Library
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.
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 17, 2020—The Kite Runner
October 8, 2020—The Night Circus
November 19, 2020—The Glass Castle
No book club in December
January 21, 2021—Eleanor Oliphant is Complely Fine
February 18, 2021—Persuasion*
March 18, 2021—Station Eleven
April 15, 2021—The Enchanted April
May 20, 2021—29 Gifts
June 17, 2021—The Art of Racing in the Rain
No book club in July or August
*Our 2021 On the Same Page community reads book
Reading List
September 17, 2020
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted…
Learn More!
October 8, 2020
The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an…
Read the full synopsis
November 19, 2020
The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four…
Read the full synopsis
January 21, 2021
Eleanor Oliphant
Is Completely Fine
by Gail Honeyman
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of…
Read the full synopsis
February 18, 2021
Persuasion
by Jane Austen
At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her…
Read the full synopsis
March 18, 2021
Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
Set in the days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the…
Read the full synopsis
April 15, 2021
The Enchanted April
by Elizabeth von Arnim
The women at the center of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their…
Read the full synopsis
May 20, 2021
29 Gifts
by Cami Walker
At age thirty-five, Cami Walker was burdened by a battle with multiple sclerosis, a chronic neurological condition that made it difficult for her to walk, work, or…
Read the full synopsis
June 17, 2021
The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by..
Read the full synopsis
September 17, 2020, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Lorna rated it ★★★★★.
October 8, 2020, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Charlene rated it ★★★★★ and said “Erin Morgenstern took me for a glorious ride through everything black and white, magical tents, delicious things, beautiful people, a unique love story, and an all rounded amazing book! It definitely helped that I listened to the audio which is read by Jim Dale, it made it all the more magical! I can’t boast of this book more!”
Miranda rated it ★★★★ and said “This was very close to getting five stars. I felt a little slighted at the end, but maybe because I just always want more than there is to a story. I really want to have my own Midnight Dinner. It sounds really fun!”
Leslie rated it ★★★★.
November 19, 2020, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn’t stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an “excitement addict.” Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.
Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town — and the family — Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents’ betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.
January 21, 2021, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she’ll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Bekka rated it ★★★★★ and said “Wow, this was a powerful book! I think there is a lot here that most of us can related to – all of us get lonely at one point or another, but not to the extreme that Eleanor is facing. This book is not a sad book; although it deals with some fairly serious issues, Eleanor’s unique voice – filled with naivete as well as brilliance – gives us the humor to face these issues without the book becoming unbearably serious. The relationships are fantastic – I really liked all the characters in this one! I thought the ending was very appropriate, and leaves the reader with a sense of the possibilities that are open now for Eleanor. This book reminded me in some ways of “A Man Called Ove” and of “The Rosie Project” in other ways. Highly Recommended!”
February 18, 2021, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Persuasion by Jane Austen
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.
‘She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older’
At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank.
What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen’s last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Bekka rated it ★★★★★ and said “I think this is the best of all her books. More mature, and more depth to the story. Beautiful. Better every time I read it!”
Cathy rated it ★★★★.
March 18, 2021, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Set in the days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor’s early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor’s first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★★ and said “Things you should know:
1 – I hate post apocalyptic novels.
2 – This is a post apocalyptic novel.
3 – I LOVED this book.
Yes, this is what it could actually be like – and it’s horrible – and there’s hope. Why isn’t anyone making a movie? They do of all the stupid ones. The scenario here is real. The characters are believable and compelling. This one gets four and a half stars.”
Bekka rated it ★★★★ and said “4 1/2 stars – Very good book! This is extremely well-written, with some of the best drawn characters I’ve read for a while. The plot is riveting – I read into the wee hours because I couldn’t put it down. The scenario is, for me at least, a much more realistic version of the collapse of civilization. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the author moved us forwards and backwards in time, telling us things bluntly so we’d know what was coming but not the exact details. The missing 1/2 star is for leaving one character somewhat unattached – I really thought he would meet up more with the other parts of the story, and was a tiny bit disappointed that he didn’t. However, this is a really great, absorbing, even humorous in parts, read. Highly Recommended!”
Alec rated it ★★★★★.
April 15, 2021, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
A recipe for happiness: four women, one medieval Italian castle, plenty of wisteria, and solitude as needed.
The women at the center of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.
May 20, 2021, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life
by Cami Walker
At age thirty-five, Cami Walker was burdened by a battle with multiple sclerosis, a chronic neurological condition that made it difficult for her to walk, work, or enjoy her life. Seeking a remedy for her depression after being hospitalized, she received an uncommon prescription from an African medicine woman: Give to others for 29 days.
29 Gifts is the insightful story of the author’s life change as she embraces and reflects on the naturally reciprocal process of giving and receiving. Many of Walker’s gifts were simple —a phone call, spare change, a Kleenex. Yet the acts were transformative. By Day 29, not only had Walker’s health and happiness improved, but she had created a worldwide giving movement.
The book also includes personal essays from others whose lives changed for the better by giving, plus pages for the reader to record their own journey. More than a memoir, 29 Gifts offers inspiring lessons on how a simple daily practice of altruism can dramatically alter your outlook on the world.
Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians
Cathy rated it ★★★★.
Lorna rated it ★★★★.
June 17, 2021, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room
The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver.
Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn’t simply about going fast. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through.
A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life … as only a dog could tell it.
Limited Hours Starting October 12
- Monday and Tuesday: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
- Wednesday & Thursday: 1:00 pm – 7:00 pm
- Friday: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
- Saturday & Sunday: CLOSED
Curbside Pickup ONLY
(Library Building is Closed – Book Drop is OPEN)
Closures in 2021
- January 1 – New Year’s
- January 18 – Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
- February 15 – President’s Day
- April 3– Closed for Maintenance
- May 29-31 – Memorial Day
- July 5 – Independence Day
- September 4-6 – Labor Day
- October 2 – Closed for Maintenance
- November 11 – Veteran’s Day
- November 24 – Closing at 5 pm
- November 25-26 – Thanksgiving
- December 24-27 – Christmas
- December 31, 2020 – January 1, 2021 – New Year’s
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