Breaking Free: Women of Spirit at Midlife and Beyond

by Marilyn Sewell (Editor)

In twenty-seven personal and daring essays, some of our finest women writers examine the second half of their lives. They grapple with what age and life have taught them, contemplate their experiences, and reflect on where they have arrived. These are writers who get down and dirty, who have looked at themselves as they are, and at life as it is, to discover not only what time has taken from them but also the powerful gifts that only come with age and experience.

Contributors Isabel Allende, Maya Angelou, M. F. K. Fisher, China Galland, Vivian Gornick, Germaine Greer, Erica Jong, Audre Lorde, Grace Paley, Alix Kates Shulman, Gloria Steinem, and Terry Tempest Williams.

Genres: Womens

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Marilyn Sewell has 10 books in print, including the ground-breaking anthology of women's spiritual poetry, "Cries of the Spirit." Marilyn writes for the spirituality section of Huffington Post. She on the adjunct faculty at Attic Institute, a resource center for writers in Portland, OR, and also teaches at Maitripa, a Buddhist college in Portland. She is the subject of a prize-winning documentary film, "Raw Faith." Her newest book is a memoir, "Raw Faith: Following the Thread," which gives the back story to the film. Marilyn is the Minister Emerita of the First Unitarian Church of Portland, OR, where she served for 17 years as Senior Minister. She lives on the Willamette River with her husband and her cat Molly.

Reviews

[Francine Apollo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this straight through once and in bits and pieces again over several years.
Recently passed it along to a younger friend.
Very helpful.
Recommended.

[Douglas Lord · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sewell's anthology is more incisive than Martha Bolton's Cooking With Hot Flashes: And Other Ways to Make Middle Age Profitable, revealing how 27 middle-aged women writers just "be" (as opposed to how they once were and what they took for that). While some of the essays pack a punch, most tend toward mundane, e.g., Dorothy Walls's poignant essay about masking beauty lines behind plastic surgery. Maturity has netted these authors grace, courage, and "meaning deeper than skin," but their messages are all too familiar. There is no lack of feminista-writers-on-writing books, including Jocelyn Burrell's compilation Word.: On Being a Woman Writer.

Find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.

[Rhonda Rae Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an eye-opening collection of stories.

From many different women at many different levels from many different points of view...the changes of life we all go through are still similarly portrayed.

I related to many of these women and was inspired to continue forging ahead in my personal destiny.

Everything works out in the end and if we will learn to be true to ourselves than life goes a little smoother. We are strong as women and can handle what life deals out along the way.

If you are wondering what it is going to be like, or are in the middle of it and confused, or if you want to travel with others who have gone before you, this this book will apply. You will find a treasure of insight, inspiration, and encouragement.

This book was extremely deep and took me quite some time to complete because each story brought on memories and throughts that I wanted to ponder. I learned a great deal and feel that any woman could benefit from taking the plunge into this one.

Happy reading...(-:

[Uschi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book years ago and had started reading it right away. Could not get into it. Picked it up again when going through books to donate and what a difference a decade makes. Guess I wasn't ready. Could not put it down. While some contributions spoke to me more than others, most are fantastic.