
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- 🐂 Cowtown Rodeo and Market While We Discuss the 📚Book: Aloha RodeoCowtown Rodeo, Pilesgrove, NJ 08098, NJ
Join Audrey at the world famous Cowtown Rodeo (and Farmers Market) where we'll discuss Aloha Rodeo - a triumphant true story of the native Hawaiian cowboys who crossed the Pacific to shock America at the 1908 world rodeo championships! Join us at 1:45pm to stroll the market or between 4pm-5:30pm to booktailgate and discuss the book before we head into the rodeo. PLEASE READ EVERYTHING BELOW FOR DETAILS - YOU MUST BUY YOUR OWN TICKET!
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🎉Want more ideas for bookish fun? Join the Novel Tourist online community:📸Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/thenoveltourist/
🌟Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNovelTourist
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🎟️ TICKETS to RODEO: Adults $31
Get your tickets on your own (they will sell out!) here: https://www.rodeoticket.com/rodeos/cowtown-rodeo/2025/tickets
All tickets are general admission.They Highly Recommend printing your tickets or saving a screenshot. Those that arrive without their tickets available may have issues retrieving because of wifi / download issues.
🚗 1:45pm: ARRIVAL
I will try to park in area #13 (see map in photos). I will put up the NOVEL TOURIST flag to help find us.👨🌾2-4pm [COWTOWN FARMER’s MARKET](https://www.cowtownfarmersmarket.com/vendors/?vc=453)
At 2pm we’ll walk over to the farmers/flea market. Over 400 vendors! It is considered by many to be the best flea market in South Jersey.4ish-6pm TAILGATE 📚BOOK DISCUSSION
🍔Food & 🍺Drinks: Bring your own drinks and food (or buy at farmers market!) to tailgate and discuss the book outside before the rodeo. You can take food:drinks inside, too. Bring your own chair!🐂 COWTOWN RODEO: 5:30pm
We’ll get in line for the rodeo around 5:30pm - it’s General Admission so we need to get in line early to get good seats. If we are not in line together, we probably won’t be able to sit together so make sure you are at my car no later than 5:30pm (if you’re not planning on joining us at the flea market)Rules:
- 12x12 or smaller coolers - no glass containers/bottles
- 💵Cash only inside
- 📷No picture or video within the Rodeo!
- Read all the rules on their website: https://www.rodeoticket.com/cowtown-rodeo/rodeo-information
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📚DISCUSS BOOK: Aloha Rodeo by David Wolman and Julian Smith
Genre: Literary Nonfiction
This was our runner-up pick for August's Wild West Theme!In August 1908, three unknown riders arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, their hats adorned with wildflowers, to compete in the world’s greatest rodeo. They had travelled 3,000 miles from Hawaii, where their ancestors had herded cattle for generations, to test themselves against the toughest riders in the West. Dismissed by whites, who considered themselves the only true cowboys, the Hawaiians left the heartland as champions - and American legends. Read more...
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❓Event Review Guidance:
Meetup reviews are now public. Did you love the event? Tell the world with a 5-star rating AND a comment!🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I love putting together fun literary adventures and your comments feed my soul. But, if you didn't like something, please don’t submit a negative review — instead, message me (Audrey) directly with your suggestions so we can improve the club together! Also, please remember, you’re reviewing the club experience, not the location. So, for instance, if we go to a play and you didn’t like it, don’t give the Meetup event a negative, it’s not my fault the play stunk. I can’t change what I can’t control.
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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.
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!
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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 social 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. Rodeos and westerns 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 hobby. socializing is great and we love to read books and explore our hobbies whiel we meet new friends and socialize.
- Pick (online) September’s Member Choice Book! Theme: Fall Harvest🗳️Vote today!Link visible for attendees
September’s theme is Fall Harvest! We need your VOTE for September’s Member Choice Book! Find out which books made the cut and cast your vote here: https://forms.gle/hSAHA1ghEAJ5zGJv8
(copy and paste to your browser if needed)Vote now! This is not an "event" it is just a post to share the link to vote for the Member Choice Book.
Stay tuned for the paired in person adventure AND online discussion!
The poll will close August 2 so without further ado - cast your vote!
💥 Want to be more social? We're on Facebook and Instagram, too!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNovelTourist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenoveltourist/
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Thanks for participating! Reading books and doing stuff together as a book club brings us all so much joy. 🤩- 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 Philadelphia 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 in Philadelphia reading books and practicing hobbies while we socialize with book lovers.
- 📚🔖Novel: The Boxcar Librarian/ 🚂⛏️Tour: Pioneer Tunnel Coal MinePioneer Tunnel, Ashland, PA$25.00
Let’s beat the heat by going down under! Underground, that is! We’ll discuss July’s Member Choice Book (The Boxcar Librarian) about a librarian who delivers books to miners via train while we ride a mining car 1,800 feet (1/3 of a mile!) inside of Mahanoy Mountain. Once we’re back above ground, we will take a sightseeing train excursion that utilizes an authentic 🚂 coal-fired steam engine to pull passenger cars along narrow-gauge railroad tracks.
Then we’ll go poke around Ashland and Centralia to look for active smoking vents from the underground mine fires! 🔥
TOUR: Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine and Steam Train 🚂
Ashland, PA (about 2 hours from center city)The plans:
- 10:15am Mine tour / steam train round-trip
- Scenic drive + Whistler’s Mother Statue photo stop
- 12:30pm Lunch at May’s Drive in (2105 Centre St, Ashland, PA 17921)
- 1:30 Big Mine Run Geyser
- 2:00pm Active Centralia Smoking Vents to poke around (short hike)
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💵FEE:$25.00 for tickets to mine and the train ride.
Pay on your own for lunch. Everything else is freeeeeee!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🎉Want more ideas for bookish fun? Join the Novel Tourist online community:
📸Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/thenoveltourist/
🌟Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNovelTourist
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📚NOVEL: The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna
Genre: Historical FictionInspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.
When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work.
Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian…read more
Available on Amazon (affiliate link - using the link to purchase supports the club at no additional cost to you!) or even better, try your local library or bookstore!
Happy Reading!
Audrey
- NOVEL:📚Architect's Apprentice/TOUR:NYC Museum of Natl History-Secret Life of 🐘NYC Museum of Natural History, New York City, NY$0.99
Join Joanne at the Museum of Natural History in NYC to learn all about elephants at the Secret Life of Elephants special exhibit. We'll discuss the book, The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Shafak, featuring Chota, the 🐘elephant. Transportation to and from is on your own. Joanne is getting the tickets to the museum and exhibit, so read below for payment information.
🐘ADVENTURE: NYC Museum of Natural History
Special Exhibit: Secret Life of ElephantsWe'll visit The Museum of Natural History, including the special exhibit "The Secret World of Of Elephants." Here is a partial description off the AMNH website:
How do elephants “hear” with their feet?
Use the 40,000 muscles in their trunks? Or reshape the forests and savannas they live in, creating an environment upon which many other species rely? The Secret World of Elephants reveals new science about both ancient and modern elephants, including elephants’ extraordinary minds and senses, why they’re essential to the health of their ecosystems, and inspiring efforts to overcome threats to their survival.👯WHERE TO MEET: We will meet at the Rose entrance on W. 81st at 12:00 NOON. Your ticket will afford you general admission to the museum and to the Elephant exhibit for which I have reserved 12:30 timed entry.
💵FEE: Tickets are $31 for adults and $24 for seniors (60+).
HOW TO PAY: Venmo Joanne at @Joanne-McNally-1 using the friends and family option.
First Paid, first goes. Your ticket price is refundable only if I can resell the ticket.🍔LUNCH: location TBD (pay on your own)
📚NOVEL: The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Shafak
Genre:In her latest novel, Elif Shafak spins an epic tale spanning nearly a century in the life of the Ottoman Empire. In 1540, twelve-year-old Jahan arrives in Istanbul. As an animal tamer in the sultan’s menagerie, he looks after the exceptionally smart elephant Chota and befriends (and falls for) the sultan’s beautiful daughter, Princess Mihrimah. A palace education leads Jahan to Mimar Sinan, the empire’s chief architect, who takes Jahan under his wing as they construct (with Chota’s help) some of the most magnificent buildings in history. Yet even as they build Sinan’s triumphant masterpieces—the incredible Suleymaniye and Selimiye mosques—dangerous undercurrents begin to emerge, with jealousy erupting among Sinan’s four apprentices.
A memorable story of artistic freedom, creativity, and the clash between science and fundamentalism, Shafak’s intricate novel brims with vibrant characters, intriguing adventure, and the lavish backdrop of the Ottoman court, where love and loyalty are no match for raw power.
🎉Stay connected to other adventurous readers! Join the Novel Tourist online community:
📸Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/thenoveltourist/
🌟Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNovelTouristHere are the Club’s Basic Rules and Liability Release. You should read them because by signing up for an event you agree to them.
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