Come join a group of avid readers to discuss works that engage and stretch your mind. A way to enrich learning outside the classroom, meet fellow readers, and enjoy conversation on stimulating memoirs of relevance to programs at Teachers College, Spring Book Club continues on February 21st.

Our third meeting will be on Educated, by Tara Westover, for the final part of this highly acclaimed memoir -- a #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe Bestseller. It tells the story of a young woman who is denied formal schooling and leaves her survivalist family to graduate magna cum laude from Brigham Young University and then earn a PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge University.

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho and a victim of psychological and physical abuse by her older brother, Tara Westover was seventeen when she first entered a classroom. Her family was extremely isolated from mainstream society, and she and her siblings were only home schooled to a certain extent. She worked in her family’s junkyard or stewed herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. When another brother was accepted into college, Tara ventured out on new paths through education. Educated  (Random House, 2018) is her first book. Tara Westover was appointed the Fall 2019 A.M. Rosenthal Writer in Residence at the Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School, where she later became a Senior Research Fellow.

Spring Bookclub is co-sponsored by the Graduate Writing Center. It meets every other week throughout the semester, with a program for three books, three sessions per book. It is open to all students and staff, and the first 15 people to rsvp will receive a free copy.