The Year of Magical Reading – Autumn Edition

Much to my good fortune, I’ve hit another streak of great books that I want to share. The first is a non-fiction piece for all you Clint Eastwood fans; the last – and my personal favorite – an “adult novel for children” featuring an eleven-year-old boy and his dog who have to stop their next-door neighbors from opening the gates of hell.

American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood by Marc Eliot. Growing up, my father watched westerns. I never had any use for them, but that changed the first time I saw Clint Eastwood in A Fist Full of Dollars. From that point on, I became a huge Eastwood fan, so much so that I wanted to name my son after him (my wife nixed that idea, unfortunately). I’ve always been intrigued by the man and have read book after book about enigmatic actor and director. The best of the lot was the biography written by Time magazine’s film critic and scholar, Richard Schickel. A lot of critics (and readers, for that matter) thought Schickel’s account – written in cooperation with Eastwood – was too fawning as it glossed over Eastwood’s personal life. Marc Eliot provides a gripping account for those fans looking for an unvarnished look at Eastwood’s personal and professional career choices. This book is more of a look at the man’s life rather than Schickel’s in-depth brilliant analysis of Eastwood’s films. American Rebel reads like a classic biography: a rags-to-riches tale about a complicated man who overcame all odds to become an international film icon.

Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. A liquor-store owner is shot to death and Harry Bosch is called in to investigate the crime. Bosch quickly discovers that the dead man was paying weekly protection to a member of a Chinese triad. Bosch sinks his teeth into the investigation with his usual pit bull ferocity and refuses to back off when a mysterious caller threatens him to drop the case. That changes when Bosch receives a video showing his thirteen year-old daughter being kidnapped in Hong Kong, where she lives with her mother, a former FBI agent and Bosch’s ex-wife. What I loved – what I always love about the Bosch books – is watching Bosch’s tenacity in action. The man is an unstoppable machine of violence and brilliant deduction. Nine Dragon is full of action and ends with a twist I didn’t see coming.

The Defector by Daniel Silva. I’m not a big fan of espionage books. I think I’m the only guy on the planet who hasn’t devoured the immensely popular books by Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s just not my thing. Yet Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series definitely falls into the espionage category and I’ve gobbled up every one of these great stories in a couple of days. They’re highly addictive, well written and extremely clever; and Allon is one of the most interesting, compelling (and violent) series characters to come down the road in a long, long time. The Defector is a sequel to the previous Allon book, Moscow Rules. Although you don’t have to read Moscow Rules first – Silva is a pro at weaving in backstory – it wouldn’t hurt and, I think, make reading The Defector even that much more enjoyable. In this outing Gabriel is drawn out of semi-retirement when Russian defector Grigori disappears from London. Gabriel starts looking into how it happened and is put in the crosshairs of Ivan Kharkov, a former KGB agent and Russian oligarch. This fast-paced book is everything you want as a reader: great characters, clandestine meetings in exotic locales, clever twits and a study on the nature of violence.

The Gates by John Connolly. Quirky and slightly odd Samuel Johnson and his dachshund, Boswell, try to get a jumpstart on the Halloween competition when they decide to trick-or-treating three days before everyone else in Biddlecombe, England. Their first stop: 666 Crowley Road. It seems the owners of the home, the Abernathys, have accidentally opened the gates of hell and summoned Lord Satan himself, and it’s up to Samuel to stop the end of the world. Eoin Colfer, author of the popular Artemis Fowl series, blurbed this book as having “a voice that compares favorably with Stephen King and Monthy Python which is not an easy trick.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. This book is unbelievably funny.

And thanks to all of you who’ve sent your own recommendations along. Keep ‘em coming.

Take care and enjoy your Thanksgiving.