I finally got to see this one. First time out I was sitting with my own book club and it was lovely logical to see it as a group, but I had a glass of wine before the movie with dinner and I don’t think I saw more than the opening, a bit of the middle and the very end. The book buds loved the film and never let on that I missed it and I didn’t say a word.

The second time we were on a plane coming home from Tucson and again I was psyched. I even stopped the stewardess from making a mistake to show another film instead, the one we tortured through on the way out to Tucson. She gratefully made good on her error and began Jane for me and some disappointed kids. Tuvia didn’t hear too much and I had trouble as well. The tiny screen hung far away from us. It was a waste. Finally, we got to see it when it came out on DVD just this week. It was romantic for me and probably Tuvia as well. He did like it. I did like it. Women and men dealing with their lives and reading books and the conversations merged and blurred the worlds. That’s true of my book club as well. Our lives and our book lives always merge, always ebb and flow.

The women and men were great looking. They had their issues but in the end everyone gets together. All good looking and fulfilled with life and books. Works for me! I love my book club. I love Jane Austen and my Girls Night Out bunch will be willing to read some Jane Austen as well. I can’t wait to get back to Darcey and Elizabeth.

First I need to find some of the music used in the movie. Music that’s what I have to write about. My passion ignited by music.

And what money does Greg Mortenson get from the government? None. He won’t accept money from the government. And does the government care what he’s doing? Damn, I hope some people do.

Education! Education!

About Greg Mortenson

Greg Mortenson (bio as of October 2007) Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of nonprofit Central Asia Institute www.ikat.org, Pennies For Peace www.penniesforpeace.org, and co-author of New York Times bestseller ‘Three Cups of Tea’ www.threecupsoftea.com which has been a bestseller for over nine months since its release and was Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year. Mortenson was born in Minnesota in 1957. He grew up on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (1958 to 1973). His father, was a founder of Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) www.kcmc.ac.tz a 480 bed teaching hospital, and his mother founded the International School Moshi www.ismoshi.org He served in the U.S. Army in Germany during the Cold War (1977-1979), where he received the Army Commendation Medal, and later graduated from the Univ. of South Dakota (1983), and pursued graduate studies in neurophysiology. On July 24th, 1992, Mortenson’s younger sister, Christa, died from a massive seizure after a lifelong struggle with epilepsy on the eve of a trip to visit Dysersville, Iowa, where the baseball movie, ‘Field of Dreams’, was filmed. In 1993, to honor his sister’s memory, Mortenson climbed Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain in the Karakoram range. After K2, while recovering in a local village called Korphe, Mortenson met a group of children sitting in the dirt writing with sticks in the sand, and made a promise to help them build a school. From that rash promise, grew a remarkable humanitarian campaign, in which Mortenson has dedicated his life to promote education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote, volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. As of 2007, Mortenson has established over 61 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 25,000 children, including 14,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before. His work has not been without difficulty. In 1996, he survived an eight day armed kidnapping in the Northwest Frontier Province NWFP tribal areas of Pakistan, escaped a 2003 firefight with feuding Afghan warlords by hiding for eight hours under putrid animal hides in a truck going to a leather-tanning factory. He has overcome two fatwehs from enraged Islamic mullahs, endured CIA investigations, and also received hate mail and death threats from fellow Americans after 9/11, for helping Muslim children with education. Mortenson is a living hero to rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he has gained the trust of Islamic leaders, military commanders, government officials and tribal chiefs from his tireless effort to champion education, especially for girls. He is one of few foreigners who has worked extensively for fifteen years (spending over 65 months) in the region now considered the front lines of the war on terror. His cross-cultural expertise has brought him to speak on Capital Hill, D.C. think tanks, the Pentagon, Dept. of Defense, libraries, outdoor groups, universities, schools, churches, mosques, synagogues, business and civic groups, women’s organizations and more. From March 2006 through 2007, he has visited over 110 cities to talk about his message of peace through education. NBC newscaster, Tom Brokaw, calls Mortenson, “one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, who is really changing the world”. Congresswoman Mary Bono (Rep – Cali.) says, “I’ve learned more from Greg Mortenson about the causes of terrorism than I did during all our briefings on Capitol Hill. He is a true hero, whose creativity, courage, and compassion exemplify the true ideals of the American spirit.” Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today, and the D.C.-based Freedom Forum, says “Mortenson doesn’t just climb mountains. He moves them, and through his courage, he gives hope and has changed the lives of thousands of children in a region of turmoil considered the front lines of the war on terror”. Mortenson advocates girls’ education as the top priority to promote economic development, peace and prosperity, and says, “you can drop bombs, hand out condoms, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change”. While not overseas half the year, Mortenson, 49, lives in Bozeman, Montana with his wife, Dr. Tara Bishop, a clinical psychologist, and two children. Book tour, reviews and media on www.threecupsoftea.com Central Asia Institute website www.ikat.org Pennies For Peace website www.penniesforpeace.org

I move to my bloglines and as usual Kevin has already posted something on his blog. I open it and there’s an entry about The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick. a book he recommended to me last spring. He was passionate about it and I ordered a copy from Barnes and Noble.

When it arrived, I opened it and started turning the pages and it was truly a unique adventure but somehow, in my chaos at the time, I put it down and gradually, during a spring cleaning I  moved  it to its permanent residence on the middle shelf  in my book case and it’s been living there, untouched ever since.

Just 10 minutes ago, as I began to read Kevin’s post about Hugo Cabret, and its recent award I made my way to the HC website (click below) and found it as wild and imaginative as the book.  From there I discovered  an interview on NPR with Brian Selznick(click below).

As Brian talked about his book I ran to for my copy and as he read from the text,I read along.

It’s right here now and I’m back in it, and it’s all because of Kevin’s early morning post.

Here’s a good example of what would not be right for my new Kindle reader, that’s for sure.

Hugo netted the esteemed Caldecott Medal for 2008.

Hugo Cabret website

The NPR interview :

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7114977

Thanks Kevin. Just another reason why I’m hooked on the web 2.0!

Bonnie

What a pleasure to be READING with my Kindle, to be reading so effortlessly. It’s a perfect book to break in this device. Greg Mortenson is an unusual guy and from the opening pages of this nonfiction account, I am engrossed in his step-by-step adventure in his unexpected life’s work to build as many schools as he can in the villages of Pakistan Afghanistan to educate the population, especially the young women. I talked about this book yesterday as we were hosting family and as I raved about Greg’s work I was greeted with a more cynical response, “sure, train more suicide bombers.” It took a minute to digest and then I countered with passion.
“No, just the opposite. Instead of bombing them, offer them books and hope and civilization. Educate their women, build bridges.” Silence. That was music to my ears.

Such an interesting guy from missionary parents who took their young children to Tanzania. spontaneously to work with the natives. Greg’s father saw the need for a hospital in his areas and devoted himself to its creation. The apple doesn’t fall far. And there Greg began his passion for climbing, with his father. His mom, also a passionate person, gives birth to a disabled child and Greg devotes a good deal of his life supporting a life for her of normalcy until her abrupt death in her 20’s. That sets Greg off on a tribute climb at K2, right near the first village in Pakistan to get his school. Everything about this book has movie written all over it. Perfect selection to break in my Kindle. Perfect.