This is my favorite kind of science writing—scientific research, cultural history, and conservation, combined with engaging storytelling. In Eight Bears, Gloria Dickie embarks on a journey to explore the lives and habitats of the world’s eight remaining bear species. The book is broken into three sections according to habitat: South America (the speckled bear of Ecuador and Peru); Asia (the Sloth Bear, Panda Bear, and Moon and Sun bears); and North America (the Black Bear, Brown Bear, and Polar Bear), with each chapter focusing on a different species, their unique adaptations and behaviors, and the threats they face in our rapidly changing world.

An accomplished and award-winning environmental journalist, Dickie is the perfect person to write this book. I appreciate how she connects each species to larger environmental and societal issues (polar bears and the climate crisis, sun bears and the impact of deforestation) but still offers us shop for the future by showing us the work of the researchers and advocates who are tirelessly working toward finding solutions.

I love to read popular science books, and as a science writer who lives in an area highly populated with bears, this book caught my eye. It's a fascinating look into the life of bears and the complex relationship we humans have with them. The book would appeal to wildlife enthusiasts, environmentalists, and anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of biodiversity and the natural world.

A really interesting look at what remains of bears on Earth. I will never be able to forget that pizzly bears are a thing. Great for fans of nature writing and microhistories.

What a fascinating look at one of the world's most misunderstood creatures. I picked this book up because I consider the bear to be one of my favorite animals, but I have to admit, I barely knew anything about them. This book takes you on a journey of the 8 remaining bear species while touching upon topics related to them. It is an easy read--a more narrative nonfiction and would be great for any nature lovers.

Eight Bears was a book I had long had my eye on, a fantastic concept by a talented journalist. Gloria weaves a tender narrative through the bears of the world, taking the reader on a travelogue-esque journey with expert commentary on the way. Each bear and its environment is brought to life, and the increasing human impact set in stark relief. This is a love letter and a call to arms.

Eight Bears was a very interesting and informative read about bears, including some less known species and how humans are impacting their numbers. This was an excellent read for anyone who enjoys learning more about animals and/or nature. It was well written and presented a lot of new information that many people probably dont know about bears.

In April this year, a jogger in the Italian Alps was mauled to death by a brown bear. This was reported as the first bear killing in Italy in modern times. But it probably won’t be the last. Bears have been reappearing in northern Italy as part of a rewilding project in the last two decades, retuning to regions they had been driven from hundreds of years ago. More encounters between bears and humans are inevitable.

In Eight Bears, Gloria Dickie explores how we can coexist with the remaining bear species on Earth, protecting those in danger as well as negotiating how to share space with those that are not. She takes us around the world to see how different bears are coping with environmental pressures, and how humans are coping with bears.

Bears have not lived wild in Britain for hundreds of years. But they’re still part of our cultural landscape, appearing on coats of arms and pub signs. They loomed large in the world view of our ancestors, and the role of bears in folklore sees them as our opposite, or perhaps our brother, a bipedal creature that seems so much like us. We have spiritually domesticated them, knowing them in fairy tales and spending our childhoods cuddling their small stuffed avatars. Winnie-the-Pooh and Paddington are part of every nursery...

As a great bear enthusiast I was excited to read this, and I was not disappointed.

Dickie does an excellent job of conveying information and keeping the content readable and entertaining at the same time. This is a great survey of the eight types of bears that call earth home and the challenges each bear faces.

The text is largely a serious discussion about conservation and the obstacles different bears face in the world, but Dickie also has a terrific sense of humor and ability to entertain that comes through in the text.

I had to skip a few short sections because I didn’t want to read, for example, a gruesomely detailed account of the torments inflicted on “dancing bears” by their captors, but I applaud the author’s willingness to dive into the realities of this stuff even when it’s hard to stomach for those of us who cannot abide the mistreatment of animals.

There’s a lot of hope and discussion of how to reverse damage done with regard to several types of bears, which gives some hope that many bear populations that are threatened may recover, as well as plenty of information about the approach taken to help those that already have.

A must read for anyone who adores bears and has an interest in climate crisis.

Eight Bears took me a long time to finish even if it was well-written, interesting, and about a subject I'm interested in. It's a heartbreaking and compelling narrative and it felt like being let in behind the scenes. I loved how inter-connective and detailed each chapter was. Would definitely recommend.

