Terry
ACOM Book Club for January 2024
The ACOM Book Club held a Zoom meeting on January 18th, 2024. Attending this month were Francis, Azad, Margaret, Jim, Joan and me. The book for this month was "Song of America" by George Mardikian.
I joined the meeting a little bit late and did not take good notes, so this report will be a bit sparse.
ACOM Book Club for November 2023
The ACOM Book Club met at Mim's on Thursday, November 30, 2023. There was only a small group this month with just Francis, Margaret, Jim and I attending. The book for this month was "Corelli's Mandolin" by Luis de Berniere. The more recent printings of the book changed the name to "Captain Corelli's Mandolin".
Francis had read the opening pages of the book but hadn't finished it yet. Margaret may also not have read the whole book, I couldn't quite catch whether she had or not. Jim and I had read the whole book. Jim and Margaret had also watched the movie. More on that later.
Since Francis didn't know the whole story, Jim started out by describing what happens in the book to him. I helped out as time went by.
ACOM Book Club for October 2023
The ACOM Book Club met at the home of Andrea and Lowell Johnson on Saturday, October 28, 2023. Attendees were Andrea, Lowell, Margaret, Jim, Tom, Cynthia and me, with Francis, Peter and Chuck, the author, joining in through Zoom. The book under discussion for this month was "Tall Short Stories from the Mind of Garbo" by Chuck 'Garbo' Hajinian.
The meeting was a little bit different than usual because we let Chuck direct it for the most part. He started out by describing how he came to write the book.
He tends to write stories down when he thinks of them and had built a collection of stories that he thought were enough to fill a book. He looked for publishers and ended up going with Calumet in the Twin Cities. One point that he liked about them was that they were familiar with Armenia.
Voski Ashoun 2023
Voski Ashoun - October 15, 2023
A beautiful fall day for Voski Ashoun this year. Held, again, in Terry and Naïry's backyard, we gathered to celebarte fall and each other. Leroy provided some interesting wines and spirits for tasting. Snacks were available and a fire was available for making S'Mores. Everyone (20 of us) who attended had a great time.
ACOM Book Club for September 2023
ACOM Book Club for June 2023
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).
ACOM Annual Picnic - 2023
ACOM Picnic - 2023
The annual ACOM Picnic was held June 11th on a beautiful summer Sunday. Naïry and Terry hosted the party in their backyard. 30 people attended and ages ranged from ~1 year to 90+ years, a real multigenerational gathering. The food was great as is always the case with our Armenian Potluck picnics. Everyone enjoyed the company and attendees were able to catch up on everyone's life events.
ACOM Book Club for May 2023
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.
ACOM Genocide Remembrance 2023
ACOM held its annual Genocide Remembrance on April 23rd 2023
This year ACOM was joined by the Minnesota Historical Society as a co-sponsor of the event.
The event was held in the 3M Auditorium at the Minnesota History Center main building in the Capitol area of St. Paul.
This years program was focused on the resiliance of Armenian Culture after the Genocide of 1915. Speakers covered various topics: housing, history, poetry, music, dance, language and alphabet and church architecture. The event was emceed by Steven Usitalo - ACOM President. More than 60 people attended and comments from the attendees after the event were very positive.
For those who were unable to attend, a video of the event is below:
ACOM Book Club for April 2023
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.