This book was one that touched me. Reading all that the family has been through was quite an emotional roller coaster ride.

This was such an engaging book. I still cannot believe all the accidents that happened to this family and they all survived without hospital interventions. A sad commentary of parents who raise their children with their zealous religious beliefs. Such physical, mental, emotional abuse in this book. I felt the author ‘s deep commitment to her family and the anguish she experienced when she finally let them go and focused on herself . Tara understood the value of knowledge and how being educated creates a better self. Tara was lucky she encountered many good people on her journey. They saw the real Tara and with their guidance and love she was able to reshape herself . She made many sacrifices along the way and the future that was once a junkyard is much more appealing and promising. I loved the descriptions of the mountains and how Tara longed for them . Their solidarity drew her home so often , but also allowed her to gain strength and determination. Thanks netgalley. A fantastic memoir.

This was a hard book to read in many ways: The dysfunctional family and the emotional and physical abuse made this not a fun read -- but it was an important one.

Tara models amazing perseverance and intelligence that allow her to escape her sad situation. And it is the outcome of her struggles that makes this such a compelling read.

This story is not about what we understand as organized education in the US. It's about personal survival, and as such, it speaks to so many of us on so many levels.

One of the best memoirs I have a read in a long time. I loved loved LOVED this book! I could not put it down. In chapter after chapter, the author pulls you into the world of her childhood, a world structured by a father's extreme Mormon views and survivalist lifestyle. Not allowed to attend school or receive any medical care, Tara works in a dangerous junkyard and is subject to her brother's abuse. The reader follows Tara as she slowly ventures out of her sheltered existence and discovers a wider world - one in which she succeeds in earning a Ph.D from Cambridge. A fascinating look at the transformative power of education.

For nonfiction, this is an amazing story. Tara Westover is only in her early 30s but her life has been so different, from my life certainly, but also from those she grew up around in a small town in Idaho. The youngest of seven children, Tara's parents were determined to be good Mormons as well as taking care of their family without government help or interference. Her father was the driving force behind this fear of government and need to be ready to survive with his family when the end times arrive. Although her older brothers went to school, by the time Tara was old enough they were home schooled which involved not that much school. Her mother was a gifted herbalist who ended up becoming an uncertified midwife and the whole family was involved in their father's scrap business.
Three quarters of this book is Tara growing up, describing their life which was often scary when her father was upset (or one brother in particular). It includes several horrific accidents which were treated holistically in the family because of a deep distrust of doctors and medicines. As Tara grows up she sees some of her brothers leave the family home to start a business or seek more education and eventually decides she wants to do this. The last part of this book when Tara goes to BYU and then farther afield is riveting as she describes how hard it was to leap into classes that are familiar to everyone except her: truly she didn't know what she didn't know. This is an excellent book that will keep you reading.

I requested this memoir from Netgalley and was grateful to receive a complimentary e-booky for review. The author's journey is well worth reading, but I did not realize the book would have so many descriptive passage of violence. It is amazing that the author was able to find the strength to break away from her family and overall the book is inspiring.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me this ARC.

If you are looking for the next Glass Castle, please look no further. Tara grew up in the mountains of Idaho with her father who believed that the world would end during Y2K, (or really it could all end at anytime) and made sure they were well prepared with plenty of guns, shelters, and canned preserves to last a lifetime. Her father also hated the government, which meant that he didn't send her or her siblings to school, or even to the hospital when injured (and trust me, they were so often seriously injured over the course of this book that it was miraculous that they all managed to make it to adulthood). He was also undiagnosed bipolar and devout Mormon, who often preached to his family and found few to be equal in his strict morals.

Her mother was a midwife, as well as a "healer" who used strictly herbal medicines. Tara had six siblings, a couple of whom were able to break away from their mountain life and get into college, while the rest stayed near the mountain working with her father as scrappers of metal in their large (and quite dangerous) junkyard. Much of the horrors Tara went through were due to her older brother Shawn, another undiagnosed bipolar, and altogether verbally abusive and violent individual who would regularly terrorize Tara, and yet shared a bond with her that she found hard to break.

With the encouragement of one of her others brothers who had previously left the family to become educated himself, Tara manages to pass the ACT/SAT (with little formal education) and get into college. While there the world opens up to her and she comes to realize just how limited her world was before this. For example: She asked one of her professor's in a freshman year college class what the word "holocaust" meant, to the stunned silence of everyone in the room.

Her education comes at the price of being pulled further and further away from her family and life on the mountain. And it becomes a question of whether she can somehow maintain both worlds.

An absorbing, inspiring, and somewhat heartbreaking tale of overcoming the odds you were born into. Your next great book club read is here folks, and you will not be disappointed.

This is one of the best memoirs I've read in a long time.
This story is captivating and while we all have a level of dysfunction in our families, this goes beyond imagination. That Tara could rise above all the roadblocks that life handed her and excel, is absolutely amazing! Her tenacity and resilience is amazing.

I would love to know how her life is continuing.

Just. Wow. No words, but I'll try. This was a moving, incredible story (as in, superbly written, raw, and full of events that strained my belief) about a woman who was raised in a strict, abusive, misogynistic, paranoid survivalist/conspiracist family whose children were not allowed to attend any school or ever be treated by doctors. She was 16/17 when she passed college admissions exams and began attending university classes (the first time she ever went to school, I believe). She goes on to receive a PhD from Cambridge.

