Educated by Tara Westover
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A Powerful Read!
Tara Westover was raised in the isolating mountains of Idaho by survivalists who believed the end of the world was at hand. Taught that anything related to the government was socialist, she never attended school until she entered college at the age of seventeen. Having suffered abuse and isolation on the mountain, her education gave her totally different views of the world. Just like other children, Tara had believed everything her father said, and his truthhad become her truth. During her quest for knowledge, she strives to educate herself and to find herself as well. They say that truth is stranger than fiction, and as I read this memoir, I realized how true that is. This is a powerful tale about how a person turned her whole life around. Tara is amazing!
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Life Changing
I just finished reading this book moments ago. It is life-changing and you need to read it. The lessons learned from Tara's story go beyond her story and can benefit everyone.
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Great read
i AM IN love with this book. It is mesmerizing.
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Insightful and incredibly written
I was apart of an Honors Class for my spring semester of college and this was the first book we had to read for the class. I dreaded it due to the fact it is a memoir and they never were really my forte, but I couldn't put this book down. Tara Westover is a phenomenal woman and such a success story. It was inspiring and satisfying to see her succeed in ways she never expected to. 100% recommend!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Inspiring!!
Educated is an amazing book/memoir that most people could find answers for their own problems. This book could be the right push for people who are struggling to let go of situations that they cannot handle. Tara lives in a home and is forced to make her own decisions when she realizes her goals would require her to leave her family. It isn’t selfish but it is a form of self love. I felt this because I have been put in positions in which I feel that I don’t have control and I can not escape but I realize that this is not true at all! I can pursue my own goals without anyone telling me otherwise. Also, the way Tara handled situations in which would’ve caused me to be angry (in my opinion) is really inspiring. There were situations in which Tara had been embarrassed in front of people for no valid reason but she wasn’t upset. She just did what had to be done and moved on. She also doesn’t give the people who make her life hard a hard time. The author did a very well job writing the book. If I hadn't read this book, I wouldn’t have made decisions that would change my life. It almost feels like a false memory, as if I also experienced the memoir. I am very glad I read this book!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
So Inspiring!
Imagine being trapped, held hostage by your family for most of your life to keep you from becoming who you were meant to be. Now, imagine escaping that captivity, caused only by your motivation to grow and learn. That’s the freeing feeling that Tara Westover brought to Educated. This novel articulates a story of a young girl, longing for guidance to show her where she needs to be in life, only to find that confirmation within herself. This novel will inspire you to break free from anything that may hold you back from achieving your goals. It will take you to places you will not expect. The reader will go from staggering with Tara through the harsh valleys of her life to watching her summit the mountains of her education. When Tara transitions from a small house in a quiet valley to a busy dorm and the streets of Cambridge, readers can understand her feeling of being out of place. But readers will be transported back and forth from the quiet mountain to the busy halls as Tara struggles to fully free herself in this new life. The transition in this setting parallels Tara's build of confidence. As I walked through the halls of her new college, I saw the growth that Tara has gained, inspiring me to build a life for myself just as she did. Because of the realism of Tara’s story, you are bound to feel a rollercoaster of emotions while reading. On the low ends of this rollercoaster, her brother, Shawn, provokes the most emotion from Tara and contributes the most to her motivation to escape her home. His disregard for Tara’s well-being and violent tendencies make for some very angering encounters. I was sucked into the story when listening to him use racial and sexist slurs, physical, and mental abuse to get what wants. Tara’s father, Gene also participates in the abuse, calling Tara a “disgrace to God”, which makes family struggles, one of Tara’s most prominent issues, pushing her to leave them behind and continue her story. However, at the high end of her journey through education, she took a piece of her family as she left her parents behind. Her brother, Tyler, was the first one to open her up to new possibilities in her education, widening the horizon of this story. Readers have to watch Tara’s mother become enslaved to the powerful man that Gene is. But, Tara has to feel her anchor slip away and become stranded when she needs help most. The contrast between her family members' makes her life decisions difficult, which is what makes Tara's perseverance throughout the highs and lows of this rollercoaster so inspiring. Imagine being trapped, held hostage by the people who are supposed to love you, encourage you, and support you no matter what. Now imagine freedom from that captivity, feeling both successfully relieved, yet beautifully broken. Educated sings the song of a young girl who wants to fly, but can’t because there are chains holding her down. It wasn’t a pretty sight to see her gnawing at the lock on those chains for years. But, it wasn’t until she was told that the opportunities that sat in front of her could set her free. Educated reaches to connect with every emotion the readers have. So, they can also find relief in success, and beauty in brokenness.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Amazing character devlopment
Tara Westover was raised by survivalists in the Idaho mountains and regularly practiced planning for the end of the world. Since her father forbade doctors, Tara never saw one, Herbalism was used to heal gashes, concussions, and even blast burns at home. There was no one to protect the children's education,because the family was too cut off from mainstream society. At one point, Tara decides that she wants to live a life of her own and coming up short on any conventional instruction, Tara starts to teach herself. She showed herself enough arithmetic and language to be conceded to Brigham Youthful College, where she examined history, learning interestingly about significant world occasions like the Holocaust and the social equality development. Her journey for information changed her, taking her overseas and across landmasses, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Really at that time would she keep thinking about whether she'd voyaged excessively far, if there was as yet a way home. Educated is a record of the battle for self-creation. It is a story of wild family reliability and of the pain that accompanies cutting off the nearest of ties. With the intense knowledge that recognizes every single extraordinary author, Westover has made a general story about growing up that gets to the core of what training is and what it offers: the point of view to see one's life through new eyes and the will to transform it.
