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
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Relax and Read (silent reading) at Parks on Tap, Chapter 4: FDR ParkFDR Park (Parks on Tap), Philadelphia, PA
Yay reading time!! Join Audrey for Chapter 4 of the 2025 Relax & Read series: FDR Park!** Throughout the Spring, Summer, and Fall we'll gather at Parks on Tap locations to read together silently while also supporting and getting to know Philly's beautiful parks.
Here's how it works:
- First hour (5:30-6:30): Grab your book and read silently
- Second hour: Socialize (or keep reading) - it's up to you!
DETAILS:
We’ll start with silent reading 🙊for the first hour allowing everyone to delve into their own book. After that we can spend time socializing and talking about what we are reading. 📚Pop by whenever you can, stay as short or long as you’d like.
🌳ABOUT THIS PARK
FDR Park is South Philadelphia’s largest park and one of its most important public institutions, reflecting the remarkable racial, cultural, and economic diversity of South Philadelphia.
Its lakes, architecture, athletic fields, and nature trails create a civic commons where Philadelphians of all backgrounds can recreate, experience nature, and enjoy the cultural expressions of South Philadelphia.
The Friends of FDR Park is a community-led nonprofit organization dedicated to stewarding and advocating for FDR Park. They are committed to achieving their vision of building one of the greatest urban parks in America, rooted in the ideals of diversity, inclusion, and environmental sustainability.
📍FIND IT ON GOOGLE MAPS HERE
🚇 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:
Getting there is easy! There is a subway stop (Broad Street Line - NRG Station) just outside our door at Broad and Pattison. There are also a number of bus stops within walking distance of the park.
🚗 PARKING:
See free parking lots for car users on FDR Park’s website.
FACEBOOK: FDR Park
WEBSITE: fdrparkphilly.org
🍺ABOUT PARKS ON TAP
Parks on Tap is a partnership between Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and FCM Hospitality, Parks on Tap was created to be a traveling beer garden throughout the city's various, beautiful parks all summer long. Proceeds from Parks on Tap benefit the Fairmount Park Conservancy.Each park and location is collectively selected as a way to highlight and enhance the offerings that Philadelphia city parks provide. It aims for a simple aesthetic: well-kept outdoor spaces where friends and families can meet up to enjoy food, drinks, and fun in a natural green space. A portion of all proceeds benefits each park.
🍺Is purchase of alcohol required?
Nope! I picked Parks on Tap locations because there will always be seating, shade, food trucks and bathrooms. Free to enter and purchase of alcohol or food is not required. But, bring ID to enter.🍔Food and Drinks
Parks on Tap serves a variety of local craft beers, wine and cocktails, as well as non-alcoholic beverages such as water, lemonade and iced tea. A full food menu is available for purchase that highlights items made from locally sourced items and snacks.Seating: They provide chairs so no need to bring your own. But if you're vibe is more chillin' on a blanket, bring it!
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I can’t wait to Relax and Read with you!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! 🙂
Happy reading!
Audrey
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No need to read this part. It's just for Meetup's algorithm to help these events get seen. Grrr. We love to read books and do fun stuff to celebrate our hobbies and reading. We do many things that involve books and reading and book club. We are adventurous and like to seek out urban adventures and walking tours and like to silent read books and practice hobbies and socialize a lot! Book clubs are the best thing to meet new friends and make friends and socialize and explore for when you are new in town and want to meet people and socialize to talk about books and explore museums and other places.Philadelphia Book Cub; Book Club; Literary Adventures; Novels; Tours; Philly Book Club; silent reading
- NOVEL: A Memory of Violets/TOUR: Andalusia House and GardenAndalusia historic house and gardens , Andalusia, PA$35.00
May flowers are summoning us! Join Audrey for a guided tour of Andalusia Historic House and then a stroll through the garden. We'll gather amongst the flowers for a picnic (BYO) lunch to discuss A Memory of Violets, May's member choice book for the theme: Books with Flowers in the Title. The book is an historical novel that tells the story of two long-lost sisters—orphaned flower sellers in 1876 London —and a young woman who is transformed by their experiences. Coincidentally, the original owners of Andalusia were originally from London, but 200 years earlier!
Fee: $35 for house and garden entrance and tour (includes venue's processing fees). Limit is 12. First pay goes. BYO Lunch.
HOW TO PAY: Use Friends and Family! Do not use the business option because it charges a service 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
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HOUSE TOUR: Andalusia Historic House and Garden
10:30am House TourAndalusia Historic House, Gardens & Arboretum is a natural paradise located on a beautiful stretch of the Delaware River. The house was originally the home of Quakers William and Sarah Biddle who left England after being imprisoned in London for their religious beliefs.
On this one-hour tour, we’ll discover exquisite interiors and hear stories of the family who lived at Andalusia from the 1790s to the 1970s. The Big House is a designated National Historic Landmark with a unique art collection, offering an unparalleled look into our nation’s past.
11:45am STROLL THROUGH GARDENS & PICNIC LUNCH
After the house tour, we'll stroll through the gardens until we get to a spot around 12:15pm or so to settle in for lunch and book discussion.Andalusia’s gardens are a succession of delightful surprises. The family was known for creating magnificent herbaceous borders, often color-themed. Glorious examples of these can be found all along the walk — a striking pattern of pink, purple, and white that revolves across the growing season.
Benches and chairs are available for seating throughout the property, and blankets are allowed on the lawn or meadow. This is BYO LUNCH.
***
NOVEL: A Memory of Violets* by Hazel Gaynor
Genre: Historical Fiction"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.
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! 🙂
- *Some links above are affiliate
~Audrey
____The below is silly babble just for the Meetup algorithm - no need to read this!-------------------------------
tours with socializing book club a fun way to meet new friends and be social with book loving book club members who like to read and explore authors, house tours, museums and other walking tours and try new activities such as hiking, reading, craft, hobbies, book clubs and more! It's especially fun for a book club to go on indoor tours and outdoor and indoor adventures with all the book club friends who like to socialize explore and try new hobbies. We love friends and books among the gardens and nature are divine ways to socialize - 💐Dine at Harpers Garden and discuss Book "The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart”Harper's Garden, Philadelphia, PA$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!
