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 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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.