al quaeda (jason buerke)

this is a good, if harrowing, read. actually the initial shock of just how much balls this guy has (wandering around afghanistan with the mujahideen etc) carries you through the majority of the book: the actual thesis behind it gets fairly repetitive, though it's probably very true. don't read this if you want to believe that catching osama will put an end to islamic fundamentalism: do if you're a little worried about the direction that increasingly noticeable branches of islam are taking and want some greater understanding and good, impressive sounding, arabic words to throw into the mix.