Tara Westover’s inspiring journey to get an education has captured the attention of readers worldwide. West Virginia University has chosen “Educated: A Memoir” for the 2019-20 Campus Read and now readers will be able to hear the author’s story when she visits campus as a David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas speaker on Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Mountainlair Ballrooms. She will sign books afterward.
Westover was born to survivalist parents opposed to public education. She spent her days working in her father’s junkyard with minimal home schooling. When she decided she wanted to go to college, she taught herself enough mathematics, grammar and science to take the ACT and was admitted to Brigham Young University. Her story of graduating magna cum laude from BYU, getting a Master’s degree in philosophy and a Ph.D. from University of Cambridge is one that catapulted her memoir on the “best books list” of most major publications.