Wow! By the end of “The Monk of Mokha”, without a sip of coffee or ( tea for me), in me, I felt the stimulant of Dave Eggers non fiction book raising my energy. This is one heck of an amazing rags to riches story....From DOORMAN ....to CEO COFFEEMAN....our uplifting boost of energy comes from a guy name Mokhtar Alkhanshali......Yemeni-American. Mokhtar grew up dirt poor......in San Francisco’s most impoverished districts: The Tenderloin District ( our older daughter once played the leading role

True account of Yemen-American. When he learns that coffee originated in Yemen, he employs passion, courage, creativity, & humanitarianism to make Yemen coffee the world's best. All that amid daunting poverty, war & politics. Pulitzer prize author. Audio narrator passable, but not a quite right fit & mispronounced eide. Story was engaging all the same.

A man with a passion will never be denied.Dave Eggers`s The Monk of Mokha is a well-written and incredible true story of a Yemeni-American Mokhtar Alkhanshali. This book also covers the history, origins and making of coffee in a detailed way. From being a doorman at a luxury apartment block in San Francisco to owning an apartment in the same building and from having dropped out of college and not knowing anything about coffee to being a remarkbly successful businessman and a successful grower, r...

There is a lesson in this one...or two. Don't let anyone tell you can't do something. And once you set your mind to something, you can do anything. Well, in this case, said person was almost killed....multiple times. But he DID IT! He did what he set out to do which seemed like an impossibility.OK, this tells the story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali. A young Yemeni growing up in San Francisco, just running around, being a punk, not caring about much of anything. But he begins to see the way (after being...

The rags to riches story of a coffee importer, it's more interesting than that sounds. Details are suspiciously sparse toward the end, but I like a happy ending. Waffling between three and four stars.

This book made me appreciate coffee more. This is the kind of book that keeps you on the edge of the seat while rooting for the main guy to get over the obstacles and attain the goals they need to get. Mokhtar Alkhanshali was born and raised in California. His parents are from Yemen. He discovers while working as a door attendant in a large residential building that Yemen was a major exporter of coffee beans for centuries and had a monopoly over coffee trade through the port of Mokha. He wants t...

In a world filled with misery and pain, it's refreshing to read a well written, non-fiction story of a member of our race who overcomes all shades of adversity to succeed when every deck is stacked against him. Like his excellent Zeitoun, Eggers writes in an easily accessible narrative style that draws the reader into every facet of the story - whether it's the personal history of the protagonist or an encompassing background on the world of coffee, the prose is mesmerizing. I ended up playing h...

This was an interesting rags-to-riches story about a young Yemeni-American man growing up in San Francisco. He struggles trying to find his calling until he hits on importing coffee beans from his homeland to America. I enjoyed much of Mokhtar's Alkhanshali's story. Unfortunately, the narrative often left Mokhtar behind while going off on many digressions. For instance, Dave Eggers went into the minutiae of the coffee business which can be very interesting, but as told by Eggers it was mostly ra...

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.Mark TwainThis is one of those nonfiction books that seems so unbelievable that if it were fiction, you’d think the author should have tried for something more realistic. But had the subject of this biographical novel, Moktar Alkhanshali, stuck to what was considered possible, he wouldn’t have achieved all that he has, and at such a young age. Though maybe his youth and optimism, with a to...

''When Mokhtar made a mistake, Hamood was angry only if Mokhtar made an excuse. 'Own the error and correct it', he said. Hamood had a thousand proverbs and maxims. His favorite was 'Keep your money in your hand, never in your heart'. He used to say that a lot.'What does it mean?' Mokhtar asked'It means that money is ephemeral, moving from person to person', Hamood said. 'It's a tool. Don't let it get into your heart or your soul' ''. (page 28).The Monk of Mokha tells the amazing adventure of Mok...

It's hard to articulate my thoughts on this book better than Michael Lindgren already has in the Washington Post, but what the hell I'll give it a shot - I liked the book, I don't regret reading it, but I won't recommend it to others, because after having read Eggers' fiction and memoir, I'm frankly disappointed.Monk of Mokha is the remarkably true story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Yemeni-American Millennial who overcame some pretty harrowing odds to become a successful importer of specialty coffe...

I generally enjoy Dave Eggers' books and novels and The Monk of Mokha is no exception. He tells the story of young man and his improbable, sometimes harrowing journey to become a coffee entrepreneur. I love to drink coffee but until now had no idea about how it is grown, picked, sorted, roasted. Fascinating. And I appreciated learning more about Yemen.

Conditions in Yemen were deteriorating. Virtually no goods were being shipped out of the country. Activity at the ports was concentrated on importing essentials. Medicine was scarce and the vast majority of the country was suffering from food insecurity. The UN considered Yemen on the brink of famine. No one was prioritizing the export of coffee to international specialty roasters. The Monk of Mokha is a work of narrative nonfiction by noted storyteller Dave Eggers: Focussing on the compellin

I love the way Dave Eggers tells a larger story through a personal lens. As with Valentino Dent (What is the What) and Abdulrahman Zeitoun, he has taken the life of Mokhtar Alkhanshali and crafted it into a book so readable and yet so informative and true it becomes a real page turner. His books are proof of his extraordinary empathy, and this one is no exception. Mokhtar is a young man of Yemeni heritage, who grew up on the mean streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin, but his family was supporti...

The Monk of Mokha is the true story of a young Yemeni American man named Mokhtar who became fascinated with coffee, especially its origin in Yemen. He wanted to elevated the quality of coffee there and bring it to the world, while also ensuring that the local coffee farmers are paid a more fair share for their hard work so that they can make a living wage. While Mokhtar was working to achieve this, Yemen was embroiled in a civil war, making his mission even harder and sometimes mortally perilous...

The children holding AK-47s — this was new. Mokhtar landed in Sana’a on October 27, 2014, and was confronted with the patchwork of overlapping military units, security forces and ragtag groups of Houthi or pseudo- Houthi rebels all over the airport and the roads to the capital. In the non-fiction book Monk of Mokha, we follow the recent rags to riches story of a Yemeni American named Mokhtar Alkhanshali. Mokhtar grows up very poor in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. While in his twentie...

I read this book because it was written by Dave Eggers. I absolutely loved "Zeitoun". I liked "What Is The What" and "Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?"was intriguing. So I was fairly sure I would like The Monk of Mokha. I was wrong. For the most part it read more like a tag line for a specialized kind of Yemeni coffee. The best thing I can say about this non-fiction book is that it served to enlighten me a bit about the people, geography, politics, wars and c...

Terrific story (nonfiction) of a young man who found his calling reviving coffee trade in Yemen. In addition to its strong literary and narrative qualities, it's an excellent business book!

3.75 stars. A real life, modern adventure story that is ripe for movie making. Mokhtar Alkhanshani rediscovers the Yemen coffee producing history and globally brings Yemen coffee to recognition and production. His dangerous journey reveals the beautiful but tumultuous setting of Yemen that has been subjected to uprisings, revolutions, invasion, kidnappings and bombings all within recent history. Mokhtar is an inspiration and a role model of ingenuity and hard work leading to great success. An ea...