Books with author Tim O'Brien

MP3 CD Format Best-selling author Tim O’Brien shares wisdom from a life in letters, lessons learned in wartime, and the challenges, humor, and rewards of raising two sons.“We are all writing our maybe books full of maybe tomorