October 6th: Three Cups of Tea

Greg Mortenson stays in the news: here is a story posted 26 September by David Martin of CBS News.

We had a great discussion about the book for August, Lipstick Jihad. One question that came up was the question of how outsiders can help and not hurt societies that are struggling with fundamentalism and extremism.

This question led us to the book for September: Three Cups of Tea.

Please join us on October 2nd to discuss the book! If you cannot meet us in person, feel free to post questions and/or comments for the group on the blog.

Remember, you do not have to have read the book to join in the discussion!

If you think you may not have time to read the entire book, check out this recorded interview with the author, Greg Mortenson, conducted April 1, 2008.

Mortenson is still very active, and his work will be strongly affected by current events in Pakistan. He recently met (now former) President Musharraf, as reported on All Things Considered. Mortenson is also planning on writing another book about his work- read about it in this review.

In case any of you are curious about the mountaineering side of this, explore this history of climbing K2, and this trip planner, which contains a lot of information and photographs, and provides a window into this other world that climbers inhabit.