Africa
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Following Nellie Bly—Her Record-Breaking Race Around the World: Rosemary J. Brown
Published by Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2021, 184 pages “I want to go around [the world] in eighty days or less. I think I can beat Phileas Fogg’s record. May I try it?” The idea came from Nellie Bly,… Continue reading
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Zaatar Days, Henna Nights—Adventures, Dreams, and Destinations Across the Middle East: Maliha Masood
Published by Hachette, 2007, 320 pages “Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?” This quote from a poem by Mary Oliver obviously touched a chord with Maliha Masood, since she used it at the beginning of her… Continue reading
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The Travel Gods Must Be Crazy—Wacky Encounters in Exotic Lands: Sudha Mahalingam
Published by Penguin India, 2019, 272 pages “How did I turn into that unwonted specimen—a middle-aged, middle-class mother of two from a conservative…background traveling solo, long before solo travel became fashionable among Indian women?” Sudha Mahalingam loves to travel but… Continue reading
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Black Woman Walking—A Different Experience of World Travel: Maureen Stone
Published by Gazelle Drake Publishing, 2002, 408 pages Black Woman Walking is a wide-ranging book—Maureen Stone is not just a hiker but also a sociologist. She travels widely and walks everywhere she possibly can, in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and… Continue reading
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How to Climb Mont Blanc in a Skirt—A Handbook for the Lady Adventurer: Mick Conefrey
Published by ONEWorld Publications, 2011, 224 pages “Take every precaution and abandon all fear.” Mary Hall, c. 1905 Why is it, when asked to imagine an explorer, people inevitably think of a sunburned unshaven white man squinting into the sun?… Continue reading
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The Shooting Star—A Girl, Her Backpack and the World: Shivya Nath
Published by Penguin, 2018, 201 pages The Shooting Star starts with Shivya Nath deep in the Amazon rainforest (around the border between Ecuador and Peru), taking part in a shamanic cleansing ritual that involves drinking ayahuasca, an Amazonian plant that is… Continue reading
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What Is Africa To Me? – Fragments of a True-to-Life Autobiography: Maryse Condé
Translated from French by Richard PhilcoxPublished by Seagull Books, 2017, 264 pages “Why is it that any attempt to write about one’s life ends up as a jumble of half-truths? … In the pages that follow…I shall try…to figure out… Continue reading
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Go, Girl! The Black Woman’s Book of Travel & Adventure: Compiled by Elaine Lee
Published by The Eighth Mountain Press, 1997, 368 pages Elaine Lee is an African-American woman who has made travel a way of life. Her compilation of 52 pieces of travel writing by African-American women encourages black women to travel by… Continue reading
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A Year in the World—Journeys of a Passionate Traveller: Frances Mayes
Published by Broadway, 2006, 448 pages “How do place and character intertwine? Could I feel at home here? What is home to those around me? Who are they in their homes, those mysterious others?” To find out, Frances Mayes (of Under… Continue reading
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A House in Fez—Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco: Suzanna Clarke
Published by Ebury Press / Simon & Schuster, 2008, 295 pages How many times have you been to a place and dreamed about what it would be like to settle down there? Suzanna Clarke fell in love with Medina, the… Continue reading
Women's Travel Books 