GIST
A highly readable, sober look at bio-weapons, the reasons for the ban on their use, the attempts to develop defenses against them, and several instances of their past use by cults-including one in Oregon and another in Japan. Judith Miller, who wrote the book with Stephen Engelberg and William Broad, has been in the news since receiving a letter containing a powdery substance at The New York Times.

GIST
Simon Reeve takes a complex story and transforms it into an international thriller, following multiple characters-FBI agents, terrorists, Osama bin Laden-until he's pieced together the events that led up to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, as well as other audacious attacks masterminded by Yousef. Sometimes his footnotes ("author interview with Filipino investigators") are vague.

GIST
A scholarly, though readable, book that traces Osama bin Laden's influence to his ability to mobilize the "Afghan Arabs" who came together from all over the Middle East to fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Bodansky shows the role of bin Laden and his terrorists in stirring up terror in Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Kosovo, Malaysia, and the Philippines. This book is the best of the volumes on bin Laden and company.

GIST
Reporters have traced the rise of Islamic extremism to the Afghan War. Cooley emphasizes the U.S. role in arming Islamic fundamentalists to act as our proxies in that fight, thus building a powerful force that has come back to haunt us. There are lessons here about hubris and the inability of even very smart people to predict all the future consequences of their well-meaning actions.

GIST
Afghanistan is a jumble of ethnic groups, tribes, and warring factions. Internal divisions and outside meddling by countries like Pakistan and Russia make cohesion highly unlikely. This book does little to sort out the confusion for the lay reader. With its hard-to-follow narrative and its tossing in of names of a huge number of players, this is not for any but the most determined readers.