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| Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations . . . One School at a Time | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: Viking
Category: EBooks
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $9.00
You Save: $6.00 (40%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  1351 reviews
Sales Rank: 19
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Dewey Decimal Number: 371.82209549
ASIN: B000OT8GTO
Publication Date: March 22, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban's backyard. Anyone who despairs of the individual's power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan's treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools especially for girls that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson's quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1346 more reviews...
STOP what you are doing... June 2, 2006
497 out of 576 found this review helpful
you.. yes YOU behind the terminal, surfing the web, maybe finding that cheap chotcky to buy or something. Stop what you are doing if you have come across this book and this review. You need to read this more than you think!
Within the confines of 350 pages you can be transported to a world that for most Westerner's and specifically Americans, is probably very unknown, and more than likely, highly misunderstood. In this world you will be introduced to a man named Greg Mortenson, or as you soon to know him, as Greg Sahib..
The story that is told by David Oliver Revin, will not just be inspiring, will not be just teeth clenching, it will make you re-evaluate what you do in your life. While most of us may talk about the incapacity of the administration, or some (unfortunatly) the hatred of the middle East, or maybe some of you are even lying down in the streets, but there is ONE person who is TRULY doing something about the problems of foreign policy by litteraly getting his hands dirty touching the earth to build a school foundation, and risking his life ten times over.
When you have read this journey, you will be saying to yourself, did he really do that? That guy is CRAZY! Did that really happen?, the Taliban? , How is that possible? In the journey that is fortold of a change of fate through a failed mountain expedition, you can see what the spirit of the individual can do and how it can be transformed. As the events of 9/11 soon come to fruition, Greg couldn't be in a better place at the right time, and with David's narration, you are litteraly put in the drivers seat.
After reading Mortensen's journey, you will want to litteraly book a plane ticket to somewhere you have never been before. In reading the accomplishments of a somewhat flawed (hey what person is perfect) individual, you will feel small and insignifigant. David Relin will not just explain what Greg did, he will make you live it, with some enjoyable side narrations that will make you grin.
In Three Cups of Tea, David has managed more than anything to explain the heart of a problem (Islamic hatred of the West) of a very complicated nature (through numerous foreign policy debacles and politics spanning decades), and how one man knows of an easy solution (Go to poor regions of the Middle East and give education and extend the olive branch. Build schools for the poorest of the poor, ecspecially for girls. And more importantly, let them know that it was done.. by an American).
As if it was so difficult to understand.
I encourage you to take this journey and figure out that sometimes the biggest problems in life require some of the most common sense solutions. I also echo the other comments on here that you should buy this book from the actually CAI institute and consider a donation as well.
Greg Mortensen is doing what he is doing best, and his passion comes through the pages. For myself my passion is to write. Like Gregg I feel it is what I can do best (when I put my effort my passion, and my soul into it).
now if you'll excuse me...
I have to go write a check.
A blueprint for making a difference April 4, 2006
258 out of 287 found this review helpful
After four trips over the past three years to Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, and after founding Kashmir Family Aid (www.kashmirfamily.org) to aid victims of the Oct 8, 2005 earthquake, I whole-heartedly endorse Greg Mortenson and his work. This book adds new life to the over-wraught dictum that "one CAN make a difference." Beyond that, if one wants to truly get inside the rural Pakistani's heart and soul, this is mandatory reading.
My personal experience has been that once I met these people (and yes, had tea with them in their tiny homes, or in the quake region, in their tents), it was difficult to want to leave to return to the West. It's a hard thing to explain but Mortenson's book will absolutely do the job. A powerful thread within his story: It would be impossible not to love these people after getting to know them one-on one.
These remote village people are simple, strong and proud. Their lives are spent nurturing their families and working hard in a politically and environmentally tortured region. BUY THE BOOK, get inside the people of this place and then send Greg Mortenson your donation.
 An inspiring story, told poorly November 18, 2007
225 out of 282 found this review helpful
Greg Mortenson's story of a failed attempt at summiting K2 and a later success at transforming and impacting the lives of thousands of Pakistani children through the construction of schools is inspiring, touching and heroic. On the basis of the story alone, I would give it 5 stars. It is unfortunate, therefore, that it is told so poorly by David Relin, whose writing was so problematic that I can only give the book 3.
