TV is in reruns and gas is ridiculously expensive, so it might be time to give your library card a workout. These are books guaranteed to put some hair on your…brain.
NONFICTION | CLASSICS | CRIME/MYSTERY/ADVENTURE | FANTASY/SCI-FI/OTHER NERDERY | WAR
WAR
Dispatches, Michael HerrBefore working on seminal screenplays for
Apocalypse Now and
Full Metal Jacket, the then-young writer cut his teeth as a Saigon-stationed correspondent for
Esquire; entrenched with Green Berets on deep jungle missions, pill-popping and boozing with expat journos, and flying in corpse-laden choppers. Herr saw it all. And using drug-derived depressions, pop music references, soldiers' stories, and a strict stream of consciousness narrative,
Dispatches recounts the Vietnam War in the most appropriate style possible: F-ed up.
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Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy The book that inspired some truly kick-ass video games (as well as some mediocre ones) might be a little long, but if you can skim over the dense descriptions of military technology, you'll find most of it reads like an action movie. It has snipers, biological warfare, and a showdown between terrorists and the Special Forces at an amusement park.
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The Things They Carried, Tim O'BrienFrom kinky G.I.s who wrap their girlfriends' stockings around their necks to the most brutal animal-killing story ever told, Vietnam vet Tim O'Brien uses these 22 short stories and a rotating cast of unforgettable characters to paint a combat picture far more chilling than anything Francis Ford Coppola or Oliver Stone put on celluloid.
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The Naked and the Dead, Norman MailerBefore Mailer stabbed his wife and started fights on talk shows, the irascible author penned
The Naked and the Dead, a WWII novel set in the South Pacific. Told through a series of soldiers' civilian flashbacks, combat scenes, and the squad's infighting, this highpoint in Mailer's controversial career exposes the hardships of battle and the outcome of military decisions with an unflinching and unsympathetic eye. Also, due to censorship, Mailer was forced to replace the F-bomb with the euphemism "fug." Interesting shid, right?
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The Killer Angels, Michael ShaaraThe battle at Gettysburg is still the largest ever fought on North American soil, and this 1974 story details all of its limb-amputating glory. You also get a taste of what it's like to plan a battle on a huge scale sans
The Art of War fortune cookie wisdom.
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NONFICTION | CLASSICS | CRIME/MYSTERY/ADVENTURE | FANTASY/SCI-FI/OTHER NERDERY | WAR
