Educated: A Memoir

by Tara Westover

#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University
 
“Extraordinary . . . an act of courage and self-invention.”—The New York Times
 
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • BILL GATES’S HOLIDAY READING LIST • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle’s Award In Autobiography and John Leonard Prize For Best First Book • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Los Angeles Times Book Prize
 
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 try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
 
“Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”—Vogue

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, Good Morning America, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, The Economist, Financial Times, Newsday, New York Post, theSkimm, Refinery29, Bloomberg, Self, Real Simple, Town & Country, Bustle, Paste, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, LibraryReads, Book Riot, Pamela Paul, KQED, New York Public Library

• ISBN10: 0399590501
• ISBN13: 9780399590504
• Publish Date: 20 February 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Random House USA Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780399590504

Reviews

[katie]

I don't have the words right now to describe how this book made me feel. I need to find more tissues, then maybe I can try to pin down my thoughts.

[tylerrosereads]

This book was a combination of things for me. It's super well written and powerful, and it was also a case of the right book at the right time.

I NEEDED to read this book at this time in my life, I need to hear this message. Truly impactful for me, I'm not one to re-read books annually but this book might change that

[chetofuor]

Listened to the audiobook and highly recommend it in this format.

[kiracanread]

An incredibly interesting account of Tara Westover's life. A woman who has experienced so many different positive and negative forces throughout her life, that are extremely unique. I really enjoy learning more about how others live, and the lifestyles of different communities and people and I found this book so difficult to put down. I couldn't recommend it more and I'm sorry I hadn't gotten to reading it sooner.

[writehollydavis]

A powerful memoir with so many insights into how differently one can be raised and how you can break through the barriers and make new beliefs and a new life for yourself.

[mrs_mander_reads]

I can't adequately explain how good this book is. I'm always so hesitant about nonfiction, but Westover does an amazing job of creating a captivating narrative. Her story is compelling and at times, insane. I definitely recommend to anyone who was raised in a household that was formed by faith (radical or not).

** I read the audio - fantastic job narrating by Whelan. **

[clq]

From what I'd heard about it I knew that I would enjoy Educated, but I wasn't prepared for how hard this book would hit me.

The story told is truly fascinating. It's a remarkable tale, incredibly told. It's intimate, informative, and provides a glance into a world which, while I would have assumed that it existed, knew absolutely nothing about. Reading the book I felt curious, frustrated, sad, angry, uncomfortable, and confused. It felt almost voyeuristic - I was looking into, and felt like I was experiencing, the life of someone else. Only now do I realise, after having finished the book, how essential it was for this story to be told in exactly this way.

Because, while the story really is about a childhood which would be completely unrelatable to most people, and about a way of living and thinking that may seem alien, it can’t be said to be surprising. It has elements in it which is the kind of story that might get a three-minute mention on the news, and maybe occupy ten seconds of "ah well, there are crazy people everywhere”-mindspace, and then be forgotten. There is a way this story could have been told in which it would have felt almost like a documentary - with the same content, but in a way where one would have felt like one was looking in at the events through a glass, observing strange animals in a zoo. While a book like that might have been interesting, this book goes far beyond what is happening, and really digs into how it affects the people involved in it. It does this incredibly powerfully. Where it might otherwise have been easy to just see what was happening as something strange happening to strange people, this book doesn't allow for that - it forces you to confront the uncomfortable truth that these are regular people who just happen to be in an uncommon situation. What they feel is real, and their reasons for feeling and doing what might seem absurd becomes less absurd where it is presented in a way where it’s far from clear what you would have done in the same situation.

The story also feels unique in that the author is able to compare and contrast her previous life with something that was radically different. There are certainly quite a few people with similar stories to tell, probably even quite a few people who could tell their stories very eloquently, but the lived experience of this author, not only with the experiences that would seem remarkable to most of the readers, but also the lived experience of what most would consider to be normal, allows this story to be told in a way which feels painfully relatable, despite how strange it really is.

Educated was a brilliant, visceral, captivating read, but it was also, in the best way possible, an education.

