ACOM has a library which has been accumulated largely through donations from members, with a few books purchased with ACOM funds. Any book in the library is available to be checked out by ACOM members. The book list is maintained on the Goodreads website. If you are a Goodreads member, simply look for the member “Armenian Minnesota” and look at the book shelf “acom-library”. If not, click on the link below. If a book shows that it is also on the “checked-out” shelf, somebody already has it checked out to read. Otherwise, you can get it by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Click Here for the current book list.

The ACOM Book Club met on November 17, 2016, in the St. Sahag lounge.

We had a smaller group in attendance this month, with Al, Francis, Azad and I, plus a new member: Tashina. We shared a bottle of California Cabernet, some pistachios & other nuts, and an apple pie, and then jumped right into this month's book: "The Musician's Secret" by Litty Mathew.

The ACOM Book Club met on October 20, 2016, in the St. Sahag lounge.

In attendance this time were Andrea, Francis, Tom, Azad, Natasha, Peter, Al, Cynthia and me. Also, Janet Rith-Najarian made a special trip from Bemidji for the meeting, and also connected her husband, Steve, in through a remote video link. Father Tadeos dropped in for a few minutes, too.
This month's book was "Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan" by Aram Haigaz. The reason for Janet making the special trip is that the main character in the book is Steve's great uncle, so there truly is a family connection. Janet provided more information about the story. For example, Steve's great-grandmother on his mother's side of the family tracked down as many members of their extended family as she could after the war was over and brought them to Constantinople, provided a place for them to live, and, in many cases, provided for their education. Another note, 10,000 Armenians lived in the village where the author's family was before the genocide. Only 50 of them survived.

The ACOM Book Club met on December 15th in the St. Sahag Armenian Church Fellowship Hall.

We normally meet in the Fireside Lounge, but we couldn't get the fireplace to work and it was just a bit too chilly in there without a fire. Attending this month were Francis, Azad, Andrea, Tanisha and Leroy. This month we shared a bottle of Muirwood Cabernet Savignon, some sarma and Brazilian nuts.

The ACOM Book Club met on January 19th in the St. Sahag Armenian Church fireside lounge. In attendance this month were Francis, Barb, Azad, Andrea, Tashina, Peter, Al and Leroy. We shared wine, cookies, a pear, a blueberry pie and many other treats. This month's book was "The Gardens of Silihdar" by Zabel Yessayan. (https://www.goodreads.com/…/22612990-the-gardens-of-silihda…)

The ACOM Book Club met on February 16th in the St. Sahag Armenian Church fireside lounge. In attendance were Tom, Azad, Peter, Al, Natasha and me. A bright, cheery fire contributed to a welcoming environment. Of course, the dates, nuts and Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Cabernet helped a bit, too.
Our book for this month was Kurt Vonnegut's "Bluebeard". This book has been in print long enough that members had multiple, different editions, so page number references didn't quite match up, but we survived nicely.
To get the reviews out of the way quickly, everyone seems to have enjoyed the book very much. They liked Vonnegut's writing style and the story. Even though some of the members had apparently not liked previous Vonnegut books (such as "Slaughterhouse Five"), they did like this one. Vonnegut likes to carry some characters through from some books into other ones, and a couple club members mentioned Rabo Karabekian as having appeared at the end of "Breakfast of Champions". Sigh, now I have to read another book.

The ACOM Book Club held its March 2017 meeting on the 16th at St. Sahag Armenian Church. Attendees this month were Andrea, Tom, Azad, Al, Peter, Tashina and me, plus a guest, Alberta, who is in another book club with Andrea. That book club also recently discussed "The Architect's Apprentice". We shared a bottle of cabernet, peanuts, chocolate, and a banana cream pie imported from southern Minnesota.
This month's book was "The Arthitect's Apprentice" by Elif Shafak.

ACOM has a book club which meets monthly, normally on the third Thursday of the month in the St. Sahag Armenian Church lounge. Meetings start at 7:00 PM and normally go to about 9:00 PM. If you would like to join the book club, or just be informed about what the book club is discussing, send a request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be added to the mailing list.

The ACOM Book Club has been meeting since March of 2014. For the list of the books that we have discussed, click here.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, October 19, 2017, in the St. Sahag Fireside Parlor. Attending this month were Andrea, Francis, Peter, Al and me. We shared a bottle of Muirwood cabernet with a wonderful apple salad which Andrea provided. This month's book was "The Doves of Ohanavank" by Vahan Zanoyan.

