"Educated: A Memoir" By Tara Westover

I can’t say emphasize enough how great this book is. It was one of my favorite reads of 2020, and if that doesn’t convince you, take it from the experts:

  • #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe Bestseller

  • Named one of the “Ten Best Books of the Year” by the New York Times Book Review

  • One of President Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of the Year in 2018

  • On Bill Gates’s Holiday Reading List in 2018

And that’s just for starters. Written by Tara Westover, the story traces her childhood growing up in rural Idaho to survivalist parents. Westover talks about how she was kept out of school as a child and didn’t set foot in a classroom until she was seventeen years old. The memoir covers many volatile years living isolated from mainstream society and enduring both mental and physical abuse.

Westover recounts her incredible journey of how she left her family to pursue higher education, which eventually takes her to both Harvard and Cambridge University (and earns a PhD from the latter). While Westover’s story is memorable, so too is her ability to deconstruct and critically analyze her own vivid memories as a young woman.

Check out Educated on Amazon.

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