
What we’re about
Join us for adventures in reading & real life! We are a community of readers who discuss books over paired outings. Like to explore? Like to read? You’ve found your people! Join us here in-person and for online discussions wherever you are on the socials! FB, Insta, TikTok, Website
Newsletter/FB group: Meetup isn’t great at sending out notifications, so to stay up to date with the latest book and activity pairings, sign up for the newsletter at https://mailchi.mp/fc5e0725650d/thenoveltourist and join the community on our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ I also post regularly on books and book pairings on Instagram via @thenoveltourist
What the Club Will Do for You
The purpose of all NTBC events is to give you the opportunity to socialize with likeminded readers who are life long learners and love to try new experiences. If your goal is read more books, do more stuff and meet more friends, being part of NTBC can be a life-changing experience!
What You Can Do for the Club
Bring your fun-loving, healthy attitude. Be committed to reading, showing up when promised, and being respectful of other members. We require that your profile includes a clear picture of yourself so others can identify you at our events.
Terms and Conditions
By joining the Novel Tourist Book Club or signing up for or attending any event offered by the Novel Tourist Book Club, you agree to the following terms and conditions:
- Readers please: NTBC is, first and foremost, a book club. We do a lot of amazing activities tied to the books. There are lots of Meetup groups that also do these fun activities. So, if you don’t like to read or don’t plan to read, we are sure there is another group out there that is more suited to your interests. Now, that said, it doesn’t mean you have to read the book or finish the book every time. Sometimes, you try and the book just doesn’t resonate with you. That’s okay! Come and tell us how much you didn’t like it! All we ask is that you try.
- No Guests: Sadness, we know! We are all about the more the merrier, but there must be a limit to the number of attendees at any one event. Events fill up really fast and so unless the event allows you to add a guest (which will be very rare) your guest must create a Meetup account and rsvp for themselves as a member. Yay new members!
- Liability Waiver: By signing up for an event, all members take full responsibility for their own actions and agree to adhere to the following terms and conditions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ZE-yUJEcHUnXF_A8MUsfxWhEmrKxZEcojrHh8FjQzc/edit; and further agree to hold harmless the Novel Tourists Book Club organizers and members of this Meetup book club from any and all claims and liability in case of possible injuries as stated in Paragraph 6 of the Meetup Terms of Service Agreement ( https://help.meetup.com/hc/en-us/articles/360027447252-Terms-of-Service#h_9e385395-a405-4361-8afc-854a4f586c82 ). When attending an event, you acknowledge that you are doing this at your own risk.
- Event Payments:
- Name: If your name on your Meetup profile is different than your name on your payment profile (PayPal, Venmo), please provide your meetup name when you make your payment;
- Include Date or Event Title: Please include the date of the event or an indication of the event title (e.g. if we are going to a restaurant put the name of the restaurant not just “restaurant” or “book club.”)
- Be Open-minded, Kind and Courteous: We can’t imagine anyone who loves to read being anything but open-minded, kind and courteous. However, I also know we bibliophiles can have some pretty strong opinions about books! Whether you agree with someone or not, no doubt you came here for a welcoming environment. Healthy debates are natural, but kindness is required.
- No bullies: Personal attacks of any kind are not allowed. Period. I have zero tolerance for any bullying, degrading comments about another member’s race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity. We are an open and inclusive community and to keep it that way a$$holes will be removed from the group.
- Photos/Videos: Joining the group and attending an event means you’re a-okay with being photographed/video recorded during events. We always takes pics: for the memories and for promotion of future events and NTBC.
- Communication settings: This is just helpful guidance. Events fill up really fast. Make sure your settings are set to maximize communication: Click on your profile pic in Meetup, click Settings, under General select Email Updates, scroll down and find The Novel Tourists Book Club under “Updates about your Group”, click Edit next to The Novel Tourists Book Club and then make your choices. I suggest checking “New Event Announcements,” “Changes to Event Time or Locations,” “My RSVP is confirmed,” and, most importantly: "Announcements to Members About the Group" and “Event updates from Organizer.” Also, you may want to download the Meetup app.
- Carpooling: It’s great for the planet! However, any arrangements are between you and the person driving. The Novel Tourists Book Club organizers and hosts do not provide, endorse, sponsor or take responsibility for any carpool arrangements pertaining to any event. Please use your good judgment when deciding whether or not to carpool with other participants of the book club event you are attending.