 The ACOM Book Club met on December 15th in the St. Sahag Armenian Church Fellowship Hall. We normally meet in the Fireside    Lounge, but we couldn't get the fireplace to work and it was just a bit too chilly in there without a fire. Attending this month were Francis, Azad, Andrea, Tanisha and Leroy. This month we shared a bottle of Muirwood Cabernet Savignon, some sarma and Brazilian nuts.

The ACOM Book Club held its first meeting of the new year on Thursday, January 18, 2018, at the home of club member Tom and his wife Jennifer. We had a large gathering this month with 12 members and/or visitors in attendance: Tom, Jennifer, Mark, Caren, Leroy, Cynthia, Andrea, Azad, Karen, Kristi, Tashina, Joan, and, not to be left out, Maggie. There were many treats to eat and good wine to drink.

The book for this month was "An Armenian Odyssey: From the Euphrates to the Mississippi" by Mark and Thomas Keljik. This "book" is actually an offprint of one chapter from the "Modern Greek Studies Yearbook", Volume 32/33 for 2016/2017, which is a publication of the University of Minnesota. The chapter is a short biography of the life of their grandfather, Bedros Keljik. Mark and Tom provided printed copies of the chapter for everyone to read. There has been enough demand for it that they had to make a second printing!

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, February 22, 2018, at Joe Tashjian's house. Attending the meeting were Natasha, Barb, Tom, Fran, Dana, Joe, Al, Francis, Cynthia and Leroy. Andrea joined the group by way of a phone call. Our book for this month was "Silences: My Mother's Will To Survive" by Alice Agnes Tashjian, the mother of Joe and Fran.

Joe and Fran mentioned that their brother Ed wrote the preface to the book.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, March 15, 2018, at Francis Bulbulian's house. Attendees this month were Azad, Karen, Joe, Judy, Francis, Natasha, Andrea, Dana and me. Unfortunately, Barb wasn't feeling well so she didn't sit in with us. This month's book was "The Spice Box Letters" by Eve Makis.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, May 17, 2018, at Leroy Erickson's house. Attendance this month was sparse with only Al, Judy, Francis and Leroy attending. The book for the month was "Hummus and Homicide" by Tina Kashian.
A special treat for the month was a hummus bar and crackers provided by Judy. She made four types of hummus - sun dried tomato, roasted garlic, spinach & lemon and traditional with cumin. I added red and white wines and some honeycrisp apples to complete our snacks.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, June 21, 2018 at Judy Ohanessian's house. Judy provided pita bread and hummus, a salad and a nice dessert, along with red and white wine.

Attendees this month were Tashina, Judy, Andrea, Francis, Al, Joe and me. The book for this month was "Mayrig" by Henri Verneuil

The question was asked as to why Henri Verneuil changed his name from the Armenian one, Ashot Malakian. Nobody had a ready answer.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, October 18, 2018, at Leroy Erickson's house. It was a small group this month with only Francis, Azad and Leroy in attendance. We shared an apple pie, fresh apples and pistachios. 

The book for this month was "Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work" by Hayden Herrera.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, November 15, 2018, at Francis Bulbulian's house. In attendance this month were Francis, Azad, Peter, Kassian (Natasha) and me. The book under discussion was 

"Archeology of Madness: Komitas, Portrait of an Armenian Icon" by Rita Soulahian Kuyumjian.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, January 17th, 2019, at Francis Bulbulian's house. In attendance this month were Francis, Azad, Jim & Margaret, Tashina and me. Francis provided drinks and munchies, Azad brought some nice brownies.

The book for this month was "Not a Creature Was Stirring" by Jane Haddam, a murder mystery in which the primary character is Gregor Demarkian, a retired FBI agent.

The ACOM Book Club met on March 21, 2019, at the St. Anthony Park library in St. Paul. We had a nice sized group meeting this month. In attendance were Azad & Karen, Tashina, Al, Francis, Peter, Tom & me. The book for this month was Chris Bohjalien's "The Light in the Ruins". If you're searching for the connection with Armenia in this book, it's simply the racial identity of the author.

The ACOM Book Club met on May 16, 2019, at the St. Anthony Park library in St. Paul. In attendance this month were Francis, Jim, Margaret, Azad, Joe, Peter, Andrea and me (a nice, large group). Nibbles this month included date filled pastries from Azad, fruit coated walnuts from Margaret (Sujuk? Rijok? Western Armenian? Eastern Armenian? Who knows, I'm Swedish!!!), and a mix of almonds & raisins from Andrea.

