New Yorker staff writer George Packer was honored with two Overseas Press Club awards in 2003, for his coverage of the war in Iraq and his reporting on the civil war in Sierra Leone. His books include the bestseller The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq and Blood of the Liberals, winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. Packer's new essay collection, Interesting Times, offers a wide-angled account of the past decade's historic events from September 11 to the election of President Barack Obama.