This post originally appeared on Book Riot.

Gertrude Bell, the Female Lawrence of Arabia (Wikimedia Commons)

I love a good adventure story. I would never actually get on a boat going deep into the Amazon or set out to trek across the desert, but I love true stories about people braver than me risking it all in the quest for knowledge and discovery.

It can be a bit of a challenge, however, to find stories about lady adventurers. There have been fewer of them and, in many cases, their stories weren’t well documented at the time. But when a Book Riot reader asked for suggestions, I was excited to do some digging to find some possibilities to share.

For the purposes of this post, I’ve defined “adventurer” pretty broadly to include stories about women who broke barriers, broke records, or simply went above and beyond what was considered possible or even the norm for women at their time. You’re also going to see quite a few books on this list by adventuring lady journalists because they hold a special place in my heart. With all that for an introduction, let’s get to the list!

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell – Born in 1868, Gertrude Bell (pictured above) has been called, by some, the female Lawrence of Arabia. She was a strong presence in the British Empire, studying at Oxford before starting her career as an “archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author, poet, photographer, and legendary mountaineer.” She sounds pretty awesome.

It’s What I Do by Lynsey Addario – This is one of my favorite books of the year so far. Addario is a conflict photographer who was one of the first people in Afghanistan after the United States invaded in 2001. She’s been on the front lines across the world, all in pursuit of the truth.

Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston – Although most of us know Hurston as a writer, she was also a folklorist and anthropologist. This 1942 autobiography is Hurston’s life in her own words.

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret by Glynis Ridley – Baret accidentally became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe in the 1700s after disguising herself as a man and serving as the assistant for her lover, botanist Philibert de Commerson. The ruse was discovered sometime in the South Pacific, but she continued with her voyage successfully.

Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle by Dervla Murphy – This book, from 1965, is the story of Murphy’s bicycle trek from Dunkirk, across Europe, through the Middle East and the Himalayas to Pakistan and India. She traveled alone and learned about people along the way.

Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic by Jennifer Niven – In 1921, 23-year-old Ada Blackjack joined an Arctic expedition with four Canadian men as a seamstress, hoping to earn money and find a husband. She was the only person to survive the trip.

Double Victory by Cheryl Mullenbach – African American women took on a range of adventurous jobs during World War II. This book features many of them including, “Hazel Dixon Payne, the only woman to serve on the remote Alaska-Canadian Highway; Deverne Calloway, a Red Cross worker who led a protest at an army base in India; and Betty Murphy Phillips, the only black female overseas war correspondent.”

West With the Night by Beryl Markham – Markham was born in England in 1902, but grew up with her father in Kenya. She spent her life in East Africa as an adventurer, racehorse trainer and pilot. If you’d prefer a biography over a memoir, grab Straight On Till Morning by Mary S. Lovell.

Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman – In 1889, journalists Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland set out from New York City, in opposite directions, to see if they could beat the fictional journey of Phileas Fogg around the world. This book is a recounting of their rivalry, the media sensation their journey caused, and their lives after they got home.

The Woman Who Fell from the Sky by Jennifer Steil – In 2006, Steil accepted a job to teach a journalism class to the staff of The Yemen Observer. While there she learns about media in the Middle East and live in Yemen, a country that’s dangerous and difficult to understand.

Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr – Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, breaking through the boys’ club of astronauts to participate in the seventh shuttle mission. I’ve heard nothing but good things about this biography. (Fun fact: The first woman to travel in space was Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in June of 1963).

So there you have it, 11 books to start with if you want to read more about adventures from awesome ladies. I’d love to hear more suggestions in the comments!

Even though I’ve been on the lookout for books set in London and England in preparation for a trip with my sister this fall, I didn’t expect that nearly all of my fiction reading in the last month would be set in England. All four of these books are pretty different — fantasy/science fiction, contemporary romance, historical fiction and YA fantasy — but I enjoyed them nonetheless.

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

The best way I can think to describe this book is Ghostbusters meets James Bond meets Memento, if James Bond were a lady spy who is also a kickass administrative genius. It was so awesome, I hardly have words. I can’t remember who recommended The Rook initially, but I decided to pick it up because of this Book Riot post.

At the center of the book is Myfanwy Thomas, an operative with a secret organization that helps battle the supernatural. Myfanwy wakes up with her memory erased, but tries to continue on with her work following a series of letters and instructions written by her former self. The book has intrigue, girl power, imagination and a ton of goofy (and kinda gross) fun. This one is great. (Thanks, Jeanne, for the addition of Memento to the description – you are 100 percent correct).

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

I’ve seen a couple of reviews call The Royal We fiction about Prince William and Kate Middleton, which is both true and also a little unfair to the book, which was a lot more delightful than I initially expected it would be. Wow, that’s kind of a backhanded compliment, isn’t it?

Anyway… The Royal We is the story of America Rebecca “Bex” Porter, who meets and falls in love with Prince Nicholas, future king of England, while they’re students at Oxford. The book follows their relationship over a decade as they struggle with how to be “Nick and Bex” while also living up to the expectations of “Nicholas and Rebecca.” I loved that the book wasn’t focused on will-they-or-won’t-they and instead tried to explore more complicated questions about public and private lives and what it takes to build a sustainable relationship. But it was also funny and sweet and very clearly informed by an intense interest in the British Royal Family. This book was an absolute perfect beach read – highly recommended.

