What we’re about
Book lovers come together to share the books we love where they are set. Like to read? Like to explore? You’ve found your people! We are a community of spirited readers who discuss books over paired adventures! We’re not your normal book club! 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- Time to Vote! January’s Member Choice Book Theme: Friendship!Link visible for attendees
The New Year is a great time to celebrate friendships - both known and the excitement of new! For January’s Member Choice Book it's up to you to choose between lost friends, a video gaming duo, childhood friends and the odd couple!
Vote for your favorite book here:
(copy and paste to your browser, if needed: https://forms.gle/6A7RZK5sZKPGC6Th9———————-
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 pick four to put out for vote as the Member Choice Book Club 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 eventThe voting form will close on Dec. 8 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
For more book fun, follow along on Instagram or Facebook @thenoveltourist
- White Elephant Jólabókaflóð, Miracle on S 13th St, BarcelonasA Novel Idea on Passyunk, Philadelphia, PA$5.00
**RSVPs will open on October 10th at 7pm. **
Join us for our third annual white elephant jólabókaflóð! Huh? Hard to say but fun to do! Jólabókaflóð is the Icelandic tradition of giving and unwrapping new books and then sipping cocoa and reading. We'll do a fun (new) book exchange, stroll through Miracle on 13th St, and then dine at Barcelonas. PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW ALL THE DETAILS BELOW BC YOU MAY BE REMOVED FROM ATTENDING IF YOU DON'T.
Here in Philly, December is a great time for celebrating our love of books, no matter what holiday you observe! Our own version of jólabókaflóð will not only support a local independent bookstore it will also bring us together to share our love of reading and hanging out as the coolest book club in town! See below for important book exchange instructions.
Afterwards, we’ll stroll a block or so over to walk through the light show known as Miracle on South 13th Street and then end our night at Barcelona’s for tasty tapas and wine.
***
Jólabókaflóð White Elephant Book Exchange (limit 30 attendees)
TIME: 4:30pm-6:00pm
LOCATION: A Novel Idea, on Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia
HUGE THANKS TO NOVEL IDEA BOOK STORE FOR LETTING US HOLD OUR EVENT HERE WITHOUT CHARGE!Instructions for the Book Exchange: Call A Novel Idea ahead of time (267-764-1202 by Friday December 6th) and GIVE THEM YOUR NAME AND PURCHASE A BOOK (of your choice or let them pick for you!) - make sure to tell them you’re with The Novel Tourists Book Club! **_They will wrap it (an additional $4 fee) and write the genre and a brief description of the book on the outside so we’ll be able to have a little bit of info before beginning the white elephant Jólabókaflóð! We will also have some fun games with prizes!
6pm: Miracle on South 13th Street
After the book exchange we’ll stroll through Miracle on South 13th Street to marvel at the lights, and then anyone who is interested can join us for dinner at Barcelona’s (a few doors down) (limit 25 people, but we may be able to push that a little higher if needed!)About Jólabókaflóð: The tradition, started in 1944, wasn’t entirely born of intellectual and cultural pursuit; commercial and supply chain issues played a major part. Due to WWII currency restrictions and rationing, paper was more available as a gift than other commodities. Jolabokaflod was born, and has remained a critical part of Iceland’s culture and European book sales.
About A Novel Idea: The owners are Alexander Schneider and Christina Rosso-Schneider, residents of East Passyunk, book lovers, and parents of Atticus Finch, a crazy, but lovable rescue pup. The bookstore is their first business and first endeavor as newlyweds (they got married in October 2018). They make up the two halves of A Novel Idea--Alexander bringing over a decade of graphic design experience to the shop, and Christina, as a writer and open mic host, her experience and dedication to literary events in support of Philadelphia artists.
More than anything, their goal is to cultivate community. They hope to build a bookstore that reflects the community’s interests, while also supporting it. They hope to create and foster a space of diversity and inclusivity, and want to help customers fall in love with books, either for the first time or the millionth.
***
Miracle on South 13th Street
6pm
The Miracle on South 13th St is a neighbor organized event that has been around for more than 20 years. It’s been dubbed one of the best Christmas light displays in the city!Dress for the weather!
FEE: $5 - First pay goes. This covers your hot chocolate and holds your spot. Book purchase and restaurant fees are on your own.
HOW TO PAY: Use Friends and Family! Do not use the business option because it charges a fee. Please note the event name or date on your payment.
Venmo - @audrey-Heller1 (phone ends in 4478)
PayPal - https://www.paypal.me/AudreyBug
***DINNER: Barcelonas
6:45pm
Menu: Wine and TappasThe cuisine is clean and rustic, with tapas shaped by Mediterranean, Spanish, and South American influences. Nearly 400 wines are featured on the wine list.
P.S. If you’re wondering how to pronounce jólabókaflóð, the phonetic pronunciation is yo-la-bok-a-flot, or you can listen to it pronounced here.)
- Little Women and Christmas with the March SistersThe Parlor at Posh Vintage, Downingtown, PA$72.00
Join Kat to step back in time and celebrate Christmas with the March sisters in Downingtown!
This is an event hosted by Posh Vintage. It looks like fun so we’re seeing if there’s interest from club members!
EVENT: Christmas with the March Sisters
Fee: $67 + 4.95 processing feeLittle Women will provide the backdrop for our merriment. A simple yet delicious catered meal and dessert (including pink ice cream!) will be served in a cozy, candlelit atmosphere. You’ll make a fragrant, traditional pomander ornament and mix a simmering potpourri concoction that will fill your home with the smells of Christmas.
