YOGA ADJUSTMENTS: Philosophy, Principles and Techniques by Mark Stephens
by Mark Stephens
North Atlantic Books
www.northatlanticbooks.com

In a time where “appropriate forms of touch” are brought into question and injuries from yoga appear to be on the rise, Mark Stephens has presented us with an invaluable guidebook, not only for the yoga teacher, but for the student as well. In his third book on yoga (Teaching Yoga © 2010, and Yoga Sequencing © 2012), Mark states in his preface that part of the impetus of creating this book was in response to the New York Times article by William J. Broad, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.” The need for Yoga Adjustments was clear and Mark has given us an excellent offering.

As teachers, we are reminded to always ask for permission before touching a student. We are given suggestions for precise verbal cues, and safe adjustments are illustrated which benefit the student as well as protect the teacher. We learn the importance of proximal adjustments, inner and outer rotation cues, stabilization techniques and much, much more, all supported by 850 instructional photos. Yoga Adjustments is an important addition to everyone’s yoga library.

(Reviewed by Andrea Garvey)

MACRO MAGIC FOR KIDS AND PARENTS: Taking the Mystery Out of Macrobiotic Cooking
by Sheri-Lynn DeMaris
cedartreebooks.com

In Macro Magic, Sheri-Lynn DeMaris has managed to demystify healthy, balanced, and fun meals that everyone in the family will enjoy. While emphasizing the use of whole grains and whole-grain products, beans and bean products, vegetables, sea vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts, fermented soy products, pickles and mild grain sweeteners, as the most balanced and healing for the body, DeMaris proves to be just as competent an educator as she is a cook.

Along with exciting and simple recipes, Macro Magic is filled with excellent tips from DeMaris that leave the reader feeling empowered and inspired to make better choices, choose quality foods, and experiment with their meals – all the while offering fun ways to include children in the process. Her book, along with the accompanying DVD, are excellent resources for people who, like DeMaris herself, are understanding that our food choices can either heal or hurt. Macro Magic is a perfect reminder that our own health, the health of our children, of all living beings, and of our planet is very much in our own hands.

(Reviewed by Erica Settino)

JUST GRAB THE DUST RAG
(Confessions of A Deluded Zen
Student Who Never Learned A Thing)
by Brenda Eshin Shoshanna

Just Grab The Dust Rag is a personal journey through almost forty years of Zen practice in New York with a Japanese Zen Master. Filled with rocky and humorous personal encounters with him, other Zen Masters, students, family and friends, we watch a deluded Zen student struggle for awareness and compassion. As she engages this simple, rigorous Zen practice, we see her wonder, folly, confusion, delusions, victories and defeats. We also watch her unnerving ability to keep going despite endless obstacles, shocks and misunderstandings.

Simple and direct, the book is filled both with the longing for authentic living and the potholes we all fall into and hopefully climb back out of again. The power and beauty of this wonderful practice is included, along with the inevitable dangers that must be worked through. This book offers us a new look at the heart of Zen practice and how we can live it in our everyday lives. It takes on some of the more difficult issues many practices now face – such as morality, accountability and what true forgiveness looks like.

SACRED SOUND
by Alanna Kaivalya
New World Library
www.newworldlibrary.com

Nada Yoga – or the yoga of sacred sound – often gets short shrift in the West because mantras and kirtan aren’t readily understood. However, its chants are held sacred in all types of Eastern spiritual practice for the way they can help practitioners bypass the day-to-day mental chatter of the mind in order to reach a transcendent state of awareness and self-realization. In Sacred Sound: Discovering the Myth & Meaning of Mantra and Kirtan, yoga teacher and author Alanna Kaivalya explores both the myth and meaning behind twenty-one mantras, or chants, that stem from the yogic tradition, and explains how these rich myths relate to our modern-day spiritual practice.

Sacred Sound offers practical guidance for starting, developing, and/or improving a mantra practice. Each mantra and kirtan in the book includes the Sanskrit, transliteration, and translation. “By weaving together chants, tales, and spiritual philosophy, I hope to give you a feeling-sense of how the vibrations are brought to life by the mantra, how the mantra is vivified by the story, and how we are enlivened through the embodiment of the myth and mantra,” writes Alanna. “The transformative power of vibration is something you must feel and verify for yourself. There is no wisdom that is more important than the self-evident wisdom that arises when we place theory into practice.”

DON’T BLAME HAZEL!
by R.G. Frazia
dontblamehazel.com

Don’t Blame Hazel! is a short yet poignant glimpse into the life of a young girl who knows what it’s like to be different. With timely and important insight into the lives of children today, Frazia has touched on the emotional impact of bullying. What is most impressive though, is that she sheds light into the lives of both the bullied and bullies, and manages to show compassion for both. It is an impressive and crucial lesson in kindness that children of all ages will benefit from reading.

(Reviewed by Erica Settino)