Sandstorms And Screeds — Reading Up On Iraq

The best books that will emerge from Gulf War II, undoubtedly, are yet to come; their authors are the soldiers and journalists still toiling in the region. Publishers Weekly Forecasts editor Jeff Zaleski predicts that a chronicle by one of the reporters who stuck out the bombing in Baghdad or a memoir by General Tommy Franks would sell well. But a surprising number of books already on store shelves and best-seller lists are addressing readers' immediate hunger to understand the conflict and its lasting impact. From instant books to meticulous histories, here's a reader's guide to war and peace in Iraq:

MEMOIR
He's one war behind, but this former Marine sniper's bestselling chronicle of a soldier's life in Gulf War I has helped readers grasp this one

PRIMER
This definitive case for the war made by a former CIA analyst is still a best seller after seven months; it poses ideas on rebuilding after Saddam

CRITIQUE
In a quickie book for the intelligentsia, novelist and essayist Norman Mailer challenges Bush's war aims and the patriotic impulses they engendered

BIOGRAPHY
A British journalist draws on interviews with Iraqi defectors and Western intelligence sources to depict Saddam's path from peasant boy to tyrant

BIG PICTURE
Covering the crisis beyond Iraq, an Islamic scholar traces the history of holy war and Muslim rage from the 7th century to the modern suicide bomber