Take a Break
Book Club
FOR ADULTS AGES 18+
EVERY FOURTH Thursday AT 6:30 PM in the COMMUNITY ROOM
Come join your fellow community members for a lively discussion of both classic works and modern masterpieces. In addition to our discussion, we’ll have a little something extra each month, such as a craft, treat, or game that’s related to that month’s title.
Unless otherwise noted, a limited number of book club reading copies will be available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.
SCHEDULE
September 25, 2025—The Violin Conspiracy
October 23, 2025—To Kill a Mockingbird
November 20, 2025—Go Set a Watchman
No book club in December
January 22, 2026—The Screwtape Letters
February 26, 2026—Bel Canto
March 26, 2026—See if you can solve the mystery of the title. We’ll give you clues along the way.*
April 23, 2026—Simon Sort of Says
May 28, 2026—The Midnight Library
June 25, 2026—The Thursday Murder Club
No book club in July or August
*Our 2026 On the Same Page community reads book
Reading List
September 25, 2025
The Violin Conspiracy
by Brendan Slocumb
Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who …
Read the full synopsis
October 23, 2025
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the …
Read the full synopsis
November 20, 2025
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—”Scout”—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and …
Read the full synopsis
January 22, 2026
The Screwtape Letters
by C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the …
Learn More!
February 26, 2026
Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett
In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. His hosts hope that Mr. Hosokawa can be …
Learn More!
March 26, 2026
A Mystery of a Book Title
by Who Can Guess?
Our On the Same Page book this year is a puzzlement! We’ll provide you clues, so see if you can decipher what our book is …
Read the full synopsis
April 23, 2026
Simon Sort of Says
by Erin Bow
Simon O’Keeffe’s biggest claim to fame should be the time his dad accidentally gave a squirrel a holy sacrament. Or maybe the alpaca disaster that went viral on YouTube. But the …
Read the full synopsis
May 28, 2026
The Midnight Library
by Matt Haig
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone …
Read the full synopsis
June 25, 2026
The Thursday
Murder Club
by Richard Osman
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their …
Read the full synopsis
September 25, 2025, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can’t afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world. And when he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather’s fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise.
Then with the international Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—fast approaching, his prized family heirloom is stolen. Ray is determined to get it back. But now his family and the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray’s great-grandfather are each claiming that the violin belongs to them. With the odds stacked against him and the pressure mounting, will Ray ever see his beloved violin again?
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Lorna rated it ★★★★★ and said “This is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.”
Cathy rated it ★★★★★ and said “For a few moments, long ago, I played a Stradivarius. It was an experience that can never be forgotten. It was if the instrument had a soul of its own that yearned to take my fingers and perfect them, to meld with my spirit and lift it to a higher level. However, I don’t think you have to have held a Strad or even be a violinist to understood Ray’s fixation and overwhelming love for his instrument. Slocumb paints such a beautiful portrait of Ray’s musicality, sensitivity, and struggles that everyone reading this book will understand his anguish at its absence. Setting aside the love between performer and instrument, this is also a vivid tale of prejudice, callousness, and greed. Which causes the most suffering is, in the end, hard to say; but the evils combine for intertwining conflicts that leave us suspicious of almost everyone before the story ends.”
October 23, 2025, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee’s classic novel – a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humor the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man’s struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.
book 1 in the To Kill a Mockingbird series
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Bekka rated it ★★★★★.
Mary rated it ★★★★★ and said “This was the first assigned book for an English class that I read and found more that just, “interesting.” (interesting being in the most boring way possible.) I honestly enjoyed this book, and found it quite engrossing. It’s one of my favorite classics. The story means the most to me.”
November 20, 2025, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—”Scout”—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt.
Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can be guided only by one’s conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor and effortless precision—a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to an American classic.
book 2 in the To Kill a Mockingbird series
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Bekka rated it ★★★1/2 and said “This is a book I Highly Recommend, for its content more than its execution. Perhaps 80% of the book is in its finished, final state, and the importance of what Lee is trying to say, as well as the masterful way in which she says it, make it worth forgiving those rougher, draft-quality parts.”
