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Women of the World: Women Travelers and Explorers (Extraordinary Explorers)

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There are nine major chapters in this book, dealing with nine fascinating women. The chapters are ordered by the women's date of birth. What most of them share, besides love of travel and rugged adventure, is the fact that they accomplished their greatest feats in mid life. Most didn't embark on their travels until their thirties, with the exception of Florence Baker, wife of Samuel Baker, who was bought as a teenager in a slave auction.

Ida Pfeiffer was born in Austria in 1797 and by the time she was forty five years old, she had already been separated many times from an elderly husband. She traveled through the Middle East, from Turkey to Cairo, and wrote a book afterwards. She went twice around the world, through Tahiti, South America and China. Of all people she met, she found the Diyak people of Borneo, who practiced ritual headhunting, most to her liking.

There is not a woman in this book without unusual quirks. The peculiarity of Isabella bird Bishop, born in Britain in 1831, was that at home she was sickly and frail, yet during her travels she was happy and robust. It happened more than once in her life--off on an adventure; she was fine, once home, she became ill. When she was about 40, she set off for Australia and New Zealand (doctor's orders) and then went on to the USA, where alone, on horseback in the Rocky Mountains she met and fell in love with a hunter and scout named Jim Nugent, who guided her around Colorado.

In 1905, Fanny Bullock Workman, one of the two best known American travelers and explorers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries became the second woman invited to speak to the Royal Geographical Society. She was one of the first women to climb the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

Some women, like Mary Kingsley, choose travel as a means to seek solace from solitude. Born in 1862, she spent much of her life wandering through West Africa.

This book is endearing and a keeper for women who have been bit by the travel bug.Under a Crescent Moon: Stories of Arabia

The author really brings these women to life in 9 short biographies using interesting details and anecdotes from good primary sources. She also discusses some of the women's less admirable qualities which presents the reader with a more complete picture of each woman's life. The pictures and photographs are wonderful too. A great source for reports and school projects, but also truly inspirational.