Zucchino pulls out subtle details on the men, the machines and the realities of war, capturing both the turmoil and the tragedy in equal measures. He also serves to shed light on one of the more erroneously reported and infamous incidents of the war - the shelling of the Palestine Hotel - offering a through after-action report with a number of witnesses to the incident, laying to rest the reports of a deliberate assault on the media. Here's a quick excerpt:

"The division had just completed the fastest sustained combat ground march in American military history - 704 kilometers in just over two weeks and 300 kilometers in one twenty-four hour sprint. It was April 4, 2003 and Jason Diaz from the Bronx - budding army lifer, husband of Monique, father of little Alondra and the twins, Alexandra and Anthony - was weary and filthy and longing to go home. But now, on this cold starry night, he was obliged to demand even more from his exhausted crew and his overextended tank. He had just been ordered to take them straight into Baghdad."

Thunder Run is, quite bluntly, a terrific read.

Beyond the battlefield accounts and the "embeds" are another set of stories penned by a handful of reporters who remained behind in Baghdad after the war began. The Fall of Baghdad by John Lee Anderson is a highly personal, very evocative, gritty and well-written account of Baghdad before, during and immediately after the war. Anderson draws a careful and nuanced account of his days in Baghdad, sketching out the often narrow path that individual Iraqi's have had to tread between a dangerous and rampant advancing superpower and the ruthless internal security apparatus of the Saddam and the Baathists. Through experience, interviews and trenchent observation, Anderson has built an effective and gripping picture of life in the final days of Baghdad, putting an all-too-human face on the people at the other end of the rifle sight.

By the time you finish The Fall of Baghdad, you are left with a decidely mixed taste in your mouth regarding the invasion - it rid Iraq and the world of Saddam and the apparatus that supported him - but the question of what impact the occupation will have for the peoples of Iraq is decidely uncertain. Anderson's book is not an overtly political work, it is not an anti-war or pro-war polemic, but rather concerns itself with opening a window on the conditions, thoughts, hopes and fears of the people of Iraq. Some of the messages are unpleasant and unsettling, but they do need to be heard and Anderson's work is a well-written and rich first step towards a better understanding of the situation.