Namaste the Hard Way
A Daughter's Journey to Find Her Mother on the Yoga Mat
by Sasha Brown-Worsham
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Sep 04 2018 | Archive Date Jul 09 2019
HCI Books | HCI
Talking about this book? Use #NamasteTheHardWay #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
My mother used to chant in Sanskrit in her study before sunrise every morning. Though she died when I was 16—22 years ago—I always hear her voice that way. Off-key, but strangely hypnotic, the language both complicated and pure, reverberating around our house.
For a kid growing up in Southern Ohio — Bible belt country — the sound was both alluring and repellent.
"What's your mother doing?" my friends would ask.
"Being a weirdo," I told them.
And so encapsulates the coming of age story of Sasha Brown, a transplanted tween plunked in the middle of the Bible Belt with a macrobiotic hippy mom and a ribs-eating dad. A writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan, Brown's prose is heartfelt and hilarious, revealing her quest to find her way as two worlds collide. While other moms were at Bible study, her mom was studying Sanskrit; while other were finding friendship at Tupperware parties, her mom was finding enlightenment at the ashram. And when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she chose a healthy diet and yoga over aggressive chemo.
When her mother died, Brown ran as far away from yoga as she could until a running injury left her needing the very thing she was running from.
It was there—on the mat—that she processed her grief and found her mother again. As she went deeper into the poses, she discovered she was more like her mother than she thought. Through it all, she found a deeper understanding of the practice, of the breath, and of the life her mother lost too young.
The practice that once seemed easy and slow compared to pounding the pavement in a new pair of Asics became the biggest challenge of her life. She learned that yoga is so much more than asana. So much more than breath. So much more than perfect poses. The "union" of yoga became one of heart and mind, and finally, with that maternal energy Sasha had been missing for so many years.
In the space that she focused her mind and pushed her body to its breaking point was where she would see her mother. In the space of her yoga mat, she and her mother connect across time.
Namaste the Hard Way is an ode to the timeless bond between mothers and daughters.
Plucky and poignant, Namaste the Hard Way is for anyone who didn't want to walk in their mother's shoes (or sandals).
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
My mother used to chant in Sanskrit in her study before sunrise every morning. Though she died when I was 16—22 years ago—I always hear her voice that way. Off-key, but strangely hypnotic, the language both complicated and pure, reverberating around our house.
For a kid growing up in Southern Ohio — Bible belt country — the sound was both alluring and repellent.
"What's your mother doing?" my friends would ask.
"Being a weirdo," I told them.
And so encapsulates the coming of age story of Sasha Brown, a transplanted tween plunked in the middle of the Bible Belt with a macrobiotic hippy mom and a ribs-eating dad. A writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan, Brown's prose is heartfelt and hilarious, revealing her quest to find her way as two worlds collide. While other moms were at Bible study, her mom was studying Sanskrit; while other were finding friendship at Tupperware parties, her mom was finding enlightenment at the ashram. And when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she chose a healthy diet and yoga over aggressive chemo.
When her mother died, Brown ran as far away from yoga as she could until a running injury left her needing the very thing she was running from.
It was there—on the mat—that she processed her grief and found her mother again. As she went deeper into the poses, she discovered she was more like her mother than she thought. Through it all, she found a deeper understanding of the practice, of the breath, and of the life her mother lost too young.
The practice that once seemed easy and slow compared to pounding the pavement in a new pair of Asics became the biggest challenge of her life. She learned that yoga is so much more than asana. So much more than breath. So much more than perfect poses. The "union" of yoga became one of heart and mind, and finally, with that maternal energy Sasha had been missing for so many years.
In the space that she focused her mind and pushed her body to its breaking point was where she would see her mother. In the space of her yoga mat, she and her mother connect across time.
Namaste the Hard Way is an ode to the timeless bond between mothers and daughters.
Plucky and poignant, Namaste the Hard Way is for anyone who didn't want to walk in their mother's shoes (or sandals).
