Tara Westover Popular Books

Tara Westover Biography & Facts

Tara Westover (born September 27, 1986) is an American memoirist, essayist and historian. Her memoir Educated (2018) debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list and was a finalist for a number of national awards, including the LA Times Book Prize, PEN America's Jean Stein Book Award, and two awards from the National Book Critics Circle Award. The New York Times ranked Educated as one of the 10 Best Books of 2018. Westover was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2019. Early life and education Westover was the youngest of seven children born in Clifton, Idaho (population 259) to Mormon survivalist parents. She has five older brothers and an older sister. Her parents were suspicious of doctors, hospitals, public schools, and the federal government. Westover was born at home, delivered by a midwife, and was never taken to a doctor or nurse. She was not registered for a birth certificate until she was nine years old. Their father resisted getting formal medical treatment for any of the family. Even when seriously injured, the children were treated only by their mother, who had studied herbalism and other methods of alternative healing. All the siblings were loosely homeschooled by their mother. Westover has said an older brother taught her to read, and she studied the scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But she never attended a lecture, wrote an essay, or took an exam. There were few textbooks in their house. As a teenager, Westover began to want to enter the larger world and attend college. She purchased textbooks and studied independently in order to score well on the ACT Exam. She gained admission to Brigham Young University and was awarded a scholarship, although she had no high school diploma. After a difficult first year, in which Westover struggled to adjust to academia and the wider society there, she became more successful and graduated with honors in 2008. She then earned a Master's degree from the University of Cambridge at Trinity College as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University in 2010. She returned to Trinity College, Cambridge, where she earned a doctorate in intellectual history in 2014. Her thesis is entitled "The Family, Morality and Social Science in Anglo-American Cooperative Thought, 1813–1890".In 2009, while a graduate student at Cambridge, Westover told her parents that for many years (since age 15), she had been physically and psychologically abused by an older brother. Her parents denied her account and suggested that Westover was under the influence of Satan. The family split over these events. Westover wrote about the estrangement, and her unusual path to and through university education in her 2018 memoir, Educated. Career Westover was Fall 2019 A.M. Rosenthal Writer in Residence at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard Kennedy School. She was selected as a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University for Spring 2020.Westover has written for The New York Times and BBC News. Works Educated: A Memoir In 2018, Penguin Random House published Westover's Educated: A Memoir, which tells the story of her struggle to reconcile her desire for education and autonomy with her family's rigid ideology and isolated life. The coming-of-age story was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, and was positively reviewed by the New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, USA Today, Vogue, and The Economist, among others. As of February 2020, Educated has spent two years in hardcover on the New York Times bestseller list and is being translated into 45 languages. The book was voted the No. 1 Library Reads pick by American librarians, and in August 2019, it had been checked out more frequently than any other book through all New York Public Library's 88 branches. As of December 2020, Educated has sold more than 8 million copies.Through their attorney, the family has disputed some elements of Westover's book, including her suggestion that her father may have bipolar disorder and that her mother may have suffered a brain injury that resulted in reduced motor skills. Awards and recognition Westover's book earned her several awards, and other recognition. Named the Book of the Year by the American Booksellers Association Finalist for the John Leonard Prize from the National Book Critics Circle Finalist for the Autobiography Award from the National Book Critics Circle Finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in Biography Finalist for PEN/America's Jean Stein Award Finalist for the American Booksellers Association Audiobook of the Year Award Finalist for Barnes & Noble's Discover Great Writers Award One of the New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2018 Long-listed for the Carnegie Medal of Excellence Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Autobiography Winner of the Audie Award for Autobiography/Memoir Alex Award from the American Library Association Named an 'Amazing Audiobook for Young Adults' by the American Library Association Amazon Editors' pick for the Best Book of 2018 Apple's Best Memoir of the Year Audible's Best Memoir of the Year Hudson Group Best Book of the Year President Barack Obama's pick for summer reading and his Favorite Books of the Year list Bill Gates's Holiday Reading list Westover chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2019 Educated named one of the Best Books of the year by The Washington Post, Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, Good Morning America, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, The Economist, The Financial Times, The New York Post, The Skimm, Bloomberg, Real Simple, Town & Country, Bustle, Publishers Weekly, The Library Journal, Book Riot, and the New York Public Library. Featured speaker, Seattle Arts & Lectures, 2019 [1] New York Historical Society Women in Public Life Award James Joyce Award Evans Handcart AwardPersonal life Westover lives in London. References External links Official website Tara Westover, After Words, C-SPAN. Discover the Tara Westover popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Tara Westover books.

Best Seller Tara Westover Books of 2024

  • The American Crisis synopsis, comments

    The American Crisis

    Writers of The Atlantic

    Some of America’s best reporters and thinkers offer an urgent look at a country in chaos in this collection of timely, often prophetic articles from The Atlantic. The past four yea...

  • The Shoemaker and his Daughter synopsis, comments

    The Shoemaker and his Daughter

    Conor O'Clery

    WINNER OF THE 2020 MICHEL DÉON PRIZE'O'Clery takes us into the hidden heart of Soviet Russia... An arresting and evocative story' Keggie Carew, author of Dadland'A tour de force .....

  • Educated synopsis, comments

    Educated

    Tara Westover

    #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 ou...

  • Caged Bird synopsis, comments

    Caged Bird

    Katy Morgan-Davies

    'I was the shadow child no one ever saw...'From the day she was born until she escaped aged 30, Katy MorganDavies knew nothing but a life in captivity. Her father was the deluded a...

  • Flesh Wounds synopsis, comments

    Flesh Wounds

    Richard Glover

    A deluded mother who invented her past, an alcoholic father who couldn't deal with the present, a son who wondered if this could really be his family. Richard Glover's favourite di...

