A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear

A decent read, even if I did occasionally roll my eyes at the author's prose. When it works, it can be really funny and clever. But sometimes less is more. I don't know if the quotes-that-involve-the-word-bear at the beginning of every single chapter were really needed, same as some of the more fanciful wordsmithing deployed in the text.

Reading about characters as colorful as Grafton's is always interesting, and they are thankfully supplemented with discussions of (sadly not really with) relevant state authorities and their contributions to Grafton's bear problem. I was a bit taken aback by the chapter in which the author discusses the parasite Toxoplasma gondii as a possible culprite not just of the increasingly invasive bears but even some of the human behavior in the story. It appears out of nowhere and is then dropped and makes barely any re-appearance. I feel like you'd either want to more fully explore that train of thought or leave it out. This way just felt awkward.