Five Best: Books on Second Chances
Educated By Tara Westover (2018) 1. In her intense memoir, Tara Westover recounts coming of age in the volatile environment created by her survivalist father and his doomsday conspiracies. Growing up in rural Idaho, she never received the compassion or support—or schooling—a child needs.
Instead, she was told that her value and place were in the home. Yet she refused to accept the narrative she was given. At 17, she began to educate herself; at 18, she enrolled in college.
From there she was awarded a scholarship to Cambridge, where which she eventually earned a doctorate. “An education is not so much about making a living as making a person," she writes. The difference between the narrow boundaries of her sheltered beginnings and the wide-open horizons of her academic achievements is nothing short of astonishing and serves as a memorable reminder of the transformative power of learning.
In Order to Live By Yeonmi Park (2015) 2. Yeonmi Park’s harrowing narrative brings the reader back to her dark and grueling past as a child in North Korea. After the collapse of the state-supported economy in the mid-1990s and amid the ensuing nationwide famine, Yeonmi’s father relied on smuggling goods into the country to help support his family.
At age 13 and weighing 60 pounds, Yeonmi escaped to China with her sister and mother, only to fall into the hands of human traffickers. “In order to Live" revisits moments from Ms. Park’s past and recounts her struggle to be free.
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