Tara Westover

Uma Educação

Tara Westover was seventeen 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 metal in her father’s junkyard.

Her father distrusted the medical establishment, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The 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 an older brother became violent.

When another brother got himself into college and came back with news of the world beyond the mountain, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. She taught herself enough mathematics, grammar, and science to take the ACT and was admitted to Brigham Young University. There, she studied psychology, politics, philosophy, and history, learning for the first time about pivotal world events like the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. 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.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the grief that comes from severing one’s closest ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes, and the will to change it.

A Memoir

Educated

kata

Perhaps even he — charismatic gale of a man that he was — was temporarily set aside bty the force of her.

Kyler Phillips

The past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, & thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.

“Don’t you teach your children to wash after they use the toilet?” Grandma said. Dad shifted the truck into gear. As it rolled forward he waved and said, “I teach them not to piss on their hands.”

The skill I was learning was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand.

All my life those instincts had been instructing me in this single doctrine—that the odds are better if you rely only on yourself.

The owl grew restless. When it began to refuse food, we opened the back door and let it escape. It wasn’t fully healed, but Dad said its chances were better with the mountain than with us. It didn’t belong. It couldn’t be taught to belong.

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

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.

The most powerful advantage of money: the ability to think of things besides money.

At dinner I listened to the cheerful chatter of my friends while longing for the isolation of my room.

Whomever you become, whatever you make yourself into, that is who you always were. It was always in you. Not in Cambridge. In you. You are gold. And returning to BYU, or even to that mountain you came from, will not change who you are. It may change how others see you, it may even change how you see yourself—even gold appears dull in some lighting—but that is the illusion. And it always was.”

That image of my father will always stay with me: that look on his face, of love and fear and loss

Although I had renounced my father’s world, I had never quite found the courage to live in this one

My family was splitting down the middle—the three who had left the mountain, and the four who had stayed. The three with doctorates, and the four without high school diplomas. A chasm had appeared, and was growing.

I was of that mountain, the mountain that had made me. It was only as I grew older that I wondered if how I had started is how I would end—if the first shape a person takes is their only true shape.

But vindication has no power over guilt. No amount of anger or rage directed at others can subdue it, because guilt is never about them. Guilt is the fear of one’s own wretchedness. It has nothing to do with other people.

But what has come between me and my father is more than time or distance. It is a change in the self. I am not the child my father raised, but he is the father who raised her.

That night I called on her and she didn’t answer. She left me. She stayed in the mirror. The decisions I made after that moment were not the ones she would have made. They were the choices of a changed person, a new self.

We are all of us more complicated than the roles we are assigned in the stories other people tell.

angie

Guilt is the fear of one's own wretchedness. 

“ It has never occurred to you," he said, “that you might have as much right to be here as anyone." 

It’s strange how you give the people you love so much power over you.

Talebe

Hazal Özlem

Bu rüzgarda durabiliyorum çünkü durmam için çaba harcamam gerekmiyor..Rüzgar rüzgardır sonuçta. Aynı esintilere yerde dayanabiliyorsanız, havada da dayanırsınız. Bir fark yok arada. Kafanızdaki fark dışında.

clara

‘An amazing story, and truly inspiring. The kind of book everyone will enjoy. IT’S EVEN BETTER THAN YOU’VE HEARD.’ – Bill Gates Selected as a book of the year by AMAZON, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, VOGUE, IRISH TIMES, IRISH EXAMINER and RED MAGAZINE THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER A Book of the Decade, 2010-2020 (Independent) ________________________ Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist. She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in hospitals. As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent. At sixteen, Tara knew she had to leave home. In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it. ________________________ · From one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2019 · Shortlisted for the 2018 BAMB Readers' Awards · Recommended as a summer read by Barack Obama, Antony Beevor, India Knight, Blake Morrison and Nina Stibbe

The international bestselling memoir

Good story, very dark but insightful into her family and those who follow the Mormon faith. 

Alex Shinsky

Sandrin

what a wild but ultimately sad ride.
throughout the book i kept thinking about something i heard just the day before, that our parents love us but they will never understand us, not fully, and we shouldnt take their lack of understanding as a lack of love. 
the way the author captured the chaotic nature of her cruel but loving family was hypnotizing and enthralling. It proves that no one is just black or just white, we are all (at different times) varying shades of gray.
side note: kept thinking how the hell are these bastards still alive? like how many times can you dodge life threatening situations???

Trip Dunham 

wow. A phenomenal book that I think really captures a truly unique insight into the life of a young girl that is able to pull herself up from the craziness of family. 

Naveen Sheik

Pamela Koh

Absolutely gripping. Best memoir I’ve read in a long time.

faye

An outstanding memoir that shows how much education could change your life. It is truly amazing how Tara, coming from a family so distant from the society considered 'normal' could achieve many great things later in life, but this book shows how it isn't easy too, how it need many tears and blood to gradually change for the better. 

But it's no doubt that a huge part of this book shows the cruelty, the sinister behaviours on people you call 'family.' At some point, the Westover parents (esp. the father) probably just want to 'save' their children, but their ways of 'saving' is far too dangerous, manipulative, and abusive and it just really boils my blood and sometimes i need to take a break for a minute reading those scenes. 

And the ending, it honestly seems realistic. Well, it's a real story after all.

Francesca Starecheski

Somehow I have found what words I have been trying to convince myself of, somehow I can now believe them. Who I am now is not who I always will be, but who I become will be who I always was. Thank you, Dr. Westover, for letting me feel raw.

hileahrious

An incredibly well-written book. I know it is the content of the story that really matters, but literarily I am blown away. I so thoroughly enjoyed the aesthetic of the language used - usually in a memoir you don't expect such literary prowess. 

