You know how you have to look when you're driving past an accident on the highway? You don't want to see, but you gawk anyway. That is what keeps you reading Educated. You keep reading on because you just can't believe your eyes. People really live like this? 

This is the story of Tara Westover, a VERY well-educated woman who grew up forbidden to attend public school. Her family lives in rural Idaho and the father demands the family subscribe to some unconventional restrictive teachings of the Mormon church. She grows up in what to many of us would be labeled an abusive, stifling environment. This is the story of her breaking out of that world and the price she must pay to do so. Every other page turn will make you say, "Really?! Did that really happen?" It did. It does. Educate yourself about it. 

If you would have told me I would love (and I mean LOVE) a book about post Civil War era zombies, I would have laughed all the way to the library. I didn't even want to read it, but it was on the BOB list last year and I had to do my duty. Zombies? I don't do zombies. 

But - and I can't tell you why- this crazy world of dead bodies rising from the battlefields  and the girls who are trained to kill them, works. It works SO well. Yes, the Civil War is over, but the struggle for equality, survival and common human decency rages on. Maybe that's why it works. It's a fantastic adventure with a protagonist who, right from the beginning, you want to hang out and fight with. But it's also about more than just fighting zombies. Jane is a warrior whose cause you can believe in.

Highly recommended by EVERYONE I know who read it. (Mrs. Casper, Arri, Mrs. Hawks, Emma, Charles...)

The beautiful thing about books is that you can walk in someone else's shoes for a while. In this book, loved by everyone I checked it out to, you get to experience the lives of people dealing with unimaginable angst, heartache and sometimes joy. Three biological siblings  find each other and grapple with the meaning of family. Each is grappling with troubles of his or her own and then they all must deal with their newfound "family." One is a teenage mother who gave her baby up for adoption, one is a long time resident of the foster care system and another is dealing with addiction and divorce in her family. The story jumps from one character's life to the next until we arrive at the end with a big picture of how they all mesh together. Spoiler alert, but it's a happy ending, which is something of a rarity these days. 

The title alone led me to this one. Sometimes I suspect the internet is doing things to my brain that I'm not entirely capable of recovering from. Surely all this staring at a screen and constantly checking Instagram for likes (are you following @redbaronsread?) is not good for us. Well this book clarifies exactly what is going on in there and makes a solid case for learning to limit our social media binging. The explanation of how memory works and what that means for people living in today's multitasking, fast-paced, online world is a bit too scientific for some readers, I imagine, but I needed to hear it, even though I might not have understood it completely. I particularly loved the exploration of various technologies throughout history and how each changed how humans live and how their minds work. Fascinating. Upon finishing the book, I immediately made new rules for my screen time. And then I quickly forgot all about them. But the book did leave a lasting impression. "We shouldn't allow the glories of technology to blind our inner watchdog to the possibility that we've numbed an essential part of our self."