Heartwrenching story. I had a difficult time putting it down, and an even harder time believing it to be real! Beautifully written and I want to know more about Tara's journey after the book ended.

This one took me a while to read, and I actually had to take a break while reading it. Once I picked it up again, I was quickly transported right back into Tara's world and I realized why I took a break-- it was exhausting. The entire time I was reading this I kept thinking, this is insane. There was one chapter early on where she talked about getting to take piano & dance lessons and I literally got teary because I was so happy for her. Tara's strength and resilience is truly remarkable.

What an incredible and inspiring true story of #TaraWestover and her #education in the broadest of terms. This is not simply her classroom education. This is her education on the mountain top, in the junkyard, in the classroom with her family and classmates. It’s a story of nature vs. nurture and breaking through the confines of family and the life they set out for you.

Born in Idaho on a Mountaintop to survivalist parents, who were off the grid she knew no other way of life.

Her older brother decided to go get himself into college and she decided to follow his path. She got into BYU as a homeschooler and at 17 she stepped into a classroom for the very first time. She had never experienced text books. She didn’t know she needed to read them, she just thought she needed to look at the pictures and she never heard of the word Holocaust before, or know anything about the actual Holocaust. She set herself off to educate herself about it and so so much more. She traveled to Harvard and Cambridge where she eventually earned a PHD in history.

This is so inspiring and I highly recommend reading this and following her personal path to Educate herself while asking myself what else can I be doing to continue to educate myself and my children daily.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #raandomhouse for an arc in exchange for an honest review

Everyone should read this book. It's worth the hype and at once gut-wrenching and inspiring. Reading about Tara's family and religious experiences growing up was very difficult but extremely eye-opening.

I heard many people singing the praises of this book, and I wasn't surprised when I realized they were right. Learning about the author's life and reading about her trials was difficult because I could reconcile with the reality that a person experienced such a hardship - even though I am not naive and understands that everyone has a struggle.

A harrowing and heartbreaking memoir about life in a survivalist, ultra mormon family.

I binged this audio in the span of hours, unable to stop listening. Tara's childhood was one that I can not comprehend and had trouble imagining as truth. I was enraptured by her disturbing recollections, her feelings and my own reactions to them. This was dually difficult to listen to and yet impossible to put down.

Until the age of 17, Tara Westover never went to school. Her father was convinced that the government was out to get them so his children were homeschooled. The Westover's idea of homeschooling was not traditional by any means. It involved very limited reading and math. Instead the children were taught their father's interpretations of the bible and life lessons on preparing for the End of Days, canning fruit and stewing herbs, salvaging metal in the family junkyard and preparing for an inevitable siege on their property.

Some of Tara's recollections seem wild and outlandish but she does explain that many of her memories come from her own journals which were tainted by her family's actions and views and her family whom always spun tales to suit their own desired outcomes. I definitely had questions and wished some things were explained fully but there is no denying that Tara's childhood was wrought with mental and physical abuse, blatant brainwashing by her father and her continual subjugation by both her father and older brother.

I applaud her desire to be educated and her willingness to go into therapy to explore her beliefs, her upbringing, her family and the chains they formed around her. Overall, a powerful memoir and Tara's formidable journey of being self-taught and overcoming her lack of education, ultimately going on to accomplish great things in academia was definitely inspirational.

Educated by Tara Westover is a powerful memoir in which Tara shares her difficult journey toward education and independence.

Tara was born to survivalists, who think of hospitals, schools, insurance as pure evil. Her father has been preparing for the End of Days through making survivalist kits. Her mother was a midwife and a healer. Until she was 17 years old, Tara never set foot in a classroom. When she hears her older brother, Tyler, talk about going to school and studying, she realizes that her life will be better if she can get education.

Tara has to choose between her identity as a dedicated Mormon, an obedient daughter, and her identity as a woman who wants to see the world, to learn and to think for herself. She suffers a lot in order to get her education. The knowledge she gains through studying helps her see the world from a different perspective rather than that of her father.

This book is emotional, important and very powerful. I was amazed by the author’s honestly and bravery in the retelling of what she went through.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved hearing the story of Tara's life as a mormon fundamentalist. The things she and her family experienced were so shocking. It was inspiring to read how she taught herself things and eventually decided to go to college. She has to be such a strong woman to share this story.

Tara Westover’s book “Educated” is a distressing & discomforting - alarming & startling exposure of her Mormon fundamentalist family. Her journey is incredible and inspiring. It's wonderful to read how an individual overcomes their past w/out even realizing till later that their past was not normal, not mainstream at all. I highly recommend this book!

Also thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

A wonderful look into a different life. It was moving and eye opening. I love memoirs because some things seem so fanatical but they're not - these people are real and this is our community. I love that she leans on education for growth.

Oh my, why did I wait so long to read this book?? I’m probably the last person on earth that hasn’t read it and after reading it, I’m not sure why I waited so long. I will say that it lived up to all the hype!! It was written in a way that really pulled me in and kept me wanting to read more.

