Reddit mentions of The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

I’m reading this for my library’s adult book discussion in three weeks. I got lucky because it’s available in KU! It’s a personal account of the Vietnam War.

I was also going to say The Things They Carried. I read that book in high school in my AP English class at same time we were studying the Vietnam war in History. The feelings that book left me with have never gone away.

Sounds like you like short books with easy reading and heavier themes?

Maybe give World War Z (Journalist interviews people around the world trying to piece together events before, during, and after a zombie outbreak - lots of political commentary and survival skills in there) or The Things They Carried (interconnected short stories about the Vietnam War) a try?

You could also try more John Green, or some of his suggestions from this sub.

If you'd rather stick to classics, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are the dystopias you're "supposed" to read immediately following 1984.

I'm sorry for your loss.


The first two people that come to mind are my childhood friends who were so close to me. We would hang out every day after school and all day during the summer. Football, swimming, exploring the creek. We did everything together. Come high school we all kind of drifted apart due to moving and I miss them. We rarely talk and I really need to change that. But whatever they are going through or doing right now, I wish them well. This song hits so close to home.

[Item] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002TWIVNA/ref=aw_wl_ov_dp_1_7?colid=1SIUS7LA411J7&coliid=I3TY6QXRCEA39A)

Thanks for the contest.

For easy reading veering into adult territory, I'd probably recommend some Tim O'Brien or Kurt Vonnegut. The Things They Carried (short fiction about the Vietnam War) or Slaughterhouse-Five (PTSD after the bombing of Dresden) are good starting points.

Now, if you just want "favorite adult books" of any difficulty, I've got a much longer list...

Some favorites,

• American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell is really great because it's a collection of kind-of-unsettling short stories based around the inhabitants of rural Michigan
  
  
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury for classic scifi
  
  
• Four Past Midnight by Stephen King is technically a book of novellas and not short stories, but they're all really good.
  
  
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is a different flavor of scifi and also written as a novel in stories.
  
  
• The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a collection of short stories about the Vietnam war.
  
  A Visit From the Goon Squad is worth mentioning because I know a lot of people really like it, but I couldn't get into it.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Both are Pulitzer Prize winners, guy-ish and accessible literary fiction.

Also, James Elroy's L.A. trilogy, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential and White Jazz. An omg his autobiography My Dark Places.

My husband recommends anything by Jim Harrison.

EDIT: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

I know what you mean about story and meaning and context. I always liked history, but I'm drawn to the same types of books you are. Some of these might be eschewed by "proper" historians, but they're all great reads that manage to teach some history as well. If you're interested in the subject matter, you'd likely enjoy them.

• The Things They Carried. Highly personal, stylized explanation of what Vietnam was like for a combat infantryman. Everyone should read this book.
  
• A Bridge Too Far. Operation Market-Garden, WW II. Intensely moving, highly informative. One of my favorites
  
• Is Paris Burning?. Tells the story of the liberation of Paris in WW II. Reads a lot like a thriller.
  
• Pegasus Bridge. The capture of an important bridge on D-Day by British paratroopers.
  
• Matterhorn. Another Vietnam book, and though it's a novel it does a fine job of conveying the experience of Vietnam in a historically accurate fashion.

The Things They Carried

Click and read the first few pages.