This is a beautifully designed book about female explorers of the 17-early 20th centuries with an essay devoted to each. What surprised me the most in this book is that they spent many years in most inhospitable climates in jungles or deserts, and yet many of them lived extremely long lives, into late 80s or 90s, and two even lived past 100. And many of them started exploring in their late 30s, 40s or even 50s, when they became widowed and the kids grew up and left the nest, or their parents died and they were left on their own. Many of them weren’t women of independent means either, but they all found ways not only to survive but to organize one expedition after another. Some persuaded a museum to sponsor them, some wrote books about their explorations and adventures to provide for the next one, some went on lecture tours. Whatever their means of support, almost all made significant contributions to archeology or natural science, without any college education, or even secondary education in some cases. I found this an inspirational book, because there wasn’t anything in most of these women’s circumstances that was exceptional, and yet they all managed to carve out exceptional lives for themselves. ( )