• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Best Vietnam War books

T

Thomas London

New Member
Hi guys,

I am reading a load of Vietnam war books at the moment, man it's surprising how many of those guys wrote about their experiences when they got back. Some of my favourites include Chickenhawk, an account of a Huey pilot's war, plus Dear Mom which is a sniper's Vietnam. Was just wondering if anyone else had any favourites they could recommend to me? Cheers!

Thomas
 
I would add Black Virgin Mountain by Larry Heinemann, for a quite different set of very personal insights.
 
Thanks for recommendations

Hi thanks for those, I will definitely look at those two books for reviews for my website...I recently read After My Lai by Gary Bray, an interesting account of taking control of the same platoon that committed the massacre in 1968. Very interesting!
 
A few months back I read The Things They Carried by Tim O'brien. It is a book of fiction though but a pretty good read.
 
Looking for an older book about LRRPs

Hi,
I've been looking for a Vietnam War book that described a single LRRP mission, in which the patrol was dropped off in a valley, was trailed for some days, and finally avoided an ambush in leaving the valley. Publication of the book was before 1987, and I don't know if it was fiction or nonfiction. And, of course, I don't remember the author.

If anyone knows the book, I'd appreciate any publications details. It would end a lo-o-ong search.

Thank you.
Dave
 
LRRP suggestions

Hi Dave,

Try Gary Linderer, he wrote a load ofbooks about the LRRP patrols. Eyes of the Eagle, Eyes Behind the Line, Six Silent Men..?

Good luck.

Thomas
VietnamWarBooks.net
 
Hi,

Yes, Tim O'Brien wrote some good stuff on Nam, it obviously affected his life and writing in a big way. The Things They Carried is my favourite I guess.

Thomas
 
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam by Bernard Edelman is excellent, I highly recommend it.
 
The Cage by Tom Abraham a Haunting Vietnam book

:star5:"The Cage" by Tom Abraham. (non fiction about Vietnam War) it's a story about a platoon leader who escapes VC capture.
The subtitle, which is inadequate, is "an Englishman in Vietnam" Really? How is that even eye catching, intriguing in any way, NOT a descriptor the story, frankly it's almost irrelevant in the context of the human experience of this book. I read about 200 or so books a year, almost every year for my past 38 years. I have never found a more haunting book. I keep thinking about it; it's a true story which I read 2 MONTHS ago and CANNOT get OUT OF MY HEAD. That's never happened before. I think that says it all. So today, thinking about that guy and my dad who is a Vietnam vet, I decided to try to go on a few websites and mention the book, in hopes of getting the name of this HAUNTING book out there for others to experience.WOW.
 
I know it's been a couple of months but, if you're still looking, try, in no particular order, "The Village" by Bing West, "Hill 448" by Ray Childress and Charles W. Sasser, "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young" by Hal Moore and Joesph Galloway, Gary Linderer's stuff on LURPS, and John Plaster's stuff on the SOG Teams.

Some others:

For the dichotomy between the homefront and the war, try "They Marched Into Sunlight."

For Combat Leadership in Vietnam (and overall, really) try Platoon Leader by James. McDonough.

For Vietnam through the eyes of a journalist, try Dispatches by Michael Herr. This is one of my favorites, but I'm really into zeitgeist writing and Herr went crazy with this.

For Vietnam mixed with warrior mentality try Karl Marlantes "What It's Like to Go To War". This is one of my favorites, maybe tied with Herr's Dispatches, but it can be heavy on the philosophizing. His novel Matterhorn was a fairly good read, too.
 
A number of years ago, A bright shining lie caused quite a stir and it sold like hotcakes for many years in non-fiction sections. I was fortunate enough to pick up a copy this past weekend at a library book sale.
 
Absolutely, though it'd be my first time doing anything like that. Any of them in particular?
 
All of them. ;)

take your time though, there is no hurry.

I have an interest in reading more about the Vietnam War and it's always helpful to read the reviews of others.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top