When en eerie mass stranding of whales and dolphins takes place along the mist-shrouded Oregon Coast, forensic wildlife pathologist Isabel Spinner and her friend and co-worker Marian Windhorse Gray covertly investigate this disaster as a crime against wildlife. For years, Isabel has kept some emotional distance between herself and other humans, while devoted to easing the suffering of animals. But when Isabel finally joins with Marshall McGreggor, an undersea photographer whose unexpected transplant has him delving into the mystery surrounding his new heart, the two find themselves making surprising decisions that will forever change their lives.

In this, her fourth novel, renowned author Brenda Peterson offers a captivating love story of people whose compassion for animals compels them into extraordinary acts of heroism. Based on cutting-edge science, this powerful page-turner tackles such timely and troubling issues as low-frequency active sonar and animal experimentation, and forewarns of a future of Dead Zone oceans, disappearing species, and a world with creatures whose DNA boundaries have been genetically blurred. At once prescient and poignant, Animal Heart is a haunting, highly original story of the deep bonds between human and animals—and of our inevitably linked fates.

“My family has practiced the end of the world more than most,” begins this novel, told in the voices of three generations of the spirited MacKenzies – a nuclear family who still fights the Cold War on the home front. An eerily prescient novel, Duck and Cover is even timelier now in a 21st century of intimate terrorism – within our families and our world.
 
Selected by the New York Times as a “Notable Book of the Year ”for its “wicked, black comedy,” Duck and Cover was hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as a “bittersweet and utterly beguiling novel.” The Los Angeles Times noted Peterson is “a hauntingly funny writer…the balance she strikes is almost hypnotic.”

 Many of you have asked to hear when the audio-book and paperback of DUCK AND COVER, my New York Times, "Notable Book of the Year,"  is back in print  Since this novel takes on terrorism with black humor and heart, I know it will be of help in this new century. And it is very exciting to read this book as I meant it be heard -- in the 9 voices of the lively MacKenzie family engaging in "personal disarmament."

     I am actually publishing the book in two formats: MP3 for those of you with iPods and software to download MP3s. I'm also publishing it in a 6-disk CD set. The novel is only slightly abridged and is about 8.5 hrs. of listening. See below for more info on both paperback and audio book. This will be a publish-on-demand audio book by a professional audio replication studio, so please do send your checks first and I'll promptly send DUCK AND COVER to you.

    I'm going to be selling the 6 Disk set at $32.95, a little less than market value in the hope of getting many orders from bookstores and friends. So, just tell me how many you want to order and I'll start the presses!  I think the audio book will make a great present! For the paperback, order from my Books Page.   

    And for audio book order, please contact me at: BPeterson@literati.net to order directly from the author. And thanks for listening. 

    Yours, 
   Brenda
 

From the vantage points of diverse backgrounds and beliefs, the writings gathered here describe a vast range of spiritual searches and encounters. Sy Montgomery writes about shamans, Terry Tempest Williams about her Mormon heritage, and Starhawk about witchcraft. Mary Gordon captures the attractions of the contemplative life. Ursula Le Guin speaks about the feminine aspects of the Tao te Ching. Jane Goodall reflects on the symbiosis of science and religion after experiencing an ecstatic loss of self in the company of chimpanzees. Facet by facet, these essays and poems--by Molly Peacock, Anne Sexton, Kathleen Norris, Diane Ackerman, and Joy Harjo, among others--reveal and celebrate the special relationship of women to the spiritual realm in a volume that will comfort, provoke, and inspire.

Dolphins and humans have always been curious about each other, and since ancient times the kinship between our species has been celebrated across cultures and continents in myth, art, literature, and science. Only recently, however, have we gone beyond our own view of this interspecies connection and begun to ask: What might this bond look like from the dolphins' perspective? Now, Between Species brings together for the first time eminent scientists and gifted writers to help shed light on this intriguing question. Edited by wildlife researcher Toni Frohoff and nature writer Brenda Peterson, the text selections range from tales of transforming dolphin encounters to views on how to protect cetaceans and their habitats, and from poems honoring dolphins to provocative critiques of swim-with-the-dolphins programs and acoustic pollution. Pieces include Diane Ackerman's essay on "deep play" with a wild dolphin; Marc Bekoff's ethical questions concerning our intrusion in dolphins' lives; and the late Dr. John Lilly's call for a "Cetacean Nation." This groundbreaking anthology not only explores the depths and beauty of the dolphin-human bond but encourages new generations to respect the complexities and responsibilities inherent in such interspecies kinship.

Read the press release announcing this book...

For 50 million years, the gray whale—the most ancient of all great whales—has evolved along the western shores of North America. Its 10,000-mile migration from its summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea to its winter birthing lagoons in Baja, Mexico, represents a timeless story—one that exceeds the rational boundaries of science and speaks to many worlds, both human and cetacean.