This month's book was "Three Kisses of the Cobra" by Z. T. Balian. Everyone seemed to like the book to different degrees and in different ways. Many of us had objections to different areas of the book, too.

The ACOM Book Club met on June 20, 2019, at the St. Anthony Park library in St. Paul. In attendance this month were Tom, Lowell, Andrea, Azad and me, a reasonably sized group for June.
Nibbles this month were ... nothing? Well, meeting in the library tends to suppress the red wine and chocolates tendency. Although, nobody ever checks on us. Maybe in September ?
The book for this month was by Lou Ureneck, alternately titled "The Great Fire" and "Smyrna 1922". (Honestly, the soft cover and hardcover editions have different titles but the identical contents.)
The five of us all agreed that we really thought that it was a very good book. The author wrote with a style that drew us in and made us want to continue reading, even though the content was, in many cases, making us absolutely sick to our stomachs.

The ACOM Book Club met on September 19, 2019, at the Merriam Park library in St. Paul. In attendance were Tom, Peter, Azad and me.

One reason for the low attendance might be the book selection for the month: "The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh: From Secession to Republic" edited by Levon Chorbajian. While it is definitely a worthwhile book and contains a lot of information on an area that none of our other books has covered, it was very difficult to obtain copies of. Neither the Ramsey County nor Hennepin County libraries have copies. Three Minnesota university libraries have copies, but they are a bit more difficult to get (but that's how I got a copy to read). Copies are available from Amazon or some used book stores, but are quite expensive (more than $60.) Because of this, only Azad and I had read the book.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, October 17, 2019, at the St. Anthony Park library in St. Paul. In attendance were Azad, Tom, Al, Andrea, Joe and me. For snacks, Azad provided date cookies and Andrea provided dates. The book for this month was "Nowhere a Story of Exile" by Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte.

We all were of the opinion that it was a very worthwhile book to read. Azad was very impressed that the author was able to turn her diary pages, which were written when she was about 11 to 13 years old, into such a powerful account of her experiences.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, November 21, 2019, at the Merriam Park library in St. Paul. In attendance were Francis, Tashina, Margaret, Jim and me. This month's book was "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, January 16, 2020, at the Bulbulian house. In attendance were Francis, Jim, Margaret, Kass, Tom, Andrea, Lowell and me. (Barb was around, too, but didn't take part in the discussion.) This month's book was "Mr Five Per Cent" by Jonathan Conlin, a biography of Calouste Gulbenkian.

This month's discussion was a little bit different than normal because the book by Conlin was difficult to get a copy of other than by buying the kindle edition. Because of this a couple of members read a previous biography of Gulbenkian by Ralph Hewins, also called "Mr. Five Per Cent." Kass got copies of both books from the library (distant libraries) and had a short time to compare them. He said that the Hewins book was much easier to read but that the Conlin book had a lot more detail.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, February 20, 2020, at Mim's Cafe in St. Paul next to the U of M St. Paul campus. In attendance were Andrea, Jim, Margaret, Francis, Joe, Azad, Peter and me. Some of us ordered supper (schwarma, falafel), others ordered snacks (pita & hummus) or dessert (paklava). Margaret also passed around some nuts to share.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, April 16, 2020, ... well, kind of. We held a virtual meeting using the Zoom meeting software. Since nobody had to leave their homes, we had the largest group attendance in a long time, if not ever. Thirteen members joined in using their computers or cell phones. Attendees were Tom, Joan, Jim and Margaret, Andrea, Joe, Kass, Cynthia, Azad, Francis, Peter, Tashina and me. While most of us were at our homes, one attendee connected in from San Francisco and actually had a fourteenth attendee, 2-year old Agni, sit in for awhile.

ACOM Book Club Meeting on May 21, 2020 by Zoom

The ACOM Book Club held its second Zoom meeting on May 21st, 2020. The book under discussion this month was "Armenian Crisis of Identity" by Ruth Charchian. In attendance this month were Tom, Kass, Jim, Margaret, Cynthia, Tashina, Peter, Azad & me, plus Ruth and Aram. If you include the brief appearances by Agni, Mitchell, Sarah & Bradley, that easily makes it the best attended book club meeting yet.

