Tag: Memoir

História, História by Eleanor Stanford

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 28 Comments

História, História: 

Two Years in the Cape Verde Islands by Eleanor Stanford

Publisher: CCLap Publishing
Publication Date: March 2013
Categories: Memoir, Travel
Description:

Twenty-two and newly married, Eleanor Stanford and her husband join the Peace Corps and find themselves on the West African islands of Cape Verde. In this beautifully alien place, as she teaches her students and struggles to come to terms with the island’s fascinating yet frustrating culture, Eleanor watches everything she knows about relationships get flipped upside-down and attempts to hide the eating disorder she’s developed, which threatens both her marriage and her life. Part travelogue, part cultural documentary, Historia, Historia combines journalistic excellence with the gripping style of personal memoirs to bring you this lyrical, moving portrait of an enchanting, little-glimpsed geography. Fans of factually informative and emotionally moving nonfiction will be drawn towards this haunting meditation on love, fidelity and self-image.

My Thoughts:
História, História is a small book that leaves a big impression. 
Stanford’s writing is graceful and rhythmic. The sentences reeled me in to her time on Cape Verde. Her descriptions of the place, the food, and the people made me want to explore it for myself. 
Eleanor and her husband are doing good work through the Peace Corp. Sadly, giving time to such a worthwhile cause doesn’t make your own problems go away. Eleanor is dealing with a crumbling marriage and a burgeoning eating disorder. 
I felt a sense of guilt in the author. She’s in a land where solid marriages seem to be few and far between, education is lacking and food isn’t always plentiful. Those facts don’t lessen Stanford’s issues but they do put things into perspective.

Melancholy and luscious, História, História is a worthwhile read. 

Hell-Bent by Benjamin Lorr

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 14 Comments
Hell-Bent by Benjamin Lorr
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: October 2012
Categories: Nonfiction, Yoga, Sports
Source: St. Martin’s Press
Description:

Author Benjamin Lorr wandered into a yoga studio—and fell down a rabbit hole

Hell-Bent explores a fascinating, often surreal world at the extremes of American yoga. Benjamin Lorr walked into his first yoga studio on a whim, overweight and curious, and quickly found the yoga reinventing his life. He was studying Bikram Yoga (or “hot yoga”) when a run-in with a master and competitive yoga champion led him into an obsessive subculture—a group of yogis for whom eight hours of practice a day in 110- degree heat was just the beginning.

So begins a journey.  Populated by athletic prodigies, wide-eyed celebrities, legitimate medical miracles, and predatory hucksters, it’s a nation-spanning trip—from the jam-packed studios of New York to the athletic performance labs of the University of Oregon to the stage at the National Yoga Asana Championship, where Lorr competes for glory.

The culmination of two years of research, and featuring hundreds of interviews with yogis, scientists, doctors, and scholars, Hell-Bent is a wild exploration.  A look at the science behind a controversial practice, a story of greed, narcissism, and corruption, and a mind-bending tale of personal transformation, it is a book that will not only challenge your conception of yoga, but will change the way you view the fragile, inspirational limits of the human body itself.

Ouch.

Ouch again.

My Thoughts:

Bikram Choudhury

I knew nearly nothing about yoga before reading this book. While I was reading I swayed between thinking “Oh my word I NEED to try this!” to “Not in a million years!”

Benjamin Lorr

This was a fascinating look at the world of yoga, and of Bikram Yoga in particular. Benjamin Lorr takes us on a memoir-esque exploration into the intense realm of competitive yoga.

I was at turns enthralled and repelled. Bikram Choudhury, the driving force behind his own brand of yoga, is a very interesting man. Genius? Guru? Spoiled man-child? He came to America with his incredible skills and changed the face of the practice of yoga.

The things that these people can do to and with their bodies is amazing. I found my mouth hanging open while reading about the poses, the heat, the extreme measures. It becomes a way of life for some practitioners and you can understand why.

Hell-Bent is an interesting book that I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about an all-consuming sport.