Educated by Tara Westover
Hostess: Michelle
Attendees: Amy, Cheryl, Mary Margaret, Pam M.
Educated: A book that was both difficult to read but almost impossible to put down. With echoes of The Glass Castle, this book tells the amazing, unbelievable journey of a daughter of Mormon survivalists: from her irresponsible upbringing to her self-education and achievements (such as a Ph.D in history from Cambridge University)
She is relatively young to be writing a memoir, at age 31.
We started our meeting off with a videotape of an interview with Tara Westover. Note her defiant RED LIPSTICK
Her memoir generated much discussion and questions about childhood memories and their possible distortion, memory compartmentalization, psychological abuse, physical abuse, family dynamics, what is being truly "off the grid"....to name just a few topics....as well as the importance of having a good book editor! We had so many unanswered questions about the author, her father, mother, psychopathic older brother, her other siblings, boyfriends, and her professors. One question that kept coming up was why she kept returning to the scene of the crimes? We also thought that some of the intensity of the horrible memories didn't match up to later descriptions, such as the severity of the burn victims and their resulting recoveries. We were just dying to see a photo or two of her family. We also were intrigued by her mother's herbal/ holistic business, Butterfly Expressions which appears on the internet to be a "normal" business. (But does her mother pay income/payroll taxes?)
Next month's selection is An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Hostess: Mary Margaret
