-
Educated
- A Memoir
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Glass Castle
- A Memoir
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination. Rose Mary painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family; she called herself an "excitement addict."
-
-
What's normal?
- By Kmrsy on 11-30-13
By: Jeannette Walls
-
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
- A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
- By: Lori Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.
-
-
It was like a hallmark movie being waterboarded into my ears for 15 hours
- By Amazon Customer on 10-01-19
By: Lori Gottlieb
-
Summary of Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover - Key Takeaways & Analysis
- By: Ninja Reads
- Narrated by: Ninja Reads
- Length: 1 hr and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Educated is a memoir by Tara Westover. It tells the story of her experiences growing up in and subsequently leaving a radical, survivalist Mormon home. Abused by a loved and trusted older brother, Westover struggles for years to escape the cycles of abuse and finally finds her escape through her education. It's a story of struggles and triumphs and the conflict in the mind of a woman torn between family loyalty and her survival instincts.
-
-
THIS IS A SUMMARY
- By Sarah on 08-17-20
By: Ninja Reads
-
The Woman in Me
- By: Britney Spears
- Narrated by: Michelle Williams, Britney Spears - introduction
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.
-
-
Lack of transparency
- By Lori K on 10-31-23
By: Britney Spears
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- A Novel
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison, Bonnie Garmus, Pandora Sykes
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
Making my 3 adult daughters read this
- By Teresa H. on 04-07-22
By: Bonnie Garmus
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
-
-
Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
-
The Glass Castle
- A Memoir
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination. Rose Mary painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family; she called herself an "excitement addict."
-
-
What's normal?
- By Kmrsy on 11-30-13
By: Jeannette Walls
-
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
- A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
- By: Lori Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.
-
-
It was like a hallmark movie being waterboarded into my ears for 15 hours
- By Amazon Customer on 10-01-19
By: Lori Gottlieb
-
Summary of Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover - Key Takeaways & Analysis
- By: Ninja Reads
- Narrated by: Ninja Reads
- Length: 1 hr and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Educated is a memoir by Tara Westover. It tells the story of her experiences growing up in and subsequently leaving a radical, survivalist Mormon home. Abused by a loved and trusted older brother, Westover struggles for years to escape the cycles of abuse and finally finds her escape through her education. It's a story of struggles and triumphs and the conflict in the mind of a woman torn between family loyalty and her survival instincts.
-
-
THIS IS A SUMMARY
- By Sarah on 08-17-20
By: Ninja Reads
-
The Woman in Me
- By: Britney Spears
- Narrated by: Michelle Williams, Britney Spears - introduction
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.
-
-
Lack of transparency
- By Lori K on 10-31-23
By: Britney Spears
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- A Novel
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison, Bonnie Garmus, Pandora Sykes
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
Making my 3 adult daughters read this
- By Teresa H. on 04-07-22
By: Bonnie Garmus
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
-
-
Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
-
I'm Glad My Mom Died
- By: Jennette McCurdy
- Narrated by: Jennette McCurdy
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction." She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?” She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income. In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail.
-
-
Unexpectedly poor narration
- By Blurryface on 08-10-22
By: Jennette McCurdy
-
Hillbilly Elegy
- A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
- By: J. D. Vance
- Narrated by: J. D. Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis - that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over 40 years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
-
-
Enlightening!
- By Gotta Tellya on 09-11-16
By: J. D. Vance
-
The Nightingale
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Polly Stone
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France—a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
-
-
Heroic & Harrowing Work Of Fiction
- By Sara on 08-21-15
By: Kristin Hannah
-
Becoming
- By: Michelle Obama
- Narrated by: Michelle Obama
- Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites listeners into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms.
-
-
Didn't know what I was getting into
- By Kenneth Woodward on 12-05-18
By: Michelle Obama
-
The Great Alone
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: He will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.
-
-
A Long, Hard Slog Through Endless Despair and Heartache
- By Morro Schreiber on 04-11-18
By: Kristin Hannah
-
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
- A Memoir
- By: Matthew Perry
- Narrated by: Matthew Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The beloved star of Friends takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this candid, funny, and revelatory memoir that delivers a powerful message of hope and persistence. In an extraordinary story that only he could tell, Matthew Perry takes listeners onto the soundstage of the most successful sitcom of all time while opening up about his private struggles with addiction. Candid, self-aware, and told with his trademark humor, Perry vividly details his lifelong battle with the disease and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.
