Educated

A Memoir

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Number-one New York Times best seller

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

Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times

“A coming-of-age memoir reminiscent of The Glass Castle.” (O: The Oprah Magazine)

“Tara Westover is living proof that some people are flat-out, boots-always-laced-up indomitable.” (USA Today)

“The extremity of Westover’s upbringing emerges gradually through her telling, which only makes the telling more alluring and harrowing.” (The New York Times Book Review)

Tara Westover was 17 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 in her father's junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, 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 one of Tara's older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important 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. 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 with severing the closest of 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.

Women

Memoir

Inspiring

Heartfelt

Thought-Provoking

Survival

Editorial Review

Born in a strict and remote Mormon family, where homeschooling is a vague concept, would you have the courage and drive to leave everything you knew to become educated?

Tara Westover’s Unabridged Educated is an inspiring and shocking memoir that you must hear to believe. This triumphant and groundbreaking novel recounts a unique and moving true story of a young girl secluded from civilization and living in rural Idaho who - against all odds - overcomes the shortcomings of her survivalist upbringing to become an educated, integrated part of everyday society. Westover’s drive to teach herself and learn is a powerful, moving force in her fantastic story. Not only did her education open her eyes to events and concepts she was previously unaware of, but learning and growing her knowledge opened her eyes to a whole new way of being beyond survivalism and a new sense of self.

Educated beautifully describes a coming-of-age story rooted in searching for and reinventing one's sense of self. One of the best books of 2018, Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner and a New York Times bestseller, it is wonderfully told and full of a wide range of emotions. From the triumph and pride of Westover’s successful admission to Brigham Young University and later Harvard and Cambridge University to the pains of breaking contact with family members and older brothers and striking out on her own, it is a whirlwind of feeling and realization. It has been hailed as one of the best memoirs of recent years and a triumphant first book from this debut author.

Julia Whelan voices this riveting tale with power and vulnerability, bringing Westover’s words and experiences to life. Moving, engaging, and full of life, it is an audiobook that delivers a captivating listening experience. You will find yourself fully engrossed in the story, desperate to know how it all turned out. Hailed as one of the best audiobooks and books of the year of 2018, Educated is a must-hear story of a young woman who journeys far from home for the first time. She works hard to create her sense of self and obtain a formal education but finds that maybe her roots were a little more important than she thought.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The narrator does an excellent job and the story itself is fascinating.

CW: Abuse and gas-lighting.