A Smoke and a Song: A Memoir

by Sherry Sidoti

Overview

January 2021, ten months into the global pandemic, Sherry Sidoti’s mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer—so Sherry prioritizes a trip to Manhattan over long-awaited empty-nesting and her “second chance” with fiancé 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) insist—or is it found by digging our heels deeper into the earth and holding on to our humanness?

A Smoke and a Song is Sherry’s 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 awakening—and, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647425098
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	08/01/2023
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

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 Martha’s 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 Martha’s 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 Sherry’s first book. She currently resides on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

2024 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Gold Medal Winner in Non-Fiction – Inspirational   2023 Living Now Book Awards Gold Medalist in Inspirational Memoir - Female

“In lyrical, at times searing, prose, [Sidoti] captures her core loneliness. Her story is a riveting intergenerational tale of women doing the best they can, sometimes failing painfully.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A Smoke and a Song will have you crying, laughing, and shaking your head in amazement . . . Please do not pass up this book, but put it on the top of your reading list as you will not regret it.”
—Readers’ Favorite, 5 stars

“She [Sidoti] ultimately makes peace with these past selves by discussing her traumas with her family and using various spiritual practices, including yoga, to remind herself that ‘new life is blooming. Loss is looming. And both gladness and grief grip at the gate.’ This is powerful stuff.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Inspiring and reflective, A Smoke and A Song should 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 ourselves—the parts we know and the parts we have a harder time listening to—all in the name of self-love.”
—Chelsea Handler, #1 New York Times best-selling author, comedian, and Dear Chelsea podcast host

“Sherry Sidoti’s wisdom and compassion are a powerful gift that she generously shares in this achingly beautiful story of loss, survival, and healing.“
—Jeannette Walls, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Glass Castle

“Earthy and magical, A Smoke and a Song is a woman’s 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 of Shallow Waters: A Novel

“A Smoke and a Song is a winning book! Sherry Sidoti’s prose is absolutely gorgeous—lyrical and tender, moody and insightful, mystical and relatable. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. A memoir told with such nuanced self-awareness; you’ll 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 granddaughter’s words are saving my life and if that isn’t 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 seeker’s 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 Sidoti’s words pull us through her life stages with love, humor, and raw honesty as 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 of To Walk It Is To See It

“A Smoke and a Song makes me feel like I’ve stumbled upon a beautiful explorer’s locked diary and picked the lock. The narrative is both delicious and filled with disaster, careening at breakneck pace through a life fully engaged in raw, sensual, and inspiringly elevated consciousness. You’ll be completely riveted by Sidoti’s story—this book will help you see and digest the deepest questions and twists of your own life and relationships. It’s a book you will thrill to read and one you’ll keep close for a long time to come.”
—Susan Madden-Cox, host of 3 Crones podcast and owner of the ocean earth wind fire yoga studio

“Through skillful and engaging story-telling, Sherry sheds light on the messy in-between of our deep desire for belonging, and the allure of letting it all go.”
—Richelle Fredson, host of Bound + Determined podcast

“With A Smoke and a Song Sherry Sidoti has crafted an astute and closely-observed memoir of family, sisterhood, motherhood, loss, and how we can build beautiful, bracing lives even while mourning aspects of our personal history. Her warmth and her generous heart are evident on every page.”
—Ronit Plank, memoirist and host of the Podcast Let’s Talk Memoir 

From the Publisher