LibGuides: Common Reader 2020-2021: Educated: Home

Interviews

Rethink: Tara Westover says ''Build a world where we can be one people'

Aspen Institute Video
47:23
C-Span Video
1:00
Tara Westover in conversation with David Runciman
Cambridge Trust Interview

Reviews

“Educated,” by Tara Westover | The New Yorker

Jun 18, 2018 - Westover examines her childhood with unsparing clarity, and, more startlingly, with curiosity and love, even for those who have seriously failed or wronged her. In part, this is a book about being a stranger in a strange land; Westover, adrift at university, can't help but miss her mountain home

Book Review: Tara Westover's 'Educated' Shares Too Much ...www.nationalreview.com › 2020/02 › book-review-educated-tara-wes...

Feb 29, 2020 - She's been through more in 33 years than many have in a lifetime, has graduated from esteemed institutions, and continues her climb in the academic world — all without ever gaining her high-school diploma. It's sensational, yes, and heartrending and painful. But Westover's memoir never comes full circle.

The Education of an Ambivalent Feminist | Boston Review bostonreview.net › literature-culture-arts-society › micki-mcelya-educ...

Jun 29, 2018 - The Education of an Ambivalent Feminist from Boston Review. Tara Westover's best-selling memoir may reveal more about the place of feminism in contemporary U.S. life than any book in recent memory.

Review: Tara Westover's 'Educated: A Memoir' - The Atlanticwww.theatlantic.com › magazine › archive › 2018/03 › tara-westover...

Mar 15, 2018 - Tara Westover's coming-of-age story follows her upbringing in a survivalist family, and her decision to leave that life behind

Educated: A Memoir

Educated by Tara Westover #1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW * ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR * BILL GATES'S HOLIDAY READING LIST * FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE'S AWARD IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY * FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE'S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK * FINALIST FOR THE PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD * FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES BOOK PRIZE NAMED ONE OF PASTE'S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post * O: The Oprah Magazine * Time * NPR * Good Morning America * San Francisco Chronicle * The Guardian * The Economist * Financial Times * Newsday * New York Post * theSkimm * Refinery29 * Bloomberg * Self * Real Simple * Town & Country * Bustle * Paste * Publishers Weekly * Library Journal * LibraryReads * BookRiot * Pamela Paul, KQED * New York Public Library An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home. "Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Tara Westover's] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?"--Vogue "Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others."--The New York Times Book Review
Call Number: CT3262.I2 W47 2018
ISBN: 9780399590504
Publication Date: 2018-02-20

Synopsis:

An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University...Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills" bag. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged metal in her father's junkyard. Her father distrusted the medical establishment, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when an older brother became violent. When another brother got himself into college and came back with news of the world beyond the mountain, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. She taught herself enough mathematics, grammar, and science to take the ACT and was admitted to Brigham Young University. There, she studied psychology, politics, philosophy, and history, learning for the first time about pivotal world events like the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home. Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the grief that comes from severing one's closest ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes, and the will to change it.