9 Dragons

I've blogged about Michael Connelly before, maybe several times. Maybe I've got a thing for him. Okay, I know I have a thing for him. I raced to get to the top of the library's CD list for his latest, 9 DRAGONS, which I listened to it in the car. I like having a book in the car, but since I am rarely in the car alone, it takes me a while to get through an audio book unless I'm on a trip. So, Michael and I took a drive alone to the mountains. It wasn't quite as romantic as it sounds, but it was still a good opportunity to listen to 9 DRAGONS.
My favorite detective Harry Bosche was on a very personal investigation that took him to Hong Kong.
For Bosche fans 9 DRAGONS pulls together lots of great seeds from past Connelly books: The rat tunnels of Vietnam, his brother Mickey Haller who works out of the backseat of his Lincoln, and the three loves in his life: his ex Elonore Wish, his daughter Maddie, and Los Angeles. But it also opens a whole new world including Asian gangs, Hong Kong, and a very personal side of Bosche and his relationship with his ex-wife and daughter. I didn't love the idea of taking Harry out of LA and making him a father figure because it was a significant change from who he was and why I loved him.
In the end it all worked and I enjoyed the book, err... I mean CDs, very much. More or less than other installments? Maybe not as much, but in all fairness, the bar there is set unrealistically high.

The Book That Changed Me

Michael Connelly's THE POET is, undoubtedly, the book (maybe I should say, the first book) that changed the way I feel about reading and writing; and thus, changed a lot in my life.
I can't continue until I make a confession. Librarians and teachers aren't going to like this. But here it is: Unlike most readers and writers, I didn't have a childhood filled with the love of books. Actually, I didn't read a book for enjoyment until I was about twenty-six years old. Seriously, I never read Judy Blume or Trixie Beldin (my BFF Chris read those) or Nancy Drew...none. But, (and this is a big BUT) I always wrote stories, and poems, even plays.
As an undergraduate English major, and French literature minor, and I read only what I absolutely HAD to, which familiarized me with a vast array of fancy writers and poets. I did well in a Shakespeare class. I loved studying Shakespeare...I did not, however, enjoy reading Shakespeare, (I opted to watch the BBC movie version whenever possible) or Chaucer or Thoreau. Yet, I admire, like and respect those works.

This is all kind of messed up, huh? Here's where the story changes.

At about 26 years old I had my own apartment, as in 'no roommates.' And I was finishing my MBA, and I did a lot of text book readings, as well as trade magazines, newspapers, and stuff like The Economist. But, not for enjoyment.
One day, I can't remember the circumstances, I find myself in Borders flipping book jackets. There is a new release called THE POET. The cover looks good. Never heard of the author, but I'd never heard of any main stream authors.
I bought it, and read it...the WHOLE book...cover to cover. I loved it so much that I went back, and spent my precious waitressing dollars on everything else written by that author, and I built a relationship with his main character, Detective Harry Bosche, and followed him from case to case. I quickly branched into The Firm (Grisham), Disclosure (Crichton), The Body Farm (Cornwell), Orchid Beach (Woods). I loved them too. So the mountain on my nightstand grew with every book those authors ever wrote. I became a real mystery lover...still am, but I like to think I've diversified. I read and/or listen to twenty-thirty books per year. And the more I read, the more my left brain re-awakened and wanted to write again. As you know, in the last six years I've written three and a half novels. KELLY QUINN'S SECRET COOKING CLUB (due out from Aladdin next fall) is the first middle-grade project. One of my many objectives with KELLY is to draw kids in and keep them turning because I don't want them to miss out on twenty-six years of reading.

It all comes back to Connelly's THE POET. It convinced me that I could enjoy reading a book.