Katonah Village Library Big Read Bibliography

Katonah Village Library 26 Bedford Road Katonah, New York 10536 914-232-3508

Return to The Big Read at Katonah Village Library

WESTCHESTER BIG READ 2010

Other books by Tim Burton & a selection of adult and teen fiction and nonfiction books about the Vietnam War Era.

Tim O’Brien’s Other Books

If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1973)

This memoir of his Vietnam service covers his tour to Vietnam as a combat infantryman with the Americal Division in the region around My Lai, from 1969-70. It is one of the earliest books about Vietnam by a combatant and also one of the early entrants in the genre now called "creative nonfiction." It is a very clear eyed, gripping account of his war.

Northern Lights (1975)

This is his first published novel. The book is an account of two brothers in rural Minnesota. One brother returns from the war wounded, but both brothers are at loose ends and uncomfortable with each other, themselves, their lives, and their relationships, particularly with their late father.

Going After Cacciato (1978)

O'Brien's second novel won the National Book Award. It is the tale of a soldier who decides to run away from the Vietnam War. It is a complex book, which repays careful reading. Pronounce it "catch-ee-otto" please.

Nuclear Age (1985)

This novel takes a look at how you would live your life if you were always cognizant of, and worried by, the threat of extinction in a nuclear war. He treats this subject very seriously, but the book is written in a comic style.

Tomcat in Love (1998)

The main character, Thomas Chippering, bends all his efforts to the pursuit of women, from his ex-wife to whoever of the opposite gender is within reach.

In the Lake of the Woods (1994)

If you thought you knew "Tim O'Brien" after reading his last novel, now he tells you that it could all be illusion. The hero of this novel, John Wade, thinks he has erased his presence at the My Lai massacre. It isn't part of the stories he tells his wife or a part of his senate campaign. When the truth comes out, his wife finds out she doesn't know the man she married.

July, July (2002)

The class of '69 gets back together and learns that the past is still with them and you don't stop changing as you grow older. Keeping the individual stories separate and then uniting them at the end; O'Brien produces an entertaining tour de force.

For people who are interested in more writings about the Vietnam War Era – here is a small selection

VIETNAM WAR ERA

ADULT

Fiction

I, Sniper by Stephen Hunter (2009)

Missing, Presumed Wed by Sharon Grant Whirlwind (2009)

People of the Whale by Linda Hogan (2008)

An Insignificant Family by Da Ngan (2003)

After River by Donna Milner (2008)

Absolution – a novel by Miraim Herin (2007)

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (2007)

Of Mice and Men by Richard Galli (2006)

The Time In Between by David Bergen (2005)

Up Country by Nelson DeMille (2002)

Lost Soldiers by James H. Webb (2001)

Biographies & Memoirs

Keep Your Head Down: a Memoir by Doug Anderson

B Anderson (not KVL

Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove by Max Cleland with Ben Raines, B Cleland (not KVL)

Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War by Douglas Brinkley

B Kerry

The Girl in the Picture: the Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph and the Vietnam War by Denise Chong

Call no. 959.7 C

Vietnam: the Unheard Voices by Don Luce

959.7 L (not KVL)

My Detachment: a Memoir by Tracy Kidder

959.704 K

Other Non-Fiction – History, etc.

Trip to Hanoi by Susan Sontag

Call no. 915.97 S (not KVL)

Nobody Wanted War: Misperception in Vietnam and Other Wars by Ralph K. White

355.02 W (not KVL)

We Won’t Go: Personal Accounts of War Objectors collected by Alice Lynd

Call no. 355.22 W (not KVL)

The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans by Aaron Glantz

Call no. 362.86 G

Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam by Gordon M. Goldstein

Call no. 327.73 G

Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War by Penny Coleman

Call no. 616.85 C

Boom!: Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the ‘60s and Today by Tom Brokaw

Call no. 973.92 B

Glory Denied: the Saga of Jim Thompson, America’s Longest-Held Prisoner of War by Tom Philpott

