Book Review | Book Chatter

This is a list of the books I read in 2015. My list is short this year. The death of my dad and the situation with my mother and sister really put a dent in my reading. It happens.

Each link takes you directly to my review of that book. Happy New Year! May 2016 be filled with great reading!

1. The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami
2. A Matter of Mercy by Lynne Hugo
3. It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell
4. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
5. West of Sunset by Stewart O’Nan
6. Her by Harriet Lane
7. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
8. The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson
9. South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
10. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
11. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
12. The Bullet by Mary Louise Kelly
13. Blue Sun, Yellow Sky by Jamie Jo Hoang
14. Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbø
15. The Children’s Crusade by Ann Packer
16. Strays by Jennifer Caloyeras
17. Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire
18. We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
19. Misery by Stephen King
20. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
21. Luckiest Girl Alive (audio) by Jessica Knoll
22. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagahira
23. The Last Pilot by Benjamin Johncock
24. Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote
25. Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
26. Wind / Pinball by Haruki Murakami
27. Summerlong by Dean Bakapoulos
28. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
29. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
30. Nantucket by Nan Rossiter
31. The Captive Condition by Kevin P. Keating
32. Days of Awe by Lauren Fox
33. Villa America by Liza Klaussmann
34. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
35. The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
36. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
37. Finders Keepers by Stephen King
38. Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving
39. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
40. Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller

Norwegian by Night
By Derek B. Miller
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), Hardcover, 9780547934877, May 2013, 304pp.

The Short of It:

True, this story is considered crime fiction but it’s wrapped in memory and heartache and has a great protagonist that you can’t help but root for.

The Rest of It:

Sheldon Horowitz, a former Marine sniper in the Korean War, now widowed at 82, agrees to leave New York to live with his granddaughter Rhea and her husband Lars, in Norway.

Norway is foreign to Sheldon in a lot of ways. He misses his old life in New York, his wife of many years, Mabel and the son he lost in the Vietnam War, Saul. But Sheldon’s biggest problem in Norway is the dementia that is slowly taking hold him. In his mind, the memories of his former life are crisp and so real that he loses track of what’s real and what’s not.

One day, alone in his apartment, he opens his door to a woman and child in distress and that begins his trek across the country.

When I pitched this book to my book club over a year ago, it was more of a crap shoot than anything because it’s not the kind of book we typically pitch. At the time, we had not really read crime fiction for the club before and it’s been a really long time since we’ve read a book with an older protagonist. So, I took a chance and I’m glad I did.

It was a surprisingly good read. Full of heart and yes, a little bit of sadness but with it being crime fiction and all, it was also a page turner, which is good for this time of the year when you are wrapping up loose ends and just want kick back with a good book.

Sheldon Horowitz is a character that will stay with me for a very long time. He’s smart, has spunk, is loving and understanding when he needs to be but he’s also strong-willed and opinionated which makes for some colorful conversations. When his loved ones are put in peril, his body seems to know what to do even though he is 82 years old and not the man he used to be, at least not physically. I seriously adored him.

Have you read Norwegian by Night or heard of it? I heard of it for the first time last year but it’s gotten quite a bit of publicity:

An ECONOMIST TOP FICTION TITLE OF THE YEAR
A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLER OF THE YEAR
A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR

It will be interesting to hear what the club has to say about it. On the surface it feels like there is not enough to discuss but I suspect that there is since it touches on so many different topics (war, dementia, aging, Miller’s handling of past and present and his use of fantastical elements to tell the story).

It’s a great book to end the year with.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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