IFL Virtual Book Club
Join our Virtual discussion of Educated: A Memoir by Tara Weston.
Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot ina classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag." In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. Her father distrusted the medical establishment, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when an older brother became violent. When another brother got himself into college andcame back with news of the world beyond the mountain, Taradecided to try a new kind of life. She taught herself enough mathematics, grammar, and science to take the ACT and was admitted to Brigham Young University. There, she studied psychology, politics, philosophy, and history, learning for the first time about pivotal world events like the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
Books are available at the library. We have started our grab 'n go service. You will be able to call in or email requests for books and other materials and pick them up at the ground floor entrance to the building. We will package your pick-up, with a limit of 5 items, in labeled plastic bags on shelves inside the entrance door. We ask that only ONE person-at-a-time be in the entrance area for safe distancing. Hours for pick-ups: Monday 4 PM - 7 PM, Wednesdays 11 AM - 3 PM, Saturday 11 AM - 3 PM. Email: IFLGrabNGo@indianafreelibrary.org or call 724-465-8841.
