NIGHTLY READING THREAD: Welcome to Edition #72 of #GMGReads. Every night through this weird time, I'm tweeting out a list of my five favorite books around a general theme—and a link to an indie bookstore where you can order them online....
Tonight, continuing our Memorial Day week theme on modern wars, and last night's novels of the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan, here are my favorite books of reportage to emerge from Iraq:
1) As a starting point, you should read Michael Kelly's powerful chronicle of the first Gulf War, MARTYR'S DAY, which argues eloquently and vividly the everyday brutality of Saddam's regime: powells.com/book/-97806794…
2) Anne Garrels' (@annegarrels) wrote a great first-person about covering the initial invasion for NPR, NAKED IN BAGHDAD: powells.com/book/-97803124…
3) Tom Ricks (@tomricks1) wrote probably the two definitive books about how the occupation went south, FIASCO powells.com/book/-97815942… and, later, about the surge, THE GAMBLE: powells.com/book/-97815942…
4) David Finkel's THE GOOD SOLDIERS is a heart-wrenching portrait of a unit at war: powells.com/book/-97803124…
5) Anthony Shadid's NIGHT DRAWS NEAR, about the Iraqi people, is one of the most powerful books I've ever read; when it came out in 2005, I knew we were in way over our heads: powells.com/book/-97803124…
PS: It's worth noting that as we remember the huge human cost of this war, two of these writers—Michael Kelly and Anthony Shadid—died covering the Iraq War and the unrest that it spawned. If you read their books here, you'll see how much the world misses their writing.
Those are tonight's #GMGReads. What are your favorite books about Iraq? Share! Up tomorrow night: Memoirs of Iraq and Afghanistan. #avidreadersunite