In terms of the story, it will move you and I believe you'll find yourself relating to Tara more than you'd expect. I feel as though it were written in a voice similar to my own, despite how different my upbringing was compared to Tara's. That could be for a number of subjective reasons, however, one of the main reasons I think is due to the focus on the discovery of self based on memory. Obviously, it's a memoir, but how she continuously thrusts her own memory under the magnifying glass, questioning her sanity, questioning her identity throughout, is what I think will truly touch all readers. What makes us who we are? What is our truth? What is our reality? Can we ever really know?

Rosie Vulaj

this was soooo good. reads like fiction but it was actually REAL

Tara Westover was seventeen 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 metal in her father's junkyard. Her father distrusted the medical establishment, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The 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 an older brother became violent. When another brother got himself into college and came back with news of the world beyond the mountain, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. She taught herself enough mathematics, grammar, and science to take the ACT and was admitted to Brigham Young University. There, she studied psychology, politics, philosophy, and history, learning for the first time about pivotal world events like the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. 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. Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the grief that comes from severing one's closest ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes, and the will to change it.

Tara's father really remind me both of my parents.. This book wrapped it so gently, so free. Her eyes that full of desire and adventurous, I somehow see my reflection. You might see it from the day she was born until get the time she got degree to persuade her career. One of the book that lead me to dig into more of memoir books afterwards. They wouldn’t lead you to several method to study or such.. but it showed you of how education in need for people and how the privilege came across all the same. If It's my first non fiction this month and it really educated me! in so many ways!

"Positive liberty is self-mastery—the rule of the self, by the self. to have positive liberty is to take control of one’s own mind; to be liberated from irrational fears and beliefs, from addictions, superstitions and all other forms of self-coercion."

Len Damico

Katarina

Reading this book is not merely about being amazed by Tara's story on how abusive and violent her environment was and how she survived, made peace with it. But it is also about the determination to value oneself. The courage to break down the walls. Educated is a powerful, magnificent, and touching memoir I've ever read. It gives me lessons about families, womanhood, and self worth. Importantly, it teaches me how we can forgive someone and still not allow them back to our life. This book isn't an easy read for me. But its journey is very worth to go through.

Quinn Tenorio

Typically I don't read memoirs or autobiographies, but after reading Crying in H Mart, I had this on my list to read next. Wow! What a great book. Tara has a way of writing that makes it hard to stop. I definitely could feel her emotions and how she evolved through her time in school. It's also crazy to believe the experiences she was a part of and how that shaped her life. Definitely a solid book and easy to read, despite it being on the longer side.

Allie Reynolds

Wow, what a life Tara grew up in. Glad she was able to overcome so much and make a life for herself.

Had no idea what this book was about. It was recommended to me. It was a good read though.

Jazz

Jaden Nelson

Despite getting a little disinterested in the middle, I really ended up liking this book overall, and I think it’s a great examination of cult-adjacent mentality/upbringing, family vs the world, the power of learning and education, etc. I would recommend!

Melissa Palmer

Book #16 Read in 2019
Educated by Tara Westover

This is a memoir that kept me hooked throughout; Westover's family are sort of doomsday preppers who want to stay over governmental radar. Half of the students went to school and half did not. Westover strives to overcome the family's dysfunction over the years and ends up receiving a doctoral degree from an elite institution of higher learning. This book was hard to read in parts but so powerful. I heartily recommend to high school and adult readers alike!

The Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling memoir

Amena Elkayal

Caroline

Highly evocative and remarkable story that I finished unintentionally waiting for my phone to charge on a summer day. I reflected on the love I have had to say goodbye to in my life and felt kinship with her story. However without the rusty nails, fire, car crashes, family gaslighting and end of days cult behaviour. So you know I guess a few differences.

Derek Barlas

incredible story of a young girl raised in a Mormon survivalist home. She didn't enter an actual school until she was 16. Bullied by a crazy brother and father. Amazing story.

Denaiir

Amazing book!
Definitely a 5-star, it was mind-blowing. 
Tara Westover's life is fascinating and the fact that she (and some of her siblings) was able to escape it, think for herself and create a whole new life outside of her survivalist community is so impressive! 
Read Bill Gates's review if you want more articulate thoughts on the book!

Paul J Robinson

This book was a Christmas gift and is not something I would ordinarily choose to read. I thought it would be something of a struggle, and not enjoyable, but I was wrong on both. This is a great book: easy to read, eye-opening and thought-provoking. I'm surprised how much I enjoyed the experience, and would recommend it.

Hannah Yang

Tara Westover's life story is unbelievable (and it seems like many of the 1* reviews find it too unbelievable -- I am choosing to fully believe her account, especially since she clearly struggled to reconcile her upbringing to her education well into adulthood, but to be honest, even if this were fiction... what a story! the 'takeaways' are no less valid). 

This memoir is a testament to the importance of learning to think for yourself, and Westover's accomplishments throughout the years -- most importantly, finally detaching herself from a family that caused her so much harm -- are truly inspiring. Educated can spark discussion on many important topics (fundamentalism, faith, family dynamics/abuse); my main reflection upon reading it, though, is how grateful I am for the education I have had.

#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 NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY 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

Elizabeth Wood

An enthralling book. Just as I thought her story couldn’t get worse, somehow it managed to do just that.

Uma Educação

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