Educated: A Memoir Book

Tara Westover lives in Idaho with her parents and siblings. Her father shuns education and medicine and the entire family's wellbeing is in the hands of her mother who operates as an unlicensed midwife, creating her own herbal treatments and extending her practice beyond minor ailments to major accidents and injuries. The father has a scrap metal business on the mountainside and demands the children work for him, but he lacks even the most basic awareness of safety and it is a great risk and cost to his children. Tara is allegedly home schooled but as she grows into an older teenager she begins to suspect there are limits to her parent's knowledge. Encouraged by an older brother, she teaches herself enough to get accepted into college at the age of seventeen. This is a remarkable story of how a young person manages to navigate the alien world outside of her own home and adjusts to the new enlarged world view she develops and the subsequent impact on her family relationships. Tara's autobiography demonstrates the tension between love of family and the consequences of a subtlety oppressive power imbalance. Yet it is not a horror story of yet another victim; its greatness comes from Tara's ability to interpret her experiences objectively over time and determine her own path to reach her potential. A fascinating and unforgettable page-turner to recommend to all your friends. Read More