October book - Educated by Tara Westover

Educated

by Tara Westover

Discussion led by JC

Some background links to get you started: 

• Publisher's page for the book (Penguin Australia)
• Review: ‘Educated,’ by Tara Westover by Alec MacGillis in The New York Times
• Review: 'Educated by Tara Westover review – escape from a Mormon fundamentalist family' by Michelle Dean in The Guardian
• Review: 'Tara Westover Turns Her Isolated Childhood into the Gripping Memoir Educated' by Erin Vanderhoof, Vanity Fair
• Review: 'Tara Westover's memoir of surviving her fundamentalist family' by Sian Prior in The Sydney Morning Herald
• Review: 'The Education of an Ambivalent Feminist' by Micki Mcelya in The Boston Review
• Review: 'Educated, by Tara Westover' by Alexandra Schwartz in The New Yorker
• Article:  'A Psychologist's Take on Tara Westover's Memoir, Educated' by Goali Saedi Bocci in Psychology Today
• Blog post: 'Educated is even better than you’ve heard' by Bill Gates at GatesNotes
• Bookclub discussion questions: Sallyflint.com
• Audio interview: Memoirist Retraces Her Journey From Survivalist Childhood To Cambridge Ph.D on NPR
• Audio interview: Tara Westover's escape from ignorance in Conversation with Richard Fidler on ABC Radio
• Podcast: Tara Westover: Educated on Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
• Podcast: Talking Politics 232 | Tara Westover/ Educated 
• Video: Educated: A Conversation with Tara Westover | The Aspen Institute
• Video: Author Tara Westover’s Incredible Story About Leaving Her Strict Survivalist Family on the Ellen Show
• Video: “Educated” author Tara Westover answers your questions (extended version) on PBS NewsHour
• Discussion: 'Do you think it is true?' on Goodreads

What we discussed about the book:

• How JC chose it via a recommendation from a graduate at Northeastern University - see Tara Westover's commencement speech The Un-instagrammable Self - on YouTube
• Is this a book about religion? 
• The effect of mental illness in this family
• Why is it called 'Educated' - what role does education play in the story? 
• Can there be multiple, equally valid 'truths' within a family?
• What have other members of the family said publicly about this book?
• Did we feel a shift in character at various points in the book (e.g. when the mother apologised)?
• What effect would doomsday thinking have on a family in the day to day?
• Is being a younger sibling an advantage when it comes to homeschooling? (i.e. do they learn from older siblings)?
• The advantage of being literate - how would this story have played out if there was limited literacy among the children?
• What drove Tara? What provided her motivation to learn? 
• The role of singing in Tara's journey.
• How has Tara reconciled loving her family, but also leaving them?
• How did no-one die or sustain very serious injury in some of the accidents described?

And then we were sidetracked into:

• Homeschooling - what types of people homeschool in Australia? Why? What are the benefits? How do they organise their days and social interactions? 
• KM's experiences in Idaho in 1986
• Should authors read their own memoirs for the audiobook? Why or why not? 
• Tara's mother's memoir - 'Educating'
• Tara's writing process - 30 journals over 10 years to draw on, but invested a lot of time to learn 'al the tricks' to write a good narrative.
• Why would you use pseudonyms for real people in a memoir? 
• How can society better protect children from instances of neglect and/or domestic violence?
• Is it possible to protect children but also keep them with their families?

In other news:

• We discussed what we've been watching on TV - The Social Dilemma, the 7.30 Report on ABC regarding the US election, Jess, Emily in Paris, Staged, Grace & Frankie and Dirty John (Betty), and listening to Rabbithole (podcast from the New York Times). 
• We shared our opinions and views about the latest imbroglio involving Gladys Berejiklian.
• What news can we hope for on Sunday regarding the Victorian lockdown? 

Ratings:

Range - 8 to 9

Average - 8.5

Next book:

Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee