A sparkling new series introducing five unforgettable women who flock to yoga at turning points in their lives and find the gift of lasting frie...
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Aug 28, 2011
Clare
rated it: 
I really enjoyed this novel, a great diversion, pretty light, but not overly so. There's one passage that I carried with me, where Lee begins a yoga session with this meditation:
"Let's start seated," she says, "eyes closed. This class has been described as a journey. But before we embark, how about doing a little UNpacking? Your expectations, your desire to do ten sun salutations, your plans for later in the day, the argument you had this morning, your safety net. More...
"Let's start seated," she says, "eyes closed. This class has been described as a journey. But before we embark, how about doing a little UNpacking? Your expectations, your desire to do ten sun salutations, your plans for later in the day, the argument you had this morning, your safety net. More...
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Apr 17, 2011
Samantha
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Tales From the Yoga Studio by Rain Mitchell is a charismatic novel about a group woman struggling in different aspects of their lives. Lee, the owner and instructor of a yoga studio, is having money and marriage troubles. Her husband Alan recently moved out of their home, but Lee is determined to make it worth with him. Katherine, who works as a masseuse at Lee’s studio, is a recovering addict who stumbles into what may be love, but she doesn’t feel worthy of receiving it. Graciela is a dancer w
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Mar 20, 2011
Stephanie
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Blurb: The yoga studio is where daily cares are set aside, mats are unfurled, and physical exertion leads to well-being, renewal, and friendship.
In Los Angeles, yoga teachers have become celebrities and designer tank tops can cost a small fortune. Still, many students flock to the relatively unglamorous Edendale Yoga in the hip, out-of-the-way Silver Lake neighborhood. It's here where Lee uses her extraordinary teaching skills and unusual empathy to help students gain control of their bodi More...
In Los Angeles, yoga teachers have become celebrities and designer tank tops can cost a small fortune. Still, many students flock to the relatively unglamorous Edendale Yoga in the hip, out-of-the-way Silver Lake neighborhood. It's here where Lee uses her extraordinary teaching skills and unusual empathy to help students gain control of their bodi More...
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Mar 12, 2011
Keisha
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The book is part “yoga is awesome” and part study of how complicated our lives become when we don’t follow our instincts. It follows the lives of five very different women: Lee, the studio owner; Katherine, an ex-junkie turned massage therapist; Graciela, an injured dancer trying to make her big break; Imani, a successful actress trying to hide from herself; and Stephanie, a talented screenwriter who is one more rejection from giving up. The only thing they have in common is yoga and Lee’s passi
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Mar 03, 2011
Cheryl
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Lee is the owner of Edendale Yoga studio. Lately, her perfect life is quickly going downhill. Her husband, Alan moved out a few weeks ago. As if that was not bad enough, Lee is having money issues and had to make a decision about the future of Edendale. With some new clients, Lee decides to focus what she does best…teaching yoga and help others discover their full potential. Lee helps Katherine, her friend and masseuse, Graciela, a dancer, Imani, a famous actress and Stephanie, a screenwriter.
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Aug 24, 2010
Abby
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This book is the first in a series which follows the lives of five women who practice or teach at a local yoga studio in Silver Lake, CA. With just enough irony, wit and insight to keep things real, Tales from the Yoga Studio both celebrates and skewers contemporary yoga.
Why I Picked It Up:
I received an ARC from my very good friend Sandy. She loved it and wanted to share the love. While I was definitely entertained and read the book in a few days, there were some parts where More...
Why I Picked It Up:
I received an ARC from my very good friend Sandy. She loved it and wanted to share the love. While I was definitely entertained and read the book in a few days, there were some parts where More...
