Book cover of The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West

Book description

When the woman who would become Indra Devi was born in Russia in 1899, yoga was virtually unknown outside of India. By the time of her death, in 2002, it was being practiced everywhere, from Brooklyn to Berlin to Ulaanbaatar. In The Goddess Pose, New York Times best-selling author Michelle…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked The Goddess Pose as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

You might recognize the author’s name – she is a regular contributor to the Opinion Page of The New York Times. In this book, she has used her journalistic skills to uncover the layers of Indra Devi, from her birth in Russia to her status in Hollywood as one of the first yoga teachers to the stars. Indra Devi was a longtime devotee of Krishnamurti, and the first-ever woman to convince the great yoga master Krishnamacharya to teach her yoga. I remember knowing about her back in the ’70s when I was a novice yogi/college student in southern California…

Confession: I binge-read this one. It's a positively sparkling biography of the woman who wrote two of the first three yoga books I ever read, back when I was a teenager in Kansas City. (Her books were Yoga for Americans and Forever Young, Forever Healthy. The other yoga book in the public library way back then was Yoga, Youth, and Reincarnation, by Jess Stern.) Anyway, the divine Ms. Devi had a life like Forrest Gump's: If anything historic was happening on earth, it happened precisely where she was. She was a liberated woman long before anyone burned their…

From Victoria's list on yoga and Ayurveda.

If you love The Goddess Pose...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Want books like The Goddess Pose?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Goddess Pose.

Browse books like The Goddess Pose

Book cover of Dreaming Me: Black, Baptist, and Buddhist — One Woman's Spiritual Journey
Book cover of The Ayurvedic Self-Care Handbook: Holistic Healing Rituals for Every Day and Season
Book cover of Eat Feel Fresh: A Contemporary, Plant-Based Ayurvedic Cookbook

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,340

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like The Goddess Pose, you might also like...

Book cover of Foxfire in the Snow

Foxfire in the Snow by J.S. Fields,

It's a time of change, between magic and alchemy.

Born the heir of a master woodcutter in a queendom defined by guilds and matrilineal inheritance, nonbinary Sorin can’t quite seem to find their place. At seventeen, an opportunity to attend an alchemical guild fair and secure an apprenticeship with the…

Book cover of The Main Gate

The Main Gate by Yvonne Kjorlien,

Dr. Elise Marquette has spent years burying the past—until the past refuses to stay buried.

Hired to join Earth’s first interstellar contact team, she hopes the vastness of space will finally offer distance from the ghosts of war and the wounds left by a mother who never let her be…

5 book lists we think you will like!