Our book club's pick this month is Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. There's been a lot of buzz about this book (in fact, I first heard about it a few months ago from a woman that was sitting next to me at the mechanic while my car was being serviced.) Three or four different book clubs that I know of have read this in the last couple of months. So, I admit that I was rather skeptical that the book could live up to all the raving about it. Well, I stand corrected, and while I probably won't rave per se, I can say that I'm extremely glad that I read it, and it has made me think a lot.
Three Cups of Tea is the story of Greg Mortenson and his mission to educate children- especially girls- throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan. He believes that education is the key to peace, and as an educator myself, I can say that I believe him. This memoir explains how Mortenson came to begin his work- some of the challenges as well as many of the successes. I was impressed with the way that the book presents Mortenson's mistakes and set backs in addition to the influence and following that he has developed.
The crux of Mortenson's ideal is summed up in a quote that he gave to Parade magazine.
If we try to resolve terrorism with military might and nothing else then we will be no safer than we were before 9/11. If we truly want a legacy of peace for our children, we need to understand that this is a war that will ultimately be won with books, not with bombs.
As I said, I enjoyed this book greatly. It made me want to go out and make the world a better place (I know, I know, it's quite the cliche, but you can't come away from this book without feeling this way!) I'm looking forward to our book club discussion.
1 comment:
I felt much the same way; it wasn't a great book, but it's a good story. And it makes you want to get up and do something. (That's why I said read the book then give money to CAI. :) I did read a review over at Blonde Momentoes that wasn't terrible positive; she was bored silly by the whole thing. I guess not everyone's raving about it.
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