September Joint Library Book Chat

Educated by Tara Westover

A monthly virtual book chat for patrons of the New Haven Free Public Library and patrons of the Prospect Public Library.

Educated by Tara Westover is a novel that explores the power and transformation of education.  It is a fitting work to read as many individuals have returned to the classroom during the month of September.  The book was a New York Times best seller almost as soon as it debuted and was reviewed favorably by countless media outlets and publications.  The Goodreads description of the novel states:

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The 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.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.

Join patrons of the New Haven Free Public Library and the Prospect Public Library to discuss this moving and illuminating work in a group of friendly readers.  The meeting will occur virtually on zoom and can be joined at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86168960224       

Please email Arthur if you have any questions about the book chat.

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