Manne, Robert. Mind of the Islamic State: ISIS and the Ideology of the Caliphate. Prometheus Books, 2017.

In the ongoing conflict with ISIS, military observers and regional experts have noted that it is just as important to understand its motivating ideology as to win battles on the ground. This book traces the evolution of this ideology from its origins in the prison writings of the revolutionary jihadist Sayyid Qutb, through the thinking of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who planned the 9/11 terrorist attack, to today’s incendiary screeds that motivate terrorism via the Internet.

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning. Feminist Press, 2005.

In August 2003, the world gained access to a remarkable new voice: a blog written by a 25-year-old Iraqi woman living in Baghdad, whose identity remained concealed for her own protection. Calling herself Riverbend, she offered searing eyewitness accounts of the everyday realities on the ground, punctuated by astute analysis on the politics behind these events.

Hedges, Chris and Laila Al-Arian. Photographs by Eugene Richards. Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians. Nation Books, 2009.

Collateral Damage brings together testimony from the largest number of on-the-record, named combat veterans who reveal the disturbing, daily reality of war and occupation in Iraq. Through their eyes, we learn how the mechanics of war lead to the abuse and frequent killing of innocents. They describe convoys of vehicles roaring down roads, smashing into cars, and hitting Iraqi civilians. They detail raids that leave families shot dead in the mayhem. And they describe a battle eld in which troops, untrained to distinguish between combatants and civilians, are authorized to shoot whenever they feel threatened.

McCarthy, Rory. Nobody Told Us We Are Defeated: Stories from the New Iraq. Penguin Books, 2006.

In May 2003 journalist Rory McCarthy went to Iraq to cover what was claimed to be the triumphant rebuilding of the country after the American invasion. Two years later he left a place teetering on the brink of civil war, whose inhabitants longed for the Americans to leave but feared what would happen if they did. Throughout his stay, McCarthy was struck by how little the Iraqi point of view was represented in the media, drowned out by the message of the British and American occupying powers. This book is an attempt to rectify that.

Mikhail, Dunya. Translated by Max Weiss and Dunya Mikhail. The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq. New Directions, 2018.

Since 2014, Daesh (ISIS) has been brutalizing the Yazidi people of northern Iraq: sowing destruction, killing those who won’t convert to Islam, and enslaving young girls and women. The Beekeeper, by the acclaimed poet and journalist Dunya Mikhail, tells the harrowing stories of several women who managed to escape the clutches of Daesh. Mikhail extensively interviews these women—who’ve lost their families and loved ones, who’ve been repeatedly sold, raped, psychologically tortured, and forced to manufacture chemical weapons—and as their tales unfold, an unlikely hero emerges: a beekeeper.

Mohammed, Sadek, Soheil Najm, Haider Al-Kabi and Dan Veach, editors. Flowers of Flame: Unheard Voices of Iraq. Michigan State University Press, 2008.

In this poetry collection—the first since the American invasion—Iraqis themselves vividly depict the bombing of Baghdad, the fall of Saddam Hussein, the invaders (on both sides), the sectarian violence—and in the midst of it all, the hardships, loves, and hopes of the Iraqi people. This collection was compiled by Iraqis in exile in the U.S. Poets, editors and translators in Iraq run the daily risk of suicide bombers, gun re from all sides, and death squads. The poems included here represent Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, the living and the dead, those who remain in Iraq and those who fled. It is a testament to the courage of all of the contributors.

Blasim, Hassan. Translated by Jonathan Wright. The Corpse Exhibition: And Other Stories of Iraq. Penguin Books, 2014.

The Corpse Exhibition shows us the war as we have never seen it before. Here is a world not only of soldiers and assassins, hostages and car bombers, refugees and terrorists, but also of madmen and prophets, angels and djinni, sorcerers and spirits. Blending shocking realism with flights of fantasy, The Corpse Exhibition offers us a pageant of horrors, as haunting as the photos of Abu Ghraib and as difficult to look away from, but shot through with a gallows humor that yields an un inching comedy of the macabre.

Gallagher, Matt. Youngblood: A Novel. Atria Books, 2016.

The U.S. military is preparing to withdraw from Iraq, and newly-minted lieutenant Jack Porter struggles to accept how it’s happening—through alliances with warlords who have Arab and American blood on their hands. Day after day, Jack tries to assert his leadership in the sweltering, dreary atmosphere of Ashuriyah. But his world is disrupt- ed by the arrival of veteran Sergeant Daniel Chambers, whose aggressive style threatens to undermine the fragile peace that the troops have worked hard to establish.

