The Bat: The First Inspector Harry Hole Novel

Book 24 of 2017 is The Bat: The First Inspector Harry Hole Novel by Jo Nesbo.

In my quest to start reading some Nordic Noir, I started with the second most famous series after The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

With great surprise and matching glee, I found this book was set in Sydney and was very well placed in situation and time. It was a good adjustment to this genre. The only thing that did annoy me was the slow part towards the end where the detective goes on an alcoholic bender. It bored me and then all of a sudden wound up. I may read the next book just to see if it isn't all sex, drugs and violence.

3 Darlinghurst whores out of 5.

Should I read this? Maybe. I wouldn't go out of my way too. Let me read another book before I recommend the series.
What did I learn? Blondes have all the fun.

Island Home

Book 28 of 2016 is Island Home by Tim Winton.

This book made me cry. This book made me homesick. This book made me proud.

Those are not things that I often feel and certainly not from a book. Maybe I read too much fiction or a kind of book that is abstract to me. Island Home was not abstract to me in any way. It was quite the opposite.

The way Winton describes Australia is so vivid that I found myself imagining the Northern Territory were I grew up, even while he was describing Western Australia.

Every part of this book broke me down and built me up simultaneously. I'm not even exactly sure why. It could be the visual he projects or the honesty with which he loves and sometimes doesn't love my home country.

This book confirms for me that we must travel far from home and see other places in order to truly appreciate the beauty of our own place. And for a nomad like me, it is hard to accept that I am so connected to a piece of land that it makes up most of who I am no matter how I sometimes fight it.

A book for all expatriates, even if Australia isn't your piece of dirt.

Five wide open spaces out of five.

Should I read this? If you aren't living where you grew up then yes.
What did I learn? I can fight it some days but Australia will always be my home.