Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses by Claire Dederer

Claire Dederer has been many interesting things in her life: a book reviewer, a tugboat driver, a twenty-something wandering the world and living hand to mouth, but these things are somehow peripheral to the story she tells of being a wife and mother in Poser. She seems more like the funny and slightly neurotic mom you might meet while waiting to pick up your child from school than someone whose book reviews appear in the New York Times.

In this memoir, Dederer reflects on how her perfectionism and her need to please everyone helped turn her into the exact opposite of her hippie mother: a stressed out organic supermom who feels bad about not following all of the tenets of "attachment parenting" so prevalent in her native Seattle. As a child of divorce, she constantly reevaluates her marriage, wondering if it's going to last. Her parents' 1973 separation was so amicable that everyone, including her, pretended everything was fine, that it was normal for one's mother to have both a husband and a long-term boyfriend.

An analysis of the legacy of divorce, plus yoga, does not sound like a recipe for a funny book, but lines like "The studio was decorated in the style of Don't Be Afraid, We're Not a Cult" constantly made me laugh. Or this one, in which she describes her neighborhood: "In Phinney Ridge, people don't have 'beware of dog' signs. They have 'please be mindful of dog' signs."

Some interest in yoga is a prerequisite to liking the book, but you needn't take it too seriously or actually do yoga yourself. The book's self-deprecating humor and a healthy suspicion of yoga teachers who lecture their classes on Hindu spirituality makes things more accessible to non-yogis. And yet, the spiritual side of yoga will sneak in there anyhow and make a believer out of you, as you watch Claire slowly transform into a more relaxed, accepting version of herself. I'm listening to the audiobook, whose narrator, Christine Williams, does an excellent job.

More Knitting Humor

The library book group has the month off and the only book I could bring myself to read in June, besides Harry Potter, was Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Free-Range Knitter. This may seem like an odd combination, but did you know that Hagrid the Hogwarts gamekeeper is a knitter? Also, Mrs. Weasley and Hermione. And Dumbledore likes to read knitting patterns.

The essay in Free-Range Knitter about the time the author agreed to teach knitting to a group of children at a toy store had me in stitches. It was also the first time I heard the knitting poem. And don't miss her story about the time an elevator door at the passport office closed on her yarn, separating her ball of yarn from the project on her needles.

I should warn you that it isn't all knitting humor. Like her other books, there are stories about knitters for whom knitting provides a great consolation in difficult times and reflections on motherhood. The latter tend to be funny, though such as "How to Make a Hat if You are Twelve (And Not Very Careful About Stuff)".

Are You a Psychopath? Take this Test

The Psychopath Test, a journey through the madness industry by Jon Ronson starts with the author, a journalist, being asked to find out who anonymously sent a cryptic self-published book to many psychiatrists worldwide, which then leads him somehow, circuitously to a Scientologist who gets him into Broadmoor Prison to interview a criminally insane inmate who claims he's not insane. Scientologists famously do not believe in psychiatry so they advocate for the prisoner. The author then goes on to learn about the Hare Psychopathy Checklist at a workshop lead by the list's creator Bob Hare himself. Armed with his newly acquired psychopath-spotting ability, the author goes all over the world for a year or so interviewing both diagnosed and suspected psychopaths and mental health professionals while dipping into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders and exploring the latest top psychiatric diagnoses like bipolar disorder in children. The irony of his research is that Ronson presents himself as an anxious neurotic; he worries a lot about being tracked down by some of the killers he meets and he worries about whether he might have some psychopathic tendencies, constantly referring back to the checklist to self-diagnose.  The book is about at least two topics: psychopaths, or course, but also how mental illness came to be diagnosed by checklists in the DSM and the subsequent increase in number of diagnoses of mental disorders and the increased development of drugs to treat them. That is an ambitiously broad range of topics to cover in only 275 pages. What is  psychopathy? How do we diagnose it? Why has there been an increase in the number of mental illnesses listed in the DSM which seem increasingly close to a normal state?  Are there more psychopaths in positions of great power, like CEO's of corporations?  Ronson raises a lot of questions, so if you are interested in related titles, you could read the following books: (call #'s follow the title)