Moretnson's trials, obstacles and his perseverence in overcoming these challenges to realize his dream of building (initally only one, later 23) schools in the remote regions of Pakistan is magnificent; a man of lesser toughness, integrity, temperment and stuborness certainly would have given up in the face of so many setbacks: financial as he sought to raise monies, personal as his quest took a toll on his personal life, and political, as Pakistanis, mujahadeen, and later, Americans sought to distract or derail his noble work. If you can get past the pained and sometimes overdone writing, these are the gems of the story. It seems many can overlook this shortcoming given the power of Mortenson's deeds. I could not.
Sadly, it took a lot of effort for me to look past the sophmoric writing, which I found to be a distraction from enjoying the larger plot. As other reviewers have noted, describing Mortenson in the third person ("Mortenson settled back into the passenger seat, a place of honor ...") seems odd when reading non-fiction. I can forgive this; it was the style of the prose that set my teeth on edge. Referring to the mountainous terrain as "celestial rocks", "great brown crenulated walls" and how the "Karkoram knifed relentlessly into the a defensless blue sky" demoted the very real contributions Mortenson was making by writing in a pulp-fiction style. Don't misunderstand me - I love my fiction - but this style of writing is very out of place here.
I also didn't care for the minutae provided for every individual Mortenson came across as he relentlessly worked to get his school off the ground. A little background information is helpful, even appropriate, but Relin detracted from the larger issue of what Mortenson was doing by giving a biopic of so many people that, in the end, had only a cursory role in the project.
These criticisms aside, the analysis of how Pakistan (and Islamic central Asia) was transformed by the creation and introduction of madrasas in the late 1990's and early millenium, the political, social and religious tightrope that Mortenson sucessfully navigated, and the remarkable descriptions of tribal culture, customs and rituals were magnificent. One cannot but think that the work that Mortenson has done (and continues to do) is what we as a nation need to do in order to foster understanding, build lasting relationships and successfully address the conflict we face in that part of the world.
As Mortenson said, "The only way we can defeat terrorism is if people in this country (Pakistan) where terrorists exist learn to respect and love Americans, and if we can respect and love these people here. What's the difference between them becoming a productive local citizen or a terrorist? I think the key is education." I agree.
Mortenson's story is remarkable, and needs to be told. It is unfortunate that it was told in the manner it is here. Tighter editing (or perhaps a different ghost writer) would have done much to do his story justice. Nonetheless it is inspiring, informative and moving. Recommended.
 One man against an ocean of need . . . July 28, 2006
158 out of 172 found this review helpful
This is an as-told-to biography of American Greg Mortenson, who has devoted his life to building schools in the remotest mountains of Pakistan. After a failed attempt to scale the earth's second highest peak, K2, he stumbles into an isolated mountain village, where he resolves to repay the generosity of the village leader and his people by building them a school. Mortenson's struggle to fulfill that promise and then committing himself to fund raising and building many more schools, for both boys and girls in this Muslim country, is the central subject of this long, well detailed book.
Rising gamely to meet all obstacles, including his own naivte, errors in judgment, and lack of financial resources, Mortenson falls back on skills and values learned as the son of Lutheran missionaries in Africa. Along the way he encounters others who have the money, the connections, and the abilities to help him on his mission, in both the U.S. and Pakistan. There are frustrations that would discourage the best of us, and there are sudden unexpected turns of fortune that rescue his efforts from oblivion. The book is a lesson in how a real field of dreams comes into being, and it is a quiet rebuff to those who seek change and order in the world's trouble spots through shock-and-awe military might.
Writer David Relin's worshipful account of Mortenson's career draws heavily on "Parade"-style drama, suspense, and sentiment. At times readers may yearn for more objectivity and wonder how much Relin might be glossing over his subject. Still, the story has a momentum of its own, and you read on, as Mortenson's fragile achievements are threatened by other forces set loose by the anti-West indoctrination of Saudi-funded madrassah schools, the emergence of the Talibabn, and the post-9/11 attacks on Afghanistan. Recommended for readers who enjoy heartfelt and inspiring stories of unusual achievement by heroically generous individuals.
 One Cup To Go, Please April 29, 2007
104 out of 206 found this review helpful
I have two problems with this book. Reading it makes me feel like I'm stuck in the seat behind someone very tall in the movie theater. I have trouble, first, getting past the writer and his perceptions of Greg and second, getting to know Greg himself. Like a speaker introducing the guest - I just want to hear Greg tell the story but he only speaks every once in awhile. Like most male authors, the motivations, feelings, emotions etc. are ignored. For example, there's no reaction of Greg's after he gets a garbage can dumped on his head in high school? Wouldn't this have been a good time to have Greg say he missed Africa and vowed to go back someday or something? It feels like there are two people in this book you are asked to get involved with and there should only be one: Greg.
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