Ellis Scott's favorite literary fiction about catastrophe and memory

Book cover of Atonement Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of The History of Sound Book cover of The Hours Book cover of Austerlitz

The best books that explore the essence of connection and the mystery of who a person is

Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of False Starts Book cover of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail Book cover of The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit Book cover of The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order

The best novels about how war never changes (except when it sorta does)

Book cover of Armor Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of Last of the Breed Book cover of Old Man's War Book cover of The Forever War

The best books to give you a well-rounded look at Americans touched by the Vietnam War

Book cover of The Women Book cover of We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam Book cover of Absolution Book cover of In Country Book cover of The Things They Carried

The best books that explore the human condition: choice & consequence

Book cover of Because I Am Furniture Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of Raw Thoughts Book cover of Meditations: A New Translation Book cover of Burned

The best books on surviving a life-changing challenge

Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of Dying to Do Letterman: Turning Someday into Today Book cover of The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles Book cover of Slow Walk in a Sad Rain Book cover of The House of God

The best books to make you a teenage radical

Book cover of Black Helicopters Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of A Radical Line: From the Labor Movement to the Weather Underground, One Family's Century of Conscience Book cover of Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman Book cover of Torch

The best books to make you want to write your own damn book

Book cover of Rhinoceros Book cover of A Little Yellow Dog Book cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Book cover of Still Life with Woodpecker Book cover of The Things They Carried

The best books that will haunt you for life

Book cover of House of Leaves Book cover of The Killer Inside Me Book cover of The Collector Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of The Wasp Factory

The best books about surviving war (or not)

Book cover of Coal Black Horse Book cover of Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of Macbeth Book cover of The Iliad

The best books about being changed by war

Book cover of Nine Stories Book cover of The Great Gatsby Book cover of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway Book cover of Shooting An Elephant Book cover of The Things They Carried

The best books by Vietnam veterans

Book cover of Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of Yesterday's Soldier Book cover of Letters From Long Binh: Memoirs Of A Military Policeman In Vietnam Book cover of MP - A Novel of Vietnam

The best books on war that leave you shattered (from a Purple Heart recipient’s perspective)

Book cover of Dark Age Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Book cover of The Yellow Birds Book cover of What It Is Like to Go to War

The best war books about turning PTSD into post-traumatic growth

Book cover of The Yellow Birds Book cover of War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder Book cover of On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of War

The best dark fiction books that explore the hidden shadows of humanity

Book cover of God Is Dead Book cover of Machine Man Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of The Virgin Suicides Book cover of Fight Club

The best books to combat loneliness and quiet desperation

Book cover of Day Out of Days Book cover of Burnside Field Lizard and Selected Stories Book cover of Nobody's Angel Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life

The best books to begin understanding interconnectedness

Book cover of Reflections from the North Country Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of Prodigal Summer Book cover of Ishmael Book cover of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

The best books about the combat soldier’s experience in the Vietnam War—military fiction at its best

Book cover of Dispatches Book cover of Charlie Mike Book cover of If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home Book cover of A Rumor of War: The Classic Vietnam Memoir Book cover of The Things They Carried

The best books on the personal impact of war

Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Book cover of My War Gone By, I Miss It So Book cover of On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Book cover of Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

The best books about the Vietnam War from different POVs

Book cover of Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam Lost Its War Book cover of Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History Book cover of The Things They Carried Book cover of The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam Book cover of We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam

Want books like The Things They Carried?

Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Things They Carried.

Book cover of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Book cover of With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Book cover of Meditations: A New Translation Book cover of We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam Book cover of Dog Soldiers Book cover of The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam

Browse books like The Things They Carried

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in veterans, war, and the Vietnam War?

Veterans 99 books
War 2,236 books
The Vietnam War 260 books