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4.49 AVERAGE
4.49 AVERAGE
I just finished this, so I find it hard to gather my thoughts. I actually needed to read it in a day, to return it to the library, and I did so easily, because it was compelling reading.
I don't think that this book defines a religion. I think that it defines one man's religion and the people who were willing to follow him in it. I don't think that it should define Tara, either, but I guess explain her. It's hard for me to conceive of what she accomplished after leaving her home, it's simply extraordinary. I hope that her spirit finds the peace and balance it deserves.
I don't think that this book defines a religion. I think that it defines one man's religion and the people who were willing to follow him in it. I don't think that it should define Tara, either, but I guess explain her. It's hard for me to conceive of what she accomplished after leaving her home, it's simply extraordinary. I hope that her spirit finds the peace and balance it deserves.
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
I can definitely see how everyone has been talking about this books since its release last year. I just finished and my head is spinning with so many thoughts. I am not sure how she endured all that she has and made it where she is at today. It shows how much you never know what people are going through/facing in their lives. Everyone has a story and I believe this is a memoir I will remember for a very long time.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
the book definitely lives up to the hype. tara's resilience, emotional intelligence, and bravery shine through in this powerful memoir. it's amazing how books and education can make the world feel simultaneously bigger and smaller, provide opportunities, and open our eyes to new perspectives.
this is a memoir. which is insane. all of this is a person's life story, not fiction.
if it was fiction, I still would've given it 5 stars because of the writing and the way it sucked me in and made me feel so strongly. but this was real life for the author, and I'm sure for many people it still is their life.
I feel parasocially proud of the author, for having made it this far despite her past and her family. I know the main focus was on her parents and how they impacted her life, but I can't help but feel the strongest about her brother, Shawn. In a bad way. Holy shit, man.
a rough read, but worth your time.
if it was fiction, I still would've given it 5 stars because of the writing and the way it sucked me in and made me feel so strongly. but this was real life for the author, and I'm sure for many people it still is their life.
I feel parasocially proud of the author, for having made it this far despite her past and her family. I know the main focus was on her parents and how they impacted her life, but I can't help but feel the strongest about her brother, Shawn. In a bad way. Holy shit, man.
a rough read, but worth your time.
I don’t care if you love memoirs or if you absolutely despise them. Everyone. should. read. this. book.
This was an amazing book and so hard to read at some points. I couldn't help but be annoyed with her, her family, and even some of the educated people she knew. And I'm even more annoyed by the fact that some of these people are really out there! Amazing, yet so infuriating.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Read my other book reviews at booksibled.wordpress.com
This book made it onto the Wellcome Book Prize longlist but I actually came to read it through one of my book clubs. I’m in a small group of Londoners from all over the world who like to come together and talk about true crime, fictional crime, documentaries, books, cool things going on in London, honestly were’ just a group of (mainly women) who were brought together by the My Favourite Murder podcast and became friends talking about everything else. It’s amazing but enough about us.
This book was the first book club I could make and I had to speed read the book at work because I didn’t have time to go out and find it before the meeting.
Educated follows the life of Tara, growing up in a small town in America where she is part of an average seeming family. She documents moments of parental abuse, of her brother who got out and the siblings that didn’t and follows her own path to escaping the life she might have had for the one she wanted.
Tara’s family didn’t believe in government help in any way, from hospitals to schools, they believed they should be entirely self sufficient. Tara’s father is the enforcer of this lifestyle, wearing down his wife to study to be a midwife despite her reluctance and throwing one of her sons out of the house when he decides to study Maths at university after teaching himself from his bedroom. Tara doesn’t enter a classroom at all until she is in her late teens and she takes a lot of careful convincing to start to peel back the layers of manipulation that are holding her back from leading her own life.
One of Tara’s bothers has several accidents that result in his behaviours becoming more and more violent, especially towards her and none of her family seem to intervene in this behaviour despite the obvious danger to her safety. Eventually Tara realises that education is the only way she is going to get out of the house so she follows in her older brother’s footsteps and teaches herself what she needs to know to get into a university. The book follows her journey and her eventual return to the house where she grew up and the realisations she makes from being educated enough to know that she is worth more than her old life allowed her to believe.
