Take a Break
Book Club
FOR ADULTS AGES 18+
EVERY THIRD 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 16, 2021—Sold
October 21, 2021—The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
November 18, 2021—The Westing Game
No book club in December
January 20, 2022—Tinkers
February 17, 2022—Winnie-the-Pooh*
March 17, 2022—The Last Lecture
April 21, 2022—How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope
May 19, 2022—Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
June 16, 2022—Bloody Jack
No book club in July or August
*Our 2022 On the Same Page community reads book
Reading List
September 16, 2021
Sold
by Patricia McCormick
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of …
Read the full synopsis
October 21, 2021
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
by Alan Bradley
It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a …
Read the full synopsis
November 18, 2021
The Westing Game
by Elen Raskin
A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing’s will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire…
Learn More!
January 20, 2022
Tinkers
by Paul Harding
An old man lies dying. Propped up in his living room and surrounded by his children and grandchildren, George Washington Crosby drifts in and out of …
Read the full synopsis
February 17, 2022
Winnie-the-Pooh
by A. A. Milne
Winnie-the-Pooh (sometimes called simply Pooh or Edward Bear), is a good-natured, yellow-furred, honey-loving bear who lives in the Forest surrounding the Hundred Acre …
Read the full synopsis
March 17, 2022
The Last Lecture
by Randy Pausch
A lot of professors give talks titled ‘The Last Lecture’. Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them: What wisdom …
Read the full synopsis
April 21, 2022
How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope
More and more people are turning to poetry as an antidote to divisiveness, negativity, anxiety, and the frenetic pace of life. How to Love the World offers…
Read the full synopsis
May 19, 2022
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See
In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match …
Read the full synopsis
June 16, 2022
Bloody Jack
by L.A. Meyer
Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy. Life as a ship’s boy aboard HMSDolphinis a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are ..
Read the full synopsis
November 18, 2021, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing’s will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger—and a possible murderer—to inherit his vast fortune, one thing’s for sure: Sam Westing may be dead … but that won’t stop him from playing one last game!
September 16, 2021, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of simple pleasures, like raising her black-and-white speckled goat, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.
He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid working for a wealthy woman in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi undertakes the long journey to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.
An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family’s debt—then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.
Lakshmi’s life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother’s words—”Simply to endure is to triumph”—and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision—will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?
Written in spare and evocative vignettes, this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Lorna rated it ★★★★ and said “Not a pretty story, but beautifully written and heart wrenching.”
October 21, 2021, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.
For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Bekka rated it ★★★★★ and said “Very entertaining! Flavia is quite the character. I look forward to reading the other books in the series!”
Cathy rated it ★★★★★.
Miranda rated it ★★★★.
January 20, 2022, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Tinkers by Paul Harding
An old man lies dying. Propped up in his living room and surrounded by his children and grandchildren, George Washington Crosby drifts in and out of consciousness, back to the wonder and pain of his impoverished childhood in Maine. As the clock repairer’s time winds down, his memories intertwine with those of his father, an epileptic, itinerant peddler and his grandfather, a Methodist preacher beset by madness.
At once heartbreaking and life affirming, Tinkers is an elegiac meditation on love, loss, illness, faith, and the fierce beauty of nature.
February 17, 2022, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
This is our selection for this year’s community reading event On the Same Page.
Free copies will be given away starting in mid-January.
Winnie-the-Pooh (sometimes called simply Pooh or Edward Bear), is a good-natured, yellow-furred, honey-loving bear who lives in the Forest surrounding the Hundred Acre Wood. His companions are Eeyore, a gloomy gray donkey; Piglet, a timid pig; Owl, a pontificating bird; the meddlesome Rabbit; and Kanga, an energetic kangaroo whose inquisitive baby, Roo, lives in her pouch.
Pooh, a self-described “Bear of Very Little Brain,” gets himself into all kinds of sticky situations, and the book’s 10 chapters recount his various adventures. The stories are simply written, and full of comic moments as well as silly verses. However, the work also is notable for its insights into human behavior, and Milne’s characters are endearing but also complex. E.H. Shepard’s original illustrations add to the charm of the book and helped make it a children’s classic.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Bekka rated it ★★★★★ and said “This is one of the most charming of children’s books. Cute without being sappy or overly sentimental. The characterizations of the animals are wonderful, and Christopher Robin is a very real child. Shepherd’s classic illustrations add to the charm of the book as a whole.”
Cathy rated it ★★★★★.
William rated it ★★★★★.
March 17, 2022, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
A lot of professors give talks titled ‘The Last Lecture’. Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?
When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave, ‘Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams‘, wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.
In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humour, inspiration, and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Patty rated it ★★★★★ and said “Great book. Really made me take a step back and look and what is really important in my life.”
Cathy rated it ★★★★.
April 21, 2022, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope
What the world needs now – featuring poems from inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith and more.
More and more people are turning to poetry as an antidote to divisiveness, negativity, anxiety, and the frenetic pace of life. How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope offers readers uplifting, deeply felt, and relatable poems by well-known poets from all walks of life and all parts of the US, including inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, Joy Harjo, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith, and others. The work of these poets captures the beauty, pleasure, and connection readers hunger for. How to Love the World, which contains new works by Ted Kooser, Mark Nepo, and Jane Hirshfield, invites readers to use poetry as part of their daily gratitude practice to uncover the simple gifts of abundance and joy to be found everywhere.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★★ and said “This is a book I’ll be purchasing as a gift for all my friends and relations. It’s thought provoking, uplifting, and absolutely beautiful!”
May 19, 2022, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See
In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men.
As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Miranda rated it ★★★★ and said “Wow. A bit disturbing, but a great insight into the culture.”
Bekka rated it ★★★★ and said “Quite compelling! Im looking forward to seeing the movie.”
June 16, 2022, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Bloody Jack
by L.A. Meyer
Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy
Life as a ship’s boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas.
There’s only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret. This could be the adventure of her life–if only she doesn’t get caught. . . .
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Bekka rated it ★★★★ and said “Really a fun and different take on the plot of sailing the high seas. I really liked Jacky and can’t wait to see what happens in the next book! Great read.”
Miranda rated it ★★★★.
Cathy rated it ★★★.
Regular Hours of Operation
- Monday – Thursday: 9:00 am – 8:00 pm
- Friday: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
- Saturday: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
- Sunday: CLOSED
Closures in 2022
- January 1 – New Year’s
- January 17 – Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
- February 21 – President’s Day
- March 25 – Staff Development Day
- April 2 – Closed for Maintenance
- May 28-30 – Memorial Day
- June 20 – Juneteenth
- July 2-4 – Independence Day
- September 3-5 – Labor Day
- September 22 - Staff Development Day
- October 1 – Closed for Maintenance
- November 11 – Veteran’s Day
- November 23 – Closing at 5 pm
- November 24-26 – Thanksgiving
- December 23-26 – Christmas
- December 30-31, 2022 – New Year’s
- January 2, 2023 – 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