I think Thomas E. Ricks is the only one who knows what’s really going on in Iraq. His brilliant analysis, THE GAMBLE, shows how the military finally abandoned their bankrupt “capture and kill” strategy and converted to a counterinsurgency approach with the Surge. Ricks believes we’re only halfway through our involvement in Iraq. We have at least six more years of counterinsurgency warfare ahead of us. Ricks shows us how the Army works and how a change in leadership to General David Petraeus avoided complete failure in Iraq. However, as a result of the Surge, we are now committed to fighting a “Long War” in Iraq that might last for decades. If you doubt that, just look at our military involvement in Korea: 50 years and counting. If you want to understand the Iraq War, Ricks will enlighten you.

“Power changes people, and it changes nations,” Robert Kagan says in his slim, insightful guide to contemporary politics. In a little more than a 100 pages, Kagan explores the upcoming competition of the U.S. and China (maybe a war), the frustration of radical Islamists to turn back the clock of modernity 1,400 years, and the surety that terrorists will acquire and use nuclear weapons. In a couple of hours, Kagan can reorient your geopolitical vision.

Timothy Ferriss’s approach to work is radical: work as little as you can for maximum bucks and have fun the rest of the time. Ferriss has developed a strategy that can make you a member of the New Rich while working as little as four hours per week. Sounds crazy, but Ferriss lays it all out. Along the way, Ferriss provides insight into business investment, interest rates, working the System, and time management. If you consider yourself overworked and underpaid, Ferriss shows you a way out of your dilemma.