Educated by Tara Westover
Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.
The first time Tara Westover set foot in a classroom, she was seventeen and attending Brigham Young University after teaching herself enough math, science, and English to pass the ACT. She spent her youth helping her dad scrap metal in his junkyard, preserving foods with her mother and siblings in the kitchen, and preparing for the end of the world. In the spring, she would look up to the mountain of Buck’s Peak and watch the majestic form of the Indian Princess appear out of the snow, telling her where her home lay.
This memoir is powerful in every way, exploring the different kinds of strength it takes to live an independent life. Elaborately written, Westover painstakingly examines the course of her life, searching for meaning. She grew from that little girl running wild through dry Idaho brush to cross seas on a quest for education, to learn about history, religion, music, philosophy… and when she took a breath, she would look back on her family, back at the Princess, and wonder if there was still a way to go home.
This book was all parts insightful, heartbreaking, breathtaking, raw, and incredibly honest. I loved exploring each bit of every intricate sentence, the writing magical and powerful and intense at the same time, not only the story keeping me up past bedtime. However, it covers concepts that are mature, sophisticated, and difficult to unpack, which is why the book waits on a shelf in the adult nonfiction section of the library.
When I had read the last few words, heard the soft fall of the last page being turned behind me, closed the book with a comfortable snap, I sat in silence for a few moments, feeling grateful with all my heart that I have an education.
