From the Bookshelf of EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club…

Educated

Tara Westover

Start date: May 1, 2019

Finish date: May 31, 2019

Discussion: CURRENTLY READING

Why we're reading this: Group pick for May ‘19 - Modern Classic/Popular
[close] Group pick for May ‘19 - Modern Classic/Popular

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of -15 topics — 381 comments total

CURRENTLY READING

A Midsummer Night's Dream - SPOILER-FREE
By Renata · 6 posts · 41 views

last updated 3 hours, 55 min ago

Sense and Sensibility - *SPOILERS*
By Joanna Loves … · 27 posts · 139 views

last updated 14 hours, 18 min ago

showing 10 of 33 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Sep 26, 2020 caity rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 15, 2018 Ellie 9218 rated it really liked it

Educated: A Memoir is Tara Westover's coming of age memoir of her upbringing in the mountains of Idaho in a fundamentalist Mormon family. Growing up with a father who was determined to isolate/protect his family against the “brainwashing” world. No television, radio, telephone, and no doctor visits, no matter what!

She didn’t set foot in school until she left home at 17. She studied her way out of a tough (that is an understatement) childhood and into college. She entered Brigham Young Universit ...more

Like · see review

Mar 15, 2019 Jayesh Naithani rated it liked it · review of another edition

"This is Crazy!"

A memoir about a woman, who grew up in rural Idaho – in a Morman survivalist family, and her quest to get herself educated.

A survivalist is a person who has prepared to survive in the anarchy of an anticipated breakdown of society (Merriam-Webster). Tara Westover's childhood was spent on an Idaho farm, home schooled by racist survivalist parents. She was first exposed to a formal education system when at the age of 17 she set foot in a classroom.

Mormons belong to the the Church ...more

Like · see review

Jan 09, 2020 Denise rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The reviews of this book are more telling of the people that read the book than they are about the book itself. They range from people who can't believe people live like this to people who are like, "yeah, we did that too." None of what she says strikes me as particularly unbelievable, honestly, and at the same time, I'd say her upbringing was an extreme version of what a lot of people experience. People who are born, raised, and participate in our dominant social culture are completely unaware The reviews of this book are more telling of the people that read the book than they are about the book itself. They range from people who can't believe people live like this to people who are like, "yeah, we did that too." None of what she says strikes me as particularly unbelievable, honestly, and at the same time, I'd say her upbringing was an extreme version of what a lot of people experience. People who are born, raised, and participate in our dominant social culture are completely unaware of all the other ways Americans live. Nor do her stories of abuse strike me as unbelievable. People keep asking why no one helped, and I think there are a lot of kids who get the crap kicked out of them regularly and no one cares or they feel that to intervene would result in them getting pushed out of the children's lives where they could do even less good than they already are. Also, people saying it didn't add up that they had things like a computer and were able to replace their cars when they didn't have outside incomes. I mean, poor people don't have no money, and you can buy a cheap car for $500 and fix it if you know how. People expressing all this disbelief have clearly never been poor.

Tara's attitude at school doesn't surprise me either. Part of her would want to reject her family values and another part would likely want to rebel against this new world by holding stubbornly to those values because it would force her to face all the ways her childhood was dysfunctional.

Being trapped between two worlds is painful and difficult, and I didn't grow up the way she did - we had medicine and school was a priority, but there was no lack of gaslighting and abuse. The process she went through of reconciling the person she wants to be with the person she was taught to be is hard stuff, and telling a story about your family seems particularly challenging because everyone's version WILL be different. Memories are different, and we contextualize them with what they meant to us. Tara's story of her family won't be the same as anyone else's, but part of becoming who you are is learning to trust and believe yourself. She comes to that understanding and accepts that other people might tell you stories about yourself so they can control you. The way you take control back is by telling your own story.

I wonder if she would have been able to tell her story if her parents hadn't shut her out. By her family closing that door, it allowed Tara to "solidify" her thoughts about her family. If that was ongoing, the memories would have continued shifting and it would have been harder. By cutting her out, they saved her the difficulty of doing so.

I also thought that her upbringing ironically made her better suited to higher education. K-12 education and honestly, much of undergraduate education is fact focused. Tara's life had been woefully scarce on facts, but she also hadn't been forced to conform to the thought patterns of her classmates - her family yes, but to modern Western civilization, she had a set of new eyes. That kind of curiosity and outsider perspective is critical to masters and doctoral students. ...more

Like · see review

Apr 19, 2018 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-books-audio

Extraordinary sometimes brutal memoir of a woman raised in a family that lived outside the normal American reality. In spite of the fact that she never entered a classroom until she was in college she went on to study at Cambridge and Harvard and to earn a P.H.D. I don't have the words to describe how I feel about all the different aspects of this book. I would just say read it yourself. ...more

Like · see review

Mar 30, 2019 Daniel Gomez rated it really liked it

Amazing story and insight into that segment of the population. Writing also very good. If I could give it 4.5 stars I would.

Like · see review

Nov 20, 2018 Lauren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned, favorites

Easily one of the best books I've read. ...more

Like · see review

Apr 05, 2018 amber rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, books-written-by-women, audio-books, listened-to-2018, oak-park-booksale

1 like · Like

Apr 17, 2018 Stephen marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Jul 09, 2023 Nikki rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

May 13, 2018 Patti marked it as to-read

Jan 27, 2020 Cynthia rated it it was ok

May 18, 2018 Jacqueline marked it as to-read

Mar 18, 2019 Bonnie Brandt rated it really liked it

Feb 10, 2019 Megan rated it it was amazing

Aug 18, 2018 Katie rated it it was amazing

Nov 11, 2018 Karen rated it it was amazing

Sep 25, 2018 Prem marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Oct 30, 2018 Victoria marked it as to-read

May 21, 2019 Dana Stanley rated it liked it

Jun 12, 2019 Joseph rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Dec 06, 2018 Paige marked it as to-read

Shelves: shelved

Dec 06, 2018 Linda (Book Sniffer) marked it as to-read

Dec 17, 2018 Tamye marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: american-author, in-collection, biography, non-fiction, heather-s-pick, family, harpercollins-canada, memoir, survival-story, published-in-2018