I feel a little bit behind with this whole Greg Mortensen phenomenon. Apparently he came to speak at BYU pretty recently, and Eric's dad had kind of been raving about him and his book ever since then. Only, Gordon hadn't actually READ the book; he'd just heard it was good. I talked to him about it on Thursday, when I had about 100 pages to go, and he was about 50 pages in. He and I had pretty much the same thought: Great story, not so great writing.With that said, I think that everyone should learn about what Greg Mortensen is doing in Pakistan and Afghanistan; it's pretty amazing.
In short, he's building schools for children, especially girls, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He believes that education will allow people in remote villages in those countries to improve their lives and will keep them away from terrorism.
On the whole, the people are really grateful for what he is doing. There have been some extremists who do not approve of educating girls, but most of the people in these villages recognize that educating girls actually helps the villages the most because the girls will stick around instead of abandoning the villages for the big cities.
If you really want to learn about Greg Mortensen's mission in the Middle East (and you should) I would recommend listening to interviews or speeches or whatnot. The book, unfortunately, is not stellar.
1 comment:
I found your blog through someone else's because of all the books you talk about. I'm with you on this book - great concept, but not great writing. Relin is supposed to have improved Mortensen, but he was part of the problem...
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