When Suzanne Morrison followed her yoga teachers from their Seattle studio to Bali for a two-month retreat in early 2002, she was already making good progress on giving up smoking and drinking (both alcohol and caffeine), and she knew the yoga camp would have dietary restrictions. She even anticipated the recommendation not to drink the local water. But she didn't expect her mentors to follow that bit of advice with another recommendation: Each morning, to prevent infections and to promote all-around health, the students should drink a cup of their own pee.

Yoga Bitch is Morrison's hilarious, Character Approved account of spending two months on a remote island with people who think it's a good idea to drink their own bodily fluids, along with a few more idiosyncratic ideas about karma and right living. Don't worry, though: The gross-out element is only one small piece of a much larger story about a young unbeliever revisiting all her old conflicts over religion in a new form, and discovering that her teachers may not be as spiritually advanced as they seemed at first glance. Whether she's finding transcendence in a Kundalini meditation or in an especially delicious coconut milkshake, Morrison strikes an appealing balance of sincerity and skepticism.

Yoga Bitch started as a one-woman stage show based on the journals that Morrison kept in Bali. That theatrical background must have come in handy when she was creating this trailer to promote the book's release:

[Image: Tara Leigh]