Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

I am always supicious of books about white Americans who travel to third-world countries and decide they need to save the starving children. So, I wasn't sure I wanted to read this book, about Greg Mortenson, an American (raised in Africa), who fails to summit K2 and instead emerges determined to build schools for Pakistani children, girls in particular. While at times it was difficult for me to trust journalist Relin's account of Mortenson's super-human quest which has developed into the Central Asia Institute and built over 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan, I mostly found myself moved by Mortenson's vision. As he struggles through his own poverty in Berkeley, he manages to meet and inspire a network of benefactors and to win over the trust of the people he hopes to help, but from whom he realizes he has so much to learn. This is an eye-opening account of life in the Muslim world, pre and post-9/11, and the amazing amount of strength and determination it takes to improve access to education and to build true friendships across nations.