Nickolai of the North, by Lucy Daniel Raby

REVIEW: NICKOLAI OF THE NORTH (3*)

by Lucy Daniel Raby (Hodder Children's Books, 2006)

I picked this up in an attempt to boost my festive spirit during the run-up to our Christmas break, and finished it on Christmas Eve night.  Perfect timing!  And a perfect choice.  Raby has taken a typically probing question by her young daughter, about what Santa was like as a child and where he came from, and spun it into this original fairytale for the older child/younger teen market.

This is a story about a little boy, Nickolai, and his search for his family.  After a horrific attack on the Elfin kingdom by the witch Magda and her evil band of demons and goblins, baby Nickolai is snatched from the snow by a flying reindeer just as Magda's vicious wolves are closing in.  Deposited down a chimney in the nearest 'Two-Legs' village, Nickolai grows into a young man in the care of old Joe and Hannah, and makes new friends in his town.  Hearing rumours of a new Golden City further north, Nickolai and his friends travel to investigate.  For Nick, this is a quest to finally find out who he is; for his friends and their families, it is a chance at a new life.  But all that glitters is not gold, and when a terrible plot is uncovered, threatening childhood forever, it's up to Nick and his old reindeer friends to save the day.

This is a wonderful book to give to children at Christmas, weaving together all kinds of Christmassy magic and mythology into one action-packed story.  There are fairies and wolves, demons and witches, elves and reindeer, Northern Lights and streets paved with gold, sleigh rides and a magical forest.  There are hideously evil and twisted characters who seem to be unstoppable in their dastardly plots to destroy the world, and there are good, brave and courageous people who must fight to win the day.  And ultimately, as you may have guessed from the title, this is the story of the boy who grew up to be Santa.  Recommended for children, and anyone who still looks out of their window on Christmas Eve and secretly hopes to see that reindeer-drawn sleigh twinkling across the sky...

Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas to all my lovely readers! 

May there be mince pies, mulled wine and marvellous books aplenty this festive season!

Why I wish I'd reached Paris sooner

I was so sad yesterday to find out that George Whitman, the founder, owner and eccentric proprietor of the world-famous Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris, died on 14 December.  He was 98 and passed away at home, in his apartment above the shop.  His daughter Sylvia took over the day-to-day running of the shop some time ago, but George remained, as much a part of the store as the rickety shelves and the thousands of books he had gathered.

I first read about George and his bookshop in Jeremy Mercer's wonderful Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs: The Left Bank World of Shakespeare and Co. (published as Time Was Soft There in the US).  This book, which describes Mercer's lengthy stay at the bookshop under George's watchful eye, is one of my favourite books of all time, and was a massive inspiration for me when Mum and I started seriously looking into opening a bookshop.  I spent hours trying to work out how I could bring some of the character, the atmosphere and the sheer magnetism of George's creation into our own tiny store.

More than anything, of course, I wanted to visit Shakespeare and Company for myself.  I wanted to spend hours browsing every floor, looking for treasures.  I wanted to run my fingers along the piano upstairs and throw a few coins into the wishing well.  I wanted to see the famous Whitmans for myself, even if I was too shy to do more than throw the occasional glance their way.  I would never have been so presumptious as to call myself a writer in need of a bed for the night, but just to see those couches scattered around the shop and to know that someone could still be so open and generous in our modern sceptical world would have been enough.

Sadly, events have thus far conspired against me.  "After university?" I thought.  Then my agoraphobia descended and knocked me off my feet so completely that I couldn't get to the post office, let alone to France.  And now I run a bookshop of my own.  Although in a way, the very existence of my shop owes something to George and his wonderful literary haven - surely the best kind of tribute - I feel rather sad that when I finally make it to the Left Bank, he will no longer be there.  I can only hope that the shop will continue to thrive in all its glory, with his spirit still surrounding every book, every shelf, every quirky nook and cranny, every eager reader.

If you're interested in reading more about George Whitman, two of the best articles I've seen can be found at the The New York Times and at The Telegraph, and one of George's Tumbleweeds and former house mothers has written a lovely and heartfelt tribute over here.  I'll be re-reading Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs very soon so watch out for my review.  And in the meantime, there is a brilliant 50-minute documentary about George and Shakespeare and Company, available on Google Video, which I have rewatched several times over the years and haven't tired of yet!  Click here for the perfectly-titled Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man...   

