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Educated by Tara Westover Book Review


Reasons for reading this book

Educated by Tara Westover has been on my want to read book list for over a year now and I just never read it because it was long and cost more money then I wanted to spend. Lucky for me I had just finished Daisy Jones & The Six when my mom came home with Educated as it was her book club book for July. For reference I read this book in the last week of June but am just now getting around to posting it as I have created so much other content prior to reading it. So simply I read this book out of convenience and to finally check it off my want to read list.

Content of the book

Educated is Tara Westover's memoir. It details her life as the youngest child of a mother who believed she could heal any injury or illness with tinctures and salve while her father was against the medical establishment and the government. Tara and her siblings were 'homeschooled' as their parents did not believe in the public school system. The family lived in an isolated homestead in the mountains of Idaho. At the age of seventeen Tara ventured into the world of education. She was constantly moving between the world of education and her families world where they were preparing for the end of the world. The memoir follows her life as she navigates living in both of these worlds while also discovering herself and what she wants for herself. Is cutting ties with her family the best option for her?

Themes of the book

Religion versus government. Family versus self. A coming-of-age story. Hunger for knowledge. What is love and what is family?

What I liked about the book

As a reader I found it very helpful to have the book sectioned into three parts. This helped to break up her life and not have the book feel so linear. Something that I have taken from reading past memoirs is that the author can struggled to write in a style that matches how they would have talked or thought at that time. Instead they reflect on it from a present self. Tara had herself both reflect in the moment and included segments from her journals and a reflection at the time of writing years later. She was also able to capture and execute her voice at each stage of her life. As she grew older and more educated her vocabulary expanded and became more refined. This is not only a reflection of her growth as a student but also of how excellent of a writer she is. This writing technique helped me to really immerse myself in how she was at each stage in her life. A complaint that I see for memoirs is that some parts become dull or less interesting as most people experience less crazy or exciting times in their life. For it being a memoir I never once felt like this happened. Whether this is attributed to how chaotic her life was or the choice of how to write the book, I was entertained from start to finish. There was constant action or problems to be solved or worked through. The visually descriptions in this book did not disappoint. There were points in the story that were so graphically described I was grossed out just reading it and not trying to visualize it. Tara was also very transparent with the reader what parts of the story were from her memories and what parts were told to her and that they might not be totally true to the real events. I appreciated her transparency. The last thing I liked about this memoir is how raw and open the Tara was with the reader. 

What I disliked about this book

Something that I disliked about the book, that is very fixable, is that as Tara became more educated she started using words that I did not know. As I was reading this in a hardcover form it was more work for me to look up the words than if I were to read it in an ebook form. This really is not a reason I disliked the book, but is more of a comment. Other that that I do not have anything that I disliked about the book. I personally found it hard to relate to this book, which can be a turn off for me, but I did not even think about that while reading because I was so engrossed in Tara's life story.

Would I recommend this book?

Hands down I would recommend this memoir. The reader experiences the ups and downs of Tara's life through an exquisitely written memoir. This book is also excellent for a book club because there are some many conversations that can be had about the book. 

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