Selection for April

Book Club selection for April will be Cosmic Jackpot by Paul Davies

Selection for March

Book Club selection for March is Terrorist by John Updike.

Notes and random thoughts on the Book Terrorist by John Updike:

The first thing that struck me as I started reading the book is that Both Ahmad and Jack “thought” in very similar ways--the way they observed the world seemed similar. I guess this was intentional, but even Beth sounded a bit like them, perhaps a ditzier version of their style of thinking. I guess as I think about it in retrospect, Ahmad and Jack’s similarity may have been intentional…neither one enjoying the life situations they were in very much. …but of course Terry wasn’t a real happy person either…same might be inferred of Beth. I can imagine Beth’s sister Hermione being happy, about being an “important person” and the fact that she had Beth to walk all over on a weekly basis.

I did enjoy the ending a lot. I thought it was very suspenseful. Then I digress and think about Hofstadler in GEB, where he talked about the fact that with a book you know that the end is coming up because the pages are running out. I guess that was part of the excitement. I actually had one book that did fool me, though…it had an extensive appendix/addendum/index or whatever that were the last 50 pages or so. So I found it a quicker read that Zollinger (half the page count and space and a half spacing probably had a lot to do with it). .

Other, even more random thoughts….I wonder why Ahmad thought of his God as lonely….it seems after a little thought that the God already has the company of the other suicide bombers. I wonder if all of Updike’s novels have the people with, uh….one track minds in the gutter. In Ahmad’s case, of course, it is more think about not thinking about it, which provides an interesting contrast.

Selection for February

February's selection was Not of War Only by Norman Zollenger. Book provided a perspective on the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century as seen through the eyes of a gringo foot soldier and a wild west lawman acting as a government agent.