Marketing Plan
- Yoga-savvy PR firm on board to promote the book.
- Author appearances at conventional and unconventional venues like yoga studios.
- Brown-Worsham is well-connected with significant media—she has contacts at The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Café Mom.
- Reviews, galleys, and media outreach to mom bloggers and yoga publications and the yoga community.
- Promotion through yoga festivals and centers: Wanderlust, Bhakti Fest, Kripalu Center, Omega Institute.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780757320606 |
| PRICE | $15.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 312 |
Links
Featured Reviews
Reviewer 238609
This is a beautiful book. I couldn't put it down. It tells the journey of the author as she tries to run from the practices of her mother. After her mother's death and a knee injury she incurs while running, literally, she finds herself doing the yoga practices she's tried hard not to do.
I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.
Rhonda B, Reviewer
I loved this story. I found it hard to put down. This story was so relatable to me. I will recommend this book to everyone I know.
Literary R, Reviewer
NAMASTE THE HARD WAY recounts Sasha Brown-Worsham’s story of rediscovering through yoga the mother she lost to cancer when she was 16. Sasha’s yoga-and macrobiotics-loving mom was always the odd one out in conservative Southwest Ohio where the family lived, and Sasha found herself wanting to run ... literally ... as far away as she could from her ashram-minded parent. But it wasn’t until she had a running injury that she turned to yoga and there on the mat, found she had more in common with her mother than she ever thought. In sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious but always eloquent language, she describes her deep healing from grief and the soul-fulfilling connection with her mother across time. Highly recommended!
Pub Date 04 Sep 2018
Thanks to HCI Books and
#NamasteTheHardWay #NetGalley
Rachel R, Reviewer
I was interested in this memoir because my sisters-in-law are both very into alternative medicine and yoga and I am not interested in that sort of thing at all. It was a well-written peek into growing up in an unusual family in a very boring town and how that informed her as an adult who finds herself turning to the same thing she once eschewed.
Connie B, Reviewer
This is a story of mothers and daughters, of following your own path or going along with the crowd. The author Sasha, Sara shares what it was like for her as a young girl wanting to be part of the popular crowd and having a mom who doesn’t seem to care about the opinions of others. I liked the realness of the mom and how Sasha grew to appreciate her, becoming more like her mom than she ever thought she would.
Sasha’s story is interesting, at times sad and others funny. I thoroughly enjoyed this moving account of a daughter’s journey.
Cristie U, Book Trade Professional
The author did an amazing job of conveying the difficult journey she was on to rediscover yoga after losing her mom at the age of 16 and suffering an injury and being unable to complete her typical workouts. She had avoided her mother's beloved yoga before this and did a beautiful job of allowing the reader to empathize with her.
Ann T, Reviewer
Thank you HCI Books and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.
I am so glad to have had the opportunity to read this memoir about mothers, daughters, yoga and death coming far too early. There were many sentences I highlighted as I was reading, as I loved the way the author, Sasha, described things so beautifully. I enjoyed reading about Sasha’s journey, her deep unconditional love of her mother and the way she untangles and comes to understand their relationship as she matures. I loved the way yoga weaved through the book, as of course it does their lives.
Corinne R, Reviewer
Sasha had a weird Mom. According to her at least! She doesn’t know how to make braids or cook and is busy studying Sanskrit, being macrobiotic and finding enlightenment in an ashram. So different from the other Moms in the middle of the Bible belt where their family lived.
Her mother taught her yoga, but when her Mom passed away she stopped the practice. Then a running injury brought her back to yoga. And there she grieved her Mom and discovered so much more of herself. Through yoga, she realized how she was much more like her Mom than she realized. She discovered the mind, heart and body connection of yoga.
Another memoir, this year and I was glad that I read it. Sasha’s writing is humorous and heartfelt.
The mother daughter bond is a subject close to my heart as I often struggle to understand my relationship with my Mom, especially after her passing.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