This was an entertaining and informative read. I found myself sharing what I learned from this book with those around me. I recommend it to fans of good and highly readable non-fiction.

Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie is subtitled "an ursine odyssey" and that certainly fits. In this very readable nonfiction book, Dickie details the history and current standing of the eight remaining bear species on earth. Across the globe, (almost all) bears are in trouble and this book gives the reader an excellent but not overwhelming understanding of why.

I thoroughly enjoyed the organization and content; each chapter focuses on one bear species. Dickie often begins with a unique tidbit or the cultural relevance of the species and then moves on to her experience seeking out the bears in their habitat, followed by or interwoven with the challenges that species is up against, and ending with a fact based, level headed prediction of what might become of that bear in the near future.

If you have ever been awed or curious about bears, this is an excellent book- even if you are not a frequent nonfiction reader. Well cited and researched, and backed by personal travels, Dickie does an excellent job at making the scientific content very digestible. I learned a lot reading this book and it is a new nonfiction favorite.

Gloria Dickie is a journalist reporting on the environment and climate issues. Her curiosity, research and writing style make Eight Bears an informative, impressive, and engaging book. She takes the reader around the world to continents where eight bears dwell. All are imperiled by both climate change and the WUI (wild urban interface.) She describes her quests to see the bears in their habitats, as well as some of the mythology surrounding the bears. Her enthusiasm never waivers, nor will the reader’s. Learned much about the spectacled bear (Paddington) and the sloth bear (more dangerous than I thought). Amazed about some of the history of the North American bears: black, brown, grizzly and the polar bear. Highly recommend this book and thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing it. I am now a fan and will be following Ms. Dickie’s future endeavors.

Summer means spending time in nature and reading about the great outdoors. I searched @NetGalley for a few titles, fiction and nonfiction, that suited my mood. Let me know if any of these fit your summer mood.

The Last Ranger by Peter Heller seemed a natural place to start. He writes about the great outdoors with the grace and reverence of someone in awe of the natural world. One can count on Heller to strike a perfect balance between a strong sense of place, dramatic tension, character development and well written prose.)

Ren is a park ranger at Yellowstone charged with breaking up camper disputes, saving clueless tourists from themselves and keeping poachers at bay. The heart of the story revolves around the conflicts that arise between naturalists, hunters and the Yellowstone homesteaders. The action begins when Ren finds his friend Hilly, a wolf biologist, nearly dead with her leg caught in a trap. But was it meant for a wolf or his friend?
(Pub Date: 25 July 2023)

North Woods by Daniel Mason is the story of a place and home in the woods of Massachusetts. It is the story of the people who over the centuries have inhabited the land, called it home and left their imprint. The reader follows the succession of inhabitants who found shelter, sustenance, sanctuary and in some cases captivity.

I was drawn in by the structure of the novel which reads like a story collection centered around the North Woods’ inhabitants. It is layered with explorations of home, family and their relationship to place. (Pub Date: 19 Sep 2023)

Journalist Gloria Dickie‘s Eight is in turns heartbreaking and hopeful. Dickie travels the globe to examine the plight of eight remaining species of bear, from the bile farms of Vietnam to the vanishing ice floes of North America. She meets scientists and conservationists striving to reverse the unparalleled challenges faced by these beautiful creatures. Interweaving history, science, and myth, Dickie speaks to the indelible place bears hold in our culture and warns what we stand to lose if we do not act.
(Pub Date: 11 July 2023)


I’d like to thank @NetGalley, @AAKnopf, @RandomHouse and @WWNorton&Company for the privilege of reading these advanced readers copies

As an animal lover, I found this book fascinating but also so heartbreaking I had to stop reading a few times. This book is a interesting account of where each bear subspecies stands today - challenges, triumphs, general information. I learned a lot and I loved the travel and cultural aspects of learning about each type of bear. The places that the author was able to get into were places that an average person isn't going to be able to so there is a investigative journalistic aspect to the whole book that I found compelling. It gave many of the narratives I already knew a new take.
The compassion that the author has both for the subjects and the people who are tangential to each bear is palpable (which I think is why my heart broke in so many of the stories).
An absolutely beautifully written book and a must read for conservationists and general bear lovers.