Ape House: Bonobos, bombs and unbreakable bonds

REVIEW: APE HOUSE (4*)

by Sara Gruen (Two Roads, 2011)

Most of the reviews I've read of this book have been quite unanimous on one point: that Ape House isn't as good as Water for Elephants.  Which bodes very well for my future Gruen reading, considering how much I enjoyed this one!

Before I even started reading, I was fascinated by Gruen's description (on the dustjacket) of meeting some of the bonobos at the Great Ape Trust during her two years of research, bringing them backpacks of goodies and having a two-way conversation in American Sign Language.  Some of this experience translates directly into the novel, which opens with John Thigpen, a reporter, meeting scientist Isabel Duncan and the bonobos at her Great Ape Language Lab. 

Shortly after his visit, the lab is bombed, with an extreme animal activist group claiming responsibility for the bonobos' 'liberation' via an internet video.  While Isabel is in hospital recovering from her horrific injuries, the bonobos are recaptured and end up forming the central premise for a new reality TV show, the Ape House of the title.  The novel follows the impact of the bombing on the lives of Isabel and her friend Celia, John and his wife Amanda, and, of course, the apes, along with multiple other people on the periphery of their story.  Will Isabel and her ape 'family' ever be reunited?  And will the perpetrators of this devastating attack be found and brought to justice?

On the surface, this is an easy and compelling read.  The plot is well paced, the main characters are well drawn and sympathetic, and the minor characters are diverse and, in several cases, quite amusing.  Underneath all of this, however, is an incredibly fascinating glimpse into the world of the great apes.  The bonobos - six of them, including Bonzi and her baby Lola, and the wonderfully named Mbongo - are brought to life in such an endearing and delightful way that it is impossible not to root for them at every turn.  The linguistic and cognitive capabilities of the apes in the book are all closely based on real bonobo language research.  There is also a horrendous section describing the activities of a rather less scrupulous scientific laboratory (though Gruen does point out in her author note that such cruel experimentation is, thankfully, now illegal).

All in all, I would say that this is an eminently readable novel that covers a lot of complex issues, including family relationships, scientific ethics, modern media, and what it really means to be human.  Gruen includes a couple of further reading suggestions at the back of the book, which I'll definitely be chasing up, and she has given her readers a thoughtful insight into bonobo behaviour and how closely related we are to our ape cousins.  Recommended!

Sara Gruen during her research for 'Ape House'

P.S. If anyone has any reading recommendations along these lines (especially non-fiction), do drop me a line and let me know!  I love it when something captures my imagination and I just want to know more!  :)

Yet another bumper pre-Christmas IMM!

Yes, I've done it again.  Thanks to my annual pre-Christmas book-buying panic and a good couple of hours browsing the book stalls, Waterstones and large library of one of my largest local towns, I've got another cracking crop to share this week!

First up, My Trip To Town.  As you might remember, this same town was also the cause of my bookish downfall two weeks ago - and this time I had twice as long to look round and no Christmas shopping to do, hooray!  My first stop, right after I left my mum and grandma to Do Their Thing, was a book stall I spotted, hidden away up a little side street.  From there I picked up two 'unread but definitely shabby' novels: Jumper by Steven Gould (I heard it's much better than the movie) and No and Me by Delphine de Vigan (which got some good reviews across the blogosphere when it was published a year or two ago - and oh, what a pretty cover!).  Both of 'em for a bargainous £3, marvellous!

 From there it was just a teeny wander down towards a corner on the outskirts of town, by the church, where I remembered there being a few charity shops.  I haven't wandered that far for years (agoraphobia, remember?) but there was still a large Save the Children shop with a big expanse of bookshelves to explore!  For an even-more-bargainous total of £2.50 I picked up Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic Abroad - I've only read the first book but it was much more fun than I expected! - and Jonathan Franzen's much-hyped Freedom.  So far, so awesome!

After that little flurry of unexpected book-buying, I had a good hour and a half to browse Waterstones.  It's been years since I've gone into a bookshop and just BROWSED (agoraphobia again) so I was really looking forward to it!  Usually I make a list of possible titles from my Amazon wishlist, so I can just skip from shelf to shelf looking for the pertinent sections and maybe have a quick look at the display tables as well.  This time I looked at everything!  I trawled every fiction shelf, most of the non-fiction, the display tables and the YA section, and wound up with a fairly restrained five books in my basket.

