The Lords of Discipline

As cliché as it sounds, I didn't expect to like it — it's an old-fashioned dude book (as more than one of my friends noted upon seeing the hardback edition, it looks “like something my dad would read”) and written with the sensibility of an old-fashioned dude (that is to say, it's problematic af at times). Conroy's heart is in the right place though, and if you can look past the requisite myopia and non-PC language and read its more controversial tropes as an honest depiction of a complicated time (the 60s) in a very complicated place (the South), you'd find that it's a fascinating, unflinching look at masculinity, social stratification, tradition, the idea of “honour”, loyalty, rebellion and herd mentality.
Alternative reasons to read it: the plot (cadets! secret societies! immoral aristocrats! young love!); the Joker-from-Full-Metal-Jacket-like voice of the main character; a fun homoeroticism drinking game.