Trans-Atlantic Bibliophiles discussion

This is the spot to talk about "Educated."

Well, it looks like I'm the first to write?

I really enjoyed this book. I guess I forget how different America is given the varied parts of the country. I DID forget that there is this whole aspect of survivalism; is it traced to the days of the old west, pushing the frontiers?

So, I did not see this as a book about a specific religion. It was, as the book jacket said, a book about education. An autobiography with a frank look at how some people live. Mental health issues. Survival at a cost. And quite frankly, I was amazed at what the human body can withstand: being dropped on one's head multiple times, incredible car crashes, burned, gouged with sharp instruments..... No antibiotics, homeopathy (REALLY?!), no vaccines, not even aspirin.....

I applaud Tara Westover for her strength of character to get out of the situation and make a life. I'm sorry for her at what the cost was. Is it really possible that a community doesn't know what's going on in situations like that? Her own extended family (grandparents etc) didn't know or didn't think to react? I guess 20 years in the UK with the fairly pervasive Nanny State have led me to believe that we all kind of watch out for each other. Maybe it DOES require that we each of us make the final decisions to take ourselves out of situations in order to thrive or even survive. I really feel sorry - not pity or disgust, but sad - for the family members who are still caught up in that disaster and the perpetuation for their children of the disaster. Not much good is going to come out of that for any of them.

I guess I could go on and on, but she said pretty much all of it and much more succinctly than I ever could. It was pretty amazing. Stranger than fiction!? I can't remember - maybe she didn't say - what she will go on to do in life. I hope she won't go back to her family - it was such a toxic place.

Thanks for picking this one, Diane. If I can find the place to write about Becoming, I'll do that next. And then.... What's our next book??!! :)

Here's the spot for Becoming:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

So I'm listening to the audiobook version, and I'm not loving it. It is sooo wordy. I haven't even gotten out of her childhood yet and I want to just fast forward to the end. I'll plug along for a bit longer, but it needs to pick up the pace.

I finally finished it! I have a lot of thoughts/feelings about this book. On a certain level, I'm familiar with parts of her world. But even though I am a Mormon, have lived in Utah for 35 years, give or take, and graduated from BYU, she described life circumstances that I can't relate to at all.

There are always certain members of every Mormon congregation that are a bit on the fringe. People who are into emergency preparedness, essential oils, convinced the government is going to take their guns, devoted to the constitution and Founding Fathers, anti-vaxxers. In Utah, there are a lot of people like that. But her family is just so completely odd. They make people that I know, and know of, seem positively normal.

They seem like caricatures, actually, which makes me really wonder about the veracity of this memoir. She has so many disclaimers about how accurate her memories are, that I just wonder about the balance of fact vs. fiction. Of course her family would dispute it all, but I don't give that much credence either. Who wouldn't, after a bestselling book trashes your entire family?

I don't know. It was an interesting book, but I can't say I liked it. I'm just not entirely sure I buy it, but she's certainly been successful.