Book discussion at Graves County Public Library to talk about best selling memoir

Paducah, KY (11/02/2019) — West Kentucky Community and Technical College's Associate Professor of English, Tyra Henderson, will host a discussion of the memoir and New York Times bestseller, Educated, by Tara Westover November 7. The community is invited to the free event at Graves County Public Library at 6 p.m.

Westover is an American author who was born into a survivalist family in Idaho and never stepped foot in a classroom until she was 17. She spent her days working in her father's junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education.

Taught to read by an older brother, Westover's education was erratic and incomplete. However, after her first encounter with education as a teenager, she pursued learning for a decade. She graduated with high honors from Brigham Young University in 2008 and subsequently won a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned a master's degree in philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. Westover returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a doctorate degree in history in 2014.

Henderson will lead the discussion of Westover's book that traces the author's life experiences, how those experiences shaped the woman she became, and ultimately what education truly is in a beautifully written coming-of-age story.

Educated has received critical acclaim, including debuting at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and being sold in 54 territories and soon to be translated into 39 languages.

The book's credits also include winner of the 2018 Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir, long listed for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, winner of the Audie Award for Autobiography/Memoir, Amazon Editors' #1 pick for the Best Book of 2018, Audible's Best Memoir of the Year, and President Barack Obama's Favorite Books of the Year list.

USA Today said Educated is "a heartbreaking, heartwarming, best-in-years memoir."Bill Gates added, it's "an amazing story, and truly inspiring. It's even better than you've heard."

For more information about the November 7 book discussion, contact WKCTC's Tyra Henderson at tyra.henderson@kctcs.edu.

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