[Berls]

As someone raised in a cult, this book seriously resonated with me. In many ways, my family/religious upbringing almost sounds sane compared to Tara's. But the principles, the abuse, the neglect, the insanity of it - that was so familiar. I read the first part very slowly and took breaks from it - I thought I wasn't enjoying the book, but I realized as I got to the second half, when Tara starts breaking free and finding herself through education, that it was just too uncomfortable and brought back memories I couldn't deal with in huge doses.

The second half though, wow! I read that so fast and here I identified almost 10o%. I was fortunate enough to not have suffered the homeschooling that Tara did, but was otherwise similarly lost and confused as I navigated undergrad and grad school. I battled with a lot of the same self-deprecating thoughts and doubts. I struggled with reconciling what I was learning with the family I was losing through that education. And while I didn't quite achieve the PhD she did, I came close, and like her, the awakening that education provided me cost me most my family. It was amazing to read someone else going through that same kind of rebirth, despite coming from a very different cult experience.

I think the title - Educated - couldn't be more perfect. I saw it in myself and I've seen it with others who have escaped cult life. Education is the key. You get educated and it helps you to see the cult for what it is. I couldn't recommend this book more, I enjoyed it so much!

Oh and the narration was great. It was kind of funny to hear Sophie Eastlake of Chicagoland Vampires take on something so "normal" but I thought she did a great job.

[Leigha]

Tara Westover transitions from a survivalist family to higher education in this memoir.

Memoirs are sooooooooooo not my thing. The last memoir I remember reading and enjoying was Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love in 2007. I read this book only because I want to drink wine with the ladies at book club. I don’t find memoirs to be all that emotional, gripping, or inspiring. I can’t even really tell you why I don’t connect to memoirs, but, for wherever reason, memoirs and I just never seem to get along.

On top of not enjoying memoirs, this book contained so many of my triggers. Not that I grew in an extremely violent, religious, or survivalist community! However, I’ve dealt with family members with mentally illness (particularly bipolar disorder); family members against anti-government/establishment; and extremely religious family members. Luckily, I never had to deal with all these family members at the exact same time unlike Tara Westover. Very rarely do so many triggers show up in one text. It hit a little too close to home.

It is well-written, the cover is well-designed, and Julie Whelan did a masterful job reading the audiobook. If you enjoy these type of stories, you’ll probably really enjoy this one too. I do wish more time had been spent on the process of education. For a book that’s titled “educated,” it’s more about one woman coming to terms with the unhealthy and toxic environment she came from rather than education itself.

tl;dr This memoir contained too many triggers for me to appreciate the well-written and well-read prose.

[ibeforem]

Tara Westover grew up in rural Idaho, the youngest daughter of a somewhat fundamentalist (heavy on scripture but no plural wives) Mormon family. Following the FBI's raid on Ruby Ridge in 1992, her father also completed his plunge into becoming a paranoid survivalist, complete with burying gas and guns on their land so they would be ready when the FBI came to take them away.

But that's just a little bit of the story. Tara had no birth certificate, no vaccinations, no formal education, and really no home-schooling. Her parents' idea of home-schooling was not interfering too much if they found a textbook to read. They wouldn't use doctors or hospitals voluntarily, even under the most dire of circumstances. The book documents many times when one of them could have easily died.

The family was also quite abusive. Not only did her father have a penchant for forcing them to take on dangerous tasks, but older brother Shawn was downright dangerous, possibly as a result of a serious head injury he suffered while working in the family junkyard. I was legitimately scared for her safety, several times.

Despite all this, Tara manages to make it out, not only attending BYU (thanks to barely passing the ACT, some creative fudging of her educational background, and the kindness of a church leader), but then going on to further education at Oxford and Harvard. It really is a quite amazing story about how someone can figure out how to educate themselves, even after years of mis-education.

Do I think the book is 100% true? Probably not. I'm sure there is some embellishment, either purposeful or because of the infallibility of memory. But overall I don't think it really matters. This is a great story of perseverance and survival.