Every month Madison Public Library hosts a variety of book discussions and each of them warmly welcomes newcomers. So if you're someone who loves
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to talk books and want to join in, here are the groups who are meeting and the titles they'll discuss for June.
NewBridge Book Group - Wednesday, June 4, 10-11 am - Meeting offsite or via Zoom. Check with the Lakeview Library for details.
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.
Mystery Book Group - Wednesday, June 4, 7-8 pm - Sequoya Library
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers - When an ad man dies in an apparent accident, Lord Peter Wimsey goes undercover as a copywriter to discover the link between the chic advertising agency and London’s criminal underworld.
Thursday Book Club - Thursday, June 5, 2-3 pm - Alicia Ashman Library
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward - Enduring a hardscrabble existence as the children of alcoholic and absent parents, four siblings from a coastal Mississippi town prepare their meager stores for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina while struggling with such challenges as a teen pregnancy and a dying litter of prize pups.
Lakeview Book Group - Thursday, June 5, 6:30-8 pm - Lakeview Library
The Removed by Brandon Hobson - In the fifteen years since their teenage son, Ray-Ray, was killed in a police shooting, the Echota family has been suspended in private grief. The mother, Maria, increasingly struggles to manage the onset of Alzheimer’s in her husband, Ernest. Their adult daughter, Sonja, leads a life of solitude, punctuated only by spells of dizzying romantic obsession. And their son, Edgar, fled home long ago, turning to drugs to mute his feelings of alienation. With the family’s annual bonfire approaching—an occasion marking both the Cherokee National Holiday and Ray-Ray’s death, and a rare moment in which they openly talk about his memory—Maria attempts to call the family together from their physical and emotional distances once more.
Meadowridge Book Club - Tuesday, June 17, 5-5:45 pm - Meadowridge Library
We Are Staying: Eighty Years in the Life of a Family, a Store, and a Neighborhood by Jen Rubin - Richly detailed, We Are Staying: Eighty Years in the Life of a Family, a Store, and a Neighborhood, is a remarkably powerful, poignantly told story of a family, a business, a neighborhood and a city. It is an immigrant story, a grandfather-father-daughter story, a story of the unique character a family business brings to a neighborhood, and a reflection on what has been lost as stores like these disappear.
Central Book Group - Wednesday, June 18, 7-8:30 pm - Central Library
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner - Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientèle. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary's fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.
Goodman South Madison Book Club - Saturday, June 21, 1:30-3 pm - Goodman South Madison Library
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson - Lawson, known as The Bloggess to readers of her immensely popular blog of the same name, fills her second memoir with stories that revolve around the crazy things that happen in her life, with an emphasis here on her struggles with mental illness mainly anxiety and depression.
Third* Thursday Book Discussion - Thursday, June 26, 2-3 pm - Sequoya Library
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today.
*This month's discussion will take place on the fourth Thursday, due to the Juneteenth holiday on the third Thursday.
Mystery Book Group - Thursday, June 26, 5:30-6:30 pm - Lakeview Library
What Happened to Nina by Dervla McTiernan - Nina and Simon are the perfect couple. Young, fun and deeply in love. Until they leave for a weekend at his family’s cabin in Vermont, and only Simon comes home.
Most libraries will have copies of the books available onsite for checkout if you'd like to pick up a copy, read it, and join a discussion.