Every Man in This Village is a Liar: An Education in War

The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq

George Packer · 512 pages

"The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq recounts how the United States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became ensnared in a guerrilla war in Iraq. It brings to life the people and ideas that created the Bush administration's war policy and led America to the Assassins' Gate - the main point of entry into the American zone in Baghdad. The consequences of that policy are shown in

The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan

Christina Lamb · 352 pages

Black Hawk Down

Mark Bowden · 486 pages

Late in the afternoon of Sunday, 3 October 1993, 140 elite US soldiers abseiled from helicopters into a teeming market neighbourhood in the heart of the city of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take them about an hour. Instead, they were pinned down through a long and terrible night in a hostile city,

Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War

Anthony Shadid · 474 pages

From the only journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Iraq, an account of ordinary people caught between the struggles of nations. The Washington Post's Shadid went to Iraq, neither embedded with soldiers nor briefed by politicians. Because he is fluent in Arabic, Shadid--an Arab American born and raised in Oklahoma--was able to disappear into the divided, dangerous worlds of Ira

Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq

Riverbend, Alia Mamdouh · 286 pages

In August 2003, the world gained access to a remarkable new voice: a blog written by a 25-year-old Iraqi woman living in Baghdad, whose identity remained concealed for her own protection. Calling herself Riverbend, she offered searing eyewitness accounts of the everyday realities on the ground, punctuated by astute analysis on the politics behind these events. In a voice in turn eloquent, angry, r

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman

Jon Krakauer · 416 pages

The bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man's haunting journey. Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in th

Stringer: A Reporter's Journey in the Congo

Anjan Sundaram · 265 pages

A journalist who has reported from Africa and the Middle East presents a memoir about his life-threatening, disorienting year of self-discovery in one of the world's most conflicted nations in 2005-2006.

In the Hot Zone: One Man, One Year, Twenty Wars

Kevin Sites · 368 pages

Kevin Sites is a man on a mission. Venturing alone into the dark heart of war, armed with just a video camera, a digital camera, a laptop, and a satellite modem, the award-winning journalist covered virtually every major global hot spot as the first Internet correspondent for Yahoo! News. Beginning his journey with the anarchic chaos of Somalia in September 2005 and ending with the Israeli-Hezboll

The Fixer: A Story from Sarajevo

Joe Sacco · 112 pages

"How much does the nightly news cost? A carton of cigarettes maybe, or a pair of Levis. When shells are falling and Western journalism is the only game left in town "fixers" are the people who find war correspondents the human tragedies that make news editors happy. It's a dangerous occupation, a little amoral and a lot desperate." "Joe Sacco goes behind the scene of war correspondents to reveal t

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

Rajiv Chandrasekaran · 336 pages

An unprecedented account of life in Baghdad’s Green Zone, a walled-off enclave of towering plants, posh villas, and sparkling swimming pools that was the headquarters for the American occupation of Iraq.

Curfewed Night

Basharat Peer · 234 pages

Curfewed Night is a brave and unforgettable piece of literary reporting that reveals the personal stories behind one of the most brutal conflicts in modern times. Since 1989, when the separatist movement exploded, more than seventy thousand people have been killed in the battle between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Born and raised in the war-torn region, Basharat Peer brings this little-known p

And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East

Richard Engel · 241 pages

"Based on two decades of reporting, NBC's chief foreign correspondent's riveting story of the Middle East revolutions, the Arab Spring, war, and terrorism seen up-close--sometimes dangerously so. When he was just twenty-three, a recent graduate of Stanford University, Richard Engel set off to Cairo with $2,000 and dreams of being a reporter. Shortly thereafter he was working freelance for Arab new

The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria

Samar Yazbek · 288 pages

The Forever War

Dexter Filkins · 376 pages

National Bestseller Winner of the National Book Critics Circle AwardA New York Times Book Review Best Book of the YearOne of the Best Books of the Year: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Boston Globe, and TimeAn instant classic of war reporting, The Forever War is the definitive account of America's conflict with Islamic fundamentalism and a searing exploration of its

From Beirut to Jerusalem

Thomas L. Friedman · 560 pages

Examines Israeli-Palestinian relations, the PLO, Israeli politics, Lebanese factions, news reporting from the Middle East, and other issues of the Middle East.

A Hundred And One Days

Asne Seierstad · 327 pages

Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives

Jim Sheeler · 292 pages

Based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning story, Jim Sheeler’s unprecedented look at the way our country honors its dead; Final Salute Is a stunning tribute to the brave troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the families who continue to mourn themThey are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock a

This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War

Samanth Subramanian · 320 pages

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families

Philip Gourevitch · 355 pages

An unforgettable firsthand account of a people's response to genocide and what it tells us about humanity. This remarkable debut book chronicles what has happened in Rwanda and neighboring states since 1994, when the Rwandan government called on everyone in the Hutu majority to murder everyone in the Tutsi minority. Though the killing was low-tech--largely by machete--it was carried out at shoc

Naked in Baghdad: The Iraq War and the Aftermath as Seen by NPR's Correspondent Anne Garrels

Anne Garrels, Vint Lawrence · 264 pages

Code Name: Pale Horse: How I Went Undercover to Expose America's Nazis

Scott Payne · 256 pages

Obama's Wars

Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward interviewed dozens of high-ranking government officials to compile this record of the discussions and thought processes behind President Obama's decision to increase the American presence in Afghanistan by 30,000 military in early 2010 and begin phase-out of American involvement in mid-2011. The author used his access well in documenting secret discussions and public pronouncements

Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington

Sharyl Attkisson · 432 pages

A CBS reporter reveals how she has been electronically surveilled while digging deep into the Obama Administration and its scandals, and offers an incisive critique of her industry and the shrinking role of investigative journalism in today's media.

My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me

Mahvish Rukhsana Khan · 302 pages