The Yoga Divas and Other Stories lives up to its name. This book is funny, sweet, carefully-written and it captures, so wonderfully, the ridiculousness that will enter a person's life and remind him not to get too serious, even as he sets out on certain quests for enlightenment.

There were more serious stories, such as "Everything Will Be Revealed to You" that moved me; there were many stories that were wildly funny; some follow an adult yoga teacher, others a young man who is fumbling his way through life. There were a few stories that I thought could be reduced and incorporated into a previous section, or used as supportive scenes to a larger essay, such as, "A Memento of Costa Rica". In fact, my only small gripe with the book is that some of the stories seemed too episodic, but even with this small gripe, none of the stories were boring or flat. Many of them stick to the ribs, even if they're only a few pages long.

I enjoyed this book because it does what I need nonfiction to--it seems to ask more questions than it answers. For someone who's not big on narrative nonfiction, this probably makes no sense. But herein, with self-exploration, is the beauty of the genre. And believe me, it's not easy to pull off. Dinsmoor does, though, and he does so with a unique blend of humor, insight, a little neurosis and a lot of warmth.