The ACOM Book Club held its first meeting of the fall on Thursday, September 17, 2020. It was a virtual meeting using Zoom. Attendees this month were Azad, Andrea, Tom, Francis, Margaret & Jim and me. Azad was able to attend even though he was visiting family in Michigan. Margaret and Jim also connected in from a "non-home" location.

The ACOM Book met on Thursday, October 15th, as a virtual meeting using Zoom. Attendees this month were Al, Tom, Azad, Kass, Tashina, Peter, Margaret, Jim and me, a nice representation.
The book for the month was "The Children of Armenia" by Michael Bobelian.
I'm going to do things a little bit different for this month's report because I think that this is a very important book that all of the followers of the ACOM Book Club reports should know about. I'll give you a brief synopsis of the book before I report what we talked about in the meeting.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, November 19, 2020, as a virtual meeting using Zoom. Attendees this month were Francis, Margaret, Jim, Peter, Tashina, Andrea, Azad and me. The book for the month was "The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade" by Viken Berberian. This book is a graphic novel, largely told in the pictures with a much smaller amount of text than normal in a novel.
In days gone by I would write about how we shared a bottle of Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon along with whichever Armenian pastries Azad or Andrea provided plus nuts or apples from Francis or Mark or Tom. Well, in today's world all that I can say is that I enjoyed a couple of ounces of Appleton Estates 12-year aged Jamaican rum along with some southwest seasoned Dot's pretzels. Maybe by next September we can again share a bottle of wine.
I started out the meeting stating that this was the rare book that I didn't like. I challenged the rest of the group to say what they liked about it. Well, I was the lone outsider. Everyone else liked it.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, January 21, 2021, as a virtual meeting using Zoom. Attendees this month were Francis, Tom, Azad, Al, Jim, Margaret and me.
The book for this month was "Feast of Ashes: The Life and Art of David Ohannessian" by Sato Moughalian. The author is David Ohannessian's granddaughter.
The book starts out with several pages talking about how the author slowly learned about her grandfather while she was growing up, but had to do a lot of searching to get the full information about the genocide and how his family was able to survive it.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, February 18, 2021, as a virtual meeting using Zoom. Attendees this month were Francis, Azad, Mark W., Margaret, Tom, Peter, Joan, Garin (a new Twin Cities resident) and me. The book for this month was "Armenian-American Sketches" by Bedros Keljik.
Bedros Keljik was one of the first, if not the first, Armenian to live in the Twin Cities area. His grandchildren are some of the most active members of ACOM today, so there was a very great interest in reading this book.

A portion of the book had been published in 1944 in Armenian. His grandchildren had not been aware of the existence of the book until Mark Keljik, while at the Library of Congress, searched for the name Keljik on a whim. It shocked him when he found out that his grandfather had a book listed in the Library of Congress.
Another portion of the book consists of stories that were published in the Armenian-American newspaper Baikar between 1942 and 1949. Another story is one written by a friend that Bedros Keljik translated from Armenian to English in 1910.
The last portion of the book is the biographical essay that Mark and Tom Keljik wrote about their grandfather.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, March 18, 2021, as a virtual meeting using Zoom. Attending this month were Francis, Peter, Jim, Margaret, Tashina, Joan, Tom and me. Some of the members had difficulty connecting this month. Tom was unable to connect through Zoom and ended up calling Francis and just talking and listening through his phone. Azad was unable to connect at all.
The book for this month was "Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World" by Thomas F. Madden.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, April 22, 2021, as a virtual meeting using Zoom. Attending this month were Francis, Kass, Azad, Tashina, Margaret, Andrea, Lowell, Joan, Al, Cynthia and me.
The book for the month was "Classified Woman" by Sibel Edmonds.
This book is a memoir by Sibel Edmonds of her dealings with the FBI and the U.S. government when she worked for a short time as a translator for the FBI and then became a whistle-blower trying to expose massive corruption and dereliction of duty that she observed.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, May 20, 2021, as a virtual meeting using Zoom. Attending this month were Francis, Joe, Joan, Peter, Andrea, Lowell, Azad, Margaret, Tashina and me.
The book for this month was "Full Moon Over Noah's Ark" by Rick Antonson.
This book is, in my view, three books in one. It's a log of the author's trek to climb Mount Ararat combined with a survey of various theories of Noah's Ark and where it might have landed, if it really existed. The third part is a report of his trip through Turkey with sideline trips into Iraq, Iran and Armenia.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, June 24, 2021, at Mim's restaurant on Cleveland Avenue in St. Paul. Attending this month were Cynthia, Kass, Peter, Francis, Tashina, Al and me. We attempted to provide a Zoom link for remote users to join in, but it didn't prove usefully workable. (Workably useful?) Andrea, Margaret and Joan made the attempt, but left after just a few minutes.

