Three years after the release of his Zombie Survival Guide, former SNL writer Max Brooks published his first novel. It was also about zombies. And true to its name, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War presents first-person accounts, a la Studs Terkel, of a global showdown with the living dead, recorded a decade after the conflict has ended. For the good of humanity, a researcher for the U.N. Postwar Commission takes it upon himself to document the stories—complete with footnotes. Brooks’ 2006 bestseller was optioned before it was published, but we’re still waiting for the movie.