The Material Girl apparently has found out a hard truth in life.  Sometimes, plastic surgery can be a VERY bad idea…

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(As reviewed by Jane)   

I come from a family of enthusiastic readers and so I tend to ask my sisters for book suggestions and so, when both of them said “you HAVE to read “Three Cups of Tea”, I figured that it must be pretty good.

“Three Cups of Tea:  One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School At a Time” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin is really an amazing story.  A guy named Greg Mortenson was a mountain climber, who found himself stranded in a remote area of Pakistan, during a failed attempt to climb K2.   The people in the tiny village of Korphe, took him in, nursed him back to health and thanks to their kindness, he promised to one day build them a school.

Mortenson had no idea how he would accomplish this promise and after he returned to the U.S., he bummed around for awhile and finally started to try and plan to fulfill his promise.      

The rest of the book details how a promise to a tiny group of people who treated him like family (the title of the book is from a proverb that says,  “the first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time, you are an honored guest.  The third time, you become family”) became his mission, as he struggled to build that first school, in an area lacking roads.

That first school was the genesis of the Central Asia Institute and over the years, he’s built more than 50 schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Many of these schools have made it a top priority to educate girls, who for generations were not allowed an education.  The schools also fight the fundamental Islamic education that threatens to take over the region.

The book is really a fascinating look into a region, that gets very little western coverage.  The tribal leaders are desperately trying to educate their children, knowing that it’s the only way they will survive the wave of terror that threatens the region.

It’s an inspirational story of how just one person can make a huge difference in the world and like me, you may feel like making a donation to the Central Asia Institute, after you finish reading.  Greg Mortenson feels there is much left to do in the world.    

And now through the end of September, you can pick it up today at all three locations of The Tattered Cover Book Store, for a 20% discount!