I don't know about the extra credit, but I can give you some titles for basic information about the Ancient Near East. They are very broad and discuss most major events and people, but all quite briefly and with little depth. But they are a good starting point.

• Matthews, R. 2003, "The Archaeology of Mesopotamia. Theories and approaches".
• Mieroop, M. van de 2016, "A History of the Ancient Near East. ca. 3000-323 BC".

I recommend starting with the AskHistorians reading list, which has some books on the general ancient Near East as well as dedicated books on Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, etc.

I need to update the list with a couple of recent publications, especially The First Great Powers: Babylon and Assyria by Arthur Cotterell and Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture by William Stiebing and Susan Helft. The former focuses a little too heavily on the first millennium BCE, and I would have liked to have seen more space dedicated to the cultural and intellectual history of Mesopotamia, but overall it's not a bad introduction. The latter is the best single-volume overview of Egyptian and Near Eastern history I've come across.

I've yet to find any good historical fiction set in ancient Mesopotamia, which is a shame and a bit surprising since several decent books have been set in ancient Egypt.