. I’ll warn you that some of these sections are not for the faint of heart. The descriptions are sickening.

I know little to nothing about the Mormon faith. Certainly, the faith of this family is not the true Mormon faith. But you get glimpses enough to also realize that there is a strong anti-woman bias in the faith and that women are definitely second class citizens. Broodmares more than humans on a par with men.

This book doesn’t sugarcoat things. It’s not an education makes everything better kind of story. Tara continues throughout the book to struggle to find her way, to stand up for her beliefs. Hell, to find her own beliefs.

This is an amazing book. It makes you realize how easy your life is. And how strong folks like Tara are to be able to rise above their beginnings and be able to fight back against the attempts of family to hold them down.

I’m willing to bet this book makes it onto a lot of best of 2018 lists. It will certainly be on mine. Highly recommend!

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

...more

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Aug 07, 2018 Justin Tate rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A monumental memoir that should be required reading for all. The description doesn't do it justice. It's not about getting a PhD, it's about growing up in a family that doesn't believe in school, thinks doctors are a part of a sociologist conspiracy, and that any day the government will shoot them dead--if the end of times don't come first. The experiences Tara describes are horrific, yet oddly relatable--even if your family is nothing like hers (and let's hope it isn't). By the end, she has to ...more

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Mar 26, 2018 Tatiana rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, why-the-hype, 2018

I don't want to disregard Tara Westover's life experiences or not believe her, so I am going have to settle on one of two options:

1) either she is not a very good writer;

2) or her memories are often faulty and/or selective, with an emphasis on the macabre and tragic, which is understandable I guess.

Much of Tara's misfortunes and fortunes seem to make no sense, or not explained well in the context of her life story. There are multiple miraculous recoveries from numerous life-threatening untreate ...more

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Jun 13, 2021 Ali Abdaal rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Masterpiece. Starts off slowly but definitely worth it.

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Jan 31, 2019 Maxwell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites

Everything about this book amazed me. I will not stop thinking about this book for a very, very long time. I don't think I can even do this proper justice in a review other than telling everyone to go out and READ THIS BOOK! Easiest 5 stars ever. Loved it. ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, non-fiction, memoir, 21th-century, biography, united-states

Educated, Tara Westover

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag".

In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions ...more

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Mar 17, 2018 Debbie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: family-drama, cool-chicks, favorite-memoirs, best-reads-2012-through-2019, netgalley, luscious-spines-live-in-my-bookcase, all-time-favorites, bookcase-of-faves-at-home

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 ...more

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Sep 11, 2018 karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: from-publisher-or-author, nonfictions

oooh, goodreads choice awards semifinalist for best memoir/autobiography 2018! what will happen?

this is one of those “eeeeveryone is reading it” books that i always come in too late on, since i rarely read nonfiction and it takes me a while to jump onto nonfiction bandwagons. but here i am, way behind the rest of y’all on the oregon trail, probably riddled with dysentery.

or that. which is probably a good place to dive into this review, because even though its synopsis keeps stressing the word “ ...more

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Feb 24, 2018 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs, net-galley

I must tell you.......

Educated: A Memoir scalded the very edges of my soul. It took me through a whole gamut of my own emotions from belief to disbelief, from hesitation to doubt to wariness, and most importantly, from the weightiness of compassion and empathy to the restrictions of frustration and anger.

Tara Westover tells her story straight out through the reflections seen by her own eyes, her own jagged experiences, and in her own words. As you step inside of Tara's story you will certainly h I must tell you.......

Educated: A Memoir scalded the very edges of my soul. It took me through a whole gamut of my own emotions from belief to disbelief, from hesitation to doubt to wariness, and most importantly, from the weightiness of compassion and empathy to the restrictions of frustration and anger.

Tara Westover tells her story straight out through the reflections seen by her own eyes, her own jagged experiences, and in her own words. As you step inside of Tara's story you will certainly have moments in which vexation will sit down right next to you and shake its head in disbelief and sorrow. Truth comes in variations of light.

