Educated: Now in Paperback
Educated, Tara Westover’s acclaimed memoir, is out in paperback tomorrow. Join us for the one-night-only launch event moderated by actress Natalie Portman—and check out some of Westover’s recommended reads below. NOW IN PAPERBACK
#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER
One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University. READ MORE »
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Dear Reader,There is only one way to begin this letter, and that is by thanking you for reading my book. When I wrote the story it felt small. Hopelessly specific. I did not imagine that it would be of significance to anyone whose experiences were not the exact same. In short, I thought the book would resonate with women who had been kept out of school, who had spent their youth in a junkyard, who had found haven in education. It seemed likely to be a small audience.I was wrong. Imaginations are vast, and it turned out that readers found themselves in the story even when the particulars diverged from their own experiences, even when the setting was transformed, the climate altered, the faces a different shape, and the voices a different pitch. What I learned from this is that my story exists in many forms, in many places; that my story was, in fact, the story of others.I have come to believe that this sharing of stories and experiences—this seeing of ourselves in others and others in ourselves—is the whole point, the sole reason to have literature, to tell stories.So, to my readers, I say thank you—thank you for allowing my story to be a part of yours.Tara Westover
TOMORROW! YOU’RE INVITED
Don’t miss the Educated paperback launch, an evening with Tara Westover in conversation with Natalie Portman!Please join #1 New York Times bestselling author Tara Westover and Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman for a special, one-night-only virtual event celebrating the paperback launch of Educated: A Memoir on Tuesday, February 8 at 8 p.m. ET on Zoom.Your ticket includes admission to this exclusive event, as well as a paperback copy of Educated. If you have already read Educated, you will have an option to donate your new copy of the book to students and classrooms via Random House and the National Council of Teachers of English, the official literacy partner for this event.Ticket sales will close at 3 p.m. ET on February 8.To attend, you may purchase your ticket through any one of the amazing independent bookstores listed here.
TARA WESTOVER RECOMMENDS . . .
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • An enduring account of joy and sorrow from one of the great writers of our time, The New Yorker’s Kathryn Schulz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
ighteen months before Kathryn Schulz’s beloved father died, she met the woman she would marry. In Lost & Found, she weaves the stories of those relationships into a brilliant exploration of how all our lives are shaped by loss and discovery—from the maddening disappearance of everyday objects to the sweeping devastations of war, pandemic, and natural disaster; from finding new planets to falling in love. READ MORE »
Order Lost & Found
Penguin Random House ▸
An editor at This American Life reveals the searing story of the secret binge-eating that dominated her adolescence and shapes her still.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MARIE CLAIREF
or almost thirty years, Susan Burton hid her obsession with food and the secret life of compulsive eating and starving that dominated her adolescence. This is the relentlessly honest, fiercely intelligent story of living with both anorexia and binge-eating disorder, moving past her shame, and learning to tell her secret. READ MORE »
Order Empty Penguin Random House ▸
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves—and our world today.
For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. READ MORE »
Order A Swim in a Pond in the Rain Penguin Random House ▸
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color.
Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too.READ MORE »
Order The Sum of Us Penguin Random House ▸