October 2005: Mountains Beyond Mountains (Kidder)

Post date: Jan 07, 2010 8:28:19 PM

On Tuesday, October 25, 2005 Betsey hosted the discussion of Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer.

The EBSC book club has previously read Kidder's Soul of the New Machine, and many have read Home Town about the non-Smith side of Northampton, and House. Mountains Beyond Mountains discusses Farmer's public health programs in Haiti, Peru, Russia and Boston and his efforts to develop best practices in treatments for AIDs and multi-drug resistant TB. For further reading on Farmer's work, see the Partners in Health web site www.pih.org. For more information about the book, see www.mountainsbeyondmountains.org

At the meeting, the group asked these questions: What word(s) would you choose to characterize the book? What role did the search for money play in Farmer's life? What choices were involved in his life? Consequences? What qualities in Farmer did you identify? Were you inspired by his philosopy, energy, work? What would you talk about if you found yourself in a room with Farmer? What kind of support system is needed for his kind of endeavor? Why would you recommend the book? For answers, talk to readers who attended... at the next meeting!