Bomber Mafia

The Bomber Mafia, by Malcom Gladwell, is unusual in many ways. I'll preface this by mentioning that it's an incredible tale of aviation, ingenuity, courage, and bombs. It was released as an audio book prior to its print publication (I used the audio version) and so it includes voice snippets from some of the people whose histories were being told.
I'm probably pretty much smack dab in the middle of the target audience: fascinated by both aviation and military history. And I learned a lot of new information.
Curtis LeMay is a... difficult figure, to say the least. And all too often, he is portrayed as a rather one dimensional figure, a brutal, gung-ho commander. But there turned out to be a lot more to the man. From his willingness to personally lead his squadrons when other pilots protested that the 6 minute bombing runs were to dangerous, to his willingness to lead distraction squads, drawing the fire from defending fighters. Even the brutality has a positive spin - well after WWII he was awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun of the highest level for his help in "coercing" the surrender before land invasions by the USSR and USA began.
It's both hard and easy for me to recommend this book. On one hand, the niche subject matter is only interesting to a few folks. However, it also does an incredible job of discussing the evolution of strategic bombing - from the intial concepts by the bomber mafia in the early twentieth century, to the transition to area bombing, and to the modern ability to bomb specific rooms of a house. And most importantly, in this regard, it also talks about how the ability to target (or the inability to do so) affects the willingness to drop said bombs. All I can say is, I really enjoyed it. And the audio book is very well produced.