Close to Om: Stretching Yoga from Your Mat to Your Life

L.A. yoga teacher Marcum brings her reflective, challenging yoga perspective and practice to the page in this inspiring guide for both beginners and seasoned practitioners. Marcum grew up in Santa Cruz, Calif., a “lard-ass” gymnast who suffered from weight issues and self-loathing. Restless and on a “neurotic quest,” she stumbled into a yoga class and was hooked. This text melds yoga poses and sequences with yoga philosophy. Readers will learn about how to settle into a downward dog as well as the meaning of the various yoga tenets such as pratyahara (going inward) and satya (truthfulness). Marcum intersperses wisdom from such revered ancient texts as the Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali’s yoga sutras with wisecracks, amusing anecdotes, and useful instructions and illustrative photos, oft repeating the phrase “How you do your yoga is how you do your life.” Tales from her life (about the first yoga class she taught, to two students, one of whom walked out; her days as a songwriter; how she met her husband) give this vibrant memoir-cum-manual a personal and accessible yogic touch. Agent: Jane von Mehren, Aevitas Creative Management. (Jan. 2018)