One of my goals in 2021 is to read more and regularly, so I opened up a section here on the blog for Book Review. A. to keep a record of books that I have read and B. to capture my thoughts as soon as I finish reading them. This way, not only I could share more valuable content with you; but also I can build a record of my own. I know not many of you are interested in reading, but I know some of you do. So for those who are interested, check back here regularly for some inspiration of what to read next.
Educated A Memoir by Tara Westover
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Educated A Memoir by Tara Westover is one of the best sellers. I heard of this book for awhile but I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it. I decided to buy the Kindle version because Bill Gates recommended it and also someone online said it was a heart-warming “story”. And also I wanted a break from all my business/ motivational books I was reading, I wanted something different to read.
I didn’t think I have frowned this much in my whole life when I was reading a book (apart from my English literature recommended reading when I was in Uni). It wasn’t quite what I expected to be “heart-warming”, it was rather disturbing for me throughout the whole book until the last 15 minutes when the book was about to end. It wasn’t a story, it was a memoir and it made it even more disturbing for me. The “story” was about a girl who was born and raised by a controlling family, her constant personal struggle between family believes and the world’s perspective. I am not going to get into too much detail because I don’t want to spoil it for you. If I can sum up the book in one sentence, it would be: a mentally disturbed and manipulated girl trying to find her place in this big world.
I could understand why it is one of the best sellers because it’s really well-written. Each chapter gives you a snippet of what’s going on and you can pick up a chapter here and there during the day. You could read in small bites is what I am trying to say. Also, the tone of the book is very well done. It feels like the author is explaining calmly of what’s happening, and what makes it even better is that she admits to the confusion of the memories and sometimes the mind plays tricks on what had happened. While I was reading it, I felt like the author was talking to me about her life struggles.
For the “story” itself, it was what bothered me. For most of the time, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Really? How could they treat their kids like this? How could they say things like this? How could they go home instead of going to the hospital? Yea, so many of these statements rushing through my head while I was reading. At one point, I was even pissed off and thought they were ridiculous. The book definitely got me emotionally and it was definitely engaging.
Whether someone likes a book or not, it’s very personal. If you ask me, I enjoy its way of writing and the tone of the book; but the content is too much for me when I just want to relax and chill. I could relate to some of the personal struggle; but I didn’t have much takeaway from the book itself (please don’t get mad at me if you love the book, it just shows you different people enjoy different things). I didn’t find it particularly heart warming though many people find the fact that the author went from “nowhere” to “Cambridge” fascinating. I don’t dispute the author’s effort and talent; but I also a firm believer in “in life, the outside environment forces us to make certain choices, in a way, the outside factors help (kinda) us to become who we are”. Without this controlling family, maybe the author could still go to Cambridge, or maybe not; who knows! But I guess the way I saw it was that the family was a strong push factor in this scenario.
Right, if you enjoy a memoir type of book and you enjoy reading through some heavy subject, I would recommend it. Even if you just want to find something well-written and you don’t care what the subject is, I would still recommend it to you too. However, if you are looking for something light-hearted to kill time or if you are looking to have major takeaway from a book, I am not too sure if this one would be your cup of tea.
