Tara Westover
@tarawestover
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Author of Educated, dog enthusiast.
Brooklyn, New York
Joined October 2017
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Pinned Tweet
From Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nobel acceptance speech. Stories are about one person saying to another, This is the way it feels to me? Does it feel the same to you?
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A little essay I wrote about resilience and social mobility and and and...
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Hey all. I've decided to publish the text of the commencement address that I gave at Northeastern, so here it be. It's titled "The Un-Instagramable Self" and it's pretty much about what you'd think (the parts of us that we don't/can't put online).
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THIS totally fabulous utterly wonderful thing.
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Having that delightful experience when you've eaten all the chocolates and left one, because it's coconut, and then eventually you get desperate and bite into it. And wonderfully, discover that it's not coconut, but salted caramel.
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Yes I can't be the only one who is a little bit confused.
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Really grateful to
@Northeastern
for letting me deliver the commencement address (and sing, because, you know, why not?) to all the people in the whole world plus their parents. Congratulations graduates!
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I do not understand what is so satisfying about watching my dog sleep.
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Some thoughts I had on the political divide.
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Someone was kind enough to write down something I said and put it in a broader context. The way we distribute education in this country is wildly unequal, and if we allow it to continue, we are just seeing the beginning of our political turmoil.
@AdamHSays
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If I could only recommend one book this year, it would be
@the_jennitaur
's How To Do Nothing. Go read it. Go go go.
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this is really very good
Dipping my toe into a take on cancel culture in episode 2.
#SarahSilvermanPodcast
eps 1-5
Here: …
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One of the most beautiful paragraphs I've ever read.
Hilary Mantel. Giving up the Ghost.
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"Many schools for the richest American kids have gates and security guards; the message is 'You are precious to us.' Many schools for the poorest kids have metal detectors and police officers; the message is 'You are a threat to us.'"
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This happened. Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me through this process. This wouldn't have been possible without a whole army of other people.
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One of the most important books I've read in a very long time.
If you're interested in the effect of technology and digital culture on selfhood and creativity, this is the book for you.
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This gets to the heart of our political situation. We must resist the prevailing belief that just because we know one thing about a person, that we know all we need to know about them.
"Roughly 92 percent of conservatives said they would be friends with a liberal, and just 3 percent said that they would not have a liberal friend. Among liberals, however, almost a quarter said they would not have a conservative friend." --
@conor64
:
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This thing should be read by EVERYONE.
The strongest predictor of a county's swing toward populism in 2016? Not income. Not education. But the percentage growth in deaths by drug overdose. The election of 2016 was about one thing above all else--despair.
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Hey! Very excited to announce the launch of the paperback for Educated. And we are kicking it off with a virtual event with Natalie Portman. Details here if you want them!
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Jaron Lanier on why we need to remake the internet: "We cannot have a society, in which, if two people wish to communicate, the only way that can happen is if it's financed by a third person who wishes to manipulate them."
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Just read
#thebodykeepsthescore
for the second time. An astonishing and important book. The trauma Bible. I cannot recommend it enough for anyone struggling with...well...anything.
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My friend
@KatecBowler
gave a TED talk about her struggle with cancer and her (formerly unconscious) belief that we all get the life we deserve. It's beautiful. Also, check out her book: "Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I've Loved."
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A few thoughts about facebook, identity and Being, from the inimitable Zadie Smith.
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A simply brilliant analysis of the difference between political activism and political hobbyism. Modern media makes it so easy to confuse the two. Everyone should listen to this.
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Trying to read the news and give attention to all the things, but very difficult to think about anything besides
#Ukraine
right now.
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Really delighted to be delivering the commencement address for Northeastern's 2019 graduating class. I will, you know, do my best.
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"[We] have given up, to a great extent, the amenities and achievements of civilization: solitude and leisure, the sanction to be oneself, truly absorbed, whether in contemplating a work of art, a scientific theory, a sunset, or the face of one’s beloved."
The neurologist Oliver Sacks found that the social-media era resembles a neurological catastrophe on a gigantic scale.
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If my dog shed as much as I do, I wouldn't let him on the couch.
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Hi All - Last week I read
@Elaine_Pagels
new book, Why Religion? - a beautiful exploration of suffering and belief. Pagels is an expert on both. The book is beautifully written, intelligent to the point of brilliance, and utterly moving. Read to the very last line and enjoy.
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Here's a taste: "I think that's the trick: to stop seeing our health as binary, between sick and healthy ..to stop thinking that there's some beautiful, perfect state of wellness to strive for; and to quit living in a state of constant dissatisfaction until we reach it."
