Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses

Author: Dederer, Claire

Edition: Reprint

Number Of Pages: 368

Details:

National Bestseller Ten years ago, Claire Dederer put her back out while breastfeeding her baby daughter. Told to try yoga by everyone from the woman behind the counter at the co-op to the homeless guy on the corner, she signed up for her first class. She fell madly in love.Over the next decade, she would tackle triangle, wheel, and the dreaded crow, becoming fast friends with some poses and developing long-standing feuds with others. At the same time, she found herself confronting the forces that shaped her generation. Daughters of women who ran away to find themselves and made a few messes along the way, Dederer and her peers grew up determined to be good, good, good―even if this meant feeling hemmed in by the smugness of their organic-buying, attachment-parenting, anxiously conscientious little world. Yoga seemed to fit right into this virtuous program, but to her surprise, Dederer found that the deeper she went into the poses, the more they tested her most basic ideas of what makes a good mother, daughter, friend, wife―and the more they made her want something a little less tidy, a little more improvisational. Less goodness, more joy.Poser is unlike any other book about yoga you will read―because it is actually a book about life. Witty and heartfelt, sharp and irreverent, Poser is for anyone who has ever tried to stand on their head while keeping both feet on the ground.

Reviews:

“[A] fine first memoir, and it's heartening to see a serious female writer take such a risky step into territory where writers of literary ambition fear to tread, lest they be dismissed as trivial . . . [What] makes Poser work on a lot of levels is that first in line to ask searching questions and poke fun is the author herself . . . Poser is a powerful, honest, ruefully funny memoir about one woman's openhearted reckoning with her demons . . . In the hands of a gifted writer, the universal is embedded within the personal. Guess what? Your bad wallpaper made for a lovely book.” ―Dani Shapiro, The New York Times Book Review“Let me be honest about something: I love yoga, I live for yoga, and yoga has changed my life forever--but it is very difficult to find books about yoga that aren't incredibly annoying. I'm sorry to say it, but yoga sometimes makes people talk like jerks. Thank goodness, then, for Claire Dederer, who has written the book we all need: the long-awaited funny, smart, clear-headed, thoughtful, truthful, and inspiring yoga memoir. To simplify my praise: I absolutely loved this book.” ―Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love“Why did Claire Dederer take up yoga? Short answer: for the same kinds of reasons that Elizabeth Gilbert changed her life in Eat, Pray, Love, and to much the same funny, charming, self-deprecating, stealthily inspirational and (quite possibly) best-selling effect . . . This appealing writer's first book is long overdue. It's clear from the start that she will be transformed and find a sensible, spiritual nonsappy way to become a devotee before Poser is over.” ―Janet Maslin, The New York Times“This memoir about [Dederer's] decade doing downward dog while raising two kids and trying to keep her marriage alive reads like Eat, Pray, Love for hip but harried moms . . . Funny, well-observed and ultimately inspiring.” ―People (four stars)“This book is going to be big. Claire Dederer manages to pack everything into this personal memoir: childbirth, money, schools, social class, career anxiety, parenting, sex, friendship, marriage, and yes, yoga. And don't forget Dansko clogs--‘always, always, [the] clogs.' Thousands of American mothers share Dederer's experience as they glance up from their darling, maddening new babies to find themselves in a new sphere: hip, progressive, trying-really-hard-to-do-it-right mom-world. Poser is written for them . . . From the bendier-than-thou instructors to the more-locavore-than-thou preschool parents, Dederer captures everyone in her world with huma...

EAN: 9781250002334

Release Date: 03-01-2012

Languages: English

Item Note: Good shape with typical wear. Has a remainder mark. Paperback Used - Very Good Ships fast! 2012Reprint

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood

Binding: Paperback