if you're interested in books about war, which would make sense under your current circumstances, have you read The Things They Carried? classic. also svetlana alexievich's oral history of soviet women combatants in WW2, The Unwomanly Face of War, is one of the best things i read last year.
I haven't posted in this thread for a while. I haven't read either of those books but I will have a look in the library. The Things They Carried sounds like a great book, particularly since it's based on the Vietnam War.
Lately I've been reading mostly books about personal finance including the following:
Reading these books has really inspired me to focus more on my superannuation so I can retire being financially independent. All of these books hammer home the message of compounding growth and spending less than you earn and investing the difference in the stock market, which should preferably be in low cost index fund. In Australia we have compulsory superannuation so employers invest 9.5% of your salary into super. However, making the minimal contributions won't be enough for most people so you have to invest more. Scott Pape recommends investing at least 15% of your salary into super and Tony Robbins recommends investing 20% of your salary into index funds to be able to retire financially independent.
I've contacted payroll and got them to contribute an extra 3% of my salary to super. I've got mortgages and student debt atm that I have to pay down, which is why I'm only investing 12.5% of my total salary but I plan on increasing the amount whenever I get a pay rise by contacting payroll. Assuming the stock market returns historical returns of around 10% I should be able to retire when I have $1 million in Super (670k US dollars).
Compound growth illustration from Unshakeable:
Edit- I'm 29 and so far my super is where Joe was at when he was 25.
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