We live in a world in which we sift life experiences of our own and others through an internal grid. Does it shake out right in our minds? Can we relate to any of this? Or do we see the world through tunnel vision? Our experiential backgrounds, existing in the light of positivity or in the deepest caves of darkness, form the prism for which we view life. We form our values and codes of conduct normally through trial and error. We receive feedback and reinforcement, ideally, through our family unit. Tara's self-expressed reality is a reality for more individuals in some way, shape or form that we can even begin to image.

There is no sugar-coating this story. Be prepared for that. Gene Westover is a self-proclaimed prophet of impending doom. His social revolutionary nature and his transfixion with his skewed religious beliefs bled into this family with dire emotional and physical consequences. His children seemed to be no more than members of a work crew who were manipulated and mind-controlled in his demands for loyalty at all costs.

Faye, the mother, left a "normally functioning" childhood home only to be squelched under the thumb of a very sick man. She had that internal grid of right and wrong within her, initially, and buckled under to his demands at the price of her own children's well-being. No salve, no herb, no tincture can cure that, dear woman.

We, as readers, watch the slow, painful motions of Tara trying to break free from this toxic environment. I rallied behind her in her transition. But I mourned her inability to warn Emily of the nightmare that she was encountering in the likes of her demented brother, Shawn, before they married. I also mourned Tara's constant returning to the seen of the crime, almost like a battered wife syndrome, seeking approval and acceptance.......seeking to be re-engaged with this dysfunctional tribe. Gene and Shawn poisoned this well.

While I celebrate Tara's eventual life achievements, I know in my heart that she will always be broken inside from the entrapment she lived through and continues to live through. "Nothing touches me" are her own words. It is most difficult to bloom in life when your very thoughts are suffocated before they can even find a voice.

It is my sincere hope that Tara's words, truth-bound or not, will reach into that darkness that exists in others right now in order for them to find their own voice. Breaking free seems like the weight of granite tied to one's ankles. Difficult, but not impossible "if only" the someone, somewhere were more vigilant to the plight of our neighbors. We, as a society, are so observant and wise after the fact. Seeing eyes that blur into blindness.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Random House and to Tara Westover for the opportunity. ...more

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Mar 24, 2019 jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

‘my life was narrated for me by others. their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. it had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.’

i would generally consider myself to be a reserved person. i dont tend to actively share my thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or opinions. personal things like that, i usually to keep to myself. but after reading this book, it would be a shame to not express, in some form, how important i think education is.

this story, this harrowing yet ...more

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Mar 18, 2018 Maureen rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Does anyone else smell that? Me smells a

(James Frey, A Million Little Pieces) rat here. This is what I hate about memoirs. An author can fill page upon page with a load of made up BS and we are meant to fall for it hook, line and sinker. I have made this argument before, even though a memoir is based upon the recollection of the author, it should still be FACTUAL!

Let's begin at the beginning. I almost stopped reading this book at page 3. I read the alliterative phrase 'chirping crick ...more

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Jan 15, 2018 Karen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow! Tara Westover is one of the strongest, and bravest people I have ever read about! This woman grew up as the youngest child in a big survivalist, Mormon family, in Idaho at Buck Peak. So much danger for her in that life, mostly because of her father and one of her older brothers.
This memoir is so brutal at times and hard to read, your heart just breaks for this girl, and for some of her siblings.
Tara rises up to become extremely “educated” despite the fact that she never attended school, and ...more

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Jan 04, 2019 BlackOxford rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-biographical, church

That Cool Mountain Air

Tara Westover In Education tells a tale remarkably like that of Jeanette Walls in The Glass Castle (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) - of incompetent parents, child endangerment, and not infrequent life-threatening physical injury. Both women survive and thrive sufficiently to write about their experiences with some considerable elegance and wit. But while the psychological traumas of each woman are similar, the sociological sources of their experiences are radical That Cool Mountain Air

Tara Westover In Education tells a tale remarkably like that of Jeanette Walls in The Glass Castle (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) - of incompetent parents, child endangerment, and not infrequent life-threatening physical injury. Both women survive and thrive sufficiently to write about their experiences with some considerable elegance and wit. But while the psychological traumas of each woman are similar, the sociological sources of their experiences are radically different. Walls was merely neglected; Westover was actively persecuted. Walls suffered the consequences of random haplessness; Westover was subject to systematic oppression with an historical pedigree. And that history is not irrelevant to understanding her story and her achievement.