For me to like a memoir, I have to be able to relate to the author. Tara Westover is a very relatable person. We have different backgrounds, but I could relate to some of her family struggles.

The following quote from Tara hit me with all the feels!
“You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them. You can miss a person every day, and still be glad that they are no longer in your life.”

Who hasn’t had someone like that in their life? You love them so much, but they aren’t good for you so you have to let them go? It is a heart-wrenching thing to have to do. You never stop missing that person every single day and there is a pull from within you to go back to them because things might be different this time around, but you know in your heart that it could never really be different. It leaves you with a feeling of angst.

The story of Tara’s life is about growing up in a Mormon family with a submissive mother, aggressive brother and mentally unstable father. Tara’s father, the ruler of the family, doesn’t believe in modern day medicine or public education. So, Tara grew up without an education and the family used natural alternatives to modern medicine, even when more care was needed. Tara writes of her struggles growing up in Idaho within her brainwashing family dynamics. There were times while reading the book that I had to just stop…..It was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I wasn’t reading a novel of Fiction, but that these things actually happened to someone. Even after several weeks, the book is haunting my thoughts.

Educated is also an inspiring memoir. Tara overcame her Insurmountable odds and went on to college, even without a high school diploma. She braved a new world, unknown to her, and severed her family ties in exchange for a better future. That’s one mighty strong and determined women to overcome everything she did!
Your background may not be exactly like Tara’s, but if you have past experiences that are making you feel stuck in your life…..Read. This. Book!! Tara will show you that with perseverance, you can overcome anything and that your past does not define you!

Thank you to @NetGalley, #RandomHouse and @Tara.Westover for providing me an Advanced Reader Copy of Educated in exchange for my unbiased review. I am just so sorry it took me so long to get to it!!

I probably would never have picked up 'Educated' if I hadn't seen it all over social media! It's the memoir of Tara Westover, who is born into a survivalist Mormon family in Idaho. Her mother loosely homeschools Tara and her six older siblings, but the majority of their time is spent helping their father in his junkyard. As a teenager, Tara starts to explore the idea of gaining a formal education and enrolls in college. 'Educated' takes us through Tara's experiences in higher education whilst living within a dysfunctional family.

Despite the title, 'Educated' is not just about Tara's thirst for knowledge, but also deals with issues such as emotional and physical abuse. I found parts of her memoir absolutely heartbreaking, and others completely shocking! For instance, the family don't believe in medical intervention, and choose to use alternative healing methods. There are a number of incidents throughout the book where medical treatment was quite clearly required, but they stuck to their beliefs and used herbal remedies. I wasn't sure whether to be in awe of their stupidity or feel admiration for their resilience!

I would have liked to have learnt more about Tara's struggles to catch up on her missed education. Tara writes about a few instances where her lack of understanding was "exposed", but the majority of the time, Tara seems to glide her way through academia. It felt like a lot of the book centred on the family dynamic - which I enjoyed reading about - but I wanted to know how exactly Tara went from no education to being accepted into Cambridge and Harvard!

The book was different to what I was expecting... I thought it would be very religious and I would learn more about Mormonism! In fact, religion plays little role throughout, and it was a lot easier to read than I was imagining!

I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked up this book, but it certainly wasn’t this.... in all the best ways. This is a hard to believe story of family, mental illness, religious fervor, and cult like behavior. It’s sad and shocking and very real. This is an intimate account of Tara’s childhood and life under the rule of a possibly bi-polar father who’s paranoia and distrust of the government lead to a very different and nearly cult like upbringing for Tara and her siblings.

What a whirlwind. I adored The Glass Castle and enjoyed this as well. At times, it was a little unbelievable.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review*

“The past was a ghost, insubstantial, unaffecting. Only the future had weight.”

Welp, this one definitely lived up to the hype for me! It feels like everyone and their mom has read this one by now, so I’m happy I finally got a chance to read it! This memoir is the story of how the author went from growing up in a survivalist Mormon family who didn’t believe in things like public education or modern health care, to graduating from Harvard.

This story is poignant, inspiring, and heartbreaking. It almost reads like fiction because of how engrossing every detail is and because of every wild thing that happened in Westover’s life. I was almost in tears at some points because of how frustrated I was with what was happening. The way the author wrote about the relationships within her family and the mountain on which they lived really pulled me in and I felt so many things while reading this. This book really calls to question who we really are as people; who we’re raised to be or who we want to be? And what does it take to make a choice between the two?

As you can probably tell, I loved this book! It was the first full length memoir I’ve ever read and now I’m sure it won’t be the last. Tara Westover’s inspiring story is one I think everyone should read and I urge you to pick this one up if you haven’t yet!

Thought provoking and inspiring, Educated delivers everything you could hope for all in one book! It is amazing that Ms. Westover was able to survive and thrive in her childhood living conditions. I am amazed how many of her siblings also sought not only higher education, but doctorates. Fascinating read all the way around!

Although I read a physical copy, that I own, I also had an e-copy via Netgalley and will be sharing my thoughts there too (so thank you to them for also providing an e-copy. As usual, all opinions are my own).

