Really interesting book. Loved learning more about women explorers, travelers and archeologists. It was fun to learn more about the time period and Egypt too.

In the last few years, there have been dozens of cases of historians uncovering the stories of heroic women that would have otherwise been lost to time. Many were contemporaries of famous male inventors and explorers whose exploits have been told and retold. Yet the stories of these women and their accomplishments remained hidden. This book turns the traditional wealthy European tomb raider stories on their heads. The women that are the subject of the book have interesting and complex lives, which are told beautifully. Let's hope that these stories become as well-known as those of their male counterparts.

This book was clearly well reseacrhed, and had an interesting premise, but I found it really dragged and was weighed down by too many details. I'd only recommend for people seriously interested in the subject matter.

The subject of this book fascinated me, but the writing was a bit textbook for what I was hoping. Nonetheless, it is an important book to highlight women in history, especially in this fascinating time.

Wonderful, and very enlightening of what was taking place during this time period. This a great read for young women looking for stories about them!

Great read! I had absolutely no knowledge of these women and their contributions to Egypt exploration. The story form of writing really engages the reader. I've always had a fascination with archeology and this just adds another dimension to that interest.

This here was an interesting read but a good book on women’s history involving Egyptologists! It was a good listen. I felt like it was more of an Amelia story because she set the blueprint for other women to follow in her footsteps! Set in the 1800’s where, of course, women couldn’t do a lot of things for themselves! Also, it felt chunky at times of unnecessary story but other than that a decent read!

This was an educational book that tried to be a biographical prose book. While I learned a lot, it was not what I had hoped it would be.

A look into the women archeologists who excavated ancient Egypt. I was expecting this to be more of a synthesized history, but it was more biographies. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had gone into it known it was more in biography style. It also was not laid out in the most logical sense. I don't mind a history so it wasn't an academic problem like I know some people disliked. For me, it was the layout that let down what could have been a really interesting history.

Highly researched, I thought this book would be a little more accessible to the average reader. It definitely has interesting stories about the women there, but it was a little dry for me. Recommend highly to those really interested in the history of Egyptology archaeology. For the casual reader, it might be too much.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. #sponsored

Meet the forgotten contributors to Egyptology…,women.

If you are like me, perhaps you went through a period of wanting to be an archaeologist. If so, was the very title of archaeologist synonymous with Egypt…the pyramids, the pharoahs, and all that went with it? For me that career choice didn’t last terribly long, which perhaps had a bit to do with the fact that all of the famous archaeologists about whom I read were men. Granted, the years when men like Howard Carter were setting up digs and unearthing tombs were not a time when most women pursued careers at all, not to mention one that would take them around the globe….and yet there were, in fact, women who did exactly that. These were women who had their own talents and motivations for traveling to and living in Egypt, sharing a love of knowledge and were in many cases more interested in preserving materials that were discovered rather than in digging things up and hauling them home (though some did a bit of that as well). Author Kathleen Sheppard has done tremendous research into these women’s stories, using written travelogues, artistic renderings of sites that were unearthed, and other records to create a portrait of women who inspired others (and in some cases taught the women who came behind them) to work in the shadow of men credited with the explorations and alongside the Egyptian people who similarly did much of the work yet received little if any credit for their labors. From Amelia Edwards to Caroline Ransom Williams, with a hat tip to Lucie Duff Gordon whose Letters from Egypt inspired many of her countrymen and countrywomen to visit the distant land where she had settled, it is an interesting look into how and why women were able to overcome hurdles and create lives pursuing intellectual freedom and making contributions to the field.
This is neither a quick nor an easy read; there is a lot of information revealed and an at times dizzying array of names and personalities to remember and sort out as timelines intermingle. I found it easier to read in chunks at a time, and while there were sections that were not as engrossing as others it was still a very worthwhile read. As has been documented in recent years, women in so many fields have not always received sufficient credit for their contributions to the world (recent books like Hidden Figures and the biography of tennis great Althea GIbson just to name a couple), and it is important that those omissions are corrected. Maybe a young girl going through her own “I want to be an archaeologist” phase might benefit from seeing that women can, and in fact have, made wonderful contributions in that field. My thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for allowing me access to this intriguing look into women who followed their passions and expanded the understanding of an ancient people in the process.

This was a fascinating and necessary read, as the women involved in these processes are largely underrated (as are many other women throughout history) for their contributions and discoveries. I really liked the content of this book, but it did feel a little dry in some sections and made it more difficult to get through.

Women in the Valley of the Kings was a read I appreciated as I have not read anything similar. Interesting overall and appreciative I had the opportunity to read.

Loved this book. All the reading I've done on Egyptology and the Valley of the Kings has always been focused on the men involved. It was so interesting to read about these strong women and their contributions to a fascinating history. It's about time the factual story includes the women who were exploring the tombs of the ancient Egyptologists.

