Rating:  Summary: A powerful biography featuring strength, and courage. Review: This well written biography will have you spellbound and take you places which are both beautiful and disturbing. This book provides an account of a couragous woman's life and experiences living in a Greek village and immigrating to America. While telling a fascinating story of challenges, horrors and triumphs of her mothers life, the author also educates the reader to little known facts about the genecide which occurred in Turkey in the early 20th century.
Rating:  Summary: great book!!! Review: Great job Thea!!! Tell it as it is!!! The truth shall be revealed!!! 3 million lives perished in the hands of Kemal! this was the first committed genocide in the 20th century!
Rating:  Summary: Wonderful Review: "Not Even My Name" by Thea Halo is such a gripping book. History books give facts, but real accounts give the facts and the feelings as well. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. All that Sano went through, her long walk from her home, her trip across the Atlantic Ocean, everything she saw and felt, is expressed in this book. It's such a tragic story, but it also gives hope, because Sano did survive and managed to come through all the heartbreak. I would recommend it to anyone, to read for any purpose. After finishing the book, you'll come out a different person. Thea, if you're reading this, I'm sorry my review is a little late, but I love your book all the same.
Rating:  Summary: A Treasure of a Book Review: Not Even My Name is one of those books, rare at best, that sweeps the reader up and transports her or him to the lands so beautifully depicted in its pages. One sees and smells and hears the sights and sounds of the mountain villages of Pontos and those of the southern towns and villages, and of course its people. Themia, the wonderful heroine of the story, tugs at my heart, making me wish I had been there to enclose her in my arms and hold her safe from harm. As one review put it, the story is told with simple grace. It is also told poetically, movingly. Although a tragic event in history and in the lives of those this brutality touched, in the end it is also an uplifting, inspirational story, one that I will remember always. It's message is that powerful. As others have done, I thank the author and her dear mother for sharing with us their lives in such a poignant, unforgettable way.
Rating:  Summary: A most compelling and important read Review: This book touched my heart as no other in recent times. It not only informed me of an important, but unknown, history of ancient peoples whose way of life was ended forever when they were slaughtered and exiled from their homeland of 3,000 years, it also helped me understand the real impetus for Hitler's persecutions in Nazi Germany. But equally important is the literary quality of this precious book. I feel as if I now know the people of this land. The poetry of the writing and the wonderful detail helped me enter their world and walk beside them through all their joys and sorrows. Thank you Thea Halo for this great gift.
Rating:  Summary: Thank you for sharing a meaningful story.... Review: As a second generation Greek American, I have been moved to learn more about my Modern Greek heritage. The Greek history I studied in high school and college was the classical Greek period. In my pursuit to learn more about Modern Greece, I chanced upon this novel in a search for history books. It is a true gem and I am so appreciative that the author and her mother allowed me to have a look into their lives. Though my ancestors were not Pontic Greeks, I have always felt a connection to other Greeks and I found myself relating to the many traditions referenced in the book. I could picture my immigrant grandparents going through similar experiences in their new country, America. Themia is a role model to any of us who might complain from time to time..."why me?" I only wish I could meet her and talk to her in person.
Rating:  Summary: Awesome!!! Review: This book is great!!! At the beginning when i got this book at my hands i was unwilling to start reading it, thinking just another boring story... One day out of curiosity i started browsing some of its lines and quickly i got surprised and amazed by its moving story and i ended up reading it cover to cover. I recommended it for both historical education and as a literature reading.
Rating:  Summary: A true depiction of Turkish genocide Review: Themia's (Sano) memories are so much like those told by the few who escaped certain death at the hands of the turks lead by Mustafa Kemal. As a grandaughter of a survivor from Themia's area, I can attest to having heard similar stories. Much of the world knows nothing of these genocides and death marches - it is truly an invaluable service that Thea Halo has performed by so eloquently putting her mother's life into words from which all of us can learn. Her writing is beautifully descriptive and poetic - a pleasure to read.
Rating:  Summary: The Genocide was a reality Review: Many have denied that the events in this book could have ever happened. But as the daughter of a survivor of this holocaust, I know that this story did happen. The book helped me to understand the psychological impact that the genocide had on my father throughout his life, and it brought me closer to him. This is a moving book, and it was beautifully written. I found myself being drawn into the experience of the story as though I was living through it. Ms Halo is a gifted writer!
Rating:  Summary: Oute to Onoma Mou Review: I happened by this book by chance and was glad that I read it. The Pontic Greek genocide at the hands of the Turks is one of the 20th century's most overlooked tragedies. Themia Halo, a recipient of Gov. Pataki's 2001 Governor's Award for Excellence in honor of Womens History Month, tells a compelling story through the words of her daughter, Thea Halo. As I turned each page, I journeyed with her on her voyage into exile: I walked with her, crying...wishing that I could have been there to dole out bread or water. This story must be heard.
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