Call no. 959.7 P

No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnam by Larry Berman

Call no. 959.7 B

Vietnam at War, the History, 1946-1975 by Phillip B. Davidson

Call no. 959.7 D

American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson and the Origins of the Vietnam War by David E. Kaiser

Call no. 959.7 K

Vietnam, the Necessary War: a Reinterpretation of America’s Most Disastrous Military Conflict by Michael Lind, Call no. 959.7 L

Our Vietnam: the War, 1954-1975 by A.J. Laugguth

Call no. 959.7 L

We Were Soldiers Once and Young: Ia Drang, the Battle that Changed the War in Vietnam by Harold G. Moore

Call no. 959.7 M

In Retrospect: the Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Robert S. McNamara

Call no. 959.7 M

The Vietnam Reader: the Definitive Collection of American Fiction and NonFiction on the War edited by Stewart O’Nan, Call no. 959.7 V.

A Chaplain Looks at Vietnam by John J. O’Connor

Call no. 959.7 O (not KVL)

Authors Take Sides on Vietnam: Two Questions on the War in Vietnam Answered by the Authors of Several Nations edited by Cecil Woolf and John Bagguley, Call no. 959.7 W (not KVL)

Strange War, Strange Strategy: a General’s Report on Vietnam by Lewis W. Walt

Call no. 959.7 W (not KVL)

Vietnam: the Logic of Withdrawal by Howard Zinn

959.7 Z (not KVL)

The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam by Tom Bissell

Call no. 959.704 B

Secrets: a Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg

Call no. 959.704 E

Flying Through Midnight: a Pilot’s Dramatic Story of His Secret Missions Over Laos During the Vietnam War by John T. Halliday, Call no. 959.704 H

We are Soldiers Still: a Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam by Harold G. Moore

Call no. 959.704 M (Non-Fiction)

Loon: A Marine Story by Jack McLean

959.704 M (not KVL)

They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 by David Maraniss

Call no. 959.704 M

Guts: Combat, Hell-raising, Cancer, Business Start-ups, and Undying Love: One American Guy’s Reckless, Lucky Life by Robert Nylen, Call no. 959.704 N (not KVL)

Vietnam: a History of an Unwinnable War, 1945-1975 by John Prados

Call no. 959.704 P

Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned by Rufus Phillips

Call no. 959.704 P (New Non-Fiction)

An American Ordeal: the Antiwar Movement of the Vietnam Era by Charles DeBenedetti

Call no. 973.923 D

Nixonland: the Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein

Call no. 973.924 P

More Than a Memory: Reflections of Viet Nam edited by Victor R. Volkman

810.8 M (not KVL)

Letters from Vietnam edited by Bill Adler

816.5 A

Vietnam Songbook compiled and edited by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber

Call no. 784.71 D (not KVL)

POETRY

From Both Sides Now: the Poetry of the Vietnam War and It’s Aftermath edited by Philip Mahony

Call no. 811.508 F

TEEN

Fiction

In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith (2009)

GR 9+

All the Broken Pieces: a Novel in Verse by Ann E.Burg (2009)

GR 6+

Weeping Under This same Moon by Jana Laiz (2008)

Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kahodata (2006)

GR 5+

Search and Destroy by Dean Hughes (2006)

Summer’s End by Audrey Couloumbis (2005)

Stand Tall by Joan Bauer (2002)

Sonny’s War by Valerie Hobbs (2002)

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers (1988)

History

Vietnam: A Graphic History by Dwight Jon Zimmerman (2009)

Vietnam War by Stuart Murray (2005)

Call no. YA 959.704 M

The Valiant Women of the Vietnam War by Karen Zeinert (2000)

Call no. YA 959.7 Z

Memoir/Biography

Rock ‘N” Roll Soldier: a Memoir by Dean Ellis Kohler with Susan VanHecke (2009)

B Kohler