The Good Soldiers by David Finkel (Picador $15) A spellbinding account of an Army battalion (average age 19) stationed in a violent neighborhood in Baghdad during the surge of 2007-8. On many 2009 "best books" lists.

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Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer (Anchor $15.95) When Tillman was killed by "friendly fire" in Afghanistan in 2004, his uniform and belongings were burned and his family was repeatedly lied to in a cover-up by General McChrystal and other officers.

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The Siege by Ismail Kadare, translated by David Bellos (Canongate $15) The winner of the Man Booker International Prize and a Nobel contender. Kadare is Albania's most distinguished novelist. Originally published in 1970, this novel tells the story of a thwarted Ottoman siege of an Albanian fortress in the 15th century. "Extraordinary: an epic with the force of myth and the delicacy of a miniature…. You could read THE SIEGE every year for a lifetime and find something new each time…. A masterpiece.”
(The Telegraph)