I promised Townie a top 10 list of the books I read in 2023. With Townie on hiatus I have been slow to fulfill my obligation. These will all be nonfiction. I did read a little more fiction in 2023, but I would guess I read at least 85% nonfiction.
#10: Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie.
This book is about the eight types of bears that still exist. This is not the type of book I typically read. Then again, maybe it is, because it takes place in eight different areas of the world. When I saw this book, I realized I knew little about bears. Eight bears? Can I even name five? My kids certainly knew a lot more than I did and part of the fun of reading this book was discussing it with my kids. Like, how did my son know the seal is the closest relative of the bear? Is this common knowledge?
The primary focus of the book is to detail the dangers that face bears due to humans. Climate change is challenging the polar and spectacled (my personal favorite of the eight after reading the book) to the greatest degree. Dickie is especially pessimistic about the polar bear being able to survive in the wild much longer. The moon bear is subjected to bile harvesting. Humans are crowding out the aggressive sloth bear. (The sloth bear is terrifying, by the way. If I had sloth bears around my house I would never go outside.) On the other hand, the North American bears, black and brown (grizzly), are faring better, especially the brown.
It is an entertaining book, with some history, science, geography, and myth all included in a relatively quick read.