I went snooping immediately after I finished it and came across an interview with the author. This is a direct quote from her: "We think about education as a stepping stone into a higher socio-economic class, into a better job. And it does do those things. But I don't think that's what it really is. I experienced it as getting access to different ideas and perspectives and using them to construct my own mind. An education is not so much about making a living, as making a person." And that's pretty much what I took from the book. It's going to be almost impossible to top it this year.

In the spirit of THE GLASS CASTLE and THE GREAT ALONE, Tara Westover shares her story of abuse and neglect by her fundamentalist father, compliant mother and cruel siblings. Tara was raised in a hovel in Idaho, ruled by her father, an insane survivalist who forced her to do manual labor, and never allowed her to attend school. His desire to evade the dark tentacles of government even kept his children from having their births registered or being vaccinated.

He also allowed brutal physical abuse against his daughters by their brother. Shawn. Her mother was a gifted midwife and herbalist, but totally afraid of her husband. Ironically, her ability ultimately made the family wealthy, but not sane.

It was the courage of one of her brothers who fled to college that allowed Tara to attempt to get an education. Despite her lack of schooling, she was able to succeed at BYU, CAMBRIDGE and HARVARD. From total ignorance, her scholarship, brilliance and will, propelled her to an eventual Ph.D.

This is a stirring memoir. Westover tells the story with clarity and frightening details. We have to cheer for her triumph and wish her a bright future. I will be using this book in my education seminar. Bravo!

Coming of rage story!

Harvard and Cambridge educated Tara Westover details a lifetime of systemic abuse by survivalist parent-sibling/captors.

Ms. Westover lays bare decades of harsh physical and mental abuse particularly by one of her siblings and her father. The mother turns a blind eye or blames the victim for prompting the cruelty. Westover shows us exactly what you get in an America that normalizes and tolerates the notion that women are chattel.

There is no true way for Ms. Westover to escape. Early on you realize she can't leave without funds and a support system of which she has neither. But I found myself repeating the mantra, "just leave, please go, just leave, you're going to die if you don't."

Westover's salvation comes in the form of education. How she goes from living in the house of evil to matriculate at Harvard and Cambridge is admirable. But on the shadow side, you see that Westover will never escape in full the hell she lived through. It is a true wonder that she wasn't killed by her father's lack of attention to safety and her brother's violent temper. Frankly after this book comes out I would still be very concerned for her safety.

Educated will engage and enrage you and make you realize that evil in the name of God and religion doesn't lurk among us - it deliberately makes itself known in the name of righteousness.

I enjoyed this memoir of growing up in a family that was more-or-less off the grid, with a father who distrusted the government, science, and outsiders. While the final goal is formal education, includes a number of vignettes about the informal education the author received as the youngest member of a large family, working for her parents and being "homeschooled".

The memoir offers interesting glimpse into what it means to go from being "homeschooled" to attending college, the struggles students encounter, and the challenges of moving away from your family and home. This book has something for students of all kinds.

Raised by a devout Mormon father with bipolar disorder on a remote mountain in Idaho, "Educated" is the story of Tara Westover's triumph over her abusive childhood. I was amazed at the resilience of the author and kept having to remind myself that this was a work of nonfiction, like I did with Janet Walls' Glass Castle. Truly inspirational.

Educated is powerful - both captivating and very difficult to read. I found myself putting it down several times to process what I was reading/feeling. I needed to talk with others before I could go on. A child has no choice about the environment he/she is born into, but that environment makes a profound imprint on the child and the adult he/she becomes. Tara Westover has survived/overcome a very strict, abusive childhood, and it was not an easy journey.

Educated should spark lively discussions in classrooms or book discussions about nature vs nurture, abuse, religious fanatics, mental health, and the power/guilt of love, just to name a few. This book will stick with me for a long time, and I will definitely recommend it to others.

A hard book to read, but you can't stop. It is one unbelievable disaster after another, you keep thinking someone will wake up and put a stop to this disfunctional family. That the author survives , educates herself, lives to tell her story is a testament to her strength

This memoir was very interesting. it tells a story of a woman who was born to a survivalist family in Idaho and went on to get a college education and beyond. Along the way, she learns that she has been raised very differently than other people around her and that she is ignorant to many events that have happened. I was very interested in reading her experiences and seeing how she reconciled having a very unusual upbringing with who she wanted to become in life.

This book kept me absolutely engaged from beginning to end. Tara's writing style is beautiful, and she has a gift of storytelling that makes you feel like you are witnessing events first hand. Her story is at times devastating, always powerful, and ultimately inspiring. By the end of the book, I could relate to her emotional and spiritual journey in such a real sense, even though my background and education could not be more different. I hope she continues to write! I highly recommend this book to all who are on their own journeys of finding truth and hope even in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.

A brave, moving exploration of family ties and coming to terms with one’s own truth.

Tara Westover's account of being brought up by Mormon isolationists was a real eye opener. Her story of abuse at the hands of her brother must have been hard for her to share with the world. Tara shows us that anyone can achieve greatness.

Educated is a memoir about perseverance and tenacity. The author grew up in a very bizarre, dysfunctional family. She was never formally educated, yet received an advanced degree from Oxford. She endured much abuse from her brother and witnessed a fracturing of the family that continues to this day. A very interesting read.