From one of the central figures in Buddhism's introduction to the West and the founder of Tricycle magazine comes a brilliant memoir of forging one’s own path that Pico Iyer calls "unflinching" and "indispensable."

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review. I DNF’d this book after reading 102 pages. I thought this book sounded really interesting when I read the synopsis but I wasn’t enjoying reading it. It wasn’t a page turner for me. The way this memoir was written is kind of dry.

Thank you to the author Helen Tworkov, publishers St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of LOTUS GIRL. All views are mine.

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. She makes some insightful comments about what it is to be an immigrant and the child of one, what it's like to lose or gain national identity, the prices paid and benefits reaped for such an exchange. The more familiar I became with the Japanese refusal to accept my American nationality, the more I appreciated America for providing me with any nationality at all. Being a foreigner bid me to explore what it meant to identify with a nation, to acknowledge nationality as a gift, not take it for granted, and to consider what it had meant for my relatives to have left countries where they were not wanted, and even if they remained dislocated in the New World, to give their children a shot at living where they might belong. My aunt Biala could rail against America, but before ever visiting her in Paris, I knew that she was not French. She would never be French. The French would not tolerate it. Loc.822.

2. I really love the passage (Loc.1875) in which the author writes about her fear of seeming silly to the master monks she met in her travels. She describes a teacher mocking the Mahayana aspiration to "save all sentient beings." ..."Did you ever hear of a more silly vow?" he asked. But the author, who had since childhood made space in her wishes and prayers for the whole living world, knew something about being silly...about silliness meaning everything to a person.

3. Her description of her dog, whom she calls "the love of her life," in his puppy days, is utterly charming. I actually guffawed, reading these pages. Mostly German Shepherd, but with the high, long legs of a wolf, about six, maybe eight months old, still with huge paws, and comically unacquainted with interiors. He moved across the kitchen stepping onto whatever was in front of him, making no distinction between the floor, a chair, the stove, table , or the wood pile. ...[He] wanted to please, to learn, to be good, to get praised, so he was easy to train, although he was not fixed and occasionally wandered down the road. Loc.3010.

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: explicit racism

1. Wow so this is a little bit racist, wow. "Losing myself to a black male world in a white female body threatened my own identity more than drug-induced non -dual perception in which culture, race, and gender disappeared altogether. The hat check was at the entryway to the club, but if I came around the wall of coats, I could stand at the doorway to the side of the low stage and watch the cigarette smoke curling through the darkened room and people moving in shadows, and listen to the piercing, untamed sex of solo horns . I hovered at the threshold." Loc.629.

2. I think Tworkov sometimes writes with an authority she doesn't actually own, because no one owns it: "While Suzuki’s work extolled the penetrating pith of haiku, none of it sounded like the splash of Basho’s frog jumping into an old pond— the most iconic of all haiku imagery." Loc.734

3. I had to be very relaxed about the jargon, or I would have been reading this book for way too long.

Rating: 🧘🧘🏻‍♀️🧘🏽‍♂️🧘🏼 /5 yogis
Recommend? Yeah, it's not bad, but TRIGGERS!!
Finished: Mar 27, '23
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
📓 nonfiction
🏊‍♂️ athletics stories
🧘🏿‍♂️ yoga
💇‍♀️ women's coming of age

Lotus Girl was a great read! I appreciated Tworkov's unique perspective and buddhism. It was easy to read yet also engaging

This is different than any other book I've read and as someone who isn't super familiar with Buddhism, I enjoyed it and found it to be unique and interesting. I would recommend this if you're interested in Buddhism. Special Thank You to Helen Tworkov, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

I appreciate this personal spiritual journey. Tworkov recounts growing up Jewish in Manhattan. Even at a young age she played mind games, exploring the mind in generating feelings and dictating experiences. At times she would disappear in the theater of her mind.

She made excursions into psychedelic drugs and made other attempts to manipulate the thoughts running through her head. She traveled to Japan, Cambodia, India and Nepal. She observed people's response to suffering in a Tibetan refugee camp.

Back in the United States, she experienced the unrest of the Vietnam War, marrying a draft dodger, living in Canada. After a miscarriage and depression, she was looking for a spiritual practice. She ultimately found a place in Buddhism as it helped reshape the experience of herself and the world, though her journey was rather rocky.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Helen Tworkov has written a fascinating intimate look at her life’s travels.From her Jewish upbringing we follow her search for her sacred place her beliefs.She is the founder of Tricycle magazine.A truly inspirational life story.#netgalley #st.Martins

Lotus Girl by Helen Tworkov was an interesting and honestly a quite compelling read.
Very simple and profound teachings.