- Refund Policy:
- Events with a fee of less than $5: No refunds, even if someone takes your spot. The events fill fast and the only way to really try to make sure that those who are truly interested and able to come get a seat, is a nominal fee. This fee is offered to the event host to pay for their entrance/meal/etc as a way of saying thank you for your time and for putting this together for us.
- Events with a fee greater than $5: The general policy is if the Organizer/Host can get their money back, you’ll get your money back - if you timely cancelled. Once an event location has been paid, however, many times they won’t issue a refund. If they don’t refund us, we can’t refund you regardless of how far in advance you cancelled. That said, sometimes a refund can be issued IF you cancel at least a week in advance AND someone takes your spot. If you want to request a refund, message Audrey via Meetup to discuss. Please note, if you cancel the day before or the day of an event, there are refunds - regardless of the reason and regardless if someone takes your spot.
- If you do not agree to the above terms and conditions, do not sign up for the club. There is probably a different club out there that will better meet your needs.
Happy reading and adventuring!
- Audrey
Planes, trains, boats, cars, subway, or more! Transportation: Here, There and Everywhere is July's theme! So, give us your ideas for books we should read that take place on or prominently feature a method of getting from here to there. Use the Google Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe42QQCOuwKMHOZGQ72A6forfNdcAylYfBSvyo4cTIX35WeSA/viewform?usp=sharing
After we get your ideas, we’ll pick 4 for you to select a winner!
The poll will close on May 22, so don’t delay!
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Each month we put out a call for ideas for one book that will have both an online discussion event as well as an inperson event. After you share your ideas, we'll pick four to put out for vote as the Member Choice Book for the month. After the book is chosen…well that’s when the fun begins! Stay tuned for the exciting paired online discussion and in person event!
This is not an "event" it is just a post to share the link to suggest the Member Choice Book for this month's theme. But feel free to click "attend" because then Meetup will show this to more people and we'll get lots of great book club book ideas!
Thanks for participating! Reading books and doing stuff together as a book club brings us all so much joy. 🤩
Audrey and Diane
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Suggest a Book 📚for July's Theme: 🚌Transportation (Use the Online Google Form)Link visible for attendees
Planes, trains, boats, cars, subway, or more! Transportation: Here, There and Everywhere is July's theme! So, give us your ideas for books we should read that take place on or prominently feature a method of getting from here to there. Use the Google Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe42QQCOuwKMHOZGQ72A6forfNdcAylYfBSvyo4cTIX35WeSA/viewform?usp=sharing
After we get your ideas, we’ll pick 4 for you to select a winner!
The poll will close on May 22, so don’t delay!
--------------
Each month we put out a call for ideas for one book that will have both an online discussion event as well as an inperson event. After you share your ideas, we'll pick four to put out for vote as the Member Choice Book for the month. After the book is chosen…well that’s when the fun begins! Stay tuned for the exciting paired online discussion and in person event!This is not an "event" it is just a post to share the link to suggest the Member Choice Book for this month's theme. But feel free to click "attend" because then Meetup will show this to more people and we'll get lots of great book club book ideas!
Thanks for participating! Reading books and doing stuff together as a book club brings us all so much joy. 🤩
Audrey and Diane
- 💐Dine at Harpers Garden and discuss Book "The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart”Harper's Garden, Philadelphia, PAUSD 3.00
Join Audrey and friends both known or new for a night of delicious food on a garden patio at Harper's Garden in Rittenhouse where we'll discuss The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. The book is set on an Australian flower farm and was our runner up for May's flower theme book winner. It was such a close vote between this and the winning book (A Memory of Violets) that I just knew we had to read it, too! (Fun fact: It was also turned into a series on Prime starring Sigourney Weaver!)
Limit 18. $3 to hold your seat. First pay goes (see payment info below)
DINE: Harper's Garden
Menu: New American
Located at the corner of South 18th & Ludlow (Rittenhouse)
Philadelphia, PARotating menu of simple seasonals using local ingredients with a fantastic patio with garden delights all around us.
Parking: $24 parking for 12 hours available at the Sonesta building, 1800 Market St. Pick up a parking voucher at Harper’s Garden.
FEE: $3.00 holds your spot and supports paying the $400 annual fee Meetup charges organizers like me to host the club. Spots are filled first pay, first goes. There are only 18 spots.
Pay on your own for your meal (bring small unmarked 🤪 bills to make payment easier!).