  • The Girl in the Shadows synopsis, comments

    The Girl in the Shadows

    Katy Morgan-Davies

    'I was the shadow child no one ever saw...'From the day she was born until she escaped aged 30, Katy MorganDavies knew nothing but a life in captivity. Her father was the deluded a...

  • Wayward synopsis, comments

    Wayward

    Vashti Bunyan

    'Magical and transporting . . . Wayward proves that Bunyan has lived the best possible life, on her own idiosyncratic terms'Maggie O'Farrell'A gorgeous account of outsiderness and ...

  • Life Is Magic synopsis, comments

    Life Is Magic

    Jon Dorenbos

    “Jon Dorenbos is a magical person. Life Is Magic shows how we can all choose happiness in the face of overwhelming odds.” Ellen DeGeneres An extraordinary and empowering story of r...

  • Summary of Educated By Tara Westover synopsis, comments

    Summary of Educated By Tara Westover

    SpeedyReads

    The author, Tara Westover, and her siblings did not go to school, four of them did not have birth certificates and they did not have medical and school records. They only knew moun...

  • Poor synopsis, comments

    Poor

    Katriona O'Sullivan

    The No. 1 BestsellerBiography of the Year, Irish Book Awards 2023The Last Word Listeners' Choice Award, Irish Book Awards 2023'One of the best [books] I have read about the complex...

  • The Last Days synopsis, comments

    The Last Days

    Ali Millar

    A Scotsman Book to Watch for 2022 It is 1982 and in the Kingdom Hall we are Jehovah's Witnesses. The state of the world shows us the end is close, and Satan is like a roaring lion,...

  • Wild synopsis, comments

    Wild

    Cheryl Strayed

    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER  A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an elevenhundredmile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastropheand built ...

  • Rules of Estrangement synopsis, comments

    Rules of Estrangement

    Joshua Coleman, PhD

    A guide for parents whose adult children have cut off contact that reveals the hidden logic of estrangement, explores its cultural causes, and offers practical advice for parents t...

  • Cult Trip synopsis, comments

    Cult Trip

    Anke Richter

    A leading journalist's intense, riveting and personal investigation into the worlds and minds of cultsAt a new age festival in Byron Bay, journalist Anke Richter is finding her spi...

  • Prepped synopsis, comments

    Prepped

    Bethany Mangle

    For fans of Jeff Zentner and Katie Henry comes a thrilling and funny debut about a teen raised in a doomsday community who plots her escape with the boy from the bunker next door.A...

  • National Populism synopsis, comments

    National Populism

    Roger Eatwell & Matthew Goodwin

    A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA crucial new guide to one of the most important and most dangerous phenomena of our time: the rise of populism in the WestAcross the West, there is...

  • Three Women synopsis, comments

    Three Women

    Lisa Taddeo

    SOON TO BE A SERIES ON STARZ STARRING SHAILENE WOODLEY BETTY GILPIN DeWANDA WISE GABRIELLE CREEVY with BLAIR UNDERWOOD “Staggeringly intimate...Groundbreaking.” Entertainment W...

  • The Consequences of Love synopsis, comments

    The Consequences of Love

    Gavanndra Hodge

    The mustread memoir about the dazzling days and dark nights of a Chelsea childhood . . .'Brilliant and moving' The Times'Dazzling' Evening Standard'Beautifully written' Marian Keye...

  • Summary Bundle Two Titles in One - Business and Biography synopsis, comments

    Summary Bundle Two Titles in One - Business and Biography

    SpeedyReads

    Wanna Read But Not Enough Time?Then, grab a SpeedyReads of Summary of Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs by John Doerr and Su...

  • Forager synopsis, comments

    Forager

    Michelle Dowd

    A moving, heartbreaking, and inspiring true story of the author’s escape from an apocalyptic cultand the deep understanding of the natural world that helped her find freedom. ...

  • Escape synopsis, comments

    Escape

    Barbie Probert-Wright

    Two sisters.One extraordinary true story.Germany, 1945. Trapped between advancing armies, stranded hundreds of miles from their mother, and with their father missing in action, sis...

  • Elsewhere synopsis, comments

    Elsewhere

    Rosita Boland

    'Utterly engaging.' Sunday TimesFrom her first lifechanging solo trip to Australia as a young graduate, Rosita Boland was enthralled by travel. In the last thirty years she has vi...

  • How to Say Babylon synopsis, comments

    How to Say Babylon

    Safiya Sinclair

    A New York Times Notable Book A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! A Best Book of 2023 by the New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, Vulture, Shelf Awareness, Goodreads...

  • Wayfaring Stranger synopsis, comments

    Wayfaring Stranger

    Emma John

    Can you feel nostalgic for a life you've never known?Suffused with her muchloved warmth and wit, Emma John's memoir follows her moving and memorable journey to master one of the ha...

  • Go the Way Your Blood Beats synopsis, comments

    Go the Way Your Blood Beats

    Emmett de Monterey

    AN EXTRAORDINARILY MOVING AND ORIGINAL MEMOIR OF GROWING UP GAY AND DISABLED IN 1980s LONDONWhen Emmett de Monterey is eighteen months old, a doctor diagnoses him with cerebral pal...

  • In the Wars synopsis, comments

    In the Wars

    Dr Waheed Arian

    AS HEARD ON DESERT ISLAND DISCSAS SEEN ON THE CHANGEMAKERS, a Paramount+ docuseries profiling activists fighting for changeA WATERSTONES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR'A riveting story of l...

  • A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams synopsis, comments

    A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams

    Jeff Pearce

    The poor boy who made his fortune . . . not just once but twice.Little Jeff Pearce grew up in a postwar Liverpool slum. His father lived the life of an affluent gentleman whilst hi...