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Educated: A Memoir Book Review
Dear Reader: This book is the most beautiful and inspiring story I’ve ever read. Educated: A memoir is about a girl named Tara Westover, who is telling her own story by reflecting on her journeys, battles, and impactful moments throughout her life. Readers may think Tara is just a normal girl, who lived in a normal family, and is just another author telling their boring life story.. but, I'm here to tell you that is completely incorrect. Tara is actually a girl who was born at home into an ambiguous family dynamic, with no birth certificate, no legally existing name engraved into the government's systems, and, on top of all that, she doesn't attend school until she's 17. Tara Westover, who was just in her early thirties, decided to write “Educated” as a way to cope with her slow departure from her parents and their relationship, describing it as “difficult and long.” Tara described the book writing process as “journaling”, which was therapeutic, as she was adjusting to the new and big changes in her life. Because Tara expressed such raw and real thoughts, I could feel her emotions throughout this book as she explained growing up and learning to be independent. Her emotions seemed to reflect the most strongly when she talked about her father, as she cares for and loves him a lot, but also understands that he’s very opinionated and controlling over her and the rest of her family. If you want to imagine Tara’s family and their relationship you must imagine an equivocal dynamic in which they seemed to have good intentions, especially in Taras view, but in the end, they turn out to pull Tara back into their turmoil of issues. I discovered that this made it hard for Tara to do what she really wanted, like going to school, because she knows her own independence meant breaking ties with not only her father but the rest of her home family. From the very first chapter I began to feel a close connection to Tara. While I was reading this book, which is narrated by Tara herself, I felt like we were having a conversation where she was telling me all about her childhood and the state of mind she had been in along with how much it changed as she grew older. Tara talked about her grandma offering to take her to Arizona so she could go to school and have a “normal life,” but she refused out of fear of what her family, especially her father, would think. By explaining this Tara not only helped me connect to her as I could understand her reasons for having such a strong bond to her family but she also allowed me to foreshadow her future events because it showed how much control and influence her family had over her decisions. Finding her independence from her parents and the rest of her family, she reflected on all the troubling times she had and recognized the biases to her families dynamic and opinions. To me, it felt as if she was explaining her progression and the way she found her independence through all the obstacles she was forced to face. As I was continuously reading, I realized that people of all ages can relate to Tara and that her story is the epitome of inspiration. After reading, I personally felt incredibly grateful to have the privilege to go to school since I was young. Many often take going to school for granted, but Tara shows that that privilege is a gift and anyone can fight to get an education, just like she did herself. Tara was like a flower who was afraid to bloom, but when she did her opportunities and journey quickly opened up to new things. Tara is a girl who knows what she wants, but often gets confused or feels ashamed of her own desires because of her fathers self-morals and opinions on everything. Tara loves her father, so she chooses to listen to his claims/words, especially as a young child but as she grows older she begins to want to think for herself, realizing that her father’s not always right, nor are his morals. As Tara found herself trapped under her father, she tried different things to get away, despite the knowledge that it meant major change if not ruining the relationship between not only her father but the rest of her family because of the control he had over them. Making the sacrifices she did, Tara indulged straight into going to college to get an education, showing that she finally put her wants and needs in priority over her fathers own morals. In my opinion , a rotting flower had more of a chance of surviving than Tara escaping her biased family and their abuse. Tara is one of the most mentally strengthened and inspiring persons due to the good situation she fought for and found herself to be in, escaping her family, their abuse, and their constant attempt to drag her back from her own success and future. Tara's story is not like any other authors trying to look back on their childhood so they could feel closer to home or their family; Tara's story is about her own and completely unique experience living, growing up, and escaping her ambiguous family dynamic. Her reflection of her own life draws readers into her journey of growing up and escaping her abusive and quite different home life, allowing individuals to dive head first into her experiences and feel her true emotions. Through her ups and downs, Tara shows that you can fight for what you want and be your own person no matter what anyone else thinks. This book is an inspiration to me and I guarantee it will be for many others in it's motivating essence and lead to progression, self growth, and independence.
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