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Zadie Smith describing her father in her collection of essays, "Feel Free."Buy it. Read one essay every night before bed. We will all be better off.
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So. One of my FAVORITE writers just friended me on facebook. And I'm so happy I think I might implode. This guy basically taught me how to write. He doesn't know it. But he did.
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My friend, the lovely
@AmbassadorRice
, has a book out today, a memoir. Last night I read about how she learned conflict mediation in her own home. The making of a diplomat! Do check it out.
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Hey All - I reviewed
@paultough
's book on inequality and higher ed. It is well worth a read (his book, not my review of his book). But here's the review in case it will tempt you.
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This was a real pleasure.
Big crowd on hand
@uidaho
in Moscow tonight for
@tarawestover
, author of “Educated: A Memoir.”
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an important message full of kindness.
Thousands of kids will get rejected by a college today. To them I say, I was you and here I am, in the middle of a full, interesting life that I love. There's more than you can see. Way more.
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Reading Lanier's book "You are not a gadget." I begin to think that, in 100 years, we will look back to now and conclude that the boldest lie humanity was ever told, and believed, was this: that a human being can to any degree be represented or made manifest by technology.
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My friend
@Jayson_Greene
's book comes out today. Jayson somehow found the strength to write about the sudden loss of his daughter, and the result has been praised unreservedly in the
@nytimes
. Posting here so that it may find its way to those who need it.
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It's been a week, and from time to time I still find myself thinking of the last line from this review of
@Jayson_Greene
's book. Those eight words are the most powerful description of loss that I've ever heard.
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Just finished "On Immunity" by Eula Biss, a simply astonishing book full of wisdom.
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He's saying we should pay for social media/email/search engines. If we just pay for them, we are not subjecting ourselves to algorithms that subtly modify our behavior to sell us stuff. Facebook could just be facebook. Without selling our capacity for love and rage to advertizers
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Come along if you feel so inclined!
Former Second Lady (and now possible First Lady!)
@DrBiden
sits down w
@tarawestover
(author of Educated) to discuss Where the Light Enters, an intimate look at the traditions, resilience and love that built the Biden family. Tix:
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This morning I listened to Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah's BBC Reith lecture on color, race and identity. I particularly appreciated what he said about respect. So much in here worth pondering.
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Hey all - my buddy
@suleikajaouad
delivered a beautiful TED talk about having, and recovering from, leukemia. Do check it out.
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I think I’m going to give up all other books and only read Julian Barnes.
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Hey all! I will be interviewing the ever fascinating
@DrGaborMate
on 16 September at
@92ndStreetY
. Come along and do snag a copy of his new book. It's an excellent read, and helpful, for anyone, but especially for those wrestling with a complex personal history.
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@NickKristof
@nytopinion
@nytegan
@JDVance1
It's an interesting take, although I never meant the book to be representative in the way he's suggesting. I think Vance intended his family to stand in for many others; I didn't. I didn't intend the book as sociology. Rather, people I wrote about stand in only for themselves.
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This is so important. Everyone should watch.
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I can die happy now. Something I've written has provoked a discussion of grammar on the internet.
@tarawestover
Just as a FYI, there's an interesting, if pedantic, discussion going on at the English StackExchange site over the line "I was broker than the Ten Commandments" from Educated:
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David Means. If you haven't heard Thomas McGuane reading "The Treeline, Kansas, 1934" for the New Yorker Fiction Podcast, just drop everything and go listen. It's beautiful. And one of the most technically perfect short stories I've ever read.
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This great article (by a great woman) about prison reform. Her book is out next week!
@emilybazelon
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Reading Thinking Fast and Slow. One of those books that makes you feel like you didn't know yourself before.
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For anybody following along who cares about this sort of thing, Ima thinking that my interview with
@jdickerson
is my favorite so far. It felt like I got to talk about the things I really cared about.
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@AdamHSays
This shocked me. Not that it happened (I'm not that sheltered), but that the university didn't think it was grounds for suspension. The mind reels.
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Sending a text and autocorrect keeps changing “worm” (spelled correctly I might add) to “work”. Not sure I want to live in a world where people write “work” so very often, our tech rejects any other four-letter constructions beginning with W
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An old passage I rediscovered today, and loved, all over again: "History, then, means the world looking back upon itself, and storing up memories that are pictures. History is any tale that the old world can tell when it starts remembering. It is just the world's Memory."
