I am late to this discussion. I really liked both books. I will say that they could only work as nonfiction. I don’t think either would have been as successful as fiction, especially Educated. Nobody would have thought it was close to reality.
Two of my bridge friends have finished Educated. They both loved it and were horrified by it. My friend Joy kept saying, “I can’t believe people live like that”.
It is hard to judge Lillian Gilbreth’s position in the family. I think the book was definitely written to focus on the father and children. I can’t imagine how many time she must have rolled her eyes at his antics. I did get a bit tired of it about page 170, but I pushed through. I will have to try to read “Bell on their Toes” sometime after I read Middlemarch. If I ever finish reading Middlemarch.