Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Economist Joseph E. Stiglitz tots up the cost of the Iraq war, funnyman David Sedaris stops smoking, while John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev sweat out the Cuban missile crisis in notable nonfiction from 2008.

Our list of 20 titles, arranged alphabetically by author, is heavier than usual with conflict and terrorism, reflecting the Zeitgeist of this U.S. election year. Yet there’s still plenty of variety. President Andrew Jackson rides again in a new biography. Composer John Adams describes how he escaped “the cold, dead hand of the academic avant-garde.” Other books peer into Adolf Hitler’s library and reflect on the glories of indoor plumbing.

“Hallelujah Junction” by John Adams (Farrar, Straus/Faber). The composer of “Nixon in China” considers his career and the state of American classical music today.

“Nothing to Be Frightened Of” by Julian Barnes (Knopf/Cape). The English novelist presents one man’s often funny and always frank meditation on death, from killing chickens in a garden shed to losing his mother, presented here as an infuriating solipsist.

“Terror and Consent” by Philip Bobbitt (Knopf/Allen Lane). The U.S. legal scholar surveys the history of terrorism (with, as he writes, “something to offend everyone”) and challenges received wisdom on the best ways to fight it.

“The Bin Ladens” by Steve Coll (Penguin Press/Allen Lane). This magnificent book by the Pulitzer Prize winner and New Yorker writer is more than a family chronicle about the lineage of Osama bin Laden: It’s a biography of the nation that spawned him.

Cuban Missile Crisis

“One Minute to Midnight” by Michael Dobbs (Knopf/ Hutchinson). The Washington Post reporter unearths and reconstructs more than enough fresh material to justify this new and much improved account of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“The Forever War” by Dexter Filkins (Knopf/Bodley Head). The New York Times correspondent offers a dark, humane and addictive report on the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The Wrecking Crew” by Thomas Frank (Metropolitan). In this agenda-driven, carefully researched, wickedly well-written study of “government-by-sabotage,” the author of “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” continues his attack on the Republican right wing.

“The Big Necessity” by Rose George (Metropolitan/ Portobello). The British journalist explores one of the great achievements of Western civilization: the toilet.

“Hell’s Cartel” by Diarmuid Jeffreys (Metropolitan/ Bloomsbury). The U.K. reporter presents a damning new history of I.G. Farbenindustrie AG’s single biggest investment: a synthetic rubber and fuel factory at Auschwitz.

Tyrannical Policies

“The Dark Side” by Jane Mayer (Doubleday). The tenacious New Yorker reporter takes us, step by step, through the process by which, during the past eight years, practices and methods we associate with tyrannies became official U.S. policy.

“American Lion” by Jon Meacham (Random House). The Newsweek editor makes the case that Andrew Jackson was the nation’s first modern president.

“Chasing the Flame” by Samantha Power (Penguin Press/ Allen Lane). Power’s biography of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the diplomat who died in an al-Qaeda bombing in 2003, is also a clear-eyed analysis of the United Nations, an organization as dysfunctional as it is necessary.

“Swimming in a Sea of Death” by David Rieff (Simon & Schuster/Granta). In this fine memoir, Susan Sontag’s son recounts her fierce determination to keep living and writing in the face of incurable leukemia, which finally killed her in December 2004.

Disaster Strikes

“The Unthinkable” by Amanda Ripley (Crown/Random House). The Time magazine reporter debriefs people who’ve survived fires, airplane crashes, shooting sprees and 9/11. They explain how they reacted, minute by harrowing minute.

“Hitler’s Private Library” by Timothy W. Ryback (Knopf). Some 1,200 of Hitler’s books wound up in the U.S. Library of Congress. Ryback worked his way through them to document the Fuehrer’s chaotic interests in nutrition, demographics, history, culture, biography and sentimental novels.

“When You Are Engulfed in Flames” by David Sedaris (Little, Brown). The man who just may be the funniest writer alive offers essays on topics ranging from gay monogamy to how he stopped smoking.

“Final Salute” by Jim Sheeler (Penguin Press). This Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter spent two years among the Marine Corps officers who are tasked with bringing the worst possible news to a soldier’s family.

Skull and Bones

“Descartes’ Bones” by Russell Shorto (Doubleday). The narrative historian explains how the skull of the French philosopher -- “I think, therefore I am” -- became separated from the rest of his mortal bones.

“The Three Trillion Dollar War” by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes (Norton). The Nobel Prize-winning economist joins a Harvard professor to show how the cost of invading Iraq dealt a body blow to American military preparedness and the U.S. economy.

“The Age of Reagan” by Sean Wilentz (HarperCollins). The left-leaning Princeton historian makes a case for the primacy of the 40th president in the era that began with Gerald Ford and ended with George W. Bush.

(James Pressley and Craig Seligman write for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are their own.)

To contact the writers of this column: James Pressley in Brussels at jpressley@bloomberg.net; Craig Seligman in New York at cseligman@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 18, 2008 19:00 EST