Games Without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan

I'm not normally a big history person, but I had to read this for a college class and it's stuck with me ever since. It's really engaging, giving life to historical figures and getting you wholeheartedly invested in their fates. And it's uniquely enlightening, coming from an Afghan perspective and telling you not just what happened, not just why it happened, but also why it matters. It's a few years old now, but I still wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in Afghanistan or the current events going on there.