This year I want to offer three “firsts” which, if taken as gift-giving suggestions, will turn into hundreds of hours of pleasure for the recipient.First, get Sharpe’s Tiger, the first in Bernard Cornwell’s 22-volume Sharpe series, a march through the Napoleonic Wars with a member of Wellington’s army. Cornwell is prolific and his other series are much loved as well, but Sharpe’s saga is great history mixed with great yarn spinning. Consult Wikipedia for the order in which the books should be read. The 22 books will seem like four when you look up at the end of the road in St. Helena.Next, get Vince Flynn’s brand-new American Assassin. Though this novel is the most recent to hit stores, it is set at the beginning of Mitch Rapp’s career, and the first book of eleven in the Rapp series, which will continue to sell hundreds of thousands of copies for years to come.Finally, the first entry in Daniel Silva’s series of ten Gabriel Allon novels is The Kill Artist. It will hook you on this unique combination of thriller, political commentary, and art history.If you read two Sharpe novels, followed by a Rapp novel, followed by an Allon novel, you will be entertained for ages. If you give all three to a reading friend with instructions on how to proceed, they will be thanking you for years to come.— Hugh Hewitt is the host of The Hugh Hewitt Show.