Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Educated
Tara Westover
Review by Priscilla Comen
Educated
Tara Westover
Review by Priscilla Comen
Educated, by Tara Westover is a memoir about Tara’s Mormon family in Idaho, and the way they live as survivalists. Author Westover describes them in detail: brothers, sisters, father who was bipolar, and mother who was injured in an auto accident and suffered brain damage. Tara’s brother, who had been driving, never forgave himself. When their neighbors were shot by Federal agents, Tara’s father began to stockpile supplies for the coming end of the world.
Tara’s brother, Tyler, announces he is going to college. Two other brothers have already left home. Tyler is different; he likes books, quiet time, classical music. He has a collection of CDs and encourages Tara to listen to them when she can. After his dad pulls him out of high school, Tyler studies trigonometry from an old textbook on his own.
Author Westover talks about one of her grandmothers who lives down the hill. She has a clean house and soap in the bathroom. Westover’s house does not. After Tyler leaves, Tara’s sister Audrey leaves. She gets a job, and buys a car—they almost never see her. Her dad scraps old metal. He has hundreds of old cars and trucks and a lake of debris on their property. For the kids, the junk yard went from being a fun place to a hostile place. Workers began losing fingers and her brother Luke accidentally set fire to his jeans and burned his leg. Tara put his leg into a garbage bag and a bin with ice in it. Later she gets babysitting jobs so she can take dance and singing lessons. She begins to educate herself as her brother did. When she gets the lead in “Annie," her father sits in the front row and attends every play she is in after that. On December 31, when Dad expected the world to end, he and Tara sat up well after mid-night, and watched TV. Nothing happened. Dad was disappointed. He bought a rifle for protection, he said. For when others are starving and his family has plenty of supplies, from food to fuel.
When the family went to Arizona for a time, Dad insisted on driving home in a serious storm, and they crashed into a ditch.They all survived, and Dad called it God’s will. Tara’s brother, Shawn, calls her a slut and a whore when she starts wearing makeup. He pulls her hair and pushes her head into the toilet. She studies for the SATs and decides to go to college, and studies her math. Tyler encourages her to go—it’s time to get out from under Dad’s influences.
When Tara starts college, it’s a strange experience. She fails all her exams, and doesn’t know how to write an essay. She doesn’t know what the holocaust was, she learns about slavery and the civil rights movement. Does she follow through with her college studies and make something of herself? Find out about this amazing woman who finally won a PhD in history from Cambridge University in 2014 on the new non-fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
Tara’s brother, Tyler, announces he is going to college. Two other brothers have already left home. Tyler is different; he likes books, quiet time, classical music. He has a collection of CDs and encourages Tara to listen to them when she can. After his dad pulls him out of high school, Tyler studies trigonometry from an old textbook on his own.
Author Westover talks about one of her grandmothers who lives down the hill. She has a clean house and soap in the bathroom. Westover’s house does not. After Tyler leaves, Tara’s sister Audrey leaves. She gets a job, and buys a car—they almost never see her. Her dad scraps old metal. He has hundreds of old cars and trucks and a lake of debris on their property. For the kids, the junk yard went from being a fun place to a hostile place. Workers began losing fingers and her brother Luke accidentally set fire to his jeans and burned his leg. Tara put his leg into a garbage bag and a bin with ice in it. Later she gets babysitting jobs so she can take dance and singing lessons. She begins to educate herself as her brother did. When she gets the lead in “Annie," her father sits in the front row and attends every play she is in after that. On December 31, when Dad expected the world to end, he and Tara sat up well after mid-night, and watched TV. Nothing happened. Dad was disappointed. He bought a rifle for protection, he said. For when others are starving and his family has plenty of supplies, from food to fuel.
When the family went to Arizona for a time, Dad insisted on driving home in a serious storm, and they crashed into a ditch.They all survived, and Dad called it God’s will. Tara’s brother, Shawn, calls her a slut and a whore when she starts wearing makeup. He pulls her hair and pushes her head into the toilet. She studies for the SATs and decides to go to college, and studies her math. Tyler encourages her to go—it’s time to get out from under Dad’s influences.
When Tara starts college, it’s a strange experience. She fails all her exams, and doesn’t know how to write an essay. She doesn’t know what the holocaust was, she learns about slavery and the civil rights movement. Does she follow through with her college studies and make something of herself? Find out about this amazing woman who finally won a PhD in history from Cambridge University in 2014 on the new non-fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.