HOW TO PAY: Use Friends and Family! Do not use the business option because it charges me a fee. Please note the event name or date on your payment. If your payment name is different than your Meetup name please make sure you note your Meetup name.
Venmo - @audrey-Heller1 (phone ends in 4478)
PayPal - https://www.paypal.me/AudreyBug***
DISCUSS: *The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart *by Holly Ringland
Genre: FictionAfter her family suffers a tragedy, nine-year-old Alice Hart is forced to leave her idyllic seaside home. She is taken in by her grandmother, June, a flower farmer who raises Alice on the language of Australian native flowers, a way to say the things that are too hard to speak.
Under the watchful eye of June and the women who run the farm, Alice settles, but grows up increasingly frustrated by how little she knows of her family’s story. In her early twenties, Alice’s life is thrown into upheaval again when she suffers devastating betrayal and loss. Desperate to outrun grief, Alice flees to the dramatically beautiful central Australian desert. In this otherworldly landscape Alice thinks she has found solace, until she meets a charismatic and ultimately dangerous man.
Spanning two decades, set between sugar cane fields by the sea, a native Australian flower farm, and a celestial crater in the central desert, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart follows Alice’s unforgettable journey, as she learns that the most powerful story she will ever possess is her own.
Psst. Purchase of the book through this link supports the club at no additionial cost to you. Yay us!
Happy Reading!
Audrey
Housekeeping!**
- Here are the Club’s Basic Rules and Liability Release. You should read them because by signing up for an event you agree to them.
Affiliate notice. Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you make your purchase through that link, it supports the Club at no cost to you. Thanks!
—————-You can ignore all this part. It’s just for the Meetup algorithm. To make sure our Book Club events get seen. The Novel Tourist Book Club is a fantastic book club where people can get to know each other meet new friends have fun, exploring hobbies dining out at restaurants. We read books. Make new friends. Lots of fun with Book Club. Socializing. Social event. Lots of hobbies dining out is great fun. We read a lot of fun books. we visit libraries and eat food at restaurants. love to explore and meet new people to try out hobbie. socializing is great.
- Flowers! May’s Member Choice Online Book Club Book: “A Memory of Violets""Link visible for attendees
We have a winner!!! It was really close this month! You picked A Memory of Violets as the member choice book for the theme of a book with flowers in the title. Woot woot!
This unforgettable historical novel tells the story of two long-lost sisters—orphaned flower sellers—and a young woman who is transformed by their experiences.
Our online discussion will be the last Monday of May at 7 PM! The event with zoom link will be posted soon!
Stay tuned for the paired inperson adventure to a flower garden!
This is our online book club discussion night (last Monday of each month). Zoom link will be posted on the day of the event.
NOVEL: A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor
Genre: Historical Fiction
Flower: Violets"For little sister. . . . I will never stop looking for you."
- Among the filth and depravity of Covent Garden's flower markets, orphaned Irish sisters Flora and Rosie Flynn sell posies of violets and watercress to survive. It is a pitiful existence, made bearable only by each other's presence. When they become separated, the decision of a desperate woman sets their lives on very different paths.
- Twenty-one-year-old Tilly Harper leaves the peace and beauty of her native Lake District for London to become assistant housemother at one of Mr. Shaw's Training Homes for Watercress and Flower Girls. For years, the homes have cared for London's orphaned and crippled flower girls, getting them off the streets. For Tilly, the appointment is a fresh start, a chance to leave her troubled past behind.
Soon after she arrives at the home, Tilly finds a notebook belonging to Flora Flynn. Hidden between the pages she finds dried flowers and a heartbreaking tale of loss and separation as Flora's entries reveal how she never stopped looking for her lost sister. Tilly sets out to discover what happened to Rosie—but the search will not be easy. Full of twists and surprises, it leads the caring and determined young woman into unexpected places, including the depths of her own heart.
Happy Reading!
Audrey-------------------The below is silly babble just for the algorithm - no need for book club members to read this!-------------------------------
Reading books everywhere including in Philadelphia and New Jersey and thecworkd’s neighborhoods is such a fun way to make new friends and be social with book loving book club members who like to read and explore urban areas and try new activities such as hiking, reading, craft, hobbies, museums and more! It's especially fun for a book club to go on outdoor and indoor adventures with all the book club friends who like to explore and try new hobbies and discuss books and be social!