A Readers’ Retreat is like an extended reading group, featuring lively book discussions, intellectual stimulation, personal connections, reflection, and laughter—all in the company of kindred spirits. Sites are quiet and comfortable retreat centers.
Every year we offer several fall Readers’ Retreats in Minnesota. We’ve also held retreats in Amado, Arizona; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Michigan; and on the Jersey Shore.
Retreats are held at comfortable retreat centers. They last for three or four days, enough time to really get into the theme and to feel away from the everyday busy world.
Every retreat has a different theme, and the books discussed fit that theme. Past retreat themes have included “Life as Mystery,” “Many Americas—Yours?” “Intellectual Homelessness,” “What Is Home?” “Always Learning in the Wilderness of Life,” “Creative Reading”.
We’ve been designing and offering reading retreats since 1996. Information about Readers’ Retreats will be posted here when available.
Combining travel with reading and discussion of books by women writers from the areas we visit, these book adventures have taken us around the United States as well as England, Scotland, New Zealand, Iceland, Canada and Mexico.
We explore new ideas and new places, based on the literature we’ve read in preparation for the trip. We meet local writers and readers, and visit bookshops and libraries.
We design each trip as a one-of-a-kind excursion. We aim to introduce readers to places, books and writers they might never discover otherwise. Information about future Books Afoot trips will be posted here when available.
Since 1986, our readers’ groups read and discussed a wide range of writing by women. Over the years, thousands of readers participated in a variety of groups.
In May, 2022, BookWomen ceased sponsorship of its remaining groups in the Twin Cities: all at least 25 years old and going strong. Each of the groups is continuing to meet monthly on their own.