A couple of books I enjoyed reading recently:
War - Sebastian Junger has written a story of a platoon sited in Afghanistan. “Story” is not quite right, it is more of a report of what actually occurred and there are alot of direct quotes from the participants. Junger spent a fair bit of time with the platoon. If you read this book, you will never hear the TV news from Iran, Iraq and other war zones quite the same way again.
Matterhorn - Karl Marlantes has written a fictional account of a group of marines the Vietnam War. Marlantes served as a marine and he received a Navy Cross, Bronze Star, two Navy Commendations Medals for Valour, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals. He writes with an attention to detail that makes it very realistic. He is also a a graduate from Yale University and a Rhodes Scholar - so the prose is pretty good. I found the book so intense that I had to put it down quite a number of times as I couldn’t handle the emotion that it was creating.