Educated A Memoir by Tara Westover

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Educated A Memoir by Tara Westover

Author: تارا وستوور (Tara Westover)

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.

[highlight color=”green”]Goodreads users review :[/highlight]

Westover’s memoir made me revisit the chasm that opened between me and my family years ago and be grateful, as is she, that there is life on the other side. I was in awe at the author’s ability to self-educate and smiled to recognize the warm hand of education that has become a constant companion that continues to draw me to read and travel far beyond the limitations of my childhood environment. The violence and paranoia was hard to understand … the ignorance was familiar. Inspiring. Linda                                                                                                      rated it: 5.0 from 5.0

I really liked this book, but after finishing it, I didn’t feel like the story was done. I hope she writes more about her life as an adult. Kellie                                                                                                     rated it: 4.0 from 5.0

WOW. An inspiration memoir Ken Do                                                                                                   rated it: 5.0 from 5.0