Proof

The Alexandria Book club turns to a play for the spring. We'll be reading Proof by David Auburn.

The Book Club will meet Friday April 1 (no fooling!) for snacks and discussion.

Good Soldiers -- stay in touch too much?

Picking up on one of the themes discussed at the Feb 4th book club meeting, the New York Times today ran an article discussing the pros and cons of a fighting force that is almost instantly connected, 24-7 with home:

"They can partake in births and birthdays in real time. They can check sports scores, take online college courses and even manage businesses and stock portfolios.

But there is a drawback: they can no longer tune out problems like faulty dishwashers and unpaid electric bills, wayward children and failing relationships, as they once could."

And the pros and cons go both ways:

"The easy communication can relieve fears — but also stoke them. Once families become used to hearing from troops daily, lapses in communication can send imaginations racing. "

Read the article on the NYT site. Or from the Library's ProQuest database (log-in required from off-campus).

The Good Soldiers

The Alexandria Campus book club met on Friday Feb 4 to discuss David Finkel's The Good Soldiers. Fortune magazine called the book "the most honest, painful, and most brilliantly rendered account of modern war I've ever read." Book club members agreed to book was a compelling, if harrowing read.

Finkel writes for the Washington Post and is married to Alexandria campus faculty member Lisa Hill.