I Want To Be Left Behind, Brenda Peterson
I Want To Be Left Behind, Brenda Peterson
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I Want To Be Left Behind
Finding Rapture Here On Earth, A Memoir

Author: Brenda Peterson

Narrator: Brenda Peterson

Unabridged: 10 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/06/2025

Synopsis

In Brenda Peterson’s unusual memoir, fundamentalism meets deep ecology. The author’s childhood in the high Sierra with her forest ranger father led her to embrace the entire natural world, while her Southern Baptist relatives prepared eagerly and busily to leave this world. Peterson survived fierce “sword drill” competitions demanding total recall of the Scriptures and awkward dinner table questions (“Will Rapture take the cat, too?”) only to find that environmentalists with prophecies of doom can also be Endtimers. Peterson paints such a hilarious, loving portrait of each world that the reader, too, may want to be Left Behind.

About Brenda Peterson

Brenda Peterson is the author of eighteen books, including the novel Duck and Cover, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and I Want to Be Left Behind, selected by the Christian Science Monitor among the Top Ten Best Non-Fiction Books of 2010. Her most recent work, Your Life Is a Book, was a monthly Oprah book club selection. Peterson's work has appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle, and she has contributed environmental commentary to Seattle NPR stations and on animal and environmental issues for the Huffington Post. She lives in Seattle on the shores of Salish Sea.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kimberly on September 13, 2012

I very much enjoyed this, in no small part because it hit my own experience so squarely--raised Southern Baptist but clearly destined from an early age for another spiritual path, writer, animal and nature lover. Peterson writes well and tells a good story. I appreciated her insights about being "li......more

Goodreads review by Donna on May 10, 2010

Brenda Peterson is the rare writer that hits on such Jungian truths with her stories that the details seem to be written in ink that fades in the light of that truth. By addressing her struggle with belief in a God too often defined through the rules of religious bodies that want to "claim" the trut......more

Goodreads review by Matt on November 22, 2010

As a recovering Fundamentalist, I liked the idea of this book, but I just couldn't get past her poor writing.......more

Goodreads review by Audra on August 20, 2011

Not to be missed. Along with "Deer Hunting with Jesus" and "Crazy for God" gives a valuable and solidly interesting picture of the Evangelical Right --and those who've left yet still maintain family, compassionate ties. "I Want" is particularly interesting because of Brenda Peterson's deep love for......more

Goodreads review by Kelly on May 27, 2011

Brenda Peterson is my favorite author and I have loved everything she has written, but this one wasn't as great. It's a memoir so maybe I just prefer her essays and fiction to creative non-fiction.........more

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