We had a grand old time at Saturday's Book Club soiree, perhaps fueled by Happy Hour priced margaritas.

In attendance were Susan, Gail, Nancy, Carol, Hallie and Sally. We all agreed The Great Alone was a good book even though the domestic violence scenes were hard to read. Kristin Hannah remains a favorite author.

After catching up on a variety of topics--ex-husbands, pending grandmotherhood  and pet rescues--  we dashed off to take in Book Club the movie.

It was a fun comedy, the kind of chick flick that has you nodding in agreement. And all the actors/actresses looked pretty good for folks around our age. Like us, the club spent more time on other topics than they did discussing literature. (If you can call 50 Shade of Grey literature.)

Our book selection for the next meeting is below.

In our good-timing mood, we forgot to choose our next meeting place. Does anyone want to volunteer?

Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover

Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills” bag. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged metal in her father’s junkyard.

Her father distrusted the medical establishment, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when an older brother became violent.

When another brother got himself into college and came back with news of the world beyond the mountain, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. She taught herself enough mathematics, grammar, and science to take the ACT and was admitted to Brigham Young University. There, she studied psychology, politics, philosophy, and history, learning for the first time about pivotal world events like the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the grief that comes from severing one’s closest ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes, and the will to change it.