THE GENDARME * NEMESIS

I'm back from Myanmar, and it was a wonderful trip and wonderful experience.
This week I've been doing catch up every day, and making slow progress, but progress nevertheless. My life could be so much improved if I just CAUGHT UP. 

The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian - I'm not sure where I stand on this novel. It was certainly a good and readable story. A 92 year old man starts to recall long buried memories about himself and the things he did when he was a 17 year old "gendarme" during the Armenian genocide. As a gendarme, he was responsible for accompanying refugees out of Asia Minor to Syria. Let's face what didn't get outright said in the novel although it got shown in many ways: they were women and children on a death march, he was a young strong man with a gun on a horse. Believe it or not, there is a love story of sorts in there too. So. It's a good book, but I can't feel anything for this old man and his forgotten memories. 

Nemesis by Peter Evans - And then we have the supposedly true story of the most famous greek refugee from Smyrna, Aristotle Onassis. Our friend Tom recommended this to me as his favorite book. What? Tom! We can do better! It's exhaustingly researched stories about intrigue, competition and unscrupulous dealings. Do I believe the central premise of the book? I don't know. I guess it's plausible. At this point does it do any good to care? Maybe not. My final question is to ask what we can learn from reading this book. We can learn to not be like these people! If we get money, we don't have to be awful, we can be kind people who make good choices and treat others with respect. So if you like to read about, and want to revisit the 1960s and 70s whole Kennedy/Jackie/Ari/Maria/Christina/Bobby/Jack thing, have at it! 

THE HOUSE GIRL * SOLOMON'S SONG * GOLDEN BOY AND OTHER STORIES FROM BURMA

The House Girl by Tara Conklin - The perfect reading material for getting over jet lag is a book you can't put down. The House Girl qualifies! It's one of those two time period stories where a young lawyer in 21st century New York City studies the life of a young woman in the 19th century Virginia. As always, the richest part of the story is that which takes place in history, but in this case, the modern story is pretty good, too. 

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison  -  Another excellent choice for a vacation,  this was one of the books that Peter read in his high school english classes. I remember seeing papers he'd written about a character called Milkman, but I always thought that Milkman was a young boy. He's only young at the beginning of this story which is rich with many other characters, male and female, living in a Michigan town in the 1940s and 50s. This book won the Nobel Prize, and deservedly so. I was going to read it then leave it, but it was so good that I had to bring it home for the bookshelf. 

Golden Boy and Other Stories From Burma by Saw Wai Lwin Moe - This is a wonderful little compilation of Legends, Tales and Fables based on the history, religion and culture of Burma. They are small lessons of the best ways to behave to those around you and the consequences for unkindness or greed. I like that they are not scary, and are based on ideals of good rather than threatening ideas of bad. This is my favorite kind of storytelling: about what to do rather than what not to do.