The Women I Think About at Night: Traveling the Paths of My Heroes

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In this thought-provoking blend of history, biography, womens studies, and travelogue (Library Journal) Mia Kankimki recounts her enchanting travels in Japan, Kenya, and Italy while retracing the steps of ten remarkable female pioneers from history.

What can a forty-something childless woman do Bored with her life and feeling stuck, Mia Kankimki leaves her job, sells her apartment, and decides to travel the world, following the paths of the female explorers and artists from history who have long inspired her. She flies to Tanzania and then to Kenya to see where Karen Blixenof Out of Africa famelived in the 1920s. In Japan, Mia attempts to cure her depression while researching Yayoi Kusama, the contemporary artist who has voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for decades. In Italy, Mia spends her days looking for the works of forgotten Renaissance women painters of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and finally finds her heroines in the portraits of Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, and Atremisia Gentileschi. If these women could make it in the world hundreds of years ago, why cant Mia

The Women I Think About at Night is an astute, entertaining[and] insightful (Publishers Weekly) exploration of the lost women adventurers of history who defied expectations in order to seeand changethe world.

Author Bio

Mia Kankimkihas worked with books all her life: she has a masters degree in comparative literature from the University of Helsinki, and she has worked as a copywriter and editor at various publishing houses. Her travels in Tanzania, Kenya, Italy, and Japan in the footsteps of inspirational, historical female figures inspired her bookThe Women I Think About at Night. When not traveling for her next book project, Mia Kankimki lives in Helsinki, Finland.