A Smoke and a Song: A Daughters Memoir of Living in the Layers

(Paperback)

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January 2021, ten months into the global pandemic, Sherry Sidotis mother is diagnosed with terminal cancerso Sherry prioritizes a trip to Manhattan over long-awaited empty-nesting and her second chance with fianc Jevon. With new life blooming and loss looming, she is beckoned to answer the question that has haunted her since childhood: is freedom found in letting go, as the spiritual teachers (and her mother) insistor is it found by digging our heels deeper into the earth and holding on to our humanness

A Smoke and a Song is Sherrys story of her quest to make meaning from the memories homed in her body. Told with tenacity, tenderness, and wry humor, Sherry stumbles towards self-actualization, spiritual awakeningand, despite it all, love. This is a story steeped in art and spirituality that explores the complexities of transgenerational maternal bonds, attachment, loss, and leaning in to our wounds to find the wisdom.

Reviews

Inspiring and reflective, A Smoke and A Songshould be required reading for anyone looking within and beyond. Sherry Sidoti weaves us through a journey of self-discovery, heartbreak, and self-actualization. She brings to life each part of ourselvesthe parts we know and the parts we have a harder time listening toall in the name of self-love.
Chelsea Handler, #1New York Timesbest-selling author, comedian, and Dear Chelsea podcast host

Earthy and magical, A Smoke and a Song is a womans anthem. With the heart of a mother and the soul of a warrior, Sherry Sidoti takes us on her unwavering quest towards self-agency, braiding music, poetry, art, culture, and mysticism with grounded spirituality and a wry New York City edge. This story is steeped in healing tools from the author's decades of study and teaching, without being pushy or prescriptive. Sidoti trusts her readers to mine the raw ore from her story and polish it into gold for their own.
Anita Kopacz, best-selling author ofShallow Waters:A Novel

A Smoke and a Song is a winning book! Sherry Sidotis prose is absolutely gorgeouslyrical and tender, moody and insightful, mystical and relatable. Youll laugh, youll cry. A memoir told with such nuanced self-awareness; youll find yourself needing to put the book down at moments just to pause, take in her reflections, and make meaning of your own story through hers.
Nancy Slonim Aronie, author of Writing from the Heart and Memoir as Medicine

I discovered the poet Stanley Kunitz while I was a college student at NYU and his words saved my life; still do. All these years later, his granddaughters words are saving my life and if that isnt magic, I dare you to tell me what is. By sharing her story, Sherry Sidoti invites us to remember what it is to love deeply and then to go out into the world with that knowing so that we can live big, beautiful, and messy lives.
Jennifer Pastiloff, best-selling author of On Being Human

Sherry Sidoti beautifully weaves together a deeply moving memoir that captures the many complexities of love and our relationship with the ones we care about the most. I came away moved and inspired by her willingness to be so transparent and authentic.
Paul Samuel Dolman, author of Hitchhiking with Larry David and What Matters Most podcast host

A seekers story of healing intergenerational trauma. In her unwavering commitment to heal, with body informed awareness, the author alchemizes inherited history to rewrite her own narrative breath by breath, beat by beat. Every broken family system has a healer. Sherry Sidoti is one.
Shalom Harlow, model, actress, and yogini

Yearning and desire ooze from between the lines in this complicated family memoir exquisitely written by a New York City girl. Sherry Sidotis words pull us through her life stages with love, humor, and raw honestyas she seeks self-compassion. When you finish, you'll want to start all over again.A Smoke and a Song is that good.
Kathy Elkind, author ofTo Walk It Is To See It

Author Bio

Sherry Sidoti is an author and the founder and lead director of FLY Yoga School, a yoga teacher training program, and FLY Outreach, a not-for-profit that offers yoga and meditation for trauma recovery on Marthas Vineyard. A certified Labor Doula, Addiction Recovery Coach, and Somatic Attachment Therapy Program graduate, she leads spiritual courses, teacher training, and retreats globally. Her musings, infused by twenty years of practicing and teaching yoga, healing arts, and mysticism have been published by The Marthas Vineyard Times, Heart & Soul Magazine, Elephant Journal, and Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly. Her essay Mosaics is featured in the 2022 She Writes Anthology: Art in Times of Unbearable Crisis. Sherry is most devoted to her greatest teacher, her son Miles, whose love, sensitivity, humor, and wisdom illuminate her path. A Smoke and a Song is Sherrys first book. She currently resides on Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts.