Exploring the Wilds of the Commonwealth (with camera)

The Best in Tent Camping by Matt Willen

Join in a conversation with Matt Willen on Tuesday, January 30th at 7pm in the High Library near the fireplace.

Matt will share his observations on some of the best places to hike and camp in central Pennsylvania and show slides by the glow of the library's new fireplace. Matt will sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase.

Included in his book is information on day trips, suggestions for hikes and activities accessible from the featured campground, as well as local flora and fauna.

Please feel free to add comments before and after his presentation.

See you on the 30th of January at 7pm.

Twice a Stranger

Written by British journalist Bruce Clark, Twice a Stranger tells the epic story of the massive population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. At the end of World War I, Greece invaded Turkey’s Anatolia region in an attempt to enlarge the Greek nation by including the numerous Greek Orthodox Christians residing in Turkey. This population of Christians had lived for centuries in this area of the old Ottoman Empire before World War I. The invasion was the culmination of a long-held Greek dream, called the Megali Idea (Great Idea), to reconstitute the Byzantine Empire.

Following Greece’s defeat and the burning of the port city of Smyrna, which was reported by a young foreign correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star named Ernest Hemingway, a conference was held in Lausanne, Switzerland. Under the auspices of the League of Nations, it was agreed by both Greece and Turkey to conduct a social experiment of monumental proportions: approximately 1.2 million Greek Orthodox Christians were to be sent from Turkey to Greece, and about 400,000 Greek Muslims were to be sent from Greece to Turkey. Both of these groups had resided for centuries in their respective towns and villages. Clark interviews a number of people on both sides of this exchange who were young children during this event. The irony of this exchange is that many of the Greek Orthodox Christians in Turkey did not speak Greek, especially those from the Cappadocia region of Anatolia. Furthermore, many of the Greek Muslims sent from Crete to Turkey did not speak Turkish. Hence the book’s title, Twice a Stranger.

The implications of this population exchange resonate till this day as both Greece and Turkey are now experiencing a return to a more multi-ethnic population. With the fall of Communism in Europe, a massive influx of Albanians, most of whom are Muslim, has flooded Greece’s underground labor market. In Turkey, they are still grappling with the identities of their Kurdish and Armenian citizens. How Turkey resolves this question will go a long way in determining whether it still wants to join, or will be accepted in, the European Union. A NATO member, Turkey could possibly decide that its fate rests more with the Muslim world and will no longer be the only secular Muslim government in the region.

So two nation-states once defined by their religion and language are once again facing challenges to their identities in a modern globalizing world.

Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune

The High Library Book Club will be meeting on Tuesday, January 24th at 7 pm in the Library Director's Conference room to discuss Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune. Please feel free to join them.

This is a girl's adventure story. It takes a feminist approach as Eliza leaves 19th century Valaparaiso society to follow her lover into gold-crazed California. She is befriended by a Chinese healer during her journey.

Does this book go too far as historical fiction? Does it convey the spirit, manners and social conditions of this past age with realistic detail and fidelity to historical fact?

Please post additional questions or comments using your google account. Need to create a google account?--https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount.

Want to write about a book you've read on this blog? Contact Sylvia.

The High Library Book Club, sponsored by the Friends of the Library, meets the 4th Wednesday of each month at 7 pm in the Director's conference room. Meetings feature lively discussions of fiction and nonfiction. Questions? Contact John Bacon at 717-367-2689.

Thanks to Amazon for the photo.