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Get a Head Start on The Next One Book!

By Daniella Snyder

I’m Daniella Snyder, a graduate student at Villanova University, and your ‘Cat in Falvey Library’s stacks. I’ll be posting about academics–from research to study habits and everything in between–and how the Falvey Memorial Library can play a large role in your success here on campus!

Hey, Wildcats, if your quarantine time looks anything like mine, you’ve had some free time on your hands. Why don’t you use that free time to get ahead? Crack open Villanova’s next One Book: Educated by Tara Westover.

Westover will speak to the University community on Sept. 9, 2021. If you can’t get your hands on a copy (you can borrow the e-book in Falvey’s catalog), consider this week’s blog post as your introductory guide to the next campus-wide read.

Seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom, Westover was born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho and prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches. In the summer, she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter, she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, so Westover 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 Westover’s older brother became violent.

Then, lacking a formal education, Westover began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important 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. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home. She pursued learning for a decade, graduating magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and subsequently winning a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She received an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 2009 and in 2014 was awarded a PhD in history. Currently, she is a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center, working on projects related to media and political polarization. Educated is her first book (tarawestover.com).

Aside from being selected as Villanova’s next One Book, Educated was named the Nonfiction Book of the Year by the American Booksellers Association, the winner of the 2018 Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir, a double-finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize, and one of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2018, among many other accolades and awards.

If you’d like to hear more, check out Westover’s interview on The Ellen Show, her interview on CBS, and her interview with PBS.

*Note: Tara Westover’s visit to campus was originally scheduled to take place in Sept. of 2020; however, due to the impact of COVID-19, the visit had to be moved to Sept. 9, 2021. Mark your calendars!

 


Daniella Snyder HeadshotDaniella Snyder is a graduate assistant in the communication and marketing department at Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the English department. This week, she’s reading The Best American Food Writing 2019.

 

 

 


 


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The Curious ‘Cat: Audie Awards

For the past 25 years, the Audio Publishers Association has honored outstanding achievement in audio publishing. Celebrating the 2020 Audie Awards, which were held in Manhattan on Monday, March 2, the Curious ‘Cat asked Falvey Memorial Library Staff…

“What audiobook do you recommend for spring break?” 

 

Photo of Rob LeBlanc. Rob LeBlanc, First-Year Experience Librarian and Humanities Librarian: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, narrated by Allan Corduner. 

 

 

 

 

 

Joanne Quinn, Director of Communication and Marketing: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, narrated by Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer, and Pablo Schreiber. 

Beaurdy Rae Allen, Preservation/Digital Archivist: Bad Blood—Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou, narrated by Will Damron. 

 

Shawn Proctor Head shot. Shawn Proctor, Communication and Marketing Program Manager: Small Spaces by Katherine Arden, narrated by Renee Dorian. 

 

 

 

 

 

Roberta Pierce, Access and Collections Coordinator: She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb, narrated by Linda Stephens. 

Leigh Dawson, temporary Access Services employee: Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier, narrated by Will Patton.

 

Photo of Kallie Stahl.

Kallie Stahl, Communication and Marketing Specialist: The Testaments — The Sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, narrated by Ann Dowd, Bryce Dallas Howard, Mae Whitman, Derek Jacobi, Tantoo Cardinal, and Margaret Atwood. 

 

 

 

 

See the full list of 2020 Audie Award winners here! Be sure to check out the 2020-2021 Villanova University One Book selection, Educated by Tara Westover, 2019 Audie Award winner for best autobiography/memoir and best female narrator (Julia Whelan).


Kallie Stahl head shot. Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library.

 

 



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Last Modified: March 4, 2020

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