I am a third of the way through Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick. Whenever a high-profile news article about ISIS would rear its head i'd always tell myself that i'll have read it, but I never got around to any of them. I figured that this book would be a good way to get up to speed.

It won the the 2016 Pulitzer Prize* for non-fiction and my initial impression is that it is very much deserving of it. The way it's written makes it incredibly gripping. I've seen others say that it plays out like a thriller novel and I think that's a good analogy. It also helps that a lot of the factors surrounding the events are insane. It's general knowledge that the invasion of Iraq was disastrously handled, but the dive under the surface is another level. Like, how could all these things happen like this outside of fictional tale? And yet they did. It has sparked my interest in more non-fiction.

*

Q: What do you call the annual award for the best Christmas cracker joke?

A: The Pull-it Surprise

Sorry, that's my friend's joke.