-
-
Mad at myself for getting sucked in
- By betty on 11-03-22
By: Matthew Perry
-
All the Light We Cannot See
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Zach Appelman
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is 12, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.
-
-
Afraid to Write a "Less-Than-Positive" Review
- By Elizabeth on 08-06-14
By: Anthony Doerr
-
The Sound of Gravel
- A Memoir
- By: Ruth Wariner
- Narrated by: Ruth Wariner
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ruth Wariner was the 39th of her father's 42 children. Growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turned a blind eye to the practices of her community, Ruth lives in a ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or electricity. At church, preachers teach that God will punish the wicked by destroying the world and that women can ascend to heaven only by entering into polygamous marriages and giving birth to as many children as possible.
-
-
Unputdownable
- By Lesley A. on 01-16-16
By: Ruth Wariner
-
The Giver of Stars
- Reese's Book Club (A Novel)
- By: Jojo Moyes
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So, when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically. The leader, and soon Alice's greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who's never asked a man's permission for anything.
-
-
About time!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-19
By: Jojo Moyes
-
Angela's Ashes
- By: Frank McCourt, Jeannette Walls - introduction
- Narrated by: Frank McCourt, Jeannette Walls - introduction
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: There’s no gentle way to put this – Frank McCourt’s performance of Angela’s Ashes is just better than the Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Frank McCourt shares his sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking story of growing up poor, Irish, and Catholic in the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes.
-
-
A classic book *and* a classic audiobook
- By Karen on 01-30-03
By: Frank McCourt, and others
-
Wild
- From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
- By: Cheryl Strayed
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.
-
-
Glad I Took the Trip
- By FanB14 on 04-08-13
By: Cheryl Strayed
-
A Stolen Life
- A Memoir
- By: Jaycee Dugard
- Narrated by: Jaycee Dugard
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"In the summer of 1991 I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen. For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse. For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation. On August 26, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I dont think of myself as a victim. I survived...."
-
-
Terrific
- By Daniel on 07-27-11
By: Jaycee Dugard
Publisher's summary
#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University
“Extraordinary . . . an act of courage and self-invention.”—The New York Times
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • BILL GATES’S HOLIDAY READING LIST • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle’s Award In Autobiography and John Leonard Prize For Best First Book • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
“Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”—Vogue
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, Good Morning America, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, The Economist, Financial Times, Newsday, New York Post, theSkimm, Refinery29, Bloomberg, Self, Real Simple, Town & Country, Bustle, Paste, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, LibraryReads, Book Riot, Pamela Paul, KQED, New York Public Library
Critic reviews
“Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Westover is a keen and honest guide to the difficulties of filial love, and to the enchantment of embracing a life of the mind.”—The New Yorker
“An amazing story, and truly inspiring. It’s even better than you’ve heard.”—Bill Gates
Featured Article: The Best Audiobooks for Students to Position Themselves for Success
Hey, students—we know how hard you work hard during the school year and we know it isn't easy to squeeze in some self care or personal development time between homework, extracurriculars, and a busy class schedule. If you're struggling to balance it all, feeling burned out, or just trying to figure out your purpose in life, these listens might be able to help. Full of guidance on issues students face, from getting organized to managing a relaxation routine, this list is for any student looking to improve their life—in and out of the classroom.
What listeners say about Educated
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- W. K. Caldwell
- 02-23-18
Couldn't stop listening!
I finished this book in two days flat. Tara's writing transports you into the story completely. Her vulnerability and downright astonishing history of her life is unforgettable. I recommend this book for anyone struggling in relationships dominated with control and abuse. Her bravery is catching.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
172 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sekova
- 02-22-18
Gripping and insightful
The most complete and articulate description I've ever read of what it is like to come to grips with the realization of one's self existence, desires, and beliefs.
I come from a similar background. Reading this was very helpful. I found myself asking new questions and reevaluating events of my own past.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Placeholder
- 05-10-18
What a mess religion makes of life and limb!
What courage and pain it takes to break free from the shackles of those convicted and convinced of gobbledegook. Each painful and freeing step of a daughter is told with honesty and the growth of her self-awareness is inspiring for everyone.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hunter
- 03-20-18
Best book I've read in years
Engaging from the first word. Very refreshing to hear a story of someone overcoming adversity with true courage and strength of character told with humility and without self aggrandizement.
This is not a book I would normally have chosen, and I found it surprisingly captivating
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- sara sepkowski
- 01-15-19
A new perspective.
A fellow high school English teacher recommended this memoir to me. Now, full disclosure: memoirs are far from my favorite genre. Titles such as Liars Club and Glass Castle-I quickly found tiring.
