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/
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 (4+)
See all- Suggest a Book for March Member Choice Theme: The Strength in DifferenceLink 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!
--------------
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
- National Aquarium Animal Care and Rescue Center/"We Should Not Be Friends"National Aquarium Animal Care and Rescue Center, Baltimore, MD$45.00
For this event, we'll be touring the National Aquarium Animal Care and Rescue Center. Once you read the book, you'll discover how it ties in with this month's book selection. This sounds like an interesting and informative tour in a place which I never even knew existed!
National Aquarium Animal Rescue is federally permitted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to respond to sick and injured sea turtles and marine mammals along Maryland's 3,190 miles of coastline. We also partner with other institutions to rehabilitate animals that strand up and down the East Coast, and work with the Greater Atlantic Region Stranding Network year-round to assist with animal rescue operations, transports, monitoring, rehabilitation, releases and more.
Since 1991, we have returned hundreds of rehabilitated animals to their natural habitats—including harbor, grey, harp and hooded seals; Kemp's ridley, green and loggerhead sea turtles; and a harbor porpoise, pygmy sperm whale and manatee.
When it opened in 2018, the Animal Care and Rescue Center more than doubled the National Aquarium's capacity to care for off-exhibit and rescued animals, allowing us to truly live our mission to inspire and protect. The ACRC is located in Baltimore's historic Jonestown neighborhood, less than a mile from the Aquarium's main campus.
Explore the National Aquarium's state-of-the-art Animal Care and Rescue Center—located in historic Jonestown, just a short distance from the Aquarium's main campus—through a one-of-a-kind tour that allows you to travel behind the scenes and discover the unique journeys of our animals once they arrive in our care. Learn about the dedication our staff provides to our animals to ensure they receive the best care possible, discover how National Aquarium Animal Rescue cares for sick and injured marine animals before returning them to their ocean home and peek into our exhibit fabrication shop. This tour will allow you to experience the National Aquarium in a new way and shed light on the most important work we do—caring for the world's aquatic treasures and inspiring others to do the same.
https://aqua.org/explore/tours-and-experiences/animal-care-and-rescue-center-tour
Be sure to arrive at least 15 minutes before the start of the tour if you aren't attending brunch.
To book your tour, please call Central Reservations at 410-659-4269 (available from 9 am to 4:30 pm, seven days a week). Get your tickets for the January 25, 2025 tour. You are responsible for buying your own tickets by calling the number above. Please don't RSVP until you have your tickets.
### Location and Parking
The Aquarium's Animal Care and Rescue Center is located at:
901 E. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21202
Limited parking will be available at the Animal Care and Rescue Center in the lot accessed from High Street for the duration of the program only. Please note that High Street is a one-way street; guests should turn on High Street from Baltimore Street to access parking, which will be available starting 30 minutes prior to tour start time and ending 30 minutes after the end of the tour. To access parking, guests must show tour confirmation number to security upon arrival.If you are meeting us for brunch ahead of time, there are other options close to the restaurant, which you can find on Spot Hero and other parking apps.
For questions on directions to the Animal Care and Rescue Center or parking, please contact our Central Reservations team at 410-576-3833 or reserve@aqua.org.
Tickets are non-transferable and non-refundable, including if you miss your tour due to late arrival. If the Aquarium cancels your program, you'll have the option to reschedule or receive a full refund.
## Tour Duration
1 Hour and 30 Minutes
$45 Per Person
LOCATION: ACRC Main Entrance (901 E. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD)We'll meet beforehand for the book discussion at Miss Shirley's Cafe, which is in walking distance of the center.
12:00 BRUNCH: https://www.missshirleys.com/
MENU: https://www.missshirleys.com/menu/full-menu1:30: Tour of Rescue Center
BOOK: We Should Not Be Friends by Will Schwalbe
Genre: Nonfiction
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.Happy Reading,
Diane
Not open - January Member Choice Winner! Online discussion of “We Should Not Be Friends”Link visible for attendees
The results are in! The Member Choice book club book for January’s friendship theme is We Should Not Be Friends by Will Schwalbe. The book was suggested by Maggie!
This is our online book club discussion night (last Monday of each month). Stay tuned for the paired in person event!
BOOK: We Should Not Be Friends by Will Schwalbe
Genre: NonfictionA 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.
Happy Reading!
Audrey and Diane
