Women Explorers

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.

From licking a Monet in Paris, to pushing an abusive macho honeymooner off his sailboat in the shark-infested Galapagos, to saving her toddler son from a charging bull elephant in Africa, these 14 delightful, award-winning true tales will inspire listeners to follow the call of a wild life and leave home with their doors unlocked.

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.

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.

Captivatingly read by Adjoa Andoh (Bridgeton) and the author, Kate Mosse. Feminist History for Every Day of the Year by bestselling author and feminist champion Kate Mosse tells the story of women's and girls' history, sweeping across the world and through the ages. 'Mosse and the Bridgerton...

Vanessa France had built a life that looked whole — wife, mother of four, hospice liaison — but inside, she was unraveling. Years of anxiety, bulimia, and addiction caught up, and when alcohol stopped working, she was left with the raw truth: something had to change. What she found was not another way to escape, but a way to return. On the yoga mat, in stillness and breath, Vanessa discovered the courage to face her pain, loosen her grip, and step into sobriety. Faith deepened. Motherhood softened. Healing began to weave her back together.

Louise Minchin went from presenting BBC Breakfast to competing for the GB Triathlon Team. Driven to bring more attention to female stories, she embarks on adventures with trailblazing women who are breaking down barriers, smashing records and challenging stereotypes in the world of sports and endurance. Join Louise on a roller coaster of highs and lows in this celebration of courageous women and a moving reminder of the power of the female spirit.

Travel to the top of the world’s highest mountains with this this riveting and uplifting memoir that “is a rare mix of heart-stopping adventure and powerful self-reflection” (Johanna Garton, author of Edge of the Map) by Vanessa O’Brien, record-breaking American British explorer. Long...

In this powerful and personal memoir, Annelise Duval shares her journey of survival, courage, and healing after escaping the devastating grip of domestic violence. Through raw, honest storytelling, Annelise provides insight into the emotional, physical, and psychological toll of abuse, while offering a message of hope for those still trapped in the cycle.

In the early years of the 18th century, a band of French scientists set off on a daring, decade-long expedition to South America in a race to measure the precise shape of the earth. Like Lewis and Clark's exploration of the American West, their incredible mission revealed the mysteries of a little-known continent to a world hungry for discovery. Scaling 16,000-foot mountains in the Peruvian Andes, and braving jaguars, pumas, insects, and vampire bats in the jungle, the scientists barely completed their mission.

The Girl Explorers is the inspirational and untold story of the founding of the Society of Women Geographers - an organization of adventurous female world explorers - and how key members served as early advocates for human rights and paved the way for today's women scientists by scaling mountains, exploring the high seas, flying across the Atlantic, and recording the world through film, sculpture, and literature.

If you haven't seen a Discovery Channel gold-hunting show, you might picture a gold prospector as a relic of the Wild West: a TNT-toting bearded old man wildly swinging a pick on the hunt for nuggets, guided by old maps, superstition, legends and instinct. It's still predominantly a man's world, and still often fanatical, but these days the golden dream attracts people from all walks of life—and 25-year-old Tyler Mahoney (Australian star of the Discovery Channel's Gold Rush series) is leading the way.

The image we have of Amelia Earhart today - a tousle-haired, androgynous flier clad in shirt, silk scarf, leather jacket, and goggles - is only one of her many personas, most of which have been lost to us through the years. Through years of research and interviews with many of the surviving people who knew Amelia, Susan Butler has recreated a remarkably vivid and multifaceted portrait of this enigmatic figure.

Girl in Flight by Cat Buchanan is a gripping and poignant memoir that takes listeners on a whirlwind journey through the glitz and chaos of Manhattan and Hollywood in the 1960s and early 70s. George and Meyera Buchanan have everything—lavish holidays, private planes, classic cars, and luxury homes—except the one thing they truly desire: a baby. After adopting Cat, their marriage crumbles, igniting a fierce custody battle that spans coast to coast, from Malibu to the Hamptons.

This was my journey, throughout the years of enduring deception by manipulation that contributed to me falling into a brain fog that led me into a downward spiral. My husband was cunning and knew just how to persuade me and alter who God created me to be. For fifty years he led me down a negative pathway, of what could have been the road of no return. Continuing in my cloudy behavior would have killed me, but Jesus intervened, showing me HIS truth that set me free!

In this bold and unflinching memoir, Dovie King—an Ivy League-educated attorney and former law student advisor at Harvard Law—pulls back the curtain on a disturbing reality: sometimes, the people who know the law best are the ones most harmed by it. Survivor at Law is the story of a woman who wore two titles—lawyer and survivor—and discovered just how incompatible those roles can be in a system that punishes vulnerability and protects power.

Still determined to learn French and fulfill her dream of becoming an international flight attendant, Linda puts her disastrous stint as an au pair behind her and revels in newfound freedom in the city of Tours. She finds lodging, enrolls at a French institute, and spends eight glorious days with Adam before he leaves for the holidays. When he returns, his shocking announcement propels her in a different direction, eventually leading her to Paris.

Li Juan and her mother own a small convenience store in the Altai Mountains in Northwestern China, where she writes about her life among grasslands and snowy peaks. To her neighbors' surprise, Li decides to join a family of Kazakh herders as they take their 30 boisterous camels, 500 sheep, and over 100 cattle and horses to pasture for the winter.

Amelia Earhart’s autobiographical book The Fun of It: Random Records of My Own Flying and of Women in Aviation covers Earhart’s life through May 20-21, 1932, “when Miss Earhart, alone in a Lockheed Vega monoplane with a single Wasp engine, negotiated 2,026 miles through storm and fog from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to a cow pasture on the outskirts of Londonderry, Ireland. The flight set a transatlantic record of 14 hours, 56 minutes...and stirred such public adulation that she confided, ‘I’ll be glad when the zoo part is over.’” (ANB)

They called her Kizzy a name that carried mystery, sweetness, and prophecy. To the world, she was peculiar, too much, too fast, too different. But within her was a story that could not be silenced. In KIZZY, Shakitha Jamerson delivers a raw and soul-stirring memoir of survival, faith, and transformation. Through 35 unforgettable chapters, she peels back layers of silence, shame, and struggle to reveal resilience, redemption, and the power of a God who never let go.