On the fiction front, first into my basket was I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore.  The reviews have been variable, to say the least, and I don't like the sound of this whole James Frey Writing Factory thing, but the book sounds quite exciting so I reckoned it was time to give it a go!  Anno Dracula by Kim Newman sounds fascinating - it is an alternative history novel based on the premise that the heroes of Bram Stoker's Dracula failed to stop the dastardly vampire taking over Britain.  In fact, he marries Queen Victoria...  Sounds brilliant - and apparently there are more books after this one, yay!  Last on the fiction pile is Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which I've heard mentioned many times and have never really bothered to look at properly.  It's huge, but I was quite pleased with it as a magical impulse purchase!

  On the non-fiction front, I was delighted to find a copy of Wolf Within: How I Learned to Talk Dog by Shaun Ellis.  He appeared on a Martin Clunes documentary about dogs, so I knew his name already.  Having always been fascinated by wolves, he spent two years living with a wild wolf pack (without human contact), and now lives with two wolf packs in a wildlife park here in the UK.  I'd seen his hardcover book disappear and go out of print and was so disappointed not to have bought a copy earlier - but I hadn't realised it had been reprinted under a new title!  Hooray!  My last Waterstones book was Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.  I've never read him before but fancied giving him a try - it sounds amusing! - and I was lucky I picked it up when I did because I heard another woman asking for it two minutes later.  I sneaked away around the corner like Gollum, hugging my basket gleefully!

All that rampant buying done and dusted, I still had half an hour to go fill up my library quota!  Last time I only had enough time to forage for ten of my allotted sixteen books, so I figured my winter blowout wouldn't be complete without completing my annual Library Pilgrimage properly.

Again, I seem to have managed a good mix of fiction and non-fiction this time.  I seem to be very good at buying/borrowing copious amounts of non-fiction, but I read fiction more quickly, especially at this time of year.  I need to be more realistic, I think!  So anyway, on the non-fiction front, I picked out a couple of more accessible-sounding and intriguing titles from my heaving wishlist.  Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's take on her work as an 'undercover' food critic, which should be an interesting read.  Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin appeared in last year's haul, but I didn't get to it before it had to be returned so I'll try and do better this year.  And finally, Incoming! or, Why We Should Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Meteorite, by Ted Nield.  This only arrived on my wishlist a week or two ago, so I was well chuffed to find that the library had a copy.  And what a fantastic title!

After I'd picked up these three I still had a few minutes and three library slots left, so I headed back downstairs to the fiction for one last sweep.  When I finally located the teen section (on a completely different floor from the kid's stuff, even though there was a fair bit of crossover, oops) I picked up Annexed by Sharon Dogar, which I might love or hate, given my well-documented admiration for The Diary of a Young Girl.  I also chose The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill, because I'm a huge fan of The Picture of Dorian Gray.  Big shoes to fill in both these cases, I think!  And last but by no means least, another very recent addition to my wishlist, The Silent Land by Graham Joyce.  This is a wintry tale about a couple staying in a remote mountain village, who wake up to find everyone else has disappeared under an avalanche during the night.  Then creepy things start happening...  Sounds perfect for these cold nights!

On Wednesday I made the most of the sunshine and had a little wander into town before the bookshop opened for the day.  Besides the couple of Christmas bits and pieces I had yet to buy, I also bought another five books!  What can I say, I had to pass a charity shop AND a bookshop to get across town, I couldn't help myself! 

From the MIND charity shop, I picked up four titles.  The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood has been floating on and off my radar since the movie came out. I had Christopher Paolini's Eragon in hardback for a while, but I wanted something more portable really, so I picked up a shabby paperback copy.  I've never heard of The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton, but with a title like that how could I resist? And Flat Earth News by Nick Davies, a timely exposé of poor, deceitful and downright unpleasant journalistic methods, was actually on my library list but I couldn't find it on the shelves, so I was well chuffed to find a hardcover copy for a very reasonable £3.50!  Serendipity indeed.

From there I went down to the bookshop on the corner, because I'd heard that the old owners had retired and so I wanted to go say hi to the new people to *cough* 'remind them' that there was a second-hand bookshop down the road if anyone came in wanting out-of-print titles.  As a measure of goodwill, I picked up a copy of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, for next year's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Book Challenge.

Last up (for now)... we picked up our weekly batch of off-the-shelf charity shop books on Thursday morning, and that provided another book for my winter TBR pile.  I really enjoyed Morgan Spurlock's documentary film Super Size Me, so when I caught a glimpse of Don't Eat This Book as we sifted through the pile, I called dibs on it before it could make its way onto our shop shelves!  And for once, Mum said yes... :)

So, that's it for this week!  (She says, as if she's actually showed some restraint or something...)  I'm still waiting on a couple of Marketplace books, but they'll just have to wait until after Christmas now!  I'm not planning to sit putting together an IMM post on Christmas Day (unless the telly gets REALLY bad) so you'll all have to wait until the following week to see what I've been buying - and what Santa's left under the Christmas tree for me this year...  :)

What's in YOUR mailbox this wintry weekend?

