This book is a wonderful follow up to The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks, albeit a more serious and less tongue-in-cheek effort. Presented as a series of first-person accounts and reflections as told to the author, this book explores a worldwide zombie threat and its effect on humanity, and looks at it as both a military and political crisis.

While readers might not always agree with the author’s political views or beliefs, what makes this novel stand out is that it tackles some of the bigger questions in his analysis of what would happen to ordinary people, from various cultures and religions and countries, in the event of a massive global conflict with the undead. (via amazon.com)

Send Tom Hanks around to interview a bunch of WWII veterans... but change WWII to "Zombie World War", and you've got the premise. Addictively readable.

"Brooks, the author of the determinedly straight-faced parody The Zombie Survival Guide (2003), returns in all seriousness to the zombie theme for his second outing, a future history in the style of Theodore Judson's Fitzpatrick's War. Brooks tells the story of the world's desperate battle against the zombie threat with a series of first-person accounts "as told to the author" by various characters around the world. A Chinese doctor encounters one of the earliest zombie cases at a time when the Chinese government is ruthlessly suppressing any information about the outbreak that will soon spread across the globe. The tale then follows the outbreak via testimony of smugglers, intelligence officials, military personnel and many others who struggle to defeat the zombie menace. Despite its implausible premise and choppy delivery, the novel is surprisingly hard to put down. The subtle, and not so subtle, jabs at various contemporary politicians and policies are an added bonus."

I like "realistic" horror/end of the world style stories (like "I am legend" the book, and "Children of Men" the movie), and this is supposed to be the book that reinvented the zombie genre. On my to-read list.