Women Explorers

After months of following one-size-fits-all advice for a 57-year-old widow, Linda Crill is still miserable, until she makes a rebellious spur-of-the-moment decision: she trades her corporate suits for motorcycle leathers and commits herself to a 2,500-mile road trip down America’s Pacific Northwest coast on a Harley. The problem: she doesn’t know how to ride and has only 30 days to learn. Four short weeks later, Linda joins two men and a woman for a white-knuckled, exhilarating road trip along the west coast from Vancouver, Canada, to the wine country of Mendocino, California....

Tracey Curtis-Taylor has created headlines around the world with three epic flights in a 1942 Boeing Stearman biplane. Paying homage to two historic female aviators, she flew from Cape Town to Goodwood in 2013, from London to Australia in 2015 and, two years later, completed a transcontinental flight across the USA, after surviving a plane crash during the expedition. But her daring exploits came at a huge personal cost. Tracey tells, in breathtaking detail, the remarkable story of how she overcame extreme adversity to complete her three epic journeys.

Alison Wright covered human conflict with her camera until her own life was nearly cut short during a horrific bus accident with a logging truck on a remote jungle road in Laos. Suffering from excruciating life-threatening injuries, she drew upon her years of meditation practice, concentrating upon each breath, believing it to be her last.

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)

“Mi Vida Impactante: Del Dolor al Propósito” Es Una historia real de superación y fe que te tocará el alma. Desde un avión, sola y siendo aún una niña adolescente, Nuriss partió de su tierra natal rumbo a Estados Unidos con apenas 32 dólares, sin saber lo que le esperaba. No tenía adónde ir, pero llevaba algo mucho más poderoso: una historia real de superación y fe con abundantes bendiciones que comenzaba a escribirse con cada paso que daba.

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.

This author shares her journey from a childhood shaped by abuse, silence, and shame to the long, difficult path of healing and self-discovery. Through powerful storytelling and emotional honesty, she recounts what it means to survive abuse, raise children in the aftermath, and find strength in vulnerability. This memoir is a story of reclaiming identity, learning to trust again, and the quiet power of rebuilding a life from the ground up. It is a tribute to the resilience of those who’ve endured in silence, and a beacon of hope for anyone ready to begin again.

Amelia Earhart flew solo over the Atlantic, afterward receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross, and began championing the efforts of women to explore careers traditionally held by men. Tragically, just days before her 40th birthday, her plane vanished en route to a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean as she neared the end of her round-the-world journey. After an exhaustive search, no trace of the plane or Amelia was ever found.

Stephanie White, from Charlotte NC, made up her mind to tackle the three individual 200-mile distance races known as the Triple Crown of 200’s. This includes the Bigfoot 205 mile race, Tahoe 200 mile race, and the Moab 240 mile race. While trying to figure out how to train for these races, she decided to do a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail and learned so much about herself and life, in general, along the way.

Fleeing the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 and fueled by a burning desire for a better life, Apple embarks on a daring journey to pursue her doctoral education in America. With no backup plan, Apple has to make this journey work. But she has no idea that her starting place, Las Cruces, NM, is a quiet desert town—a far cry from the bustling metropolis she envisioned. Anxious, ignorant, broken, lost, and homesick, Apple is also excited, curious, and open-minded. Will she simply survive the fish-out-of-the-water situation many immigrants experience, or will she thrive?

The inspiring, untold story of three incredible women who spearheaded recreation, conservation and resilience in America’s most beloved landscapes, for readers of Pam Houston and David Grann In the spring of 1945, when just a handful of people had been through the Grand Canyon in boats...

At age fourteen, Giselle McNab was on her own. Grieving the loss of her childhood, Giselle wrestled with the events of the past and the bleak promise of her future. She wondered where she would go when she hit rock bottom. In this intense and emotional retelling of events in her life, Giselle weaves an incredible story of triumph and overcoming every odd stacked against her. She explores the family dynamics, financial struggles, and emotional trauma that perpetuated a cycle of abuse in her childhood and even into her adolescence.

In this lyrical and soul-stirring memoir, Angela Perry traces three generations of emotional inheritance—from her grandfather, a celebrated ambassador, to her father, a man shattered by childhood trauma, to herself, a daughter raised in the aftermath. With poetic clarity and unflinching honesty, Perry explores the cost of unspoken pain, the long shadow of familial silence, and the quiet, radical beauty of breaking the cycle.

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...

One Woman in the Himalayas recounts Tracy’s journey of unexpected twists and turns on Nepal’s famed Annapurna Circuit, one of the great treks in the world. She struggles with decisions that test her ability to adapt and think fast on her feet. This story is about finding the courage to continue even when things don’t go as you planned. Walk with Tracy on an ancient trading route past waterfalls and rice terraces; peek inside the oldest monastery in the Himalayas; and share the path with yak herders and Sherpas.

Empty is a story of passion, neglect, betrayal, growth, and love. After enduring great loss, Elizabeth Carter struggled to find herself amid great adversity. Her life was one long drama with many twists, turns, and near-death experiences that left her working hard to prove her worth to the people around her. Yet, with no validation, she was left empty.

"From HOE to CEO! Never Out the Game..The Game Just Changes!" is a raw, gripping, and unfiltered account of survival, reinvention, and triumph. In this book, Dr. Audra stance doesn't tell her story--she dares you to feel it. From the dark corners of the streets to the bright lights of boardrooms, her life is a testimony that rock bottom can be the launchpad to your destiny.

A thoughtful and eloquent meditation that invites us to treat life like a grand exploration and illuminates the possibilities that await us when we do—from “a philosophical adventurer—or perhaps an adventurous philosopher” (The New York Times). Erling Kagge is one of the world’s most...

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.