Check it out

Prediction: Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time will be one of the four finalists for College Book 2009 in the voting this fall.

Co-authored by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, this award-winning book tells Mortenson’s story. While trying to reach the top of K2 (and in many ways this book is reminiscent of the very popular Into Thin Air), Mortenson became lost and was rescued by local tribesmen. As his way of thanking them, Mortenson went back later to build a school. It became his passion and his career.

Three Cups of Tea is part adventure (Mortenson was captured by jihadists), part anthropology, and largely inspirational. If you are feeling that much around you is beyond your control (rising gas prices, the presidential elections), read this book to see how one person can make a difference in the world. You will get to the last page wishing you could help, and in the acknowledgements at the end, Mortenson tells you how. And they are all do-able.

Book review by Diane Gustafson, SWC Librarian