fast paced and fun from start to finish -- don't meditate on it

books:


	• Fear and Yoga in New Jersey Debra Galant St. Martin's Press, 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A gem of a read

I picked this book up at the library because of the title and I'm glad I did. Debra Galant's intimate look into the lives of a not-so-ordinary NJ family is both funny and poignant, and I found myself groaning out loud as each calamity struck these well-meaning individuals.

I was particularly fond of Michael, the stereotypically boring meteorologist husband. Poor Michael. It seems that he can't do anything right, and certainly doesn't deserve the fate that befalls him.

Galant's visuals are right on the money and more than just reading about these characters, I was living their agonies with them. As I read, I could see this book as a movie. Nothing is left to the imagination.

I look forward to reading more from this author.

for more information click here

Screwy comic farce with a sardonic wit

This is a screwball comedy about a family (mom, dad, son, grandma and grandpa) all busy "seeking" something - the thing is, none of them are quite sure what it is.

Nina, the protagonist, owns a posh yoga studio in New Jersey. She tries to be the perfect enlightened yoga instructor (at least to all appearances) when a feng shui consultant wanders in to tell Nina her studio has bad energy - setting off a ripple effect of comedi-tragic events.

As Nina becomes increasingly freaked out by her feng shui worries, her husband loses his job, her normally good son acts out in school and her blustering parents decide to visit. All of this is framed by the increasingly ominous arrival of Hurricane Ida, an ideal metaphor for this family's internal chaos and desperation.

You can taste the sense of squeaky-clean New Jersey suburbia - and understand the price people pay to maintain such outward "perfection." Like many families, Nina's picture perfect outward image isn't built on solid ground.

If you grew up in a family of strong women on the East Coast, there are a lot of recognizable elements here: Nina's own controlling thoughtlessness; Nina's old school, matriarchal overbearing mother; a mellow, slightly cowed, slightly incompetent set of "good provider" husbands; and the quiet son who decides to rebel against the Stepford-perfect ways of his politically-correct, New Age mom by secretly becoming an orthodox Jew.

Each character is cunningly drawn and entirely realistic, even if the series of events is not. There are no heroes, or even villains here (well, except the actually very scary Homeland Security officer).

The resolution offers no nicely packaged answers. Everyone is still a bit messed up. Perhaps they've have drawn back from the edge of desperation and grown slightly in self-knowledge.

Or maybe not. At the very end, Nina reveals she's latched onto her next big thing...

It's a short book and a quick read. While the plot isn't particularly compelling, I found it hard to put the novel down.

for more information click here

Classic screwball comedy

I was mainly attracted to this book because of the title: I grew up in New Jersey (although South Jersey, fairly distant from the suburban New York setting featured here), and I practice yoga regularly. The plot features about a week in the life of yoga instructor Nina Gettleman-Summer and her family. Nina has just open a beautiful new yoga studio, but to her dismay, she discovers that it has bad karma. With extraordinarily bad timing, her husband's job as a meteorologist is outsourced, their son Adam decides that he wants to embrace his previously unclaimed Jewish heritage in order to have a bar mitzvah, and Nina's parents decide to evacuate their hurricane-threatened home in Florida to come stay with their daughter and her family.

What follows is a zany comedy in the tradition of such old movie classics as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Nina struggles to use Feng Shui to clear the bad karma from both of her studio and her home, her husband Michael gets in trouble with Homeland Security, her son Adam pays a visit to fringe rabbis, and both of her parents are suspected of being crazy. It's a wild--and sometimes implausible--ride, but of course, everything comes together at the end. Overall, this was a quick, fun read, and I'd recommend it in particular to fans of offbeat comedy.

for more information click here

fast paced and fun from start to finish -- don't meditate on it - buy it

The title grabbed me and then I couldn't put the book down. I read it in 24 hours annoyed whenever I HAD to stop to feed the kids, or walk the dog, or lie to the husband about some money thing.

Great insight into all the characters, male and female, young and old. Lots of good quirky stuff too. I'm sending my husband to Newark Airport with a camera ASAP! I loved it!

Read this book!

This is a funny book and a good read! I read it in about a day, simply because I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. The vegetarian, Unitarian, Prius-driving, pantry-moth breeding Gettleman-Summers will have you turning the pages faster than you can say "Tubular Bells."

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

At the center of Debra Galant's new novel is Nina Gettleman-Summer, a stressed out New Jersey yoga teacher. Nina should be calmly guiding her high powered students through their savasanas and their chakras . Instead she is worried about... everything: her new meditation fountain overflowed resulting in a dangerous mess that caused one of her more litigious students to slip and fall; her husband Michael's job as Newark Airport's meterologist was outsourced to the Phillipines, and a hurricane is bearing down on her parents home in Florida. The last thing Nina needs is her suspicious mother Belle around, wailing about the weather and asking questions about Michael's job. To complicate matters, her teenage son Adam is showing a sudden interest in having a Bar Mitzvah--even though Nina, never a fan of her Jewish heritage, signed the family up at the local Unitarian Church. Which brings us to the heart of this very funny book. Nina's put her faith in feng shui and crystals while her husband passes the time chatting with the local Jehovah's Witnesses and Adam plots his religious coming of age, which he believes will net him a real life pot of gold. The Gettleman-Summers are poised for an awakening which, when it arrives, is deftly portrayed in Galant's classic screwball style.

for more information click here

hot