Afghanistan is old news. The media has moved on to covering corporate scandals, the Bush administration wants to invade Iraq, and Congress is talking about Homeland Security. It's summer and who wants to revisit the recent past?

I do. I picked up a copy of Ahmed Rashid's "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia." Rashid is a reporter who's spent decades covering Central Asia, interviewed all the major players in the region, and been published in the Wall Street Journal, Far Eastern Economic Review, and more recently on EurasiaNet. The book is divided into three parts: History of the Taliban Movement, Islam and the Taliban, and The New Great Game. Rashid's writing is factual, comprehensive, but also accessible. This book is invaluable for understanding how the Taliban came to power, why the US's current policy in Afghanistan is doomed to fail, and how Afghanistan is at the center of a power struggle between major regional players, including Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the former Soviet Republics. I found it particularly good for helping me understand what's going on in Pakistan right now and why Gen. Musharref is having trouble controlling his own military and intelligence agency. I've found Rashid's recent articles on Afghanistan very informative, and this book impressed me and made me want to search out his other titles. "Taliban" was first published in 2000 in the UK by I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. A paperback US edition was issued in 2001 by Yale University Press; it should be easy to find in your local, independent bookstore.--Maria Tomchick

One of my sisters is a fan of mystery novels. Over the years, she's bought a lot of books, read them, then given them to my mother, who passes some of them on to me. I've read several, many of them mediocre, and a few that were fun but didn't have much substance. One author, however, grabbed my attention and has continued to hold it through a whole series of historical mysteries set in Victorian England. Now, I'm not a fan of Victoriana--not one of those women who has lace doilies on my end table and sachets in my bathroom. No. It's the dark side of Victorian England that makes me return to Anne Perry's William Monk novels.

Perry knows how to write about class, race, gender, and sexism. She covers violence, war, murder, mindless healthcare bureaucrats, the horrors of Victorian hospitals, and political intrigue with equal skill. But what makes me enjoy her novels most is her probing of psychological issues related to families and how the effort to keep up one's social status and maintain the appearance of normalcy--i.e., self-repression--can lead to eruptions of violence.

Since the characters in the novels evolve and change over time (another reason why I like her), I recommend starting at the beginning with "The Face of a Stranger" and reading them in succession. All are mass market, pocket-sized, paperback books--easy to find, even in a used-book store. If you like your summer reading to be a bit lighter than a heavy, political tome, but still have an edge of darkness, these books are perfect.--M.T.