Calling all Literate Bookish Types!  A new event is coming your way in February.  Since you Bookish Literary Types are also Highly Intelligent, you have already figured out that this exciting evening will occur each month on the Third Thursday of the month, the first one being 
February 21, 7:30 p.m. at the home of Berkeley Meigs and Mike McCaleb. Refreshments will be served.

It is our thought to alternate between fiction and nonfiction so that there will be something for everybody.   With that in mind, the first selection will be the much acclaimed nonfiction work, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.   
A synopsis of this fascinating book follows  this announcement.

Attendance will be limited to the first 14 Graduates to respond. If you would like to attend, please contact Berkeley.  There is no cost for this inaugural event, but if you reserve and can’t make it, please call so someone on the waiting list can take your place. The Third Thursday Club is being sponsored by Berkeley and Polly Clement.

About the Book:
“Three Cups of Tea is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of our time. Greg Mortenson’s dangerous mission to build schools in the wildest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan is not only a thrilling read, it’s proof that one ordinary man, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world.”    - Tom Brokaw

Do you know anyone who would be willing to sell everything they own and live in their car just so they could help someone else? Greg Mortenson, a great American hero, did just that when he followed through on his promise to a Pakistani village to build a school for its children, and in the process has found himself playing a major role in one of the most historically and culturally pivotal areas in the world today.

Greg Mortenson and acclaimed journalist David Oliver Relin recount the unlikely journey that led Mortenson from a failed attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully building schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By replacing guns with pencils, rhetoric with reading, Mortenson combines his unique background with his intimate knowledge of the third world to fight terrorism with books, not bombs, and successfully bring education and hope to remote villages in central Asia. Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man is really changing the world  one school at a time.

In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan.  Alone, without food or water or shelter, he eventually stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health.
While recovering he observed the village’s 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1 a day salary to hire a teacher. When he left the village, he promised that he would return to build them a school.

From that rash, heartfelt promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time: Greg Mortenson’s one man mission to counteract extremism and terrorism by building schools  especially for girls- throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.

Mortenson had no reason to believe he could fulfill his promise. In an early effort to raise money he wrote letters to 500 celebrities, businessmen, and other prominent Americans. His only reply was a $100 check from NBC’s Tom Brokaw.  Selling everything he owned, he still only raised $2,000. But his luck began to change when a group of elementary school children in River Falls, Wisconsin, donated $623 in pennies, thereby inspiring adults to take his cause more seriously. Twelve years later he’s built fifty five schools.

Mortenson and journalist David Oliver Relin have written a spellbinding account of his incredible accomplishments in a region where Americans are feared and hated. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived an armed kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. Yet his success speaks for itself. This year the schools will educate 24,000 children.

Purchase of the paperback book through Amazon will generate up to 7% of proceeds to benefit Central Asia Institute. You must purchase the book through the link http://www.threecupsoftea.com/Intro.php/
 to benefit the Institute.