In Sightings, celebrated Chicksaw writer Linda Hogan and acclaimed novelist and naturalist Brenda Peterson look at the rich past and divisive present of the gray whale, including the conflict between environmentalists who seek to protect the species and Native American tribes who traditionally hunt them. The authors illuminate as never before the complex and fascinating perspectives that surround this monumental migration—from tribal members, scientists, and fishermen to eco-warriors, businessmen, and historical whalers. Suffused with the authors’ lyricism and clear-eyed passion, Sightings is a revelatory, often haunting, and altogether triumphant amalgam of accessible science, compelling history, incisive anthropology, and powerhouse storytelling.

Build Me an Ark
A Life with Animals
(WW Norton, 2001/2002)

This is the story of a life and spirit guided by the animals. Brenda Peterson was raised in the High Sierras on a national forest lookout station, and wildlife had a daily, defining influence on her life. Beginning with her fascination with Smokey Bear, Peterson explores her deep connection with animals, from watching grizzlies in Montana's Rockies, to keeping Siberian huskies as pets in New York City and Colorado, to her work for the restoration of wild wolves in the West. Her lively storytelling bridges the worlds of human and animal, as she fascinates us with intimate stories of the wild dolphins, whales, and orcas whose lives she has studied for the past two decades. With each moving story, Peterson reveals a turning point in which animal bonds have enriched her life and led her toward a wider epiphany: As a species we cannot live without other animals. 17 b/w photographs.

The Sweet Breathing of Plants
Women Writing on the Green World
(North Point Press, 2002)

Since prehistory, plants -- as sources of food, medicine, clothing, beauty, and life itself -- have been the province of women. Yet no previous book has attempted to bring together the rich literature this connection has inspired. This burgeoning collection amply addresses that lack, celebrating an ancient and ongoing relationship with more than three dozen selections of nonfiction and poetry.
 

Singing to the Sound
(New Sage Press, 2000)

This passionate yet contemplative collection of nature stories is the long-awaited sequel to Brenda Petersons popular classic Living by Water first published in 1990. From her two decades on the shores of Puget Sound, Peterson now advances her "love song for a region" into a new century in which the West is leading and shaping environmental ethics worldwide. An acclaimed nature writer, Petersons literate, lyrical writing moves from stately reporting to memoir.

Singing to the Sound reveals darker and more troubled waters from the Makah whale hunt to the feared extinction of Northwest salmon. For the first time in book form, Peterson unravels the complexities of the highly controversial Makah whale hunt the first off U.S. mainland shores in nearly a century. As mediator and reporter of this international story for five years, Peterson now writes as historian with an eye for the future of both people and whales. She moves beyond the polarized view of "Indians versus environmentalists" to portray a multi-faceted, human drama with no easy answers to a story that is still unfolding.

But Peterson also offers subtle solutions and visions of future environmental restoration and healing. Included here is the story of inner-city adolescents who discover their own animal allies in an urban jungle; and an interview with a husband-wife research team who listen and record orcas twenty-four hours a day on a remote island in Columbia British. There are also stories of wild dolphins who offer companionable play as a survival skill and a great blue heron who teaches lessons of a calm and happy spirit, amidst political terrorism. Singing to the Sound moves from love song to prophesy, from the way things are to a vision of what they might be.

Living by Water
Essays on Life, Land, and Spirit
(Fulcrum Publishing, Sep 2002)

Intimate Nature
The Bond Between Women and Animals
(Fawcett Books, 1999)

Though women have long felt kinship with animals, in the past, they seldom participated in the study of them. Now, as more women make animals the subject of their investigations, significant new ideas are emerging--based on the premise that animals are honored co-sharers of the earth. This unprecedented anthology features original stories, essays, meditations, and poems by a vast array of women nature writers and field scientists, including:

DIANE ACKERMAN - VIRGINIA COYLE - GRETEL EHRLICH - DIAN FOSSEY - TESS GALLAGHER - JANE GOODALL - TEMPLE GRANDIN - SUSAN GRIFFIN - JOY HARJO - BARBARA KINGSOLVER - URSULA LE GUIN - DENISE LEVERTOV - LINDA McCARRISTON - SUSAN CHERNAK McELROY - RIGOBERTA MENCH - CYNTHIA MOSS - KATHERINE PAYNE - MARGE PIERCY - PATTIANN ROGERS - LINDA TELLINGTON-JONES - HAUNANI-KAY TRASK - GILLIAN VAN HOUTEN - TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS

Sister Stories
Taking the Journey Together
(Viking, 1996)

Of all human bonds, it is the tie between women that proves the most enduring, and nourishing. In Sister Stories, award-winning author Brenda Peterson traces the rich legacy of sisterhood from the present day to its deepest roots in myth and antiquity.