Thank you to Dr. Loren Fishman for this invaluable guide to preventing and curing back pain with yoga. The beauty of this book, unlike many others, is that it actually acknowledges that there are major types of back pain instead of lumping muscle spasm with arthritis or herniated disc, etc. This book respects the differences, and that is common sense, because what's good for back pain in pregnancy is obviously not the same as what will relieve the pain of a herniated disc. Dr. Fishman's approach is clearly safer and more effective.
For a beginner like me, the simple, lucid discussion of what yoga is was extremely illuminating. I found the explanations of the various types of back pain - arthritis, sacroiliac joint derangement, etc. - easy to read and coherent. . If you don't know what's wrong with you, Dr. Fishman steers you in the right direction with lucid explanations of causes of back pain, including muscular problems, arthritis, sacroiliac joint derangement, etc. He even provides advice (and yoga poses) for people who have recently had back surgery.
The poses themselves are described and/or shown for beginners or for those who are more disabled and at a higher level of difficulty for those who are more advanced. This book is a pleasure to read and to use.