Lightbourne, Alesa. The Kurdish Bike: A Novel. Alesa Lightbourne, 2016.

It is 2010, and Theresa Turner responds to an online ad for “courageous teachers to help rebuild a war-torn country.” Landing in a repressive school for Kurd elites, she yearns to experience the “real” Kurdistan, buys a bicycle and explores the nearby villages and countryside. When she is befriended by a local widow, Theresa is embroiled in the joys and agonies of traditional Kurds, especially the women who survived Saddam’s genocide only to be crippled by age-old restrictions, female genital mutilation (FGM), brutality and honor killings.

Antoon, Sinan. The Corpse Washer. Yale University Press, 2014.

Through the struggles of a single desperate family, Sinan Antoon’s novel shows us the heart of Iraq’s complex and violent recent history. Descending into the underworld where the borders between life and death are blurred and where there is no refuge from unending nightmares, Antoon limns a world of great sorrows, a world where the winds wail.

Mustafa, Gharbi M. What Comes With the Dust: A Novel. Arcade Publishing, 2018.

As The Kite Runner and The Swallows of Kabul did for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, this slim, profound novel illuminates the plight of those living under the Islamic State as well as the spirit of the Yazidi people.

Findakly, Brigette and Lewis Trondheim. Poppies of Iraq. Drawn and Quarterly, 2017.

Poppies of Iraq is Brigitte Findakly’s nuanced tender chronicle of her relationship with her homeland Iraq, co-written and drawn by her husband, the acclaimed cartoonist Lewis Trondheim. In spare and elegant detail, they share memories of her middle class childhood touching on cultural practices, the education system, Saddam Hussein’s state control and her family’s history as Orthodox Christians in the Arab world.

Schmermund, Elizabeth. ISIS and the Yazidi Genocide in Iraq. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2018.

In 2014, many people saw images of members of the Yazidi ethno-religious group on television. They sought refuge from Islamic State in Syria (ISIS) militants in the mountains of northern Iraq. Since then, the genocide against the Yazidi minority group has continued. This book will teach students about Iraq and the Yazidis, as well as the violence the Yazidis have faced at the hands of ISIS. As the war against ISIS and the global refugee crisis continue, understanding the plight of the Yazidis in order to work against hatred and discrimination is more important than ever.

Wilkes, Sybella. Out of Iraq: Refugees’ Stories in Words, Paintings and Music. London: Evans, 2010.

Since 2006, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees have fled to other countries—particularly neighboring Syria and Jordan—where many of them are still waiting for the time when they feel it is safe to return home. This book provides, in words and pictures, what life was like in Iraq before they left, why they were forced to flee and how they feel about life as refugees. Their stories are set against background information about Iraq, Saddam Hussain’s rule, the invasion and the subsequent civil war.

IraqiGirl. IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq. Haymarket Books, 2009.

I feel that I have been sleeping all my life and I have woken up and opened my eyes to the world. A beautiful world! But impossible to live in.These are the words of fteen- year-old Hadiya, blogging from the city of Mosul, Iraq, to let the world know what life is really like as the military occupation of her country unfolds. In many ways, her life is familiar. She worries about exams and enjoys watching Friends during the rare hours that the electricity in her neighborhood is running. But the horrors of war surround her everywhere—weeklong curfews, relatives killed, and friends whose families are forced to flee their homes. With black humor and un inching honesty, Hadiya shares the painful stories of lives changed forever.

Marsden, Carolyn. The White Zone. Carolrhoda Books, 2014.

Nouri and his cousin Talib can only vaguely remember a time before tanks rumbled over the streets of their Baghdad neighborhood—when books, not bombs, ruled Mutanabbi Street. War has been the backdrop of their young lives. And now Iraq isn’t just at war with Americans. It’s at war with itself. Sunnis fight Shiites, and the strife is at the boys’ doorsteps. Nouri is Shiite and Talib is half Sunni. To the boys, it seems like only a miracle can mend the rift that is tearing a country and a family apart.

Myers, Walter Dean. Sunrise over Fallujah. Scholastic, 2010.

Robin ‘Birdy’ Perry, a new army recruit from Harlem, isn’t quite sure why he joined the army, but he’s sure where he’s headed: Iraq. Birdy and the others in the Civilian Affairs Battalion are supposed to help secure and stabilize the country and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. Officially, the code name for their maneuvers is Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the young men and women in the CA unit have a simpler name for it: WAR.