Skip to main content
Post a Comment

Educated, a Review

Educated: A Memoir Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've always had a particular sympathy for people that overcome barriers to do something significant in life, and this story is a great one. Tara, raised in an oppressive environment controlled by a semi-delusional father, rose beyond her confined world of fundamentalism to reach a level of academic success that is typically unheard of for someone of her background. The first half of the book details her home and how she was raised, and while painful, we know she will eventually grow and evolve. The second half was more touching and joyful to read than the first when Tara starts to understand the larger outside world, supported by others who equally achieved in ways that are exceptional, as well as by faculty that saw something special in her. It is simply a great story of personal growth, told simply, clearly, and with compassion.

View all my reviews
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky My rating: 5 of 5 stars I finished reading this crying. It is a work of neurobiology, social science, anthropology, and history, but ultimately it is a work of great humanity, suggesting ways that humans, our groups, our systems, and our societies can be made better. View all my reviews
Post a Comment
Read more

Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, Third Edition

Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, Third Edition by Geert Hofstede My rating: 4 of 5 stars A detailed and fascinating review of Hofstede's dimensions, by the researcher himself, showing broad high-level insights into history and culture, although a bit tedious, as it often describes in detail relationships many of us implicitly understand. View all my reviews
Post a Comment
Read more

The Right to Write - NYTimes.com

In an article,  The Right to Write - NYTimes.com , I commented on the right to write, since writers are sometimes questioned on the validity of their writing, e.g., Harriet Beecher Stowe with Uncle Tom's Cabin: One, people always have the right to write, but readers concurrently have the right to reject said writing. Much personal criticism of depictions from writers is whether the depiction seems valid or plausible, but even that is an exercise in empathy, since it requires one to experience that depiction ideationally.  Two, there is a streak in Americans, and maybe anyone, that states that you cannot understand 'my pain', usually the death of a child or some horrific personal lose. Over a longer term I have sensed that people most easily accept empathy if it is expressed by someone with similar experiences, an aspect I believe is part of human nature. I find both irksome, since they deny empathy.
Post a Comment
Read more