I have become a fan of Gwynne Dyer. The first book of his I read was given to me as a Xmas gift by an uncle, and it was given early as I was going to be away during the holiday season. I took that gift with me and opened it on the 25th. I realized my uncle had thought ahead on this choice of a gift since the book covered the war in Afghanistan and I was at the time living in Jalalabad and traveling throughout the country. How interesting it was at times when I might read a chapter describing a specific location and then travel to that location the next day. Dyer is known for the depth of his historical research and it often deals with real people. I learned more from that trip than from any classroom history class I ever sat in.