tomorrow. . .

i am getting married!

so weird.

but i am getting married!!!

we are going to have an awesome handfasting on a beautiful red rock mountain in the open air.

saturday we will have one kick ass party.

can't wait!!!!

october reads

1. The Wedding Goddess by Laurie Sue Brockway

2. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

3. Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer McCann

4. Judy Blume: A Biography

5. Vegan Lunch Box Around the World by Jennifer McCann

6. White is for Witching by Helen Oyemi

7. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

8. Anne Sexton: A Biography by Diane Middlebrook

9. Tattoo by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

10. Valiant by Holly Black

11. The Tarot Cafe by Sang Son-Park

12. Ironside by Holly Black

challenge updates:

R.I.P. IV challenge-2/2 completed

999 challenge-63/81

666 challenge-34/36

anne sexton: part IV

The Nonfiction Files is a weekly journal of my adventures reading my toppling piles of nonfiction books. I won't be posting reviews, but rather my thoughts about what I'm reading, while I'm reading it.

i am playing along with elizabeth.

i am currently reading Anne Sexton: A Biography by Diane Middlebrook. you can read my posts here, here and here.

synopsis from publisher:

anne sexton, who died at forty-five by her own hand in 1974, was, as she herself claimed, "the only confessional poet," and is one of the most widely read poets of recent decades. in this, the first biography, diane wood middlebrook reveals the rewards of ten years labor, unearthing the multiple truths of how anne sexton's deeply troubled life and powerfully candid work interacted. the result is a model of the biographer's art, a harrowing and uplifting tale of a gifted woman's life.

anne sexton grew up in a conventional middle-class massachusetts family, married in her teens, and worked for a while as a fashion model. her life displayed little to anticipate artistic achievement until after the birth of her second daughter, when she suffered a suicidal breakdown. her psychic identity was so severely threatened that even psychiatric intervention had little effect, until her therapist suggested one day that she might try writing poetry - an inspired idea, immediately acted on. sexton soon joined a writing group, which brought her into contact with her closest poetic friend, maxine kumin, and entry into the orbit of such poets as robert lowell, george starbuck, and sylvia plath, then living in boston.

from the day sexton began writing in 1956, her poetry and her inner life worked in tandem to give her eighteen years of wild productivity, which produced nearly a dozen books. among her achievements were a pulitzer prize for her third volume, live or die,fellowships, professorships, stardom in a performing musical group called anne sexton and her kind, attempt to write for the theatre, and a hectic emotional life which severely strained her husband, her daughters, and her lovers and friendss, including james wright, w.d. snodgrass, anthony hecht, tillie olsen, and others. in her later years she reached desperately toward religious belief.

middlebrook's story of anne sexton's life and work is a model of fairness and discernment. with special cooperation from the family, she has had privileged access to the records and testimony of sexton's principal psychiatrist and to the surviving family's records and memories, and has achieved a tender comprehension of sexton's life as a woman and keen insight into her work as a poet. anne sexton was the most bewitching and exasperating of women, as every page of this magisterial biography demonstrates. it is not a tale for children nor for the innocent, for sexton's complicity in her own self-destruction was the despair of her friends, to many of whom this biography will reveal more than they understood while sexton was alive.



my final thoughts:

the last section covered 1968-1974. i was actually surprised how it ended. i thought that kayo left anne, but it was the other way around. the last few years of her life were some of her best. she had achieved a sort of celebrity status, continued to win awards and fellowships and honorary degrees. she was able to hike up her reading fees. she started a chamber rock group to accompany her readings in order to reach a younger audience. she was invited to write a play for off-broadway. she continued to churn out poetry and published three more poetry books before her death. she was making strides in her therapy and was off her thorazine. and it was during this time that she started seriously teaching. she was a non-tenured professor at boston university. ironically, it was her seeming stability that made her decide to leave her husband. it was an utter and devastating blow to her husband, his mother and her children. at first she stayed with friends, but they quickly tired of taking care of her. she did engage in love affairs, but those fizzled out. after her divorce was finalized she began to deeply regret making the move, realizing that she needed the stability that kayo provided for her. she became very lonely and missed her old family life. this was her undoing and ultimately led to her taking her life. she was such an unstable personality that i wonder if she would have lived as long as she did if she hadn't met kayo.

this was a fascinating read. i have to go dig out my copy of sexton's The Complete Poems now.

end of read-a-thon survey

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? hours 22 and 23.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? i think YA and fantasy novels are good to keep around on the list because they are quick and easy reads.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? no, i think it was very well organized.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? i think splitting up the cheerleaders into groups was a great idea. it seemed like people were getting more comments and it was a lot less overwhelming as a cheerleader.
5. How many books did you read? 3
6. What were the names of the books you read? Tattoo by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Tarot Cafe (manga) and Valiant by Holly Black.
7. Which book did you enjoy most? i really liked The Tarot Cafe.
8. Which did you enjoy least? i liked them all. Valiant got off to a slow start, but it picked up momentum and i was fully engaged by the end.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? this was my first time cheerleading, so i will leave that to the experts. ;)
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? i will definitely do it again! this is one of my favorite events to participate in. i think i would like to be a reader/cheerleader again. and if i have another idea for a challenge, i wouldn't mind doing that again. i had so much fun with that.

hours 21-22

the last two hours i have been cheering and taking breaks. i did a little yoga-downward-facing dog, child's pose and legs up the wall. i cheer. i get up and walk around. i cheer. i lie on the couch. i cheer. i have lost track of reading and pages and all that stuff. i am barely hanging on, but the end is so near, i don't want to go to sleep yet! i always want to stay up the whole time because i feel like i am missing out otherwise. ;) my eyes are loopy, the screen is too bright and pretty soon i will fall into bed, that sweet abyss of sleep.

hours 18-20

Title of book(s) read since last update: Ironside
Number of books read since you started: 3
Pages read since last update: 60
Running total of pages read since you started:
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 45 min
Running total of time spent reading since you started:
Mini-challenges completed: 7

during hour 18, i relocated to the patio where there was a refreshing cool breeze to keep me wide eyed. i started a new book, the book that follows Valiant. after a while, i got cold so i came back inside and spent the next two hours cheering. now we are headed into the twenty-first hour. my brain feels a little fried, the computer screen is too bright and my eyes feel all wacky. i think i am going to get up and move around a bit, check out some challenges then resume my cheering and possibly read a little manga.

we are in the weeeeeeeeeeeee hours!!!!

i can't believe how quickly it goes.

hour seventeen

Title of book(s) read since last update: i haven't read since last update, i've been cheering!
Number of books read since you started: 3
Pages read since last update: 0
Running total of pages read since you started: 744
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 0
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 5.5hrs
Mini-challenges completed: 7
Other participants you’ve visited: lots

i spent the last hour focused on cheering. i visited over 20 blogs. i am slow at cheering, but i love it. i am having a lot of fun doing it. i really admire the veteran cheerleaders who actually make up clever, rhyming book cheers. maybe my brain will be up for that next time. i also participated in nick's dance-a-thon mini-challenge.
. i put on brian setzer's jump jive and wail and practiced my lindyhop. my MIL is still up and i asked her if she would dance with me and she was game. it was fun and definitely got the heart pumping. :)

well, i am off for more cheering, and then back to reading. :)