What we’re about
Join other book lovers for adventures in reading and real life! LOVE TO READ AND TRY NEW ACTIVITIES?
Join this unique book club where we will casually discuss a book while engaging in an activity or exploring a location inspired by the book! This will be a no-pressure book club. If you don't finish the book or didn't like it, no problem. Please join us anyway for a meal and an event. We’d love to get to know you!
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/share/z7aGScVNC95MEbi6/ ](https://www.facebook.com/share/z7aGScVNC95MEbi6/)
Audrey, the club founder also posts regularly on books and book pairings on Instagram via @thenoveltourist
This will be a great way to meet fellow book lovers who also want to live a well-read and well-rounded, adventurous life. Most of the activities will take place in and around Cecil and Harford Counties and surrounding areas. Sometimes we will branch out to further areas.
Are you ready for a new book and a new activity? Grab that book (or eBook) and let's go explore together!
Diane and Audrey
Upcoming events (3)
See all- April’s online Member Choice Winner- Book of DoorsLink visible for attendees
The results are in! The Member Choice book club book for April's "Book Set in a Library" theme is Book of Doors. It was definitely a heated race to the win!
This is our online book club discussion night (last Monday of each month). Zoom link will be posted on the day of the event. Stay tuned for the paired in-person event!
BOOK: _Book of Doors _by Gareth Brown
Genre: Fiction, Magical Realism
A debut novel full of magic, adventure, and romance, The Book of Doors opens up a thrilling world of contemporary fantasy for readers of The Midnight Library, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, The Night Circus, and any modern story that mixes the wonder of the unknown with just a tinge of darkness. Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading.
But this is no ordinary book… It is the Book of Doors.
Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them.
Then she’s approached by a gaunt stranger in a rumpled black suit with a Scottish brogue who calls himself Drummond Fox. He’s a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie’s possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them.
Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books. With only her roommate Izzy to confide in, she has to decide if she will help the mysterious and haunted Drummond protect the Book of Doors—and the other books in his secret library’s care—from those who will do evil. Because only Drummond knows where the unique library is and only Cassie’s book can get them there.
But there are those willing to kill to obtain those secrets. And a dark force—in the form of a shadowy, sadistic woman—is at the very top of that list.
Happy Reading!
Diane and Audrey - Vote for June's Pet-themed Book! Online poll - vote now!Link visible for attendees
June’s theme is Pets! NOW IT'S TIME TO VOTE for June’s Member Choice Book! Cast your vote here: https://forms.gle/v9ESgYeLcZ5JVjDv6
(copy and paste to your browser if needed)This is not an "event" it is just a post to share the link to vote for the Member Choice Book.
Thank you to everyone who submitted suggestions! So many good ones! We've narrowed it down to four (4) and now it's time to pick just one! You have your choice between an coffee serving cats, a rescue dog, a pack of dogs and their cat friend, and a time traveling dog.
Each book is available as an audio, paper, and ebook. Stay tuned for the paired in person adventure AND online discussion!
The poll will close soon so without further ado - cast your vote!
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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!Thanks for participating! Reading books and doing stuff together as a book club brings us all so much joy. 🤩
- Diane and Audrey
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NO NEED TO READ BELOW - it’s just for the algorithm 😝
Book Club is so much fun. I love going to Book Club and voting for books and these events are perfect for book lovers who like to socialize and meet other people and practice hobbies. All over Maryland we read books there’s so many fun things to do to meet other people like going to restaurants and dining out and voting for books and it’s just the best Book Club in the world. Meet friends and hang out reading books and practicing hobbies while we socialize with book lovers. - Discuss May’s winner for books with a flower in the title!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."
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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.
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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 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 -