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

"Lotus Girl" is a captivating memoir by Helen Tworkov, chronicling her journey of self-discovery against the backdrop of the sixties. From her upbringing in the New York art scene to encounters with influential figures like the Dalai Lama, Tworkov's narrative offers a unique exploration of spirituality and personal growth. With rich experiences and profound insights, "Lotus Girl" is an insightful read that delves into the search for truth and transformation in a complex world.

I loved this book. I'm probably a little biased because I've been interested in Buddhism for a long time and her book Zen in America had a big impact on me when I came across it in Bodh Gaya in 1996. I also really enjoyed In Love with the World, the book she co-wrote with Mingyur Rinpoche. When I read some of the early reviews on here I got a little worried I wouldn't enjoy it but I could barely put it down. It's pretty remarkable how many great teachers and artists she worked with and her writing is superb

Those familiar with Tworkov likely will find this a better read than I did. I appreciate that she's documented her journey but she didn't connect the people she met to anything other than a sort of roll call. I did like the philosophical sections. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

loved this romance and how the characters changed through the story. also loved the friends and all of the interesting things that happened during the story. loved the growth of the main character and all of her trials .

Helen Tworkov is a figure of some note in American Buddhism. As the founder and editor of Tricycle Magazine, she and a long list of prominent Buddhist scholars, teachers and practitioners explore the intersection of Eastern and Western Buddhism. I learned this by searching the internet for more information than I could find in this book.

Tworkov’s writing style feels very detached and unemotional . It’s mostly a compendium of “I went here, I did this,” without a sense of the narrative having a central focus or leading toward a conclusion, even though a central theme seems obvious. . She opens the book with a story of watching monk Thich Quang Duc, who publicly burned himself to death in 1963 to protest the Vietnamese crackdown on Buddhist clergy. While ostensibly this dramatic event had the power to emotionally affect a young seeker of truth, but she doesn’t directly link this event to her own spiritual journey in any significant way, although she continues to refer to it throughout the book (perhaps ironically, her main takeaway seemed to be that he was remarkably calm).. It didn’t take me long to become bored with chapter after chapter by a privileged white woman dispassionately describing her travels and experiences as if she was reading a grocery list. As an example, she described her first marriage in one sentence: “…we were happy for a few years.”

I’m not sure who the audience is for this book. Ideally it would be someone more familiar than I with Buddhism, as I needed to keep looking up terms and concepts online. I’m sorry to have to give this book a poor review - from the description I was very much looking forward to it. Still, I am grateful to NetGalley and St. Martin’s for the opportunity.

Helen Tworkov came from an artistic family in New York City during the 1960’s. By proximity and because these people frequented her home, she met many famous people from the arts, music, to writers from around the world. At a young age, she rejected her family background. Her parents too were not keen to carry the traditions of their family that had come from Europe, traumatized by being driven from their homes then seeking refuge in America.



Helen is a seeker, and a bit of an adventurer. She goes off to Asia at 22, lives in Japan, travels to India and Cambodia, and even makes a quick pit stop in Vietnam during the war. She is looking for something, and that is what drives the book and her quest to seek her meaning in the world. She dabbles in eastern religions and takes drugs. She is still seeking as the riddle of life seems elusive to her. She marries, divorces and gets deeply involved with Buddhism.



The book is her quest to find herself, the many teachers she followed and the choices she made all while floating in the world of famous artists, like the Dalai Lama, Pema Chordron, and other famous Buddhist teachers.



I guess she found what she was looking for, but it does not make a great book. I went here, did this and met this person doesn’t really mean that much to me. I started out very interested and just lost my way as it went on and on about the people she met along her privileged way. Helen was around during a very interesting time. She was accepted into an unofficial club of the cool people, and she was a part of that. I guess finding Buddhism gave her the life she always wanted.

Fascinating account of a woman who has been all over. She experiences so much and the stories shared are worth reading. I didn’t connect to everything the author wrote about but bits and pieces captured my attention and overall I am giving it three stars. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Fascinating biography of the founder of the Tricycle magazine, a leading nonsectarian American Buddhist magazine. Describes her Jewish upbringing,: the Greenwich beat scene, her tripd to Japan. India. Vietnam. Nepal and Paris, involvement with Tibetan and zen Buddhist communitire, and the drinking of Tricycle.