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ames_morgan (8 KP) rated Educated in Books

Jun 19, 2018

Educated

Tara Westover | 2018 | Biography

9.3

(9 Ratings)

Book Rating

Wow what a story is all I can say! This book totally blew my mind and at times I had trouble believing parts of it were real and it terrified me even more to know that they were.

Tara Westover never set foot in a classroom until she was 17 years old. Raised by Mormon survivalists in the mountains of Idaho her life was incredibly different than anything I can even imagine. With a midwife/herbalist for a mother and a father who operated a junkyard and prepared for the end of the world and was obsessed with the Illuminati Tara was horribly unprepared for life as she set foot into the academic world.

With no one to make sure Tara and her brothers and sisters had an education or even basic healthcare Tara decided to educate herself. At the age of 17 she had never even heard of the Holocaust much to the shock and disbelief of her fellow students and professor. With determination and perseverance Tara went on from never being in a classroom to receiving a a PhD from Cambridge University.
All the while Tara still struggled with a sense of loyalty to her family yet a desire to recreate herself into something more.

This was an incredible journey and I thank Tara for sharing it with us!

Kudos

David McK (3557 KP) rated Young Bloods (Revolution, #1) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Back in 2006/07, Simon Scarrow took a short break from writing his more famous Eagle/Cato series of books to concentrate on a new quadrilogy of books, centred around two military greats opposed to each other: Arthur Wellesley (the future Duke of Wellington) and Napoleon Bonaparte.

This is the first of those books, taking it roughly sectiona bout to follw each character through the trials and tribulations of their early life and formative years: through Arthur Wesley (as it was initailly spelled) early life in Ireland, to his move to Engalnd and back again to Dublin alongside Napoleon Bueno Parte (as the Corsican spelling has it) education in France, his attempts to gain Corsican indendepence and his rise during the period of the French Revolution.

As the first in the sereis, this (I felt) did not have - maybe - the 'grip' of the earlier Cato/Macro Roman legion books: there was nothing really in this that made me want to rush out and complete the set.

Having said, that, however, that is just what I did (complete the set), but more from a sense of completionism than for any other real reason. From what I remember (it's been a while since I read them - I may go back and do just that), the sequels are better!