The Junior Officers' Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars

In the Iraqi desert (combat soundtrack of choice: Metallica and Prodigy), Patrick Hennessey and a handful of his military academy pals form the Junior Officers' Reading Club, staving off both the monotony and the pressures of army life by losing themselves in the dusty paperbacks on the transit-camp bookshelves. By the time Hennessey reaches Afghanistan and the rest of the club are scattered across the Middle East, they are no longer cheerfully overconfident young recruits, hungering for acti…