The book was fascinating as an insight into the damage parents can do to children and how devastating it can be when children slip through cracks in the system. It took years for Tara to even have a birth certificate and even then no one can agree on her birthday. We found her life and the things she survived incredible, her story telling is vibrant enough to bring it to life without seeming too nostalgic. There was one thing we all seemed to bump on and that was the vast amount of good luck she seemed to have after leaving home. Finding places to live that she could upkeep with uni work, finding scholarship after scholarship that allow her to study in Cambridge and travel to and from home. While she, no doubt, deserved these things and worked hard for them, we’re almost all university educated women and no one we know has had that much luck. It would have been interesting to hear more about her work toward these things and not just have it all laid out there like it’s so simple to be funded for university. But that could be more because a lot of us are at an age where our university degrees will leave us in debt for years to come. (she says as a pay check comes in and she cries quietly over the amount student finance have taken just to pay off the interest.)
P.S. The somewhat devastating proof of how parents can impact the lives of their children and what happens when those children slip through the systems that are meant to protect them. Heartwarming in places and very readable this is a beautifully realised autobiography of childhood trauma and recovery through education.
This book made it onto the Wellcome Book Prize longlist but I actually came to read it through one of my book clubs. I’m in a small group of Londoners from all over the world who like to come together and talk about true crime, fictional crime, documentaries, books, cool things going on in London, honestly were’ just a group of (mainly women) who were brought together by the My Favourite Murder podcast and became friends talking about everything else. It’s amazing but enough about us.
This book was the first book club I could make and I had to speed read the book at work because I didn’t have time to go out and find it before the meeting.
Educated follows the life of Tara, growing up in a small town in America where she is part of an average seeming family. She documents moments of parental abuse, of her brother who got out and the siblings that didn’t and follows her own path to escaping the life she might have had for the one she wanted.
Tara’s family didn’t believe in government help in any way, from hospitals to schools, they believed they should be entirely self sufficient. Tara’s father is the enforcer of this lifestyle, wearing down his wife to study to be a midwife despite her reluctance and throwing one of her sons out of the house when he decides to study Maths at university after teaching himself from his bedroom. Tara doesn’t enter a classroom at all until she is in her late teens and she takes a lot of careful convincing to start to peel back the layers of manipulation that are holding her back from leading her own life.
One of Tara’s bothers has several accidents that result in his behaviours becoming more and more violent, especially towards her and none of her family seem to intervene in this behaviour despite the obvious danger to her safety. Eventually Tara realises that education is the only way she is going to get out of the house so she follows in her older brother’s footsteps and teaches herself what she needs to know to get into a university. The book follows her journey and her eventual return to the house where she grew up and the realisations she makes from being educated enough to know that she is worth more than her old life allowed her to believe.
The book was fascinating as an insight into the damage parents can do to children and how devastating it can be when children slip through cracks in the system. It took years for Tara to even have a birth certificate and even then no one can agree on her birthday. We found her life and the things she survived incredible, her story telling is vibrant enough to bring it to life without seeming too nostalgic. There was one thing we all seemed to bump on and that was the vast amount of good luck she seemed to have after leaving home. Finding places to live that she could upkeep with uni work, finding scholarship after scholarship that allow her to study in Cambridge and travel to and from home. While she, no doubt, deserved these things and worked hard for them, we’re almost all university educated women and no one we know has had that much luck. It would have been interesting to hear more about her work toward these things and not just have it all laid out there like it’s so simple to be funded for university. But that could be more because a lot of us are at an age where our university degrees will leave us in debt for years to come. (she says as a pay check comes in and she cries quietly over the amount student finance have taken just to pay off the interest.)
P.S. The somewhat devastating proof of how parents can impact the lives of their children and what happens when those children slip through the systems that are meant to protect them. Heartwarming in places and very readable this is a beautifully realised autobiography of childhood trauma and recovery through education.