Build me an ark

By Brenda Peterson

Subjects: Human-animal relationships, Biography, Naturalists

Description: The memoir of a life among animals by a nature writer who has studied dolphins, whales, and orcas and worked for the restoration of wolves in Arizona, Yellowstone, and Alaska. Rather than mere autobiography or a scientific or political tract, her work is a kind of love story that describes the bond she's felt with animals since childhood. Peterson traces some of the cavalier and cruel ways humans have treated other species, but her purpose is not to browbeat; instead, she points the way to a rich alternative in which people interact with the natural world in a spirit of compassion and cooperation.