I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth Finding Rapture Here on Earth

"Booklist," 12/1/09 "[An] unusually affecting and radiant spiritual memoir... Peterson seeks a meeting of church and earth in this witty, enrapturing account of a spiritual journey of great relevance to us all." "Kirkus Reviews," 12/1/09 "The author offers a selective memoir that blends her unique autobiography with compassionate and levelheaded observations about family, food, religion, life and our relationships with living things...Peterson has a gift for describing her life's many adventures with disarming understatement and narrative poise." "Library Journal," 11/5/09 "This tender, lyrical account of turning away from her religious roots starts with the painful realization that there is no place in a fundamentalist heaven for her beloved animals and the growing sense that her love of the natural world is antithetical to those eagerly anticipating the Rapture. Charting her evolution into an environmental writer of fiction and nonfiction, Peterson always seeks common ground, eschewing fundamentalism of all kinds, whether religious or environmental." "Publishers Weekly," 1/11/10 "Talk of the rapture surrounds Peterson, and she engages this conversation with delicacy, humor, frustration, and, at times, a begrudging respect, in this memoir." "City Arts Seattle," February 2010 "Peterson's "I Want to Be Left Behind" is a tonic, the least acridly dogmatic of the new God books, pro or con...Her book has humor, which the divine debate could use more of. Instead of another volley in the God wars, her book can be seen as a kind of peace offering. She makes you think maybe everybody is in more harmony than they think." "Los Angeles Times," 1/31/10 "It is a rich and often lovely life--full of humor and Peterson's own unique brand of faith." "Cleveland Plain Dealer," 1/31/10 "Lovely, irreverent humor...Her journey is fascinating, and when she writes about spiritual revelation through nature, she's captivati