The book for this month was "Gilgamesh: A New English Version" by Stephen Mitchell.
Due to a miscommunication, Andrea and Azad met at Mim's a week earlier, along with Azad's grandson, Owen, who will be a senior at Hamline University this fall. Andrea wrote up a set of notes for their meeting which covered the book so well that I will intermix them with my notes. Andrea's notes will appear in blue. (Well, that worked in Thunderbird, but not in Facebook. Look for text hints instead.)

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, September 16, 2021. This month's meeting was held in the back yard garden of Joe Tashjian's house. Attendees were Joe, Francis, Tom, Margaret, Jim, Peter, Cynthia and me. Joan attended remotely via Zoom.
The book for this month was "The Road to Home: My Life and Times" by Vartan Gregorian.
One of the opening comments was that Vartan Gregorian must have had a very good memory. He includes a lot of detail in his book.
It was noted that he just died in April of this year, at age 87.

He served in several highly visible positions in the U.S. He taught at the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State College, UCLA, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Pennsylvania. He became provost of the University of Pennsylvania. He then taught at New York University, after which he became president of New York Public Library for 8 years. From there he moved on to become president of Brown University for 8 years. After that, he served as president of the Carnegie Corporation until he retired.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, October 21, 2021. This month's meeting was held at Mim's Cafe. Attendees were Azad, Tashina, Andrea, Peter, Tom, Joe and Kassian. We did not get the Zoom working. Peter took notes (apologies for leaving anything out, please reply with edits).
The book this month was "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell. While the book didn't have a direct Armenian connection, it's gotten a lot of rave reviews and press, and everyone gathered agreed it was nice to read something different.

(Notes written by Peter)
The ACOM Book Club met on December 2, 2021 in the parlor at St Sahag.
In attendance were Francis, Tom, Azad, Jim, Margaret, Alfred, Tashina, Peter, and, via Zoom, Leroy and Cynthia.
This month we read "Justinian’s Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe" by William Rosen, which we discussed over the treats people brought. This book was chosen after reading Hamnet and the role the plague played in that narrative. It comes well-reviewed and created a buzz when it was released over a decade ago. Here's what the book club thought of it:

(This month's notes by Peter)
The ACOM Book Club met on January 20, 2022. We met over Zoom. Outside it was -3 (-11 with the wind).
In attendance was Margaret & Jim, Leroy & Cynthia, Azad, Francis, Peter and Tom.
This month we read A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious by Roya Hakkakian.

The ACOM Book Club met via Zoom on Thursday, March 17, 2022. Attendees were Jim, Margaret, Andrea, Francis, Tom, Joe, Tashina, Peter, Cynthia and me. We continued last month's discussion of "Cloud Cuckoo Land" by Anthony Doerr.
As an introduction to the book, I'll paraphrase what Wikipedia has to say about it:
"Cloud Cuckoo Land is the story of five characters spanning eight centuries. In the fifteenth-century Byzantine Empire, Anna is a young seamstress living in Constantinople, and Omier is a village boy conscripted into the Ottoman army which is preparing to take the city. In the present day, Zeno, a Korean War veteran, works in a library in Idaho translating Ancient Greek texts, while Seymour, a disturbed autistic youngster, becomes caught up with a group of eco-terrorists. In the twenty-second century, Konstance is a young girl aboard the Argos, a generation starship heading for a planet called Beta Oph2.
Their stories are bound by an Ancient Greek codex entitled Cloud Cuckoo Land that each of the five characters discovers and finds solace in. It is a fictional book supposedly written by real Greek novelist Antonius Diogenes in the second century, and tells the story of Aethon, a shepherd on a quest to find the fabled paradise in the sky. In his travels, he is transformed into a donkey, a sea bass, and finally a crow, which allows him to fly to the gates of the city in the clouds."

