What we’re about
Join us for adventures in reading & real life! We are a community of readers who discuss books over paired outings! We are not your normal book club! Like to read? Like to explore? 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- Little Free Library Book Club Crawl #1 - Italian MarketRim Cafe, Philadelphia, PA
Grab your coat and your sense of adventure— Join Audrey on The Novel Tourist Book Club's inaugural Little Free Library Crawl! Each month we'll get our bookish steps in by going on an urban stroll. Let's start our story in Philadelphia’s historic Italian Market neighborhood where (according to the LFL World Map) there are 7 registered LFLs within our 2.4 mile trek. We might even find some in the wild that aren't officially registered as LFLs!
Details: LFL Crawl #1 - Italian Market/Queen Village
- Details and Map
- Starting and ending point: Rim Cafe (1172 S 9th St.)
- Distance: 2.5 miles (1.8 if it's too cold!)
- Bring:
- A book (new or used) or two to stock the LFLs
- A bag to collect the books you want
To kick things off let's warm up with some decadent hot chocolate at Rim Cafe. It actually is decadent, I'm not just saying that! Then we'll meander through Queen Village and Italian Market stopping at Little Free Libraries along the way. Bring a book (used or new) to stock a LFL and a bag to hold any new found titles!
Note: The plan is to go for 2.5 miles, but if it's super cold we can cut out one LFL and just walk for 1.8 miles! Did you know that the Italian Market has a special ordinance that allows open barrel fires along 9th street to keep vendors and customers warm?
We'll end our crawl by walking down 9th Street through the Italian market where we'll pop into the Cookbook Shop and visit the various unique Italian Market shops.
Lunch: For those who want to grab lunch, I'm planning on grabbing insanely great Mexican food after the crawl at Mole Poblano on 9th.
Parking: Street parking
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 links which means when you use them to buy your book they help support the club at no cost to you!
~ Audrey
-------------------The below is silly babble just for the algorithm - no need for book club members to read this!-------------------------------
Walking tours through Philadelphia 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.
- BOOK: We Should Not Be Friends & ADVENTURE: Game Night at Queen and RookQueen & Rook Game Cafe, Philadelphia , PA$7.00
Join Audrey at Queen and Rook for a fun night of food, games and book discussion. We'll focus on games designed to both have fun and get to know each other while we casually discuss the nuances of friendship that are the forefront of the paired book, We Should Not Be Friends, by Will Schwalbe. In his memoir, Will and his friend Maxey get to know each other when they join a secret society in college and share drinks and stories about their lives. While this won't be a secret society, we'll share our secret game skills and our own stories with each other!
ADVENTURE: Game Night at Queen & Rook Cafe
6pm -8:30pm Board Games
Menu: Varied, includes vegan and GF
Queen & Rook is "Philadelphia’s #1 rated and award-winning board game cafe with a full restaurant, a full bar, and a full retail game and puzzle store all rolled into one."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.
Fee: $7 holds your spot and covers the per person game table fee. Limit is 16. First pay goes. Food and beverages are pay on your own.
Venmo - @audrey-Heller1 (phone ends in 4478)
PayPal - https://www.paypal.me/AudreyBugBOOK: We Should Not Be Friends by Will Schwalbe
Genre: Nonfiction
Online Discussion: For a more indepth discussion of the book join us online on January 27.A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A warm, funny, irresistible memoir that follows an improbable and life-changing college friendship over the course of forty years—from the best-selling author of The End of Your Life Book Club • “A rare view of male friendship.”—NPR
“Moving…salted with Schwalbe’s well-established literary intelligence and a palpable empathy.” —The New York Times Book Review
By the time Will Schwalbe was a junior at college, he had already met everyone he cared to know: the theater people, writers, visual artists and comp lit majors, and various other quirky characters including the handful of students who shared his own major, Latin and Greek. He also knew exactly who he wanted to avoid: the jocks. The jocks wore baseball caps and moved in packs, filling boisterous tables in the dining hall, and on the whole seemed to be another species entirely, one Will might encounter only at his own peril.
All this changed dramatically when Will collided with Chris Maxey, known to just about everyone as Maxey. Maxey was physically imposing, loud, and a star wrestler who was determined to become a Navy SEAL (where he would later serve for six years). Thanks to the strangely liberating circumstances of a little-known secret society at Yale, the two forged a bond that would become a mainstay of each other’s lives as they repeatedly lost and found each other and themselves in the years after graduation.
From New Haven to New York City, from Hong Kong and Panama to a remarkable school on an island in the Bahamas—through marriages and a divorce, triumphs and devastating losses—We Should Not Be Friends tracks an extraordinary friendship over decades of challenge and change. Schwalbe’s marvelous new work is, at its heart, a joyful testament to the miracle of human connection—and how if we can just get past our preconceptions, we may find some of our greatest friends.
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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 links which means when you use them to buy your book they help support the club at no cost to you!
~ Audrey
- Suggest a Book for March’s Theme: Strength in Difference (Online - ends 1/19)Link visible for attendees
March is Women’s History Month, and this month we’re seeking ideas for the member choice book theme: The Strength in Difference.
Link to Suggestion Poll: https://forms.gle/bW8V1ed2mKPNaYFA9
This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate books that spotlight strong women (real or fictional) who navigate(d) life with unique perspectives and experiences—whether through neurodiversity, physical challenges, or other visible and invisible qualities.
After we get your ideas, we’ll pick 4 for you to select a winner!
The poll will close on January 19 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!The suggestion form will close on December 22 so don’t delay! This is not an "event" it is just a post to share the link to suggest the Member Choice Book.
Thanks for participating! Reading books and doing stuff together as a book club brings us all so much joy. 🤩
Audrey, Diane, and Denise
