Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses
Claire Dederer, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, $25 (352p) ISBN 978-0-374-23644-1
"I have never been good at sports; I always feel like a spectator even in the middle of the game," writes freelance writer Dederer about her initial reluctance to attend a yoga class. But despite her misgivings and her "defiance of my longtime policy of never entering a structure adorned with Tibetan prayer flags," Dederer makes it through that first class to develop a strong commitment to yoga in addition to—and sometimes despite—raising two children, coping with a husband struggling with depression, finding time to write, along with a demanding extended family and a move from her native Seattle to Colorado. With lighthearted humor and a touch of irony, Dederer introduces her readers to the culture of motherhood in north Seattle during the late 1990s, a place populated by clog-wearing attachment-parenting women whom Dederer simultaneously disdained and embraced. Each chapter is titled after a different yoga pose as Dederer recounts the challenging births of her children and reflects upon her own emotionally difficult childhood and adolescence during the 1970s. Dederer's memoir, like a challenging yoga class, flows smoothly and shows by example that a full life is one that is constantly in motion. (Jan.)
Details
Reviewed on: 11/29/2010
Genre: Nonfiction
Compact Disc - 9 pages - 978-1-4417-8150-5
MP3 CD - 978-1-4417-8151-2
Open Ebook - 352 pages - 978-1-4299-7318-2
Other - 1 pages - 978-1-4417-8153-6
Paperback - 368 pages - 978-1-250-00233-4
Paperback - 352 pages - 978-1-4088-0250-2
Pre-Recorded Audio Player - 978-1-4417-8154-3