This was an interesting travel memoir, but I felt that the extra storied took away from the main narrators story. I enjoyed hearing the travel adventures of many different women, but thought that the book was a little drawn out.

This was a really interesting concept -- a memoir combined with a nonfiction book about historical women, many of whom I'd never heard of or didn't know that much about. I learned a lot about each of these women and found this book really self-reflective.

At times a bit tedious. The author's intent kind of got lost in the colonialist lens through which she views these women and ultimately the world. Interesting jumping point though to really research the women she highlights and maybe get to really understand them.

I spent a lot of time trying to get into this book and the writing style but it ended up just not being for me. Very cool subject matter, I just may have not been the right audience? I was disappointed that it wasn’t what I thought it’d be.

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
This was a fascinating look at women. The author has a way with words and I enjoyed learning about her experiences and influences and travel advice.

Enjoyed the concept of the book but the writing got a bit tedious and a struggle to get through. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

Based on the title and the description, I immediately want to read The Women I Think About at Night by Mia Kankimake. I expect to travel to far off destinations, to learn about these women, to discover the author's vision, and to be inspired. Unfortunately, for me, this book titled to be about heroes turns out to be anything but inspirational. I am clearly not the reader for this book.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/04/the-women-i-think-about-at-night.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

Longest Night Ever
Jesus. I hate this book so much. The author drones on and on for over 400 pages about her “night women,” the term she uses for the shero travelers and artists that inspire her to write about them, mentions the two words AT LEAST ONCE A PAGE, and even ends the book by bitching about how hard it is to write. “At this rate I’ll never finish this book,” she moans on whatever page 86% is and girl, I feel you. Someone should have cut her off at 200 pages. Seriously, I’m this close to finishing it and every time I read the words “night women” I want to shot myself in the head. What a bore. What a waste of time.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com

Forty-something Mia Kankimäki doesn’t have children or a fulfilling job. But she does have a collection of what she calls her ‘Night Women’, women from around the world and throughout history who stepped away from the expectations of their societies and lived their lives on their own terms– through travel, art, or moving to a place entirely outside their previous experiences. These women were the ones Kankimäki read and dreamed about by night, and they were the ones who inspired her to, upon finding herself drifting aimlessly into her 40s, go out and see if she, too, could make a life for herself on her own terms.

Her first stops are Tanzania and Kenya, where Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen, author of Out of Africa) lived and toured for much of her adult life after traveling to Kenya to marry a friend and help oversee his Kenyan coffee plantation. Kankimäki describes Blixen’s arrival in Africa and compares it to her own arrival in Tanzania– a century apart and worlds away from each other. As a white woman, Kankimäki stands out and becomes something of a spectacle among the locals. She doesn’t understand the customs and the food is strange to her. And she wants the sort of safari experience that Blixen encountered in the early twentieth-century, which seems impossible given the effects of climate change, the decline of Africa’s great wildlife, and the rise of the tourism industry. Kankimäki marvels at Blixen’s calm in Out of Africa, which seems unreal. But the more she reads about Blixen, the more Kankimäki realizes that the serene woman in the book came later, after Depression and illness, financial ruin, and tragedy. It was an older Karen Blixen who survived multiple trials who wrote Out of Africa. And the deeper she travels into the Tanzanian wilderness, the more Kankimäki begins to conquer her own fears to encounter, if not the same safari experience Blixen had a century earlier, the closest thing a twenty-first century woman could have. As she looks back on her experiences, the hardships fade away and she realizes how amazing it all was- just as Blixen might have done while writing Out of Africa.

But the African experience can’t last forever, and Kankimäki takes us through a whirlwind of travelers from Isabella Byrd to Nellie Bly and others, and if Kankimäki didn’t follow their round-the-world travels exactly, that’s to be expected as it would be impossible for a single person to follow in their intrepid footsteps. All the while, though, Kankimäki wonders at both their courage and ability to face all hardships that come their way and their reluctance to put away society’s expectations upon returning home. Is it the distance that makes us bold and encourages us to step outside our ordinary lives?

Kankimäki provides no solid answers, because there really aren’t any. The driving force that causes us to step out in the the unknown can really only be known to the individual. It’s not something that can be defined or fully explained on ink and paper. The best a person can do is find inspiration in those stories and then set out on their own. For their own reasons.

Turning away from world travelers, Kankimäki looks farther back into time– to the late Renaissance when women artists like Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, and Artemesia Gentilleschi proved that women could rival men when it came to painting. As the first female artists who made a living from their art during the Renaissance, they refused to let their talents be set aside to satisfy society’s expectations. They wanted to paint, and they were good at it. Among the best. So paint they did. And finally, hundreds of years later, the world is once more seeing their genius for what it was.

As she progresses through a lively discussion of each woman’s life, Kankimäki comes up with a bit of advice from each of them- short, trite little mottoes that are almost ridiculous, but somehow manage to encapsulate their remarkable lives. And while Kankimäki’s description of Florence in the late Renaissance suffers from twenty-first century preconceptions of the supposed lack of cleanliness of pre-modern times, her descriptions of her subject’s lives are full of life, making the reader want to look up the artists’ work or read the travelers’ memoirs. Doug Robinson’s skillful translation give the book a lightness that’s sometimes missing from works in translation, leaving in the dry humor and occasional sarcasm that makes it seem like Kankimäki is sitting just across the table and telling her story– a tale that shows that women of a certain age are capable of remaking their lives entirely, and that by stepping away from society, we might end up stepping more deeply into our own selves.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion in anyway.

A must read for every woman who claims the feminist title. I loved learning about so many women I had never heard of.

A great arm chair traveling book paying homage to early female adventurers and artists. Filled with lush settings and biographical snippets. The author shares her own experiences in travel and writing the book. My favorite parts were the attempt to follow in Karen Blixen's footsteps and the author's travels around Italy. Charming and informative.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

The Women I think About at Night is a special book that delivers thoughtful reflection. Having read self-help books, which this is not; I was not prepared for how much personal thought I gave to the various women in the book and to the author Mia Kankimaki. For Mia to have chosen to write a book based on unique out of the box women & to put herself in similar paths was fascinating. I found myself reading then searching on line for actual photo’s or work of each woman she wrote about. A wonderful read, I cannot say I would personally have liked each woman (Karen, Isabel, Sofonisba, Lavinia, Artemisia) but found each very admirable in a different way. Absolutely amazing how women of substance were able to rise above their station in life to excel. I am still pondering the many questions this book raises. Appreciated reading.

This book is fabulous! Highly, highly recommended - will be great for book clubs. I loved the section on Karen Blixen - it had me reaching for more books about Africa and added to conversations with my at-home kids who are interested in animals and safaris :)

I'm sorry I was unable to finish the book... only read a few chapters in the beginning. The writing felt dull and drab to me, maybe because the main character was a little depressed, and it hit too close to home.