Honestly, the only reasons this book even manages a three star rating is because it's so short it doesn't have a lot of time to irritate me, I don't care about Greg Mortenson so I wasn't the intended audience, and I've greatly enjoyed many of Krakauer's other works so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. But this was not particularly worthwhile.

Caveat at the beginning, I've never read Three Cups of Tea, I know nothing about Greg Mortenson, and I've only vaguely heard about the Central Asia Institute and their mission building schools. I picked up this book because I'm reading all of Krakauer's works, and most of it has been incredibly interesting even if I had no prior interest in/knowledge of the topic. This proved to be the exception.

It read like Mortenson pissed off Krakauer on some personal level, so Krakauer wanted to write destroy him. Krakauer donated a bunch of money to the organization and I think heard some rumors about sketch goings on, then did research and wrote this to expose Mortenson's lies and corruption.

But honestly, I could summon any of the hatred or disdain Krakauer has for Mortenson. He was throwing around words like evil and corrupt and acting like Mortenson was manipulating everyone in the most sneaky underhanded way, but I didn't get that at all. Mortenson was just a nurse who wanted to help people and had no business heading a huge nonprofit. He sucked with money, he sucked as a manager, he had zero capabilities to deal with the large scope of the organization. He lied and exaggerated in stories because he learned that people donate more money if the story sounds good.

I'm not trying to excuse him from any fault, but it was kind of a boring story. Maybe I'm just a cynic, but that's kind of what I expect from a lot of nonprofits. Sure it sucks, but he didn't come across as malicious. Just way out of his depths. It wouldn't have bothered me as much if Krakauer had tried at all to be fair or overcome his own biases, but he didn't. He really hates Mortenson, if his writing is any indication.

I could critique a lot more and give specific details, but I just don't care that much. If you've read Three Cups of Tea and you're interested in a rebuttal, or if you just want to learn more about Mortenson's controversies, you'd probably get something out of this. Even if you disagree with Krakauer, it might be worthwhile to hear a second side or give you more information to research. But otherwise, I don't think there's much here for you.

Mortenson has since been required to step down and pay the charity back a million dollars for funds used for his book promotion.