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

By Brenda Peterson

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449909670
• ISBN13: 9780449909676
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

"POWER IN THE BOOD" OF WOMEN - NOT JESUS!

I read this book back in April 1996 and could not put it down! Brenda Peterson really captured my feelings of joy and frustration being a woman living in a "dominant" society. Born and raised in Seattle, I identified with her stories of living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest where Mother Nature seems to fill every nook and cranny. SHE is everywhere! Brenda's essay titled "Power in the Blood" was so eye-opening in that it shows the way fundamentalists have blindly followed a religion that has made women the cause of all the world's problems, not seeing that the true causes of starvation, warfare and cruely stem from the ancient belief that men must be in control and dominate women and nature by so-called "divine right". As far as I'm concerned, that kind of thinking has just got to go! Thank you, Brenda, for a truly "truthfull" and insightful book. Blessed Be! Love and Light to you and all who read this book.