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Hello All! Last year I read
@corrigankelly
's lovely memoir "The Middle Place." She has a new book hitting paperback today, called Tell Me More. I'm going to be hunting down my copy today.
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#scottfrank
getting flack for long speech at
#emmys
. I get it. But people get nervous; they make mistakes. For my part: Scott is one of the kindest, least egotistical people I have ever met. Okay. That’s it for me. Back to my usual Twitter silence.
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Hello All - if you're in NYC on 6 May come along to the
@PENworldvoices
to hear me in conversation with
@minjinlee11
!
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I thought this was wonderful when I first saw it, and it has aged well.
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Lovely chatting with Nick. Although he’s better in a kayak than he let’s on...
Talking live to
@Tarawestover
, author of the remarkable best-seller "Educated.” Send questions!
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seconded. Very powerful.
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really looking forward to this!
#WritersCenterStage
will welcome
@tarawestover
, author of the best-selling memoir "Educated," & writer/naturalist/activist
@TempestWilliams
, author of "Erosion: Essays of Undoing" on 5/6. Tickets are available at .
@cwru
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If you happen to be in Brooklyn, I'm interviewing David Means (one of my favorite writers) at Books are Magic tomorrow at 7pm. If you come, do buy a copy of David's book. Consider it the ticket price. Besides, it's really wonderful to read aloud.
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So. If someone had a friend who is obsessed with tequila, and you wanted to buy them a special gift, something out of the ordinary, what would one get? Are there any experimental, hipster-ish tequilas?!
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I am now one of those people who pays for wifi on flights so I can work. Gone are the days of watching crap TV. Oh, nostalgia-filled rom-coms from the 90s', how I will miss you!
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@mixolydia13
I'm so glad it was helpful to you. Take your time. You do not have to figure all of this out at once.
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haha.
[bookstore moments]
CUSTOMER: Can you tell me if you think Tara Westover’s memoir “Educated” is here?
ME: Sure, I’m happy to make an “Educated” guess. 😅
(And yes,
@Powells
on Hawthorne has copies!
@tarawestover
)
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I said that very factually. I *ought* to have said: We are kicking it off with Natalie Portman!!!
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My interview on CBS. It would be impossible to overstate the graciousness of the hosts.
@GayleKing
@jdickerson
@NorahODonnell
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Second paperback event! Chatting with the truly fantastic, Pulitzer-winning Jennifer Egan in NYC, Feb 17th. In-person and live-streamed, whatever your pleasure.
Read Egan's new book, The Candy House, out in April. It's excellent.
@Egangoonsquad
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@MNightShyamalan
@GlassMovie
What a lovely message to see. And it was a real pleasure to meet you and see your film. I hope we can repeat the meeting one day!
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I could sort out my water bill. Or I could continue to watch
#PrideandPrejudice
for the ten thousandth time.
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Beautiful thought from Marilynne Robinson: "I have begun to feel that our ability to do wrong is the basis of our moral nature, that our bias toward error gives meaning and urgency to our seeking after truth...
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@AuroreSibley7
Write it! I felt the exact same way when I started. Totally normal to feel that. Just smile at the thought and thank it for its input, and keep going.
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hello all - I recorded a podcast with my mentor, Professor David Runciman and his colleague, Clare Chambers.
Have a listen if you feel like it. A little philosophy for your thursday!
🚨 NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! 🚨
This week David talks to
@tarawestover
and philosopher
@DrClareChambers
about the enduring legacy of John Stuart Mill. How do Mill and Thomas Carlyle speak to contemporary concerns about conviction and doubt?
Listen here 🎧
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I'll be trying to keep up with these two tomorrow...
Please join me,
@tarawestover
and
@Genebsperling
for an important conversation around inequality tomorrow.
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...It’s to have seen how swiftly righteous dreams turn into cloister gates; to notice how destructive it can be to shape a future on the premise of having found your people, rather than finding people who aren’t yours."
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Dear Hive mind - I love
@ScrivenerApp
but the synching mechanism (or lack thereof) is making me crazy. I use on a lot of devices and Scrivener just doesn't work. What other research/writing programs are people using and liking/loving?
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@girlhermes
I wore the same navy blazer every single day of my four-month book tour, until it began to be summer, then I switched it out for a white linen one. I have no regrets. Not worrying about what to wear is glorious. People can think what they like!
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@louistheroux
Hello. Just wanted to say thank you for reading, and for writing these lovely words! Really very very kind.
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