The ACOM Book Club met at Mim's on Thursday, May 19, 2022. Attendees were Azad, Al, Peter, Tashina and me. The book under discussion this month was "The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey" by Dawn Anahid MacKeen.
The book is described in brief as "The inspiring story of a young Armenian’s harrowing escape from genocide and of his granddaughter’s quest to retrace his steps."
The first question that was raised was by Al. He wondered exactly what Der Zor was and what made it so deadly for the Armenians who were sent there. Several of us gave answers: it was a desert area with no water or food, the Armenians were sent there and left with no shelter or means of support, the Turkish guards prevented other people from giving them any food or water or medical help. Several hundred thousand Armenians died at Der Zor.

The ACOM Book Club met at Mim's on Thursday, September 15, 2022. Attendees were Azad, Francis, Tashina, Margaret, Jim, Bradley and me. This month's book was "Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes" by Tamim Ansary.
Almost everyone greatly enjoyed the book. Margaret expressed the opinion that it was too much just straight history and so she found it a little bit too dry.
I liked the author's breakdown of the ancient world into three regions:
- the Mediterranean World where the primary communication was by sea, so it included all the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the land areas close by those shores.
- the Far Eastern World, or China, which was bounded by the ocean to the east, the southeast Asian jungles, the Tibetan mountains and the Gobi Desert.
- the Middle World which was bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the Black & Caspian Seas and Caucasus mountains to the north, the Indian Ocean and Indus River to the south, and the Tibetan mountains and Gobi Desert to the east. For the Middle World, the primary means of communication was overland travel.

The ACOM Book Club met at Mim's on Thursday, October 20, 2022. Attendees were Francis, Barb, Andrea, Cynthia, Al and Leroy. This month's book was "The House By the Lake" by Thomas Harding.
Once more, everybody enjoyed reading the book. Barb was the first of our group to read it. She had seen recommendations in two different places and decided to try it. She liked it so much that Francis then recommended it to the club to read.

Thursday Jan 19, 2023
The ACOM Book Club held a Zoom meeting on Thursday, January 19, 2023. Attendees were Al, Francis, Jim, Margaret, Tashina, Andrea and me. This month's book was "Ataturk In the Nazi Imagination" by Stefan Ihrig.

The ACOM Book Club met (really, truly met!) at Mim's on Thursday, March 16, 2023. Attendees were Jim, Margaret, Tom, Francis, Tashina and me. We all took the opportunity to enjoy various menu items, either to eat there or to take home. The book under discussion this month was "All the Light There Was" by Nancy Kricorian.

This book is about Armenians who survived the genocide and ended up in Paris. Twenty years later, they were subjected to the occupation of Paris by the German army and the subsequent 'disappearance' of Jewish families.

The ACOM Book Club held a Zoom meeting on Thursday, February 16, 2023. Attendees were Tashina, Francis, Jim, Margaret, Tom, Peter, Azad, Cynthia and me. For this month's book we revisited "An Armenian Sketchbook" by Vasily Grossman. It was also our book of the month for September in 2017.
Religion in Armenia was being discussed by the group. Tashina said that when she was in Armenia several years ago the people did not seem to be very religious. Azad said that western Armenians were more religious. Soviet communism discouraged religion in the Armenian SSR.
Jim pointed out that the top prelates in the Armenian church objected to communist policies and were removed by the state. They were replaced by more pro-Russian people.

 The ACOM Book Club met at Mim's on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Attendees were Francis, Joe, Azad, Karen and me. (Also at the restaurant were Mark W., Nairy, Terry and Michael.) We all enjoyed eating the Mim's Middle Eastern food before and/or during the meeting. The book under discussion this month was "The Whitsun Daughters" by Carrie Mesrobian.

The ACOM Book Club met at Mim's on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Attendees were Jim, Margaret, Tom, Francis, Andrea, Lowell, Tashina and me. The book for this month was "The Confidence Men" by Margalit Fox.
This book is about two British army prisoners of war in World War I who were captured by the Ottoman army. It tells a very interesting story of how they used Ouija boards, seances and magic tricks to 'escape', although the final escape wasn't until just a few months before the end of the war. The book is based on a true story.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, June 15. This month's meeting notes are courtesy of Andrea.
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Margaret and Jim, Tom, Lowell and Andrea met at Mim's last evening to discuss Tadem: My Father's Village, by Robert Kaloosdian.
Amazingly, Margaret and Tom are "Tademtsis" as they both have ancestors from Tadem. Tadem is a small village south of Harput that, prior to the Genocide, had 1,000 to 2,000 Armenians and a handful of Turks (including a notoriously untrustworthy, at times cruel, authority figure or two).