Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin's Three Cups of Tea
Ughhhh. I'm sure you all can guess that I didn't choose this title for library book group--I'm SO not into inspiring non-fiction. And this was soooo annoying. I made it to page 175 but seriously can't take any more of the cheesy, patronizing, self-congratulatory writing. (It's sooo overblown, like check this out from page 85, "his face changed as quickly as a mountain crag fired by a shaft of sun."--Are you freaking kidding me?!) I'm not sure what there's even to discuss about this. "Yeah, this guy did great things, raising money to start schools in the poor regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan!" "I totally agree!" " . . . " "OK, now what do we talk about for an hour?" I also felt that the writing was a little racist/paternalistic on some level--the author(s) really wanted to make these poverty-stricken Muslims into characters--they never feel like real people, at all. In fact, Mortenson himself is something of a caricature. Terrible, terrible book. Now the real question is, how much of this will I say at book group on Wednesday, when I know that the coworker who suggested it loves it?
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