Jul 23, 2011
Andrea
rated it:
A very readable and engaging chick lit story about four young women in LA. They are connected via classes at a cute little yoga studio in Silverlake, which is owned by one of the women, Lee, and her handsome-but-arrogant musician husband, Alan. The yoga studio is threatened with a corporate takeover by the conglomerate YogaHappens, a not very subtle swipe at the real-life chain YogaWorks, while the four women stumble through life's ups and downs, trying to succeed in their personal and professio
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Apr 05, 2011
Stephanie
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Tales from the Yoga Studio installed two desires in me. 1) Must learn yoga. 2) Move to a quaint retro southern Californian town. Tranquility is a theme throughout this book, even during the poignant pieces. The very descriptions Rain Mitchell uses make you feel as if you right there in the scene, seeing, feeling, and experiencing everything the characters do. Both yoga fanatics and those who have never tried a downward dog in their lives will appreciate the way in which yoga and zen is woven int
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Feb 20, 2011
Molly
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I gave this two stars because I was hoping this would be really good brain candy. Instead it was more like a sour patch kid for my brain - it started off nice and sweet and like it was going to be really good. However, as I read more and more and none of the characters ever really got developed - the just did stuff - and the ones that the author did try to develop fell flat - I find myself wondering why I was reading the book at all. I have taken several yoga classes in my life and most of th
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Dec 05, 2010
Barbara
rated it:
This book arrived on my doorstep exactly one day after I read a review of it that made me want to find it. I had the stomach flu and was confined to my bed and it was as if the universe delivered a special present just for me.
I read it straight through, curled up with my cats and a cup of tea, gladly transported to another world. I loved the neighborhood, the characters, the loose interconnectedness of the stories and the fast, easy pace of the reading. There are fun references to More...
I read it straight through, curled up with my cats and a cup of tea, gladly transported to another world. I loved the neighborhood, the characters, the loose interconnectedness of the stories and the fast, easy pace of the reading. There are fun references to More...
Mar 05, 2011
Reads4Pleasure
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The women that visit Edendale Yoga do so because there's something about medical student turned yoga instructor Lee. Somehow she intuitively knows what each person in her class needs, even if she's unsure of what she needs herself. Through Tales from the Yoga Studio debut author Rain Mitchell introduces us to every day women from all paths of life who may have never met had it not been for yoga.
A recovering addict with an unstable path, masseuse Katherine has enjoyed her time working More...
A recovering addict with an unstable path, masseuse Katherine has enjoyed her time working More...
Dec 22, 2011
Leah
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Considering how popular yoga is these days, I’m somewhat surprised to find that in all of the 650+ books I’ve read, this is the first novel I’ve read dedicated to yoga. You’d have thought more authors would have jumped on the bandwagon, though I’m glad they haven’t. Tales From The Yoga Studio is Rain Mitchell’s debut novel and is the start of a new series all about 5 friends who are brought together by their love of yoga. There’s Lee, who owns Edendale; Katherine, the masseuse at Edendale; and G
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Mar 01, 2011
Yoonmee
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4 stars b/c I'm feeling generous tonight. This book falls under the good old "chick lit" category, so be aware that I'm rating it against other "chick lit" types of books and not comparing it to Shakespeare.
4 stars b/c it's a quick, fun, light read that didn't piss me off like a lot of other books in this genre tend to do (I get annoyed with whiny, bratty, self-indulgent, wimpy, brand name obsessed characters... you know the type). The characters were mostly all lik More...
4 stars b/c it's a quick, fun, light read that didn't piss me off like a lot of other books in this genre tend to do (I get annoyed with whiny, bratty, self-indulgent, wimpy, brand name obsessed characters... you know the type). The characters were mostly all lik More...
Mar 21, 2011
Angela
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Tales from the Yoga Studio is the beginning of a series and it feels it. The book reads like an introduction to all the characters that the reader will interact with later on. While each of the women is caught up in her own story, and we do need to understand that back story, there was not as much interaction between the women as I was expecting. I had the impression that deep friendships would form but so much of the interaction felt at a surface level, even with all the emotion rolling arou
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Aug 07, 2011
Kirsten
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I'm giving this four stars on the back of the fact that I'll be looking out for the sequel. Hence, despite its flaws, I have to recognise this as a great read - great in the indulgent/really enjoyable sense as opposed to great in the literature/book club sense. It kind of reminds me of a tv show I'm enjoying - Winners and Losers - warm relationships between women. The thing that did annoy me, and pushes it more into the 3 star category is the fact that almost all the male characters are stere
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Feb 24, 2011
Toni
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It's surprising that, with the popularity of yoga in the last few years, there aren't more novels about it. So, I was happy to pick up a copy of Tales from the Yoga Studio.
Set in the trendy neighborhood of Silver Lake in Los Angeles, this book follows the women's fiction formula of focusing on five characters (it's usually three or four), their striking differences, and the one thing that unites them (in this case, yoga).
