Educated
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4.5 • 388 Ratings
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
Brought to you by Penguin.
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)
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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.
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'An amazing story, and truly inspiring. The kind of book everyone will enjoy. IT'S EVEN BETTER THAN YOU'VE HEARD.' - Bill Gates
· 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
© Tara Westover 2018 (P) Penguin Audio 2018
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Born on a remote Idaho mountain, Tara Westover endured a crazily rough childhood in a survivalist family: her father was a self-proclaimed prophet, her mother was an herbal healer and the children were kept isolated and off the grid. Actress Julia Whelan’s calm, unblinking narration of Westover’s jaw-dropping story drives home the specific and sometimes-gruesome horrors of Westover’s upbringing. But this story about the thirst for knowledge and a formal education also gets at universal yearnings. Like Cheryl Strayed’s bestseller Wild, Educated maps out a woman’s inspiring journey to overcome internal and external fears and save herself.
Customer Reviews
Brilliantly written
This book is such an interesting read. It takes you through unusual circumstances and family situations. It’s not an easy read at times can be emotionally triggering but it’s worth reading through. Inspirational story.
Excellent
I have listened to this twice. Felt like I could connect with her life story. Everyone loves a underdog. Would read again.
*Against All Odds*
This is a memoir and I listened to the audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan, she does a terrific job. Her narration really added to the experience. It’s a book although some of it was very hard to read, I may read again.
Tara and her siblings were born in a Mormon family. The patriarch of the family instilled in his children that they must be prepared for the end of days. The matriarch of the family mostly went along with him.
His behaviour and paranoia screamed of what would probably be diagnosed as bipolar. He never believed that his children should go to school or to see a doctor. Everything was dealt with herbs or concoctions by her mother
They all worked dealing with scrap in junkyards using makeshift equipment or finding herbs for her Mother’s many potions and tinctures.
One of Tara’s older brother’s Shawn was so violent that she left home at sixteen. Much of her escape was to get away from her father’s radical ideas. If you did not conform to his ideas you were doing work for the devil and that was putting it mildly.
Tara bravely stepped into the education system for the first time at age 17 and boy did she work to get an education. Two of her other siblings too educated themselves and all the time Tara was second guessing herself and thinking she was evil or not good enough. There were so many challenges ahead for her but she fought on.
There were continual struggles with the back and forth with her family especially the way that the violence against her via her older brother was virtually ignored even though it was witnessed.
I take my hat off to Tara, she is an example of what can be achieved against all the odds.