Front Porch Book Club Podcast
Grab your book and iced tea and join the Front Porch Book Club, your no-commitment, casual, and eclectic podcast about books. We examine the relationship between characters, the worlds they live in, and what that means to us.
Latest Episode
108: Educated
Our September book, EDUCATED, is a memoir by Tara Westover. The youngest of seven children, Tara recounts her experience growing up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho, living mostly in isolation with her family, no formal education, not much money, and few ties to...
108: Educated
Our September book, EDUCATED, is a memoir by Tara Westover. The youngest of seven children, Tara recounts her experience growing up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho, living mostly in isolation with her family, no formal education, not much money, and few ties to the surrounding community. Against all odds, Tara decides to follow the example of an estranged brother who has gone to college. Her quest for knowledge takes her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University, and further divides her from the family that was once her world.
Linny says this is the kind of book that Nancy and Linny could talk about for hours, laying on a bed. It was riveting and had so many components. In the end, Nancy thought it was a book about identity. Linny loved the complexity of the family’s dysfunction and mental health issues.
Tara is supposed to be home-schooled, but in reality, there is no schooling. Tara’s father owns a junkyard and presses his children into working with him with little regard to their safety. He has a terrible temper, little regard for safety, self-aggrandizing opinions, and expectes unconditional obedience, especially from his wife and his daughters.
As Tara gets older, she starts seeing cracks in her father’s edifice. His prophecies don’t come to fruition. She notices her mother, though extremely submissive, allows her to do things, but then won’t stand up to Gene when things blow up. Instead, Tara is left to defend herself. Tara doesn’t like how her family basically disowns her brother, Luke, who decides to go to BYU. The lesson is if you disobey you are expelled. Tara suffers physical and emotional abuse but even in her journals, she downplays the problems and lies to herself about the abuse she is experiencing. Her brother Shawn is like a more violent Gene who is allowed to be physically abusive to (and nearly kill) Tara, her older sister, Audrey, and his various girlfriends and his eventual wife. No one really calls him to task but instead it isn’t happening. As she furthers her education and attempts to come to terms with her family’s view of the world, she is basically given a choice of “believe the family stories of how the world operates or be cast out.”
Linny and Nancy both say EDUCATED is a 10/10 read!
About Front Porch Book Club
I honestly was blown away by the deep dive Nancy and Linny did into SPARKS LIKE STARS and really appreciated the personal perspectives they brought.
Nadia Hashimi, Author
Every month the Front Porch Book Club features two episodes on our selected book. In the first episode Linda and Nancy introduce the book and discuss their thoughts. In the second episode, Linda and Nancy are joined by the author or an expert to delve deeper into the book. Our book selections are eclectic: fiction, autobiography, history, memoir, investigative journalism, and classics. They are books that give us insights into how we may be more intentional, creative, and loving.
Recent Episodes
73: The Shadow of the Wind
In post-civil war Spain, young Daniel is cast into danger when he refuses to sell his rare copy of a Julian Carax novel to a mysterious cloaked man intent on destroying all copies of the author's books. Over a ten-year period, Daniel uncovers old resentments, past...
72: Author Shelby Van Pelt
Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, has become a word-of-mouth bestseller. No surprise, since this warm and generous novel introduces three very different characters all facing their own "stuckness": a grieving widow, an aquarium-confined...
71: Remarkably Bright Creatures
Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus, has lived most of his life in the Sowell Bay Aquarium but yearns for the ocean's currents while he watches the humans who pass his tank with disdain. That is, until Tova, the night janitor saves him from dying on one of his...
70: Kenneth Kiewra on talent
We delve into the research-based side of talent development with Dr. Kenneth Kiewra, an educational psychology professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who is an expert in talent development. We learn about talent development in children and adults, along with...
Meet The Hosts
Growing up, Nancy always had her nose in a book. She never remembers not loving to read books. Linda, on the other hand, hated libraries and spent her childhood trying to lure Nancy away from books into some other activity that she thought would be way more fun. That’s right – we’re sisters. Nancy was more of an introvert and Linda was more of an extrovert. But, somewhere along the way, Linda started loving books and Nancy started loving talking about books. Nancy is a recovering academic in Nebraska who writes and Linda is a licensed counselor in Pennsylvania.