Man. MAN. This was hard to listen to but I couldn’t put it down. You’ve got LDS fundamentalist survivalist stuff, abuse & gaslighting, secrecy, horrific injuries, and an essential oils empire with products so popular that I own a couple bottles.

Tara Westover grew up as the youngest child in a homeschooling family in rural Idaho, but says that by the time she came along there was no longer any real “schooling” happening. She taught herself enough to get a decent ACT score, earning acceptance at BYU. It was fascinating to see how she struggled academically, emotionally, socially, and financially at BYU. She went on to earn scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate work at BYU, Cambridge, and Harvard (while grappling with family issues and estrangement).

Although Tara’s story is more dramatic than most, there is a universal quality in the idea of leaving home, re-evaluating how you were raised to see the world and yourself, and creating a new identity and home as an adult.