Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea

One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time

David Oliver Relin and Greg Mortenson

83 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List

Paperback, 368 pages

Penguin (non-classics)

ISBN 978-0143038252

$15.00

Buy the book here

(Scroll to link at bottom of page — 7% of proceeds donated to Central Asia Institute)

If you haven’t yet heard about this book, I’m glad you’re reading this. My husband and I took turns reading Three Cups of Tea to each other on a recent vacation, and its story has inspired us both to greater service and generosity. Even if you just love a gripping tale full of heroic love, intrigue, and suspense, Three Cups of Tea will not disappoint. The book begins with Greg Mortenson’s failed attempt to climb K2, in which he becomes dangerously lost and is cared for in the village of Korphe. In gratitude, the young mountain climber pledges to build the village a school, and thus begins the saga of “one man’s mission to promote peace, one school at a time.”

See Greg Mortenson Slide Show

To date Mortenson, now Executive Director of Central Asia Institute, has built 55 schools in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan where often the only schools are madrassas raised by the Taliban to train boys as jihadis. By providing education to poor children, and to girls in particular in this otherwise volatile region, Mortenson offers a workable alternative to non-extremist schooling and its tragic outcomes.

Mortenson’s story ranges far and wide: we follow him from the remote villages of Pakistan; to his whirlwind marriage to his wife, Tara; to sharing tea with Taliban leaders; back to his modest home in Bozeman, Montana; even to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s office at the Pentagon. For the sake of girls in Muslim countries whom he has never met, Mortenson has endured hunger, terror, kidnapping, humiliation, and heartbreak. Despite all this, the undeniable message of Three Cups of Tea is that it is by serving others that one finds joy in life. Mortenson’s smile is contagious, and so is his mission. If you haven’t yet jumped up to get this book, please do so. Read it right away. You can write in and thank me later.

Written by journalist David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of Tea has won numerous awards, including the Kiriyama Prize for nonfiction and Time Magazine’s Asia Book of the Year.

In August 2008, National Public Radio aired a segment on Greg Mortenson’s work and his long history forging relationships with tribal chiefs, mullahs, and imams in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Listen here

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Ceci Miller owns CeciBooks, an editorial and book publishing consultancy that empowers authors to write, publish, and market irresistible books that uplift and inspire. Ceci has written, co-authored, and edited books with bestselling authors and experts since 1988. See new and popular book projects. Also . . . Find expert information on writing, publishing, and marketing a book in CeciBooks Chats (Getting Started series is FREE).A graduate of the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Ceci Miller is also the author of two published children’s picture books, and former contributing editor for Darshan, an international magazine. A student of yoga and meditation since 1976, Ceci leads seminars that explore language as a vehicle for personal transformation. Based on her book Sacred Visitations, and the popular book she co-authored with John Lee, Writing from the Body, Ceci’s work (both with CeciBooks authors and in public programs) blends writing, intuitive guidance, and contemplative practices that connect right brain creativity with your true intention.