Lee is the owner of Edendale Yoga and serves as the r More...
Set in the trendy neighborhood of Silver Lake in Los Angeles, this book follows the women's fiction formula of focusing on five characters (it's usually three or four), their striking differences, and the one thing that unites them (in this case, yoga).
Lee is the owner of Edendale Yoga and serves as the r More...
Dec 01, 2011
Kari
rated it:
Isn't it fun to look at your life with one thing in the center? Here, the lives of 4 or 5 distinct characters are joined through the yoga studio that Lee and Alex own, where Katherine starts her second life as a masseuse, post-drug addiction; wanna-be actresses and dancers find their center and then personal success. The big challenge is for Lee, whose dream it was to start the studio, who is suffering through a rocky time in her marriage to Alex; she is feeling pressure from Alex and the bills
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Mar 29, 2011
Huntie
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This was a fast, "chick-lit" read about the goings-on at a yoga studio in the Los Angeles area. I picked this book up because I'm a longtime yoga practitioner and thought it would be fun to read a novel set in a yoga studio. It was a fun read, but it was also very predictable. The formula was pretty much the same as most books of the genre, and while I quite enjoyed reading something that was relatively mindless I certainly don't think it needs to be made into a series of books (as the
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Mar 11, 2011
Joelle
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Tales from the Yoga Studio reminds me a lot of Friday Night Knitting Club in that a group of women whose paths might not cross otherwise, do end up crossing thanks to a shared love for yoga. In her debut novel, Rain Mitchell introduces us to Lee who is a yoga instructor in the quaint town of Silver Lake. While teaching classes and running her own studio, she is faced with turmoil in her life that puts her studio and marriage at stake. Through her classes she begins to build relationships with
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Jan 29, 2012
Austen
rated it:
I generously rated this book as "ok." The book started off fine, not too interesting but I was looking for an easy read that I didn't have to think much about since finishing Stieg Larsson's Millenium Series. Unfortunately, this book was so cheesy and dull that I found myself just wanting it to be over. I really had to push to finish it at all. At times Mitchell was surprising or funny and it gave me a little more faith to keep reading. In the end I was happy where the characters ended
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Sep 12, 2011
Chelsea
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This book caught my eye on the shelf at a closing Borders. How could I pass up a $1.50 price and a book with YOGA in the title? The book was light and enjoyable to read. It definitely isn't a literary masterpiece but it held my interest and definitely gave me a few chuckles and al most tears. As an avid yogi I found myself really connecting to the parts about yoga from the sage advice Lee gives at the beginning and end of class to the jokes and conversations about different poses and the names.
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Feb 19, 2011
Ingrid
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Shortly after finishing this book I read a review of it in Yoga Journal magazine, December 2010 issue. Their review names this as one book in a new trend of chick-lit drawing on yoga. I enjoyed the yoga content but had hoped for a meatier novel. The detail about poses and what goes on in a yoga studio felt true to life, however I cannot comment on the L.A. experience. The author creates an ensemble cast, trying to give enough depth to each character to draw the reader in, but I feel that this ty
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Mar 28, 2011
Mandy
rated it:
Cover
The cover promotes a sense of peacefulness, friendship and a oneness with others. I was automatically drawn to this cover when I first received the book and am still drawn to this cover.
Plot
We're all familiar with story lines where there is unity among a group of women (i.e. Sex & the City, Waiting to Exhale, Steel Magnolias), which was portrayed throughout this book. Though their stories were interwoven, you got a feel for them outside of the group as More...
The cover promotes a sense of peacefulness, friendship and a oneness with others. I was automatically drawn to this cover when I first received the book and am still drawn to this cover.
Plot
We're all familiar with story lines where there is unity among a group of women (i.e. Sex & the City, Waiting to Exhale, Steel Magnolias), which was portrayed throughout this book. Though their stories were interwoven, you got a feel for them outside of the group as More...
May 19, 2011
Jeanine
rated it:
It was a good fun light read. I would read it again.
From Booklist
“It’s all show biz,” advises a yoga aficionado’s husband in this engrossing chick-lit tale about an independent L.A. yoga studio and its core community of faithful clients. Owner and veteran instructor Lee knows that selling her studio to a Los Angeles chain, YogaHappens, means she can still teach there, albeit while obeying the corporation. But her stage fright during YogaHappens’ teaching audition suggests deeper f More...
