Tea Reading

Every third Thursday of the month I go over to a different subdivision and sit in on their book club. The women in this group are about 7 to 15 years older than I am. Very Historia Lane for those who watch or know of desperate house wives.
This month we read Three Cups of Tea about the dude that funds and builds schools in basically a huge Middle Eastern war zone. Clearly a non-fiction. This seems to be harder to discuss, at least from this point of view. It is the facts (or embellished facts) of someone's life rather than the underlying message of the character or the book. In the end it is what it is and there is not much to interpret. I like to keep this personal opinion in mind as the discussion happens.
Now, the book discussion asks questions like "What was the importance of Greg not summiting K2?" or "What was the importance of Greg coming to the village of Korphe?" Really, it is a no brainer. And all the other women start talking about if he had not gotten to the village he would not be doing what he is doing....this leads into "deeper" discussion about other cultures. (Same conversation, different book club meeting.) Fast forward to Alice (not her real name) talking about this Muslim woman she is doing some "work on" who has lived in the US for 16 years and holds fast to her Syrian culture by wearing traditional clothing. Alice says this woman feels separated from our society and longs for closer connections to other women. Alice than says well if she took off the "damn garb" maybe she would have better luck. I can't help but see the irony in the fact we are a bunch of white women talking about the amazing life of an American man with an open heart who accepts and respects Middle Eastern culture and as a result changes the world a little at a time and yet ....

By the way, I have added a On the Shelf section to the blog. These are the intent to read books that may be getting dusty.