_Note: We’ll need at least 4 participants to go as a group. If not I’ll send back your $ and you can still sign up on your own and go. _
HOW TO PAY: Use Friends and Family! Do not use the business option because it charges a fee. Please note the event name or date on your payment.
Tickets: $72
Venmo - @audrey-Heller1 (phone ends in 4478)
PayPal - https://www.paypal.me/AudreyBugNOVEL: Little Women
Genre: classicOne of the best loved books of all time. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read
Lovely Meg, talented Jo, frail Beth, spoiled Amy: these are hard lessons of poverty and of growing up in New England during the Civil War.
Through their dreams, plays, pranks, letters, illnesses, and courtships, women of all ages have become a part of this remarkable family and have felt the deep sadness when Meg leaves the circle of sisters to be married at the end of Part I. Part II, chronicles Meg's joys and mishaps as a young wife and mother, Jo's struggle to become a writer, Beth's tragedy, and Amy's artistic pursuits and unexpected romance. Based on Louisa May Alcott's childhood, this lively portrait of nineteenth- century family life possesses a lasting vitality that has endeared it to generations of readers.
- NOVEL: Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet & TOUR: National Gallery of Art (D.C.)30th St. Station, Philadelphia, PA
Let's go to Washington, D.C. for the day! Join Mimi at the National Gallery of the Art for a Novel-Tourists-only guided tour of the Gallery and then immerse ourselves in the dynamic Parisian art scene of 1874 by viewing the only American stop for an historic exhibition of Impressionist artists! Before the tour, we’ll have a Taste of Paris lunch in the Gallery and discuss the paired book, Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell.
TRANSPORTATION:
If you are rsvpin'g or added to the going list after 11/18/24 you must buy your own train ticket. From Philly we are going to be on the below train. If you choose not to take this train or want to arrive via a different method, you must let us know so we aren't herding cats. :)Amtrak 183 - 9:00am depart Philly - 11:01am arrive DC
6:35pm - 8:31pm Phl
Amtrak 138 - 6:35pm depart DC - 8:31pm arrive PhillyThe Gallery and tour are free and food, etc. is on your own.
OVERALL ITINERARY:
- 8:40am - meet at 30th Street Station
Take Amtrak 183 - 9:00am depart Philly - 11:01am arrive DC
- 11:30ish arrive at National Gallery of the ARt
Lunch and book discussion at Garden Cafe or Cascade Cafe for Taste of Paris
- 1:30 pm - 2:30pm Tentatively planned Tour (we need 15 participants in order to book a tour)
- 2:30-4pm explore the Gallery on your own
- 4:30pm-6pm Dinner at TBD
- 6pm walk to Union Station
- 6:35pm Train back to Philly
on Amtrak 138 - 6:35pm depart DC - 8:31pm arrive Philly
EXHIBIT AND TENTATIVE TOUR:
How did impressionism begin? Discover the origins of the French art movement in a new look at the radical 1874 exhibition considered the birth of modern painting.
A remarkable presentation of 130 works includes a rare reunion of many of the paintings first featured in that now-legendary exhibition. Revisit beloved paintings by Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, and Camille Pissarro and meet their lesser-known contemporaries. See the art norms they were rebelling against and learn what political and social shifts sparked their new approach to art.
On this tour of the permanent section of the National Gallery of Art’s collection, discover the ways 19th-century French artists broke with tradition and transformed French art. Together we will look closely and explore how artists such as Monet, Cézanne, and Cassatt challenged the art establishment through their subject matter and techniques. This tour does not go into the Exhibition. It is of the permanent collection.
THE NOVEL: Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell
Genre: Historical FictionA vividly-rendered portrait of both the rise of Impressionism and of the artist at the center of the movement, Claude and Camille is above all a love story of the highest romantic order.
In the mid-nineteenth century, a young man named Claude Monet decided that he would rather endure a difficult life painting landscapes than take over his father’s nautical supplies business in a French seaside town. Against his father’s will, and with nothing but a dream and an insatiable urge to create a new style of art that repudiated the Classical Realism of the time, he set off for Paris.
But once there he is confronted with obstacles: an art world that refused to validate his style, extreme poverty, and a war that led him away from his home and friends. But there were bright spots as well: his deep, enduring friendships with men named Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro, Manet—a group that together would come to be known as the Impressionists, and that supported each other through the difficult years. Even more illuminating was his lifelong love, Camille Doncieux, a beautiful, upper-class Parisian girl who threw away her privileged life to be by the side of the defiant painter and embrace the lively Bohemian life of their time.
His muse, his best friend, his passionate lover, and the mother to his two children, Camille stayed with Monet—and believed in his work—even as they lived in wretched rooms and often suffered the indignities of destitution. But Camille had her own demons—secrets that Monet could never penetrate—including one that when eventually revealed would pain him so deeply that he would never fully recover from its impact.BONUS BOOK: The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism
Genre: Nonfiction
If you want to learn more about this era of art, this is the book for you!
With a novelist's skill and the insight of an historian, bestselling author Ross King recalls a seminal period when Paris was the artistic center of the world, and the rivalry between Meissonier and Manet.While the Civil War raged in America, another revolution took shape across the Atlantic, in the studios of Paris: The artists who would make Impressionism the most popular art form in history were showing their first paintings amidst scorn and derision from the French artistic establishment. Indeed, no artistic movement has ever been quite so controversial. The drama of its birth, played out on canvas and against the backdrop of the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune, would at times resemble a battlefield; and as Ross King reveals, it would reorder both history and culture, and resonate around the world.
See you at the Gallery!
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