Cathy rated it ★★★★ and said “For me, the powerful part of Watchman was Jean Louise’s returning home and seeing her birthplace, her family, everything that had formed her with unveiled eyes. Seeing the ugliness, coming to terms with it, and eventually coming to realize that the goodness that she loved is still there beneath it, that things aren’t just good or just bad, that there are mixtures, and layers, and complications. It’s a tough adjustment, but one that everyone needs to make to truly mature.”
January 22, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the unique vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to “Our Father Below.” At once wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original, C.S. Lewis gives us the correspondence of the wordly-wise devil to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon in charge of securing the damnation of an ordinary young man. The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation—and triumph over it—ever written.
February 26, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country’s vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera’s most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening—until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★★ and said “You don’t have to like opera to be enthralled by this novel; but like a good aria, it soars.”
March 26, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
What Could it Be? by Who Can Guess?
This is our selection for this year’s community reading event On the Same Page.
Free copies will be given away starting March 1.
What is this book? Its a mystery! We’ll be giving out clues periodically. See if you can figure it out before the title is announced.
April 23, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Simon Sort of Says by Erin Box
Simon O’Keeffe’s biggest claim to fame should be the time his dad accidentally gave a squirrel a holy sacrament. Or maybe the alpaca disaster that went viral on YouTube. But the story the whole world wants to tell about Simon is the one he’d do anything to forget: the story in which he’s the only kid in his class who survived a school shooting.
Two years after the infamous event, twelve-year-old Simon and his family move to the National Quiet Zone—the only place in America where the internet is banned. Instead of talking about Simon, the astronomers who flock to the area are busy listening for signs of life in space. And when Simon makes a friend who’s determined to give the scientists what they’re looking for, he’ll finally have the chance to spin a new story for the world to tell.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★ and said “By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this warm tale is full of heart and refreshingly free of stereotypes. The characters are all a bit strange in a well-rounded, lovable kind of way, and the underlying conflict presented by the aftermath of a school shooting is balanced with scientific pranks, attack peacocks, and the unending small drama of a small close-knit community. I highly recommend this book both for the certain snorts of laughter it will bring and the meaningful discussions it might provoke.”
Lorna rated it ★★★★ and said “I enjoyed the writing, the wit, and the interesting characters. This book was really unique and different. It’s sad that school shootings have become so commonplace in the U.S. that it is a subject heading for juvenile fiction.”
May 28, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Between life and death there is a library.
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.
The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.
Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Charlene rated it ★★★★ and said “Really my only qualm with The Midnight Library was that I wanted to know what Nora does with her life after all she learns. That being said I understand why Matt Haig ended it the way he did, and my misgiving is selfish. I loved it! Fresh idea, great writing, and a great way to learn about how complicated lives/regrets are.”
June 25, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.
Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?
book 1 in the Thursday Murder Club series
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★ and said “Osman has created a perfect grouping of characters. Not only is the plot full of the twist and turns of a great who-done-it, but the quirks of the people solving the crimes are in turn touching and laugh out loud hilarious. This is the retirement community I’d like to be in when the time comes. – And I definitely want to be in the jigsaw room on Thursday afternoons!”
Lark rated it ★★★★ and said “I laughed out loud at parts where the old folks begin to subtly or not so subtly help the police officers. I also appreciated some of the more serious tones and questions asked within the narrative.”
Regular Hours of Operation
- Monday: 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
- Tuesday - Wednesday: 9:00 am – 8:00 pm
- Thursday: 11:00 am – 8:00 pm
- Friday: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
- Saturday: 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
- Sunday: CLOSED
Closures in 2025
- January 1 – New Year’s Day
- January 20 – Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
- February 17 – Presidents Day
- March 28 – Staff Development Day
- April 5 – Building Maintenance
- May 24-26 – Memorial Day
- June 19 – Juneteenth
- July 4-5 – Independence Day
- August 30-September 1 – Labor Day
- September 12 – Staff Development Day
- October 4 – Building Maintenance
- November 11 – Veterans Day
- November 26 – Closing at 5:00 pm
- November 27-29 – Thanksgiving
- December 24-26 – Christmas
- December 31 – New Year’s Eve
- January 1, 2026 – New Year’s Day
Address
73 North Center
Rexburg, Idaho 83440
We are located on Center Street, just north of Main Street, by the Historic Rexburg Tabernacle.
Contact Us
(208) 356-3461
24 Hour Phone Renewal: (208) 356-6658
askmadisonlibrary@madisonlib.org