Read Around the World November 2022 – Armenia

Map link https://www.iarmenia.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Armenia-map.jpg

Fun facts from this website Fun Facts About Armenia – WorldAtlas

• Armenia is a landlocked country in Eurasia
• Armenia is among the few nations made up of only one ethnic group. Except for a 3% minority, the rest of the population identifies as Armenian.
• Chess is taught in schools as a mandatory subject.
• Armenian cuisine is not complete without the delicious flat bread locally known as lavash. The bread is such a significant part of Armenian culture that it was listed on UNESCO’s cultural heritage list in 2014.
• Prominent personalities, such as the Kardashians, have Armenian ancestry.
• The country has a restriction on playing guitars, pianos, drums, or any other musical instruments at night. Anyone caught in the act is charged in a court of law.
• Armenia is said to produce some of the best and oldest wines. Soviet Ruler Joseph Stalin bought cases of Armenian wine and presented them to Winston Churchill as a gift during World War II.
• The country is home to one of the world’s oldest cities, Yerevan, which was constructed before Rome.
• Yerevan, Armenia’s capital city, is fondly referred to as the “pink city” due to various shades of pink in many buildings. These buildings were constructed using naturally pink volcanic rocks.
• Armenia has monuments in the shape of Armenian Alphabets, created to celebrate 1600 years of the Armenian alphabet.

I chose to visit Armenia via My Name is Aram by William Saroyan this is a short series of vignettes about an Armenian boy named Aram growing up in California.

I really enjoyed the older characters in the books and their catch phrases “It is no harm; pay no attention to it”

The stories focus on the simple pleasures of being a young boy such as swimming, fishing, riding and getting into mischief.

I also loved the way each family has its own “fools” and normally each generation has a “fool” not necessarily descended from the previous fool.

While the book is set in California the author is of Armenian descent and for me this qualifies it for this challenge

Other readers visited in the following ways:

Currey from Litsy – The Road from Home by David Kherdian. This was rated so-so.

Rockpools from Litsy – Scenes from an Armenian Childhood by Vahan T’ot’ovents

Did you join us on this trip? Share what you read.

Up next Fiji and I really need your input as I can only find romances set in Fiji not Fijian authors.