20 Generation Kill June 2004 Evan Wright Read More 19 Heart of Darkness 1899 Joseph Conrad Read More 18 Sometimes a Great Notion July 1964 Ken Kesey Read More 17 The Hundred Years' War on Palestine January 2020 Rashid Khalidi Read More 16 Slouching Towards Bethlehem 1968 Joan Didion Read More 15 The Color Purple 1982 Alice Walker Read More 14 Lord of the Flies September 1954 William Golding Read More 13 Miles: The Autobiography 1989 Miles Davis & Quincy Troupe Read More 12 The Fruit Palace January 1985 Charles Nicholl Read More 11 Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation May 2020 Kristin Kobes Du Mez Read More 10 The Lost City of Z February 2009 David Grann Read More 9 Fahrenheit 451 October 1953 Ray Bradbury Read More 8 Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 1973 Hunter S. Thompson Read More 7 No Country for Old Men July 2005 Cormac McCarthy Read More 6 Legacy of Ashes January 2006 Tim Weiner Read More 5 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest February 1962 Ken Kesey Read More 4 The Monkey Wrench Gang August 1975 Edward Abbey Read More 3 The Great Shark Hunt 1979 Hunter S. Thompson Read More 2 The Nickle Boys July 2019 Colson Whitehead Read More 1 The Bonfire of the Vanities October 1987 Tom Wolfe Read More

Generation Kill Evan Wright June 2004 Generation Kill is a non-fiction book written by Evan Wright chronicling his time as an embedded reporter during and shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In early March 2003 Wright, on assignment with Rolling Stone Magazine , was sent to Camp Matilda, Kuwait where US Military was preparing what would be its brief but bloody second invasion of Iraq . After convincing a Marine commander that he was up to the assignment he spent two months with the Marine Corps. 1st Reconnaissance Battalion , which ended up including the entire initial Invasion and about 3 weeks of what would become an 8 year long period of US occupation and combat in Iraq . Initial reactions of the 1st Recon Marines were negative and some were suspicious of the liberal editorials' potential coverage of Marine behavior and actions, but were soon won over by Wright’s dedication and refusal to quit in the face of danger and during combat. He spent the entire invasion with the Alpha and Bravo teams of the 1st Recon Marines, often riding in the lead vehicle of Bravo team, a lightly armored Humvee , and even (reluctantly) carried a weapon during certain periods of the invasion. By the time his assignment was up, Wright had built close friendships with many of the Marines and was often treated as one of their own. On his return Wright published a three-part series for Rolling Stone on his time in Iraq that won the National Magazine Award for Excellence and began writing what would become one of the greatest and most proximate non-fiction writing on modern war and conflict, Generation Kill . Wright’s account of his experience with the young men of 1st Recon battalion puts the reader waist-deep into the experience of an elite and often intelligent group of young men molded to be warriors. Often reframing lower authority combat veterans as, just some, of the many victims of American aggression overseas, Wright addresses issues such as, war crimes, moral conflict of young soldiers, indoctrination mentality in the Marines, incompetence as well as nepotism of US senior leadership, and the violent dismantling of a vulnerable nation, with a level of humility and proximity that can’t be replicated without the harrowing experience he committed to in 2003. BUY NOW Previous Next

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 Heart of Darkness is an 1899 novella by Joseph Conrad , initially published as a three-part piece in Blackwood's Magazine , that tells the story of Charles Marlow, a steamer captain tasked with recovering an ivory trader who has lost touch with his Belgian trading company. Throughout Marlow's voyage up the Congo River , he is exposed to and recounts different horrors and hypocrisies of European Imperialism . Conrad served as a maritime marine in 1890 in the Congo Free State , and his time there is often credited with inspiring Heart of Darkness . Consequently, Conrad delivers an almost firsthand account of a hypothetical [European male] experiencing colonialism in the late 1800s. However, until the civil rights movement of the 1960s, it was seen as a minor piece of work, even by Conrad. It is now considered one of the earliest written anti-imperial texts to gain major popularity. One of the central themes of the story is that civilized society is not so civilized; it merely exports its savagery to other parts of the world. Note: Heart of Darkness is considered an anti-colonial work, but it requires a bit of historic context to benefit from. While Conrad certainly had anti-colonial opinions to share with the world, he was still no doubt a bystander and a major beneficiary of colonialism. He was also not a victim of colonialism but a part of the perpetrating society of it, and subsequently, some of his critiques fall very short of what we would consider liberal and humane today. BUY NOW Previous Next