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (Ref 616.89 Dia)
The books of psychiatrist Oliver Sacks
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, which is not about psychiatry or madness, but about medicine's use of checklists.(610.28 Gaw)
Opening Skinner's box: great psychological experiments of the twentieth century by Lauren Slater (150.72 SLA)

Related websites:


Laura Miller's review in Salon
Robert Hare's website

Summer Reads

Why get on a wait list for this year's crop of beach reads, when last year's are on the shelves right now? Most of these come from Library Journal's list.



Summer Shift by Lynn Kiele Bonasia
While trying to run the Cape Cod clam bar she owns, 44-year-old widow Mary Hopkins must rely on her diverse and dependable staff to weather the sudden death of a young waitress, her beloved great aunt's struggle with Alzheimer's, and Mary's own sense that life is passing her by.

The Summer We Read Gatsby by Danielle Ganek
Forced to set aside their differences when they jointly inherit a rundown cottage in the Hamptons, practical-minded Cassie and her dreamer half-sister Peck struggle to decide what to do with the house, which comes with a resident artist plagued by bad luck.

Thin Rich Pretty by Beth Harbison
Remembering their misfit teen years and the summer they lashed out at rich and spoiled Lexi, Holly and Nicola struggle to overcome insecurities to safeguard their ambitions and are shocked to re-encounter a down-on-her-luck Lexi, who harbors painful memories.

The Island by Elin Hilderbrand
After her daughter, Chess, breaks off an engagement and her fiance subsequently dies in a rock-climbing accident, divorcee Birdie Cousins encourages her younger daughter, Tate, and her sister, India, to join her and Chess on Tuckernack Island for a month, a time when deep secrets are soon revealed.

Summer in the South by Cathy Holton
Visiting old friend Will from college only to find him much more attractive and confident than she remembers, Ava becomes immersed in Will's Southern community and wonders if the local secrets she uncovers will estrange her from Will or strengthen their bond.

Dolci di Love by Sarah-Kate Lynch
After discovering that her husband has a secret second family in Tuscany, Lily Turner leaves New York and looks for a happy ending in a struggling Italian bakery with the help of the Secret League of Widowed Darners.

The Icing on the Cupcake by Jennifer Ross
When Ansley Waller's fiance Parish cancels their upcoming wedding, Ansley decides to leave Dallas and make a fresh start. In a surprise move, she heads to New York City to live with her recently widowed grandmother Vivian, who gives Ansley an ultimatum: get a job or go home. Before long, she's opening up her own cupcake shop and even trying her hand at dating.

Looking for a Love Story by Louise Shaffer
Recently divorced, Francesca agrees to write a memoir on an elderly woman's parents who worked in vaudeville, and while researching the couple, Francesca starts to reexamine her own family and love life.
- Ellen

Cell Phones in the Library

In Case of Emergency

It's hard to tell whether people talking to themselves in the library, or anywhere really, have a blue tooth connection to their cell phone or are just, well, talking to themselves. That's not an original observation, but in the context of keeping the library quiet, it makes it hard to ask a patron to turn off their cell phone if in fact they are just having a spirited debate with their favorite debater: themselves. Another tricky cell phone issue: patrons politely take their phone conversations to the bathroom or stairwell. I'm not a sound engineer, but I'm pretty sure the acoustics of those two places are the best in the library. The conversations are amplified for the world to hear. In fact, maybe we should have music programs  in the stair well. And finally: kids with cell phones. Sigh. They use them, they lose them. The library staff is getting pretty good at figuring out how to use lost cellphones to contact the owner. Be sure you put the ICE on your kid's phone. ICE = In Case of Emergency contacts. Read this USA Today article for more information about ICE