Our postie's been working overtime this week!

It's been a bit of a week again.  I seem to do this every year before Christmas.  When other people are panic-buying mince pies, batteries, stuffing mix and party nibbles as if they'll never be available on the shelves ever again, I'm doing the same with books!  Needless to say, our postman and the local courier delivery men have been rather busy of late...  

So, first up, these three books came from The Works on Tuesday.  "But Ellie, didst thou not already pillage Ye Olde Works of Yonder Town last week?" I hear you cry.  Well, yes, but this was a different store with different stock, and I was hurting after my first physiotherapy appointment.  I also came home with a bundle of super-nostalgic sweets from the old-fashioned sweet emporium, so you can see what kind of mood I was in.  Anyway, Arlene Russo's The Real Twilight: True Stories of Modern Day Vampires was the first book I saw, and for £1.99 I thought it might be interesting to see just how far weird vamp-obsession can go.  Cash, Johnny Cash's famous autobiography, was tucked under a heap of other books so I plucked that out as well.  And just as we were about to leave, I spotted a hardcover copy of Karl Pilkington's An Idiot Abroad hidden behind a big display.  I think he's hilarious but his books are usually so darn expensive, so £4.99 seemed a pretty good deal!

And Then There Was Amazon.  Sometimes I just can't help myself, I have to bring about a personal little 'early Christmas' by means of a large box of glossy new bookish goodies.  First on my list was a taster of the great David Levithan and his stellar co-writing success.  I've heard so much about these books and I thought it was high time to find out what all the fuss is about!  Behold: the beautiful shiny Will Grayson, Will Grayson (co-written with John Green) and the festive Dash and Lily's Book of Dares (with Rachel Cohn)!

Two more YA books I've had my eye on also made the cut.  I've been reading a fair amount of heavier stuff recently as I've pushed forward with my Books to be Read Challenge, so I had a feeling I might be in the mood for something lighter during the holidays!  Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan was a must-have after I finally devoured The Lightning Thief recently (read my review here).  And Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery by Keren David looks like a lot of fun, exploring what happens when a teenager wins the lottery and finds out it isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I actually went looking for Denis Avey's The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz in The Works last week, but came up empty-handed.  It doesn't take long for me to rectify the situation with a little mouse-clicking if the need arises...  I also bought John Elder Robison's Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's.  My copy is actually bright blue, more fun, and lot less creepy than this edition, but I couldn't find an image big enough!  Anyway, it's a very well-respected autobiography and is apparently one of the influences behind Jim Parsons' portrayal of Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory.  Works for me!

Next up, a book I FORGOT to look for in the library last week - Darkside by Belinda Bauer.  I very much enjoyed her debut novel Blacklands when I read it earlier this year, so I have high hopes for this one.  Speaking of high hopes, I finally succumbed to the massive hype around the books and television series, and ordered A Song of Fire and Ice 1: Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.  I don't know what it's about, I haven't seen the series, but the buzz has been so huge that I reckoned it was about time I checked it out for myself!

From the lovely Jen Campbell at the famous Ripping Yarns bookshop (whose blog, This is Not the Six Word Novel, is currently boasting a hilarious collection of Christmassy customer gaffes - I'm now trying to insert "JESUS. I AM YOUR FATHER." into conversation as often as possible) came Wild Abandon by Joe Dunthorne.  His first book, Submarine, is currently perched atop my TBR pile (and I have the movie waiting in the wings too), and in Jen's interview he came across as such a funny, down-to-earth bloke, so I was well chuffed to win a copy of his new novel!  Thanks Jen... :)

One more book arrived for review as well, to add to my new stash of ARCs.  This is a bit of a wild card YA novel from Random House Children's Books - definitely not something I'd normally have picked up - but we'll see.  It's the first book in a new series (another one?!), it's called Black Arts: The Books of Pandemonium, and it's a collaborative effort (another one?!) from Andrew Prentice and Jonathan Weil.  I'm not sure what the plot is about, but I gather it involves historical London, magic, John Dee and a young hero rather mischievously called 'Jack the Nipper'...

Now, early Christmas presents!  One of my bestest book buddies (and occasional bookshop visitor), Jess (of Jess Hearts Books) sent me a copy of Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid, which I'm SO EXCITED to read!  All the magic of Percy Jackson but with ANCIENT EGYPTIAN GODS!  Awesome.  And just to temper the chaos and violence, look at this beautiful little bookmark!  Jess has a bit of a bookmark fetish herself, and this art deco-style amber butterfly is so lovely!  Thank you Jess!

And finally, two entirely unexpected surprise gifts from the 'naughty but nice' Stephen, one of my bestest LibraryThing buds!  Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived is Ralph Helfer's account of his many decades with Modoc the elephant.  They were raised together in a small German circus town and formed a bond that lasted their whole lives.  It sounds wonderful - though definitely one to read with a box of tissues on hand for the ending, I think!   He also sent The Owl Keeper by Christine Brodien-Jones, just because the cover was so cute and he knows I adore owls!  It'll be perfect for reading one winter afternoon this Christmas!  Thanks sweetie... :)

So, another, er, elephantine week!  And it's not over yet, folks...  I still haven't addressed my Amazon Marketplace possibilities, for a start!  It looks like I might be making a return trip to town on Tuesday, which means another chance to scope out the library (I need a graphic novel for my challenge, dammit!) - and since I don't have any Christmas shopping left to do, I reckon I could leave Mum to it and go spend a PROPER morning browsing Waterstones.  Like, without a list, or an agenda, or anything to do but scour the shelves and see what tickles my fancy.  It's been a long time since I hit a bookshop without a book list and a tight schedule, so it should be lovely!  And I'm sure I'll end up walking away with a few more goodies to boot.  Now, excuse me, I'm off to carry on reading the wonderful Ape House and hope the rain keeps a few more grumpy customers at bay!

Have you already read and loved any of my new additions?  And what arrived in your mailbox this week? 

Some bookish bits and pieces

First up, there's a new Stephanie Plum movie coming out!  I didn't even know about it.  I have three of the books by Janet Evanovich, and have heard great things about how funny they are, and about the awesomeness of Stephanie and her feisty grandma...  Well, I guess I'd better get reading, because One for the Money is on the way, and it stars one of my favourite actresses, the beautiful Katherine Heigl.   It looks hilarious!  Will you be going to see the movie?  If you've read the books, how does the trailer live up to your expectations?

Now, a particularly dumb customer story to add to our Hall of Shame!

(from a lady who spotted our Penguin Classics mugs) 

Customer: "Oh! I've got one of those mugs!  Mine says A Room of One's Own.  Isn't that funny?"

Me:  "Ummm... yeah.  Have you read the Virginia Woolf essay then? I haven't yet, but I read an article by a woman who said she gives a copy to every girl in her family when they go off to university."

Customer:  "Oh, I don't know anything about a Virginia.  I just liked it because it was a funny play on words on that classic, y'know, A Room With a View!  Only this is a dead posh version... (adopts terrible faux-posh accent)... A Roooom of One's Owwwwn!"

Me: *bangs head quietly on desk*

And finally, here's an astute article from an old AbeBooks newsletter, about those books we wholeheartedly mean to read, but never quite seem to get around to...  I know I agree with some of the sentiments - and some of the books - and I'm sure I'm not the only one!  Which one of their 'excuses' most applies to you?  I think #6 - 'My Reading Stacks Get Wildly Out of Control' - is probably my biggest downfall, as you will see when I post another mammoth IMM offering again tomorrow.  Ooops.  :)

Atonement, by Ian McEwan

REVIEW: ATONEMENT (4.5*)

by Ian McEwan (Vintage, 2007)

Wow, what a book!  Yet another novel that has stayed on my shelves for far too long, partially because I was so intimidated by it and partially because of all the hype surrounding it a few years ago.  As it turns out, I needn't have worried on either of those counts.  It wasn't a difficult read at all, and the hype was entirely justified!

At its barest of bones, this is a book about two lovers and the girl who tears them apart.  Cecilia Tallis, a rich young woman, and Robbie Turner, her charlady's son, have both recently returned to the Tallis estate from Cambridge University, where they have been studiously avoiding one another.  It is only during the hot summer following their return that they realise how deep their feelings really are.

Waiting for them back home is Cecilia's younger sister.  I have to admit, I hated Briony in the first half of the book.  She reminded me of a young version of Barbara in Notes on a Scandal.  Manipulative, naive, attention-seeking, self-obsessed and utterly destructive in her unswerving self-righteousness.  Briony wants to be a writer and a grown-up, not necessarily in that order, and her imagination tends to run away with her.  When a collection of bizarre encounters and Briony's overactive mind are thrown together during one frightening night, Robbie is arrested for a crime he didn't commit, and the Tallis family falls apart.

Moving on a few years, Robbie is fighting his way across France in a desperate attempt to get back to Cecilia; the love of his life is pouring out her devotion in her letters, waiting for him to return, and Briony is seeking to redeem herself by following in Cecilia's footsteps and training as a nurse.  From the innocence and family atmosphere of the first half of the book, suddenly the reader is plunged into Robbie's terrifying trek towards the beaches of Dunkirk, and from there into Briony's horrific experiences in the hospital as the first soldiers are brought back from the retreat.  Will Cecilia and Robbie be reunited?  And will Briony ever manage to atone for what she did and finally set things to rights?

I cannot believe how much I underestimated this book.  McEwan's writing is simply sublime.  He keeps the pace steady, picking out tiny details and observations, exploring personal motives and flights of fancy, revisiting memories, and immersing the reader completely inside his characters' heads - yet I never felt impatient for things to speed up.  It would have been so easy for chaotic moments in France and in the hospital to be flitted over and churned together into a frenzy, but their impact would have been halved.  There is no escape from the thoughts, the joys, the horrors, the beautiful and haunting things that McEwan wants us to see.  With a single sentence he can rip the rug out from under the complacent reader, then with a beautiful description encourage us to regroup and reflect once more.  As with so many books in which I become deeply attached to and emotionally invested in each and every character, I had a feeling I was going to be a bit tearful by the end, and I was right - I spent fifteen minutes sobbing into my pillow!

I could go on and on, but instead I'll stop here and just say... please read it.  You will recognise yourself in parts, and recoil from others; you will be educated and shocked; you will feel elation and joy but also be plunged into sadness and anger.  It is an epic and exquisite rollercoaster, and I am so glad I finally chose to stop procrastinating and experience it for myself!

Why you should boycott Greg 'Three Cups of Tea' Mortenson

REVIEW - THREE CUPS OF DECEIT: HOW GREG MORTENSON, HUMANITARIAN HERO, LOST HIS WAY (4*)

by Jon Krakauer (Anchor Books, 2011)

"I wish I understood the pathology that has compelled the unending need to embellish the truth so flagrantly.  With one hand Greg has created something potentially beautiful and caring (regardless of his motives). With the other he has murdered his creation by his duplicity." - Tom Hornbein, American physician and mountaineer, CAI chairman 2001-2

This quote pretty much sums up the argument of the book.  I remember Three Cups of Tea soaring into the bestseller lists and garnering rave reviews.  I didn't buy it - and now I'm glad I didn't.  Because the truth behind the schmaltz was rather different.  Krakauer was one of the generous millions who donated a significant sum of money to Greg Mortenson's school project, and now he is the man exposing the lies that conned him into doing so.

This is a short book, but if you've been swept away by Mortenson's two offerings, you shouldn't hesitate to read it.  Krakauer lives up to his reputation by unpicking truth from lie in Mortenson's narrative - and there are a lot of lies.  Encounters and stirring promises that never happened.  A 'kidnapping' that was actually a generous welcome into a community which has now been disgraced by Mortenson's dramatic retelling.  Schools that are already lying empty thanks to poor building decisions and a lack of resources and support.

Although CAI itself - that's the Central Asia Institute - comes across as a worthy and inspirational organisation, it is clear that its founder is out of control.  The high and rapid turnover of the more capable staff suggests that people arrive with great aspirations and leave disillusioned almost immediately.

Mortenson comes across as a man consumed by vanity and greed, driven by book sales and rapturous welcomes wherever he goes, yet failing to be accountable to anyone and siphoning off CAI funds - funds donated by individuals as well as by schools and other organisations - at a rate of millions.  His pay is astronomical, he flies by private jet, none of his royalties benefit CAI, he uses CAI money to fund his expenses, and he seems to be a keen practitioner of creative accounting.  In short, he is a disgrace.

I can categorically say that as of this moment, I will not be selling his books via my shop, ever.  And anyone who asks for Three Cups of Tea or Stones into Schools (as someone did yesterday after her friend mentioned how 'inspiring' it was) will be receiving a hearty recommendation to pick up this book instead.  Read it and weep. 

P.S. A handy tip (which I made good use of!) - the book is currently available to read online for free HERE.