Educated: A Memoir

This book is a must to read for everyone. Westover's writing is superb and demonstrates themes of struggles and overcoming said struggles. Before this book, I used to believe that symbolism was a lazy writing method, but the way Westover writes with it is absolutely amazing. Even as you read the last chapter, you still fondly remember all the details from chapter 1.

I LOVED this book! One of those that is hard to put down. It is so deep on so many levels. I highly recommend.

Delivered on time. The quality of the book was good, as described

nice book

It's not a feel good book and you probably won't feel better at the end either! The amazing tale of a little girl and her path/fight to get what she has! Read it !!!DET

Lets the user look from a different perspective at the conditions they lived through which were much distinct from Tara Westover's in a good way...

I'd had this book sitting on my shelf for a while - it had been recommended in many articles so I had high expectations. The book was first published in 2018, it has 377 pages and 40 chapters. First impression is good as there are some top quality quotes of praise at the start. I hadn't appreciated that so much of the book would be about the author's childhood. Her education at home was very limited and she describes the varying levels of work she had to do to survive. The writing is engaging and the reader is encouraged to care about Tara. The narrative is first person so is very personal - you can't help but feel her experiences with her. Alongside the straightforward narrative. the reader has to look behind the writing as the motives and emotions are a huge part of this story. Tara rarely judges and simply accepts most of her life - it's the reader who is given the space to analyse and has time to stand back to get the full picture. Tara's life is hard to comprehend - she tells us about it sensitivity yet managing to retain a disconnect that appears to be her coping mechanism. She thought that everything was normal and that there were no options. Its inspiring to read about her small moments of realisation when she starts to acknowledge what is happening, accepts them as wrong and starts to consider alternatives. I was surprised there wasn't one big moment of rebellion away from her world but just small movements and tiny mind shifts until one day she found she had gone far enough mentally not to have to go back. This multitude of tiny steps are almost imperceptible until she learns to believe in herself - this creates a wave of emotion for the reader and it can be seen how life changing the process was for Tara. Brilliant account of a life turning towards the world rather than running away from it. This is all well written as a retrospective account and it is as I would normally expect a memoir to be - evenly paced and with a consistent tone. This book seems to do so much more though - at the start the narrative is naïve and basic, as the author grows the phrasing becomes more confident and articulate. This development is cleverly written.

It’s one of my favorite books now.

How to begin. It's been two days since I've finished this book and I'm still wordless. When I closed the book, I found myself searching for Tara Westover on the Internet. Then I spent a whole hour watching interviews, listening to her voice, the same voice I've been wanting to hear for the whole week, telling the story I've already read. It felt so real. Because it is real. When reading this book, I've sometimes found myself wishing for Tara to leave her house. Then, thinking: of course she left, she wrote the book. It was like I forgot this was a memoir because what she describes seems unbelievable. What she describes is living hell. How possibly can a human experience all of this and not be broken, marked forever? But of course she is. She'll always feel hurt when she thinks of her family, of her past. I guess she'll feel like a part of her is missing forever, and that's heart-breaking. I'm proud that she was able to find a way to move on. But most importantly, I'm proud that she was been able to put herself together and know her worth. Self-love was always essential for her to grow, to open to new experiences, even though those experiences were terrifying. I can't imagine how scared she was... I can't imagine how much courage and bravery does it take to leave your family, not because you don't love them, but because it's best for you. She found a way to challenge and demystify her (father's) beliefs, and that's really admirable. This was a journey of self discovery I praise, and I'm very happy to know that Tara Westover, who's suffered so much, has found her way to happiness, independence, knowledge and personal growth.