Kathleen Sheppard has done something that those before her haven't. She's given a spotlight, voice, and insight into the women Egyptologists in the late 1800's and early 1900's. I am grateful for that. From those who first traveled to Egypt and excavated sites, to those who brought the artifacts back to other places so others could enjoy these hidden treasures, to those who helped fund the excavations, writing letters, helping with medical aid....so much that history has left out, Kathleen has brought back to the forefront and allowed us a window into what that looked like for these women in that time frame. Absolutely fascinating and highly recommend.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

An excellent volume on the history of archeology and Egyptology through the lens of women who pioneered in this field. Although this is non fiction it is written with an engaging style and one feels connected with these women in their adventures and struggles. They are among the unsung pioneers and heroes in this field. From the epilogue one of the phrases gives a terse overview : "They deserve a reckoning, these women in the Valley of the Kings."

I was hoping this book would be a great entry point for your everyday consumer who is interested in learning more about the vast world of Egyptology, however I unfortunately feel that is not the case. The structure of the book ended up feeling a bit messy, and while I understood the advantages of breaking the chapters into focusing on a certain player in the field, it became muddled because a lot of the people were concurrently active. This lead to people being mentioned in early chapters before we actually knew who they were, only to find out later in the book but now with a disconnect between their mentions. The book read more like a thesis now transitioned to a traditionally published book, and there were often moments that came across as a student trying to hit a word requirement (repetitious statements often on the same page, if not in the same paragraph; restating the same idea in two different ways to try to illustrate a point which fell flat in the end; etc.). While I did feel to have learned more about the women of Egyptology after reading the book, it was a difficult read to get through and not something I think most of my library patrons would reach for, whether for personal or professional reading.

Full disclosure - I missed the publication date because of the marketing boycott, but purchased the audiobook afterwards. I am a huge fan of the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters and was looking forward to a true account of female Egyptologists contemporary to the fictional character. Unfortunately, this did not work for me. I found it to be very dry and too much of a slog to get through. I was unable to finish. I wanted more of the actual Egyptology and less of the love lives of the women detailed in this book. I am sure I'd have eventually gotten to more of the Egyptology, but I could not force myself to keep listening. My star rating is based on the dry, academic tone that did not work for me, with the understanding that it make work for others.

The story of Egyptology has always seemed a story of a few great men, who they were, their discoveries, what they contributed. Women were rarely mentioned and then usually in supporting roles only, as wives or helpers, rarely if ever, with important contributions of their own. In her well-researched, well-documented book, Women in the Valley of the Kings, Kathleen Sheppard sets out to correct that oversight and does an excellent job of presenting the women who, in many ways through their contributions which included teaching, writing, monetary contributions, lecture tours, and, yes, taking part in digs, advanced the explorations, discoveries, knowledge and history of Egyptology. An interesting book that shows the other side of the story that has been missing too long and raises women to their proper and important place, not just as helpmates, but as important Egyptologists in their own right.

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

"They were not women behind the men; they were, however, overshadowed."

Sheppard writes about 11 women who helped pioneer the field of Egyptology from roughly the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, with a lot of focus on the turn of the 20th century. Most did actually spend time in Egypt, working at the sites and in the tombs. Some of them, particularly the later ones, spend most of their time teaching or running organizations that allow other people (i.e., men) to do the work in the field. Sheppard follows them roughly chronologically, so the same women pop up in multiple chapters.

There's a lot of good in this book. It was fascinating learning about the women (what we could know; a lot of these women's lives have been totally lost) while also learning about how the field of Egyptology developed. Reading about how people originally visited the area, what kind of places they stayed, what kind of work they did--all really interesting. I enjoyed finding out the various kinds of work they did and the education they did (and didn't) have. Sheppard highlights how the women pioneers were regarded and does a good job including the people who worked FOR these (almost exclusively) British colonizers. I also liked her pointing out the differences in how men and women recorded their work and lives, as well as their lives themselves (the women, of course, doing not only work with the excavations but also dealing with the households, entertaining visitors, and providing medical services to people who would just show up and assume they could get help). I also liked getting a feel for the history of Egypt itself during this period, going from a colony to quasi-independent to actually independent.

All that said, I had a hard time remembering exactly who was who (this was not helped by my pausing for a few weeks in the middle of reading) and also frequently got bogged down in the details. Sheppard clearly did a lot of research, both on the women AND on the sites, and a LOT of it is included in the book, to the point of being overwhelming. (This was probably also not helped by my not having a ton of knowledge of Egyptian history.) All THAT said, I didn't find this book as dry as some other reviewers seem to have. The writing style was engaging enough...most of the time.

I'd recommend this for people who have a particular interest in Egyptology moreso than for people just interested in women's history of the Gilded Age.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.