Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time - David Oliver Relin, Greg Mortenson

Mergablerg, This book.  I really struggled on how to rate this because of all the issues surrounding this book and Greg Mortenson in general.  From a purely book stand point the writing came off as hero worship but was otherwise okay. But this book was billed as nonfiction and huge chunks where either made up or misrepresentations. So really rating this book was a total crap shoot.

 

 

I picked this book up because I heard Mortenson speak at my college right before everything started to implode. Specifically he gave a talk at the end of March and then the 60 Minutes piece aired in April 2011. It was weird because when I saw him speak i remember thinking that he was a very odd person for so many people to be drawn to, he was clearly very passionate but he didn't seem well spoken and in ways I remember feeling like he was talking to elementary kids, not the adults that filled the room. But I was drawn to the idea of building schools and I still feel like that is an important endeavor however with the very basis of the story being so 'condensed' and misrepresented as well as whole sections being fabricated, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth for Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute.  I don't know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Also I feel super weird because I just found out when I was reading this that the co-author who so clearly admired Mortenson committed suicide during the fallout. I don't know it all feels hinky. 

 

Has anyone else read a book with similar drama surrounding it?