{"id":36264,"date":"2019-07-11T22:38:14","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T02:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=36264"},"modified":"2019-07-11T22:38:14","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T02:38:14","slug":"review-of-educated-by-tara-westover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=36264","title":{"rendered":"Review of Educated, by Tara Westover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Educated<\/em><\/p>\n

by Tara Westover
\nread by Julia Whelan<\/p>\n

Penguin Random House, 2018. 12 hours on 10 compact discs.
\nStarred Review
\nReview written June 11, 2019, from a library audiobook<\/p>\n

This audiobook is not for the squeamish. Tara Westover tells the story of her childhood in the mountains of Idaho. Her family were radical Mormons, her bipolar father not trusting the world on the outside and convinced that the government would come after them, and they were going to be prepared. They stockpiled food and weapons and made their own medicines. They didn\u2019t trust the medical establishment or schools, all those being of the devil.<\/p>\n

The reason the book is not for the squeamish is that the family did plenty of physical work, running a junkyard and doing building projects \u2013 and had some terrible accidents. Accidents for which they did not see doctors. I\u2019m going to tell you ahead of time that everyone survives the accidents described in this book, and maybe that will make it easier to hear about them. I don\u2019t fault the family for calling the various healings miraculous. There are a lot of accidents described, and some of them are horrific.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s only part of the story. There\u2019s also some violent abuse going on at the hands of her older brother, but the family is invested in denying it ever happened. With the help of another brother, Tara makes a partial escape by studying to pass the ACT and going to Brigham Young University.<\/p>\n

Once at the university, she tries to hide that she has never been to school before in her life. She has major gaps in her knowledge, such as not knowing about the Holocaust or the Civil Rights Movement. Her whole way of thinking has to adjust.<\/p>\n

One thing leads to another, and Tara travels to Cambridge and to Harvard, continuing her education but also trying to deal with her past and present. When she refuses to deny the abuse, she has to choose between her family and her own perception of reality.<\/p>\n

This is an amazing and mesmerizing story. It\u2019s a story of growing up and having your whole perspective on the world undergo a dramatic shift \u2013 and doesn\u2019t minimize the cost of that.<\/p>\n

This book came out when I was on the Newbery committee, so several of my friends read it before I did. They universally declared that it wasn\u2019t one to miss. Now that I\u2019ve finally joined the crowd of readers, I completely agree with them.<\/p>\n

penguinrandomhouseaudio.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/educated.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a>