Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses

By: Claire Dederer

Narrated by: Christine Williams

Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

“The studio was decorated in the style of Don’t Be Afraid, We’re Not a Cult. All was white and blond and clean, as though the room had been designed for surgery, or Swedish people. The only spot of color came from the Tibetan prayer flags strung over the doorway into the studio. In flagrant defiance of my longtime policy of never entering a structure adorned with Tibetan prayer flags, I removed my shoes, paid my ten bucks, and walked in….”

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.

©2011 Claire Dederer (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“I absolutely loved this book.” (Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love)

“This funny, spectacularly well-observed, and moving book does what even yoga can’t: it provides solace while making you laugh.” (Henry Alford, acclaimed author of How to Live)

“Dederer is a brilliant writer whose prose sparkles and cuts deep. Poser is a book you will want to immediately share with your friends.” (Maria Semple, author of This One Is Mine and producer of Arrested Development)

No. Not now.

I read the NYTimes review of this book and even though it was a mediocre-good judgement, I looked forward to reading this book. I'm regretful I chose the audio version. I am not enjoying this narrator. Her delivery is staccato and her tone is sarcastic. The writing itself could wryly speak the humor and irony if recording didn't give me a such headache.

More mommy memoir than yoga memoir

I feel like I was a bit duped into buying this book. It's way more about a journey through motherhood than a journey through yoga. While that is of course a fine and valid thing to write a book about, it's not what I was looking for.

What a bunch of ...

I agree with the previous review that this is a mommy memoir. Too much blabbering about upper middle class white mommies trying to justify their excessive behavior.

dissappointed

Well, I don't mind to read about yoga, and even about motherhood. Also, the author is a pretty good writer. Narrator is awful, very annoying... Plus, book is about nothing, literally. Why would you write book about your life, if nothing interesting happened in your life. So, it was plain boring to read book about a woman, I don't know, and even after reading did not find out anything special about this woman and her life. I think, if I write book about my life, it would much more intersting :-))

Narrator turned me off immediately

Narrator speaks so quickly and sharply it was challenging to keep up. I tried to stay with it as the story was interesting and I am a mother and love yoga so it was nice to hear the commentary of how one perceives coming to yoga and attending different studios.. but it didn't keep me coming back as once I get annoyed with a voice it's really hard to listen to...

Lovely

I borrowed the hard copy in Texas somewhere! I had to return it to the library before completing it. It kept calling me to finish it! I just have.