ROCHELLE — They sit around a white, plastic table in the conference basement of the Flagg-Rochelle Pubic Library. Between munching on chocolate chip cookies and sipping coffee and lemonade, they talk and joke and share opinions and personal stories of a serious nature.

Oh, yes, they also talk about the book they’ve just read.

“We always need our treats,” Sarah Flanagan, head librarian and leader of the group, jokes.

The Evening Book Club meets at 7 p.m. the third Tuesday of every month at the library. It is one of three book clubs at the library. The other two are the Morning Book Club, which meets at 11 a.m. the second Monday of the month, and the Young Adults Club, for children in sixth through ninth grades, at 1:30 p.m. the third Saturday.

The clubs were formed nearly two decades ago as an outreach program by then library director Barb Koeplin.

“She approached me about it,” library clerk Anne Ankney said, noting that Rochelle was the only library in the area that didn’t have a book club. 

Not knowing what to expect, Ankney said about 18 people showed up for the initial meeting, a half dozen of whom still attend. “I saw a lot of familiar faces and some new ones,” she said.

Ankney, who led the club for the first three years, said the first club met at night, but eventually a morning class was added for those who weren’t comfortable meeting after dark. The youth club was the last one formed.

Flanagan, who replaced Ankney, has been leading the evening club for at least 10 years while Connie Avery, the youth services director and assistant library director, has been guiding the other two clubs the last three years. Flanagan had been directing both adult book clubs but had to give one up when she became director three years ago.

Each adult group essentially operates the same way. Flanagan and Avery will select a book from a number of different sources, such as websites, best seller lists, what other library book clubs are reading, and even members’ suggestions, and assign it to each member, who then has a month to read it. For the youth group, Avery said she will give the students a list of about 20 books and they can choose the one the whole group will read. Their material includes fantasy, mystery and award-winners.

Flanagan said the evening group, which reads both fiction and non-fiction, generally chooses more serious books than the morning club, which mainly reads fiction.

“Some I read and some come recommended,” Flanagan said of the selected books.

Like Avery, she doesn’t always read a book before it gets chosen. Only once, Avery said, did she read a book that she wondered if it was appropriate for the youth club.

Fortunately, only one member read it, so it wasn’t a problem. 

This past month, the evening club read “Before We Were Yours” by Lisa Wingate, which Good Reads calls “a –provoking [and] complex tale about two families, two generations apart . . . based on a notorious true-life scandal.”

Like all meetings, last week began with a simple question: Did you like the book? From a few simple “yesses,” it soon segued into a serious discussion of real life stories that related to the subject of the book - about adopted and abused children. Some of the questions raised were: Why are there no orphanages today? If you adopt a child, can the biological parent reclaim them some day? If so, is there a time limit on when they can do so? And does the affected child have any say in who gets them?

Perhaps because of the setting, or because those attending have a shared interest and a deep trust in each other, Flanagan said the discussions can get quite personal sometimes.

“Some people give great opinions and others nothing,” Avery said.

According to Ankney, the best discussions come when the group is divided over a book. A collection of short stories about the Vietnam War, she said, probably drew the biggest debate.

Despite any possible differences, the main reason the members get together – which consists of all ages, but mainly women –is their love of books.

“I enjoy the books and the conversation,” one member, Marilyn Janssen, said about why she joined. “We read so many different types of books. They get you out of your comfort zone.

At 95, Harry Ross is the oldest member of the evening club – and also the only male. He is also one of the founding members.

“When I worked, I never had time to read,” he said, adding that he now reads three books a month, mostly historical non-fiction with World War II being his favorite subject.

Chrissie LaFleur joined when she moved to town 18 years ago from Chicago, where her late husband was a policeman for 32 years.  “I didn’t know anyone,” she said, adding that the clubs were an excellent way to meet people. “As anyone who knows me knows, I am a very social person.”

At one time she belonged to both adult book clubs, but had to give up the morning club, “I discovered I’m not a morning person,” she joked.

One of the benefits of the Rochelle book clubs, Avery said, is that – unlike other library book clubs – all the books are free. “You don’t want to pay $30 for a book and find out you don’t like it,” she said.

This month’s books include: “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng, for the evening club; “Their Eyes were Watching God” by Zora Neale Harston, the morning club; and “Kidnapped”: by Robert Louis Stevenson, youth book club.

Although most books are contemporary, Avery likes to use classical books once in a while.

She added that she wanted to run through the whole Harry Potter series, month by month, but they couldn’t find enough books.

“Availability can be a problem sometimes,” Janssen said.

Flanagan said all book clubs are open to anyone who wants to join. People can either attend one of the meetings or call her at the library at 815-562-3431.