After buying the land West of the Mississippi from Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson sent an expedition to find out what was there. What they found was a native culture, in fact many cultures, but all without a civilisation. The aboriginal inhabitants flowed with the seasons up and down the Plains and up and down the mountains. With no fixed place of abode, they were perfectly adapted to their environment.

These native groups were not only independent, they were ungoverned, at least according to European standards - traditions not constitutions ruled; communication was verbal not written; there were few specialised institutions aside from the designation of sexual roles; and, crucially, there were few permanent encampments much less cities. Several members of the expeditionary party, intrigued by this mode of living, decided to stay and became the first legendary mountain men. Of those who returned from this early nineteenth century equivalent of the far side of the moon, at least one committed suicide upon his re-entry to American civilisation, primitive as it was at the time.

About 40 years later, that most American of all American religious groups, the Mormons, wandered across the Mississippi after causing a bit of a ruckus in New York State, Ohio and Illinois (See: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). They brought with them some highly innovative home-grown theology which placed the original Garden of Eden square in the middle of Missouri (conveniently right at a crossroads laid out by the Geodetic Survey; it’s easily recognisable because it has churches of various Mormon sects on each corner). Some unsavoury things happened there as well.

Given their domestic habits, particularly polygamy, the Mormons became, at least for a time, a culture without a civilisation, wandering without clear intention further and further West. Eventually they settled by the Great Salt Lake; but the fascination of a culture without a civilisation persisted in many, who until today still seek out such an existence in the remote mountains from Arizona to Idaho.

That these folk who maintain a phobia about civilisation might suffer from a genetic defect, or are bewitched by cultic beliefs, or are undergoing some form of induced mass-hysteria is open to debate. Perhaps they are living examples of the Freudian theory of conflict between the individual and civilisation. What is more certain is that they impose some very strange and often terrifying ways of living on their families, particularly on their children. These people have not merely adopted a ‘life-style’ in the manner of 60’s hippies - like Jeanette Walls’s family - trying merely to ‘drop-out’ of a particular pattern of living. They pray for the destruction of all social institutions and for the coming of divine judgment. And they literally arm themselves and stock their larders for the violent struggle they believe will ensue from that judgment.

Some, like Westover’s parents, reject any form of civil government whatsoever. Their explicit enemy is civilisation itself - its administrative organisation, its legal obligations, its educational systems and, most dramatically, its police powers which they consider satanic. They live in a mythological world of self-sufficiency and imminent apocalypse. Their goal is to remain ‘off grid’ except to the extent that they can undermine existing social structures. So no birth registration, no driver’s license, no insurance, no draft or social security card unless compelled by circumstances, and even then with subversive intent.

Not all Mormons are uncivilised in this sense but some certainly are. In any case, the extreme Gnosticism which they profess is not inconsistent with Mormon doctrine. And their participation, however desultory, in the Mormon Church itself is cultural rather than institutional. That participation is important for sustaining such militant sociopathy. The Church is the only connection to the rest of humanity that is tolerated among them - I suspect because membership in it, a Church many do not recognise as properly Christian, is a subliminal poke at the ‘civilised’ religions in the rest of America. Even then, individual members and the Church as a whole may be considered suspect because of their acquiescence to governmental authority.

Nevertheless, the Church plays a critical role in this strange individualist cult of the American West: keeping this unique culture intact and civilisation at bay. As Westover quotes her father: “God couldn’t abide faithlessness.” Included in this Mormon-inspired anathema is everything from mathematics to health care. Therefore it is not surprising that Westover seems to find the break from her past more difficult than Walls. The fact that either one of them survived is near-miraculous. But that Westover still has the psychic strength to write about it seems a far way beyond the miraculous to me. ...more

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About Tara Westover

Tara Westover

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Tara Westover is an American author living in the UK. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. She spent her days working in her father's junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom, and after that first taste, she pursued learning for the next decade. She receiv ...more

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“You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them,” she says now. “You can miss a person every day, and still be glad that they are no longer in your life.” — 1466 likes

“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.” — 707 likes

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