Nature and Other Mothers: Personal Stories of Women and the Body of Earth

by Brenda Peterson

After the success of Living by Water, novelist and nature writer Brenda Peterson turns her eye on the nature in human nature. Her focus in mainly the feminine body -- of earth and women, of animals, human and nonhuman. Whether writing about whales or women's bathing rituals, salmon or friendship, rain forests or life-saving dreams, Peterson weaves a compelling story of the bond between nature and ourselves.

This rich, expanded collection was first hailed by critics as "lyrical and life-enhancing...with large doses of wonder, humor, and warmth." The new essays include a moving appeal to seek compassion in healing our sexual lives during this time of AIDS. There are also chronicles of the birth, death, and afterlife of a baby beluga whale, and of the seagull's memory for human faces. Peterson's passionately observed subjects range from lullabies to abortion, dolphins to old-growth forests, fundamentalism to fishing.

Combining her skills as a mesmerizing storyteller and nationally acclaimed nature writer, Peterson explores the healing, vital symbiosis between the sacred, sensual body of our earth and the feminine -- and intimacy which instructs and inspires, but most of all sustains us.

Genres: Nature

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1992

About the author

Brenda Peterson is the author of over 20 books, including the recently released murder mystery, Stiletto. Her first memoir Build Me an Ark: A Life with Animals, chosen as a “Best Spiritual Book of 2001,” to three novels, one of which, Duck and Cover, was chosen by New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year. Her second memoir, a dark comedy of family and faith, is I Want To Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth; it was selected by The Christian Science Monitor among the Top Ten Best Non-Fiction Books and chosen by independent bookstores as an Indie Next and a Great Read.
Her non-fiction has appeared in numerous national newspapers, journals, and magazines, including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Reader’s Digest, Christian Science Monitor, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Utne Reader. Oprah.com featured her Your Life is a Book: How to Craft and Publish Your Memoir. Her new kid’s are Wild Orca and Lobo: A Wolf Family Returns Home.