The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
This is an amazing book. I could say it's about war, or writing, or stories, or truth. There's a lot of all those things. But mostly, it really is about the things they carried, the soldiers. When I was looking for a book to read, my grandpa pulled this one off of a bookshelf. He told me, "It's not just about what they carried on their backs. It's what they carried in here," he gestured to his head, "and in here," and his heart. There's really no better way to describe it than that. However, here is the description offered on the back of the book: "They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other. And, if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb."