Women Explorers

On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young female reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by train—was a young journalist from The Cosmopolitan magazine, Elizabeth Bisland.

Lola Montez was one of the most celebrated and notorious women of the nineteenth century. A raven-haired Andalusian who performed her scandalous “Spider Dance” in the greatest performance halls across Europe, she dazzled and beguiled all who met her with her astonishing beauty, sexuality, and shocking disregard for propriety. But Lola was an impostor, a self-invention. Born Eliza Gilbert, the beautiful Irish wild child escaped a stifling marriage and reimagined herself as Lola the Sevillian flamenco dancer and noblewoman.

At the age of 19, Lara Prior-Palmer discovered a website devoted to "the world's longest, toughest horse race" - an annual competition of endurance and skill that involves dozens of riders racing a series of 25 wild ponies across 1,000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland. On a whim, she decided to enter the race. Riders often spend years preparing to compete in the Mongol Derby, and many fail to finish. Rough Magic captures the extraordinary story of one young woman who forged ahead, against all odds, to become the first female winner of this breathtaking race.

In Toad-ally Toxic: A Ribbiting Religion, we follow the adventurous Fatima Fletcher, a herpetology enthusiast with a fiery mane of hair and a penchant for exploring the Amazon jungle. Imagine Indiana Jones if he had a serious obsession with reptiles! Equipped with her trusty nets and a backpack full of snacks, Fatima braves the wild to find the legendary giant Amazon Incilius alvarius toad, known for its mind-bending psychedelic powers, sapphic sexual ecstasy and spiritual revelations. As she paddles through the dense jungle, battling humidity that feels like a warm hug from a sweaty giant,...

In 1958, while flying from one island to another, Audrey Sutherland sees the remote and roadless northeast side of Molokai, with its spectacular sea cliffs and waterfalls. Always an adventurer, she decides that she must find a way to explore this then inaccessible area. After much study, she determines that the best way for her to navigate these treacherous sea walls is to swim while towing an inflatable kayak. This is the story of fulfilling her dream, of planning then implementing, of launching and advancing, of retreating and reconnoitering, of challenge and success.

"As the depth of truth of one's life can only be penned upon the pages of a diary, Jane Digby leads us through her passionate life . . . A wonderful piece of historical fiction that will delight your senses as well as your heart." - Peggy Lee Sprague, author of The Truth Hunters series. Jane Digby's Diary continues with Volume Three: Following an Eastern Star. Based on a true story . . . Bright, beautiful, and bold, Jane Digby led a remarkable life. Born to privilege in 1807 at Dorset, England, she soon scandalized Europe with her reckless pursuit of freedom. Kings, princes, barons, ...

A loving and devoted step-father, Donnie introduced Tracy Ross's family to the joys of fishing, deer hunting, camping, and hiking among the pristine mountains of rural Idaho. Donnie was everything Tracy dreamed a dad would be: protective, brave, and kind. But when his dependence on his eight-year-old daughter's companionship went too far, everything changed.

The incredible true story of four ordinary working mums from Yorkshire who took on an extraordinary challenge and broke a world record along the way, proving it's never too late to go on a life-changing adventure, experience the beauty and power of the elements, push the very limits of your abilities and rediscover who you are.

Here is the astonishing true story of Ruth Harkness, the Manhattan bohemian socialite who, against all but impossible odds, trekked to Tibet in 1936 to capture the most mysterious animal of the day: a bear that had for countless centuries lived in secret in the labyrinth of lonely cold mountains. In The Lady and the Panda, Vicki Constantine Croke gives us the remarkable account of Ruth Harkness and her extraordinary journey, and restores Harkness to her rightful place along with Sacajawea, Nellie Bly, and Amelia Earhart as one of the great woman adventurers of all time.

Two stories about William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army; two stories about amazing women aviators; and two true-to-life adventures!

Mujeres intrépidas y aventureras han existido desde los tiempos más remotos, aunque la inmensa mayoría han sido silenciadas y olvidadas por una historia escrita por los hombres. Cuando miramos hacia atrás resulta difícil encontrar testimonios de mujeres viajeras anteriores a los siglos XVII y XIX, época de las grandes expediciones. Pero ¿cuándo empezaron a viajar las mujeres? ¿Cómo y por qué viajaban?

At age 47, a mother of two, Debbie Moderow was not your average musher in the Iditarod, but that's where she found herself when, less than 200 miles from the finish line, her dogs decided they didn't want to run anymore. After all her preparation, after all the careful management of her team, and after their running so well for over a week, the huskies balked. But the sting of not completing the race after coming so far was nothing compared to the disappointment Moderow felt in having lost touch with her dogs.

This is my story of survival during and after Hurricane Helene in Burnsville, North Carolina. It was a time when there was no power, water, cell phones, or outside communication at all. We were trapped in a seven-mile radius. All the roads to leave were destroyed.

>"Log Book: Instrument flying. Slow descent, first. Going down fast. It takes a lot to make my ears hurt. Five thousand now. Awfully wet. Water dripping in window. Port motor coughing. Sounds as if all motors were cutting. Bill opens her wide to try to clear. Sounds rotten on the right...." This true-life adventure story is Amelia Earhart's personal account of an historic flight.

*The Hidden Tomb*, the first in the *Dr. Isabella Cruz Mysteries*, takes readers on a quirky, cozy adventure filled with ancient secrets, ghostly whispers, and plenty of humor. When Dr. Isabella Cruz stumbles upon her grandfather Arturo Ramirez’s old journal, detailing his obsession with a mysterious artifact said to hold special powers, she can’t resist the allure of Egypt’s hidden treasures. Enlisting the help of her clumsy but loveable friend, blogger Cecilia Alvarez, and sharp-witted writer Josefina Morales, the trio heads off on an adventure of a lifetime. Their expedition takes ...

Stuck in a corporate job rut and faced with an unraveling marriage at the age of thirty-six, Roz Savage sat down one night and wrote two versions of her own obituary - the one that she wanted and the one she was heading for. They were very different. She realized that if she carried on as she was, she wasn't going to end up with the life she wanted. So she turned her back on an eleven-year career as a management consultant to reinvent herself as a woman of adventure.

In 1910, Olive MacLeod, a 30-year-old, redheaded Scottish aristocrat, received word that her fiancé, the famous naturalist Boyd Alexander, was missing in Africa. So she went to find him. Olive the Lionheart is the thrilling true story of her astonishing journey. In jungles, swamps, cities, and deserts, Olive and her two companions, the Talbots, come face-to-face with cobras and crocodiles, wise native chiefs, a murderous leopard cult, a haunted forest, and even two adorable lion cubs that she adopts as her own.

In 2008, Lynn Barber's passion for birding led her to drive, fly, sail, walk, stalk, and sit in search of birds in 25 states and three provinces. Traveling more than 175,000 miles, she set a 21st century record at the time, second to only one other person in history. Over 272 days, Barber observed 723 species of birds in North America north of Mexico.

Life, Love, and a Hijacking: My Pan Am Memoir is an insightful, hilarious, sometimes seat-gripping look at the adventures of an ebullient flight attendant, who flew for the world’s most iconic airline, Pan Am. With the world at her fingertips, anything was possible... even the improbable. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the narration as Wendy Knecht recounts the experiences of her lifetime. Travel with Wendy as she transforms from naive, frizzy-haired college student into a wined-and-dined, weight-checked woman of the world.

Reema has no clue if she could ever become strong enough to protect Suman from all the harm. Suman is clueless if he can keep his promises to Reema. Where would the couple end up? Reema and Suman went back home. Over the following month they sensed that the homecoming was temporary and they would be uprooted any moment to fly to a new location where they must start afresh. The new location was not at all welcoming. Reema and Suman saw worse and they tolerated the burnt. Arrangements of abrupt travel without the idea how long one has to stay in the new location hits on the money one has. Can...