Tara Westover, a featured author for Spokesman’s Northwest Passages Book Club, to give presentation at UI

Author Tara Westover will take part in the Runstad Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Monday with a presentation on her book, “Educated: A Memoir.” Last May, she was a featured author for The Spokesman-Review’s Northwest Passages Book Club.

The event will be held in the international ballroom of the Bruce M. Pitman Center, 709 Deakin Ave., Moscow.

A book signing will follow.

Westover’s book was selected as the University of Idaho’s Common Read for 2018-19.

“The students and faculty members on our Common Read committee were gripped by Ms. Westover’s memoir and her journey to become self-educated and informed,” said Dean Panttaja, director of general education. “The premise of this book and its lessons about our individual will and strength to achieve against all odds are inspiring.”

The book details Westover’s journey as a child of Idaho survivalists. Her father opposed public education. The first time Westover stepped foot in a classroom was at age 17. Largely self-taught, she later went on to graduate from Brigham Young University and attended Cambridge and Harvard University.

Growing up, Westover worked in her dad’s junkyard and helped her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She experienced abuse at the hands of one of her older brothers.

The book is a No. 1 New York Times Bestseller and was named Amazon’s Best Book of February 2018.