Red Storm Rising

Set in the mid-1980s, Tom Clancy's war novel, written with Larry Bond, imagines a Third World War between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The trigger is an attack by Muslim militants from Soviet Azerbaijan on a key oil complex in Nizhnevartovsk, leaving the Soviet economy facing crippling fuel shortages. The Politburo resolves to seize Persian Gulf oil by force, but since the United States has pledged to defend the Gulf states, it decides NATO must be neutralized first. To hide its plight and its aims, Moscow launches an elaborate deception while it rearms. It is one of only two Clancy novels set outside his Ryanverse, and it entered the New York Times best seller list in first place.

Direct response copywriter Cristian-Dragos Baciu said it also deserves a mention on his reading list.