Educated by Tara Westover

Educated by Tara Westover
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I heard about this book and I wasn't initially excited to read it. I figured that I had already read The Glass Castle, Hillbilly Elegy, even Etched in Sand. I picked it up anyway, and I was fascinated by every single chapter.

Part of what's remarkable about this book is that even though Westover's upbringing was extreme, I can see analogous threads in various religions and in current political movements. I particularly enjoyed how she took us on the educational journey with her- her first times learning about slavery, the Holocaust, the civil rights movement, and feminism. I wish more ordinary people would "come out of the hills" on these subjects.

So many people are eager to discount the veracity of Westover's account in part because her transformation seems so extreme. (Other people discount her story because the life she describes in Idaho seems mundane and normal to them! Some people even make both somewhat contradictory points!) She credits many people for helping her achieve a remarkable education: her brother Tyler, her friends at BYU, a Bishop at BYU, a professor a Cambridge. Moreover, the world is, and always has been, filled with remarkable people. There is no more extreme story of transformation than that of Frederick Douglass or such remarkable thinkers as Benjamin Franklin. Why then are people so eager to discount Westover's accomplishments and life story?

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