From Booklist
“It’s all show biz,” advises a yoga aficionado’s husband in this engrossing chick-lit tale about an independent L.A. yoga studio and its core community of faithful clients. Owner and veteran instructor Lee knows that selling her studio to a Los Angeles chain, YogaHappens, means she can still teach there, albeit while obeying the corporation. But her stage fright during YogaHappens’ teaching audition suggests deeper f More...
Apr 07, 2011
Cathy
rated it:
This book started off relatively slowly but by the end, I found myself quite attached to a few of its characters, namely, Lee, the guru yoga instructor, who was grappling with a trying time with husband, Alan, while simultanesouly facing a major business decision about her yoga studio and future as a yoga instructor; I also connected with characters Katherine and Graciela, each facing their own demons, one relatively newly sober, having a difficult time trusting others and maybe even more so, he
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Apr 16, 2011
Michelle
rated it:
I rarely read fiction anymore, but because I enjoy yoga so much and have found wonderful friends through my yoga practice, I was interested in this book.
I loved it. Granted, it's not great literature, but it's an interesting read that kept me up way past my bedtime on several weeknights when I should have turned the light out at least an hour earlier.
The characters are interesting, with some of them being more interesting than others. It's obvious that the author practices More...
I loved it. Granted, it's not great literature, but it's an interesting read that kept me up way past my bedtime on several weeknights when I should have turned the light out at least an hour earlier.
The characters are interesting, with some of them being more interesting than others. It's obvious that the author practices More...
Jan 30, 2012
Audrey
rated it:
Chick-lit -- which is not my cup of tea, but if you like chick-lit, go for it!
I must say that some of the yoga-related passages (like excerpts from Lee's yoga classes) are really quite beautiful. The rest of the writing is ...well... chick-lit.
I'm temporarily stationed in LA and have taken class at YogaWorks (the blatant inspiration for the book's YogaHappens). So because I've witnessed some of the LA yoga scene firsthand and because the book is a quick read, I was motivate More...
I must say that some of the yoga-related passages (like excerpts from Lee's yoga classes) are really quite beautiful. The rest of the writing is ...well... chick-lit.
I'm temporarily stationed in LA and have taken class at YogaWorks (the blatant inspiration for the book's YogaHappens). So because I've witnessed some of the LA yoga scene firsthand and because the book is a quick read, I was motivate More...
Feb 13, 2012
Laura
rated it:
The book is two stars. But picking it up, you know you are in for chick-lit reading. For me, that lowers my expectations and allows this book to receive three stars.
The book does a good job of describing how people compare themselves to others and in the process judge or accept themselves and others.
The main character - the yoga instructor - has an impending crisis. And it's saved for the very end. I wish it came a little earlier and allowed for a little more in dep More...
The book does a good job of describing how people compare themselves to others and in the process judge or accept themselves and others.
The main character - the yoga instructor - has an impending crisis. And it's saved for the very end. I wish it came a little earlier and allowed for a little more in dep More...
Oct 09, 2011
Dorothy
rated it:
While this book didn't really give a great message, I could not put it down. I think the message was about getting control of your life and the importance of same sex friendships. It was in my "to sell or give away" pile, when I discovered Bob saw it and started reading it. He is loving it so much that he is continually seeking me out to read some passage. It has made both of us laught out loud (LOL) and cry. I recommend it highly. I could even bring it to book group to share wit
Dec 15, 2011
Muttering Mama
rated it: 
ARGH!! I am *so* disappointed. I had this book on my To Read list for ages and finally took it out from the library. I really wanted it to be beautiful and spiritually calming and introspective.
It was crap.
Well, at least the first few chapters were. That's as far as I made it. The moment the "actress" character ran into another actress friend...the description of whom just SCREAMED Jennifer Aniston (famous hair, "America's sweetheart", sitcom start ca More...
It was crap.
Well, at least the first few chapters were. That's as far as I made it. The moment the "actress" character ran into another actress friend...the description of whom just SCREAMED Jennifer Aniston (famous hair, "America's sweetheart", sitcom start ca More...
