Book 72: "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin

Standing next to Haji Ali, on the ledge overlooking the valley, with such a crystalline view of the mountains he'd come halfway around the world to measure himself against, climbing K2 to place a necklace on its summit suddenly felt beside the point. There was a much more meaningful gesture he could make in the honor of his sister's memory. He put his hands on Haji Ali's shoulders, as the old man had done to him dozens of times since they'd shared their first cup of tea. "I'm going to build you a school," he said, not yet realizing that with those words, the path of his life had just detoured down another trail, a route far more serpentine and arduous than the wrong turns he'd taken since retreating from K2. "I will build a school," Mortenson said. "I promise."

Even before I got to that paragraph, I could see that Greg Mortenson came to Korphe at just the right point in his life, when he needed a new outlet for his caring side.

By the middle of the book, Greg Mortenson had bumbled around, ignored sensible advice from his friend the Korphe village chief which leads to him being kidnapped close to the Afghan border (but luckily released) and taken 4 years to get one school built. But he also built up a team of backers and helpers both in Pakistan and America, and managed to get 4 more schools built the following summer, plus helping some other schools which already existed. And he also managed to marry a woman he had only known for 6 days!

There were 18 people already in the queue to read my local library's copy of this book when I needed to read it for a book club, but luckily I was able to borrow a copy from a friend. So it's obviously popular and it's a very interesting story, but it's written in a very annoying style. Normally, these ghost-written stories are told in the first person, but this one is told in the third-person which I found very irritating for some reason.

But whatever the book's shortcomings this is an inspiring tale, as Greg Mortenson tries to convince politicians and ordinary Americans that education is the best way to stop children from growing up into tewrrorists, and heads into Afghanistan to build girls' schools in areas retaken from the Taliban. And it was a real eye-opener to read about how Saudi money was flooding Pakistan, funding the building of mosques and madrassas with the opposite goal to Mortenson's.

Nottingham Round the World Reading Challenge - PAKISTAN / KARAKORUM MOUNTAINS

Book 73: "Soho Black" by Christopher Fowler

Death. A wall that had suddenly appeared before me. One short climb over it and I was free to drop from the other side, my worldly cares dissolving as I fell.
Death. I could say it now, knowing that I finally had the measure of its power.
Death. Each time it formed on my silent lips, it shrank a little.
Death. The word replaced the sound of my heart.
Death. Reduced to a dictionary position.
Death. Its strength vanishing.
Death. Smaller still.
Death. Smaller.
Gone.

And Life.

This was actually quite an unpleasant book, and not one to read while eating. I nearly didn't make it to the end, when all was explained and wrapped up neatly.

Book 74: "The Restraint of Beasts" by Magnus Mills

'And to think they only started off building fruit cages,' said Tam.
'Who?' I asked.
'The company.'
'Did they?'
'That was before your time. Or yours, Rich. Raspberries mainly.'
'To stop them escaping? asked Richie.
'Er . . . No. Not really . . . no.'

Deadpan humour in this story of Scottish fencers, building high-tensile fences on an English farm. I enjoyed it more than "All Quiet on the Orient Express", but not as much of some of his other books.

Book 75: "War With the Newts" by Karel Capek

Say what you will, the Newts have brought enormous progress to the world, as well as an idea called Quantity. 'We people of the Newt Age,' is a phrase uttered with justified pride; good heavens, how can you compare us with that outmoded Human Age with its ponderous, finicky and useless fuss that went by the name of culture, the arts, pure science, and what have you! Real, self-assured Newt Age people will no longer waste their time meditating on the Essence of Things; they will be concerned solely with numbers and mass production.

It all starts when some pacific islanders warn a Czech sea captain against going to Devil Bay in his search for pearls. What he finds there is a group of enormous newts that can walk on their hind-legs and seem strangely intelligent. He gives them knives to defend themselves against sharks in return for bringing him pearl oysters, and then starts shipping them to other islands to dive for oysters there.

From this small beginning, the newts that were originally found on just one atoll, gradually colonise the coastlines of the world, as first businessmen and then governments find them useful for underwater building, dredging harbours and defending their coasts. But the newts are much more intellgent than originally thought, and as one female can produce 100 young each year, the situation is unlikely to stay stable for long.

A 1930s satire on politics, slavery, science and much more, by the author who first invented the robot. Very good indeed!