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.