There’s nothing like a book that makes you cry and laugh out loud.

I brought Tara Westover’s memoir Educated on a cross-Atlantic flight and was excited to spend several hours immersed in this story of extreme culture shock. Tara was raised by a deeply insular, deeply religious family with a patriarch who shows all the signs of an undiagnosed manic-depressive. The story’s main thread is her quest to broaden her world view through formal education but the flaws and values of her childhood and familial experiences are the truly haunting and memorable parts of her tale.