The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman

The promo copy for this book describes it as The Crimson Petal and the White meets Fight Club, and although I haven’t read either of those books I know enough about them to be intrigued. The Fair Fight is the story of two Victorian women of vastly different circumstances, who come together via bare-knuckle boxing. As fun as that concept is, this one felt a little bit long to me (it’s nearly 500 pages). It seemed like it took forever to bring Ruby and Charlotte together, although once they were finally interacting the story picked up again. That, plus the fact that the comeuppance for the villains was SO SATISFYING, left me with generally good feelings about this one.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Earlier this month Jenny (Reading the End) had an interesting post about similarities between YA fiction and three-volume novels of the Victorian era, where she specifically mentioned the Lynburn Legacy series by Sarah Reese Brennan – Unspoken is the first of the trilogy. I snatched it up from the library because the heroine, Kami, is an intrepid girl reporter and I love books about intrepid girl reporters. And this did not disappoint! The story plays around with tropes of Gothic mysteries and has this rather funny, sly sense of humor that I enjoyed. Unfortunately, my library doesn’t have the rest of the series (insane!), so I’m not sure when I’ll get to finish this one out.

In case you were curious, the two other books I read as part of my British fiction binge in May and June were Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid and A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson. I thought about writing a bit about those, but found it didn’t really have much to say. So we’ll leave it at this, and then see if my trend towards fiction set across the pond continues into July.

Time and Place | Just before 9 a.m. in my favorite chair.

Eating and Drinking | Green tea, coconut yogurt with almonds and dark chocolate, raspberries and blueberries. Yum.

Reading | Since I last updated, I’ve finished several books: The Royal We by Heather Cox and Jessica Morgan (basically William and Kate fan fiction — absolutely perfect lakeside reading), The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (Ghostbusters meets James Bond, if James Bond were a lady spy who is also a kickass administrative genius) and Unspoken by Sarah Rees Bennan (sassy Gothic about a spunky high school journalist and sorcerers). Clearly I’m on a kick for fantasy (or fantasy-ish) British fiction.

Watching | A friend and I went to see Jurassic World last night. It was entertaining and fun — exactly what you want in a summer blockbuster about genetically modified dinosaurs.

Listening | Yay, audio books! I finished up The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande before we left for the cabin, and our car listened to Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari on the drive. Rebecca Schinsky at Book Riot summed up my thoughts on Modern Romance perfectly: “Ansari’s personal reflections are candid and funny, but the sociology sections (co-written with actual sociologist Eric Klinenberg) are kind of just interesting enough … Despite the unevenness in narration and overall engagingness (that’s totally a word now, go with it), I found a lot to enjoy here.”

Cooking | The boyfriend made this spicy shrimp pasta in garlic tomato cream sauce last night — so delicious.

Blogging | In the last couple of weeks, I shared some great comics you can read start to finish, my cabin weekend essentials, and some reader recommendations for Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge.

Sharing | There are a lot of thoughtful, emotional pieces in the wake of the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston last week. This post links to a lot of great ones. I’ll just point out two as especially important — Charlie Pierce at Esquire on why this is terrorism and Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic on why we need to take the Confederate flag down. This was terrorism. It was a racially-motivated hate crime committed by a white supremacist. Calling it anything else is cowardly.

Loving | Sparkling margaritas from a plastic mug while sitting on a boat in the middle of a lake is what dreams are made of.

Decluttering | I took the plunge Friday night and did a big book purge. Every book came off my shelves. About 160 fewer went back on. Nothing is double stacked and every shelf has a bit of wiggle room. It’s so great.

Anticipating | I’ve got a lot of writing to do today, and I have to do the dishes at some point, but I’m hoping that it’ll be a pretty relaxing days before jumping into what looks like a busy week. Happy Sunday, everyone! What are you reading today?

About this time last month, I shared how I was doing unexpectedly well with Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge. When I posted in May, I’d completed 12 of the 24 tasks on the list. Since then, I’ve crossed off four more (audiobook – Missoula by Jon Krakauer; retelling of a classic story – Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid; recommended by someone else – The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan; romance novel – The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan).

As a follow up, I thought it would be fun to round up the recommendations many of you gave me on my last post, along with some of the other books I’ve been thinking about for the remaining tasks.

A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25

• White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65

• Alaska by James Michener
• Dear Life: Stories by Alice Monroe
• God Help the Child by Toni Morrison
• The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood (out this September)

A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture

• The Bone People by Keri Hulme
• The Round House Louise Erdrich

A sci-fi novel

• Afterparty by Daryl Gregory
• The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
• He, She and It by Marge Piercy
• Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
• To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
• Telzey Amberdon by James H. Schmitz

A romance novel

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows
• Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal by Meredith Duran
• The Duchess War by Courtney Milan
• The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2007 Pulitzer)
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (2009 Pulitzer)
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (2014 Man Booker)
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009 Man Booker)
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (2014 National Book Award)
• The Unwinding by George Packer (2013 National Book Award)

A book that is a retelling of a classic story

• Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
• Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• Re Jane by Patricia Park
• Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
• The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

A collection of poetry

• Citizen by Claudia Rankine
• Aimless Love by Billy Collins

A book that someone else has recommended to you

• The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
• The Truth by Terry Pratchett
• Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

A book that was originally published in another language

• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
• The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman

A book published before 1850

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

If you’re still looking for recommendations for this challenge, I also found the Goodreads group dedicated to the Read Harder Challenge to be a really helpful source of information. If you want the full scoop on the challenge, not just a partial list of recommendations, check out my previous post about reading harder.