So nice to actually venture out to be with my fellow Book Nerds.
Thanks to all who dared to come out to join Diana to discuss her book choice of Educated by Tara Westover.
I really liked this book and I believe so did everyone else.
As you saw ladies our conversations go in all directions. We can't help ourselves.
Tara had no formal education until she decided to try school at the age of 17. Her education was life according to her father's rule. He preached his interpretation of the word of God. Her father had to preparing for the end of the world by hoarding food and being prepared to head further into the hills. Tara knew nothing of the real world except for her father's interpretation how the hospitals, schools, etc all try to brainwash you. Her life was filled with herbs and working in her father's junkyard. And abuse. Her brother Shawn could be kind, caring and lovable but in an instant become violent.
All scraps, burns, gashes and bruises were treated by her mothers herbs. Her mother was a herbal healer and midwife.
Tara decided she wanted to go to school and started teaching herself mathematics and grammar. She needed a 22 on the ACT to get into college. She didn't succeed the first try but she got a 28 on her second try and was admitted to Brigham Young University and started studying history. As she sat in class and hearing the "The Holocaust" raised her hand and asked what is the Holocaust to have the professor tell her that wasn't funny and that she could leave.
Her thirst for knowledge took her to Harvard and to Cambridge.
Family ties were lost. Her father turned everyone against her.
This book had you questioning how could things get so out of whack and the children get lost. Once you started reading or in my case listening I didn't want to stop. Now the questions were did it really happen the way Tara wrote it? Others didn't remember things happening the way she wrote them. Reality is all a matter of perspective. You and I may see the same wreck but each see different things.
Tara showed her father as the leader and that no one crossed him. Even the mother. While the mother seemed more sympathetic to her children but she would not stand up to the her husband.
Tara broke the chains and reinvented herself and rose above her far back woods teachings with a thirst for knowledge.
Next to choose will be...Ed, Gaye, Jan, Kathy, Lauren, Lisa, Pam, Sandy.
Hope to see you then.
Until then... 
Your secretary/photographer
