Naked in Baghdad by Anne Garrels is another solid first-person account of Baghdad at war. Anne Garrels was the NPR correspondent in Baghdad, gamely sticking to her reportage throughout the war, one of only 16 non-embedded reporters who stayed in the capital during the war. Based out of the Palestine Hotel, she dodged her Iraqi minders, cajoled the bureaucracy, scrounged supplies, and roamed the city trying to pull together stories in the face of U.S. bombing and missle strikes and a relentless Iraqi propaganda machine.

Garrels work lacks the depth of content and insight that laces through Anderson's account but her book remains a vivid and highly readable account. Interestingly enough, it too touches on the U.S. shelling of the Palestine Hotel - from the receiving end of the shells. Overall Naked in Baghdad is a fascinating personal account but at the end of the day is more of a war diary.

Overall the books covered in this brief and incomplete reader review are all well worth your time and will help you gain a better comprehension of the events that have occurred and are daily unfolding. The one element I would recommend is that you make an effort to read outside of your comfort zone, whatever side of the political fence you may find yourself on.

For more on Iraq I recommend checking out some of the many first-hand accounts of the warzone. Here are a few notable ones:

Back to Iraq by Christopher Allbritten is a weblog started by a freelance journalist who went "stumbling around Iraqi Kurdistan" in 2002 and again in 2003 during the war. He is now based in Baghdad covering the post-war events for Time Magazine. He offers a solid and involving look at the tensions of living and working in Baghdad, and some fascinating insights into the evolving Iraqi political situation.

Michael Yon's Online Magazine site is another freelance independent reporter embedded with the U.S. Forces in Iraq. Yon's work is tense, tight and highly readable, providing a window into the lives of the men on the ground and the war they face that goes far beynd the regular media.

Also notable is Kevin Sites blog of his activities in the warzone.

For other miitary bloggers of note - check out The Mudville Gazette, which provides an exhaustive and comprehensive mil-blogger list, Blackfive, CounterColumn , and The Indepundit (formerly Lt. Smash when he was in Iraq...).

Beyond the mil-bloggers, check out Riverbend, Healing Iraq, and lastly Dear Raed (the famous Iraqi blogger who blogged from Baghdad throughout the war,. His site is now in hiatus).