Educated
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4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
For readers of The Glass Castle and Wild, a stunning new memoir about family, loss and the struggle for a better future
#1 International Bestseller
Tara Westover was seventeen when she first set foot in a classroom. Instead of traditional lessons, she grew up learning how to stew herbs into medicine, scavenging in the family scrap yard and helping her family prepare for the apocalypse. She had no birth certificate and no medical records and had never been enrolled in school.
Westover’s mother proved a marvel at concocting folk remedies for many ailments. As Tara developed her own coping mechanisms, little by little, she started to realize that what her family was offering didn’t have to be her only education. Her first day of university was her first day in school—ever—and she would eventually win an esteemed fellowship from Cambridge and graduate with a PhD in intellectual history and political thought.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Like Mary Carr’s The Liar’s Club and Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, Educated is a beautifully written testament to human resilience: the story of a seriously messed-up childhood and an against-all-odds journey toward empowerment. Tara Westover grew up in rural Idaho, where her family stockpiled supplies and weapons for the end days. Instead of going to school, young Tara worked alongside her father salvaging scrap metal (resulting in harrowing near-misses) and assisted her isolated herbalist mother. Westover has a rare talent for writing about both grace and horror—her story of starting her formal education at age 17 and finding her calling imprints itself in the imagination.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Actor Whelan chooses a simple, straight reading of Westover's memoir about growing up in a dysfunctional, abusive fundamentalist family. It's a wise choice, partly because there are so many dramatic scenes throughout the book that it would exhaust the listener to have them dramatized, and partly because Westover portrays herself as a passive and compliant family member until the day she enters a classroom for the first time at the age of 17. Whelan creates an angry, gravelly voice for Westover's paranoid, fundamentalist Mormon father, a controlling and abusive man terrified of the influence of teachers and doctors. While preparing for the imminent end of the world, he homeschools his children and keeps them ignorant of all events outside their isolated Idaho home. Some family members are maimed by hideous accidents, and physical fights are common in the household. Still struggling with the ingrained need to be loyal to her family, Westover eventually attends college and earns a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Whelan smoothly guides listeners through Westover's physical and emotional traumas as she powerfully conveys Westover's transform from "a wicked thing" to a scholar. A Random House hardcover.
Customer Reviews
An incredible story— book—life.
This was recommended to me by inmates at a maximum security detention centre.
It took me a while to get around to reading it, but I believe I needed to start it when I did. As I read through I struggled to put it down. I caught myself thinking of it during my work days, my mundane tasks, thinking of when I could get back to reading it.
Captivating. Harrowing. Devastating, and yet unfortunately relatable. Powerful.
As someone who has struggled with belonging, whether in the family unit or in the education system, this spoke to me in a way not many other memoirs have. Genuinely, this may be the best book I have ever read.
Inspirational
Praise for Dr. Westover for bringing to light what an education can mean and how it can be obtained in more ways than just in the class room. One particular theme that this memoir touched on was family trauma and the challenges of navigating through it. Tara showed the reader that trauma within family is experienced, seen, and felt differently by each person depending on their lived experience and ability to face it. This book deserves 10 stars.
Should have read it sooner.
Most autobiographical books aren’t something I enjoy. They are something I study or slug through with the knowledge that the added perspective will likely be worthwhile.
However this captivated me as if it were a good fiction with the added intensity of appreciating that not only did this happen to someone, but that they were willing to share it with the world.