However, I found Westover’s writing to be refreshing for its openness and unapologetic vulnerability. For me, I appreciated being able to follow her psychological through wrestling with the family dynamic. I often found myself frustrated that she kept returning to the mountain and her willingness to trust her brother again and again.
And this willingness, from my perspective, was insightful to try to better understand why customs stay and return to their abusers.
My rating of a 4 stems from unanswered questions. 3 of the 7 children obtained PH.Ds... why was there such a dichotomy in the family? How was this possible with next to no formal education? There is no doubt that Tara has been professionally and academically successful. But, I can’t help but be uncomfortable with some questions I have regarding the path to success. And, these questions, for me, gnaw at the elements of the story that embrace American idealism (a large part of the text). Had I been able to obtain more clarification on these fine points- this text would have exceeded all expectations of a memoir.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Evan A.
- 01-30-20
Wow. Got WAY more than I bargained for here!
Picked this book out of my “recommendations” and it’s been one of my absolute favorites so far. Tara Westover has written an account of her life that makes you want to reach through your headphones/radio and pull her out and not only give her a hug/high five but ask SO many more questions at the end. I looked her up on google after this book and was shocked to see that she and I are the exact same age and just could not believe just how much she pulled herself out of a life she wasn’t sure she was meant for into an even more uncertain and accomplished future. The book gives an unmatched insight into her thoughts and inner conflicts and has managed to teach me several things about judging a situation as complex as hers soley from the outside. This book is not only brilliantly written and about ascending to higher learning when coming from a “salt of the earth” family, but how to eventually trust yourself and just how hard not looking back can be. Thank you, Tara, for making me a more understanding and, yes, educated human being!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amy Starkey
- 11-04-18
Heart wrenching
This book was amazing and terrifying to read. I have been raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints but my experience was extremely different. This opened my eyes to the complexities of being raised in a family with mental illness and abuse. I applaud Ms. Weyland for her openness and vulnerability. This book shook me to my core. So many different conflicting feelings to grapple with, fear, belonging, pain, anger, hurt, camaraderie. So glad she has found peace after so many challenges. Thank you for sharing your story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karen Gilchrist
- 04-11-19
Disturbing
I really want to believe that this is all a work of fiction and that stories like this don’t exist ANYWHERE, and yet I found myself at the point that I simply could not stop reading. I still feel incomplete, like there should be a follow up book where the evil are punished or stand trial for their actions. All in all worth the read. Great book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christopher Fuller
- 06-05-23
Brilliance finds different homes.
A compelling memoir from a brilliant woman who sprang from the union of brilliant but uneducated parents in rural Idaho, torn by a family where religious fervor, male dominance, abuse, female submission (grounded in Mormon fundamentalism), and sibling friction all mixed together into a stew of self-doubt, self-discovery, and awakening. For someone unaware of Mormon tradition and culture, or it’s manifestations in rural settings like author’s home in Idaho, this story would likely be one of a woman finding her voice after freeing herself from the shackles of her father’s and brother’s religious, physical, and religious abuse and oppression. But for a male Mormon like me, it was richer, deeper, and more daunting story of how ignorance (despite natural, even brilliant, intelligence) distorts faith and religion. If Mormonism was as her father manifest it, the author could no more embrace the faith than she could endure her father. She was doubly victimized, left without her parents and also her faith, even though her memoir hardly dwells on the latter. I am saddened to think that Idaho is filled with people not unlike her father, not as naturally intelligent as he, but similarly ignorant yet faithfully embracing a Mormonism distorted by that ignorance. Hard to explain how natural intelligence and ignorance can find place in the same person, but it happens. The author’s struggle to make peace, having inherited her parents’ intelligence but discarding their ignorance, with her family makes for a story worth reading (or in my case, listening to). And in the end, once rejecting the ignorance there could be no reconciliation - the consequences of ignorance can find no place with unrestrained intelligence. They are incompatible in the end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- hjuneh
- 01-16-19
Emotional, Interesting, & Respectful
I loved the way that Tara Westover catalogued her memories and included footnotes to demonstrate when someone may have remembered something differently. She definitely tried to make her account as reliable as possible. Her story is amazing and it must have taken a lot of courage to publish it. It is an interesting statement on memories and the way we create them, keep them, and change them. I'm a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and I appreciated her description of her relationship with that faith. I feel like she described the religion matter-of-factly and respectfully, despite her painful association to it due to her father's misinterpretation of the religion.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful