Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan
by Greg Mortenson

Publication date/ Length: 2009 / 379 pages

Synopsis (from the jacket cover): In 1999, Kirghiz horsemen from Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor rode into Pakistan and secured a promise from Mortenson to construct a school in an isolated pocket of the Pamir Mountains known as Bozai Gumbaz. Mortenson could not build that school before constructing many others, and that is the story he tells in this dramatic new book.

First line: “In September of 2008, a woman with piercing green eyes named Nasreen Baig embarked on an arduous journey from her home in the tiny Pakistani village of Zuudkhan south along the Indus River and down the precipitous Karakoram Highway to the bustling city of Rawalpindi.”

Review:  When Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea was first published, my family decided to read it for our family book club one Christmas.  What Mortenson’s passion and accomplishments were beyond words, he is truly selfless in every sense of the word, and I was glad to read about his experiences.  However, I read Tea because I knew I should and not because I necessarily enjoyed it.

So, when Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan came out, I dutifully requested it from the library, but was not terribly excited when the 379 page book arrived with a very short window of time in which to read it without incurring a penalty.  But, much to my surprise, Stones was truly a pleasure to read!  I found it much more engrossing and well-constructed than Tea.  This may be because Mortenson wrote it himself, without the use of a co-writer.  Or maybe the wisdom Mortenson has gained with his fame, along with the accompanying stress, has resulted in an easier voice to read.  Regardless, I recommend Stones wholeheartedly, even if you were one of the few who did not care for for his first work.

Stones begins with a request to build a school at “the end of the world” in one of the most remote places in Afghanistan and then follows Mortenson’s decade-long attempt to fulfill his promise.  In the intervening years, a ring of schools are built in Afghanistan — in some of the most dangerous places antithetical to educated girls.  What is quickly apparent, however, is that while the Taliban are violently opposed to educated girls — or to any rational action — the vast majority of Afghans are not and fervently realize that moderate, balanced education is the greatest path to peace.

As do our military!  This realization was another gift of this work.  After the horrific civilian casulties that followed our country’s military involvement in this region, I’ll admit I had little hope that our continued presence would bring anything more than further pain and suffering.  However, I was so gratified to read the following passage:

Among the proponents of this approach to counterinsurgency were a number of officers who had stumbled across Three Cups of Tea, which was never intended to appeal to a military audience… hundreds of servicemen and servicewomen encountered the book when it was adopted as part of a required reading list for officers enrolled in graduate-level counterinsurgency courses at the Pentagon.  Before long, we were receiving hundreds of e-mails, letters, and donations from people who had served in Afghanistan or Iraq and who were writing to let us know that they had returned from their tours of duty firmly convinced that providing young men and women with a moderate education was the most potent and cost-effective way to combat the growth of Islamic extremism.

What a sense of relief I felt after that passage…  Too often in the past in our country, fear has dictated our actions, rather than rationality or compassion, and to think that Mortenson’s defining passion to educate girls has reached organizations like the military can only help Afghanistan and our own country.

While reading Three Cups of Tea, I couldn’t help but wonder at the sacrifice his own children would be forced to make as a result of Mortenson’s choices, but after reading Stones into Schools, I realized the sacrifice really is Mortenson’s, and his children seems to completely understand this.  The momentshe included of his time with his children truly added a human component to this hero that only deepened my appreciation of his mission.

So, I am happy to report that a book I started to read as an obligation, quickly became a pleasure and was easily finished before the due date since I could not put it down!

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