Rochelle Book Hub opens Saturday, July 20, at Cypress House

By Jeff Helfrich, Editor in Chief

ROCHELLE – Rochelle Book Hub will open Saturday, July 20. The city’s new bookstore will be located in the Cypress House at 718 10th Ave.

Jacklyn Mlejnek, owner of Rochelle Book Hub, said she had been interested in opening a bookstore for the past few years and looked at the open space at Cypress House, then put together a business plan and made an agreement for the space about six weeks ago.

Rochelle Book Hub will be open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mlejnek said the store will initially be open only on weekends. The store’s focus will be fiction.

“It will be all genres of fiction, like romance, thriller, crime, fantasy and science fiction,” Mlejnek said. “Since it’s a smaller space, I thought we would focus mostly on fiction. There will be adult and young adult books and there will be some children’s books as well. We will also have some book accessories, like coffee mugs, bookmarks and maybe t-shirts. In the future, I would like to hire someone so we can be open longer. I hope to be able to order books for people. I can pre-order books that aren’t out yet. I will have a store for local authors and we will have events like book signings. Eventually we will have a book club and I hope there will be a writing club soon.”

Mlejnek and Cypress House announced plans for the bookstore in recent weeks, and she said she has been pleased with the support and enthusiasm from the community since then.

“There’s nothing like that in Rochelle,” Mlejnek said. “There’s no bookstore. There’s only the library. If there are people like me, I want to own the book and keep it to read it again. People are really excited about it. I think it’s because there hasn’t been a bookstore in Rochelle yet. I think this is something Rochelle needs.”

Mlejnek has always had a love for books and reading.

“Reading is important for everyone to get through life,” Mlejnek said. “Certain books touch us at certain points in our lives. When you’re going through something, you can always find comfort in a book. There’s always something that helps you get through. It doesn’t have to be a self-help book. It could be a novel that deals with the problems you’re having. That helps. I hope to bring that to the Rochelle community.”

Mlejnek has spent her weekends and evenings after work setting up the store, building bookshelves, ordering books and hosting a book sale event. She believes her business will mesh well with Cypress House’s offerings.

“I hope it will be a place where the community can come and relax,” Mlejnek said. “I’ll put chairs up so people can come and read. They can get a coffee or tea at the Cypress House and come back here, or they can take a book out to the patio. In the winter they can sit in the greenhouse and read.”