Woah. This was such an intense read and one I was fully emerged in. The way in which Westover writes really pulls you into the story, making you forget that she actually lived through these rather traumatic experiences, growing up in a fundamentalist Mormon home, recounting and reflecting on how, as she learned later in life, her father's suffering with intense mental health illnesses affected her upbringing, as well as others in the household (siblings, mother).
Whenever I came out of a read, it made that fact even more impressive and inspiring that this woman went through all this yet put it aside, or used it to drive her to becoming the individual she wanted to become and better her life to make it one that she was happy to live.
There were times were, admittedly, I felt frustrated by her actions and internally screamed "just cut them off", but I understand that wasn't my life to dictate and I understand that a lot of what she felt was warped through her upbringing, probably bringing her a lot of pain and guilt when she wanted to rebel and get away from it all, in her heart. This sort of emotional turmoil, understandably, takes time to register and unlock.

There was a very interesting section where Tara spoke about her understanding of the N word and how, once she went to university, it took a whole new meaning, was her "woke" moment, so to speak. I'm glad that as she learnt and began to undo all the ignorance and shielding, growing up isolated like that had added to (what with one sided manipulation, and mental and physical abuse), it's like she grew into an evolved being and it was an amazing thing to read. Of course, this journey wasn't an instantaneous one, with many set backs and missteps along the way.

Although this didn't focus too much on the Mormon religion and more on growing up with her parents and siblings as individual beings wrapped up in the deep rooted belief of Government conspiracy, and more specifically what that was like to grow up around this way of thinking, when she knew nothing else, I found myself falling down the hole of videos from ex-Mormans/The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This one in particular was interesting: https://youtu.be/OYFbdpqnno4 and it reminded me that I used to watch a channel about a young woman's experience within the faith and why she left and her journey to recovery and undoing the harm of her childhood (I want to stress this wasn't completely caused by her religious upbringing but I believe she said it spurred the hurtful actions that was done to her) but for the life of me, I can't recall her, or her channel name, but the lady had such a lovely voice and kind demeanour.

One thing I found difficult to follow was the comings and goings of siblings over the years. It just made for a confusing reading experience, but one I understand because it was a lot of years to go over and Westover announces many times that her memory may have failed her in some cases, often trying to check facts with other family members, so I do get it. Just thought it should be something to note as part of my review.
I also find that Westover tried her best to be as non-biased as she could be (which, when you think of memoirs, you inheritingly think of bias due to the sheer fact that someone is telling their story) but she constantly told you how, if memories differed, other people remembers the scene and I feel that was important and she even notes this at the end.

There was an unexpected moment regarding a vicious and cruel act in relation to an animal and I think that just took me out of it for a minute because it felt so jarring and I get so affected physically and emotionally with that. I feel a little weird stating that because obviously this whole book is traumatic and I'm not trying to undermine the atrocities done to people in this memoir at all, but this part really made me feel sick... and it was only a passing moment.

Overall, Educated, by Tara Westover was very powerful. There was just so much content here to unpack and I probably have only skimmed the surface, but I found it really interesting to read about, so much so that I told my boyfriend parts of it (specifically when I was really hit by shock and disbelief that there are still some people these days that believe in what her parents did, e.g. no hospital {very scary when it came to some of the traumatic accidents that happened}, not believing in public school or greater education, to name a few).
It's weird to say this is an enjoyable memoir, obviously because it's a shocking and unsettling topic, but I definitely got a lot out of it and have so much respect for all that Westover lived through and overcame.

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The advent of these COVID Times has created some unique family dynamics: home schooling is becoming the norm. After reading <u>Educated</u>, by Tara Westover, you might be tempted to discourage parents from deciding to self-isolate themselves and their children and take over their education. Tara's self-esteem and self-image suffered greatly from her father's bi-polar mental health issues and his decision to isolate his large family from the rest of the world.
I have often wondered why it is that a lack of knowledge or understanding (or "ignorance," as some would brutally call it) breeds so much fear and violence. Tara and her siblings suffered physical and mental abuse all of their lives because of such "ignorance." Intolerance arises from a fear of the unknown. Lack of understanding breeds distrust and anger - a sort of knee-jerk reaction that historically keeps repeating itself.
Tara Westover "educated" herself out of that vicious cycle. Unfortunately, there are still so many isolated communities that still use fear and ignorance to subdue and dominate its members. Religious doctrines have also historically been used to frighten and subjugate many a faithful follower.
Books like <u>Educated </u> and <u>The Glass Castle</u> are vital to our own "education." I rate this one a 4 out of 5 because of the very important message it has brought to the world: open and unrestricted education is key to our evolution!

This book was an eye-opener, and I can understand why it has been a best seller. Tara Westover exposes us to a world which is usually very much behind closed doors. It was insightful, it educated me and I would recommend that all must read this book

This memoir will stick with me for a looong time! Wow, mind blowing reality of Tara, growing up Mormon in Idaho, with a mentally unstable father, ruling his family with an iron fist. An unbelievable tale of perseverance and courage, venturing to change her future and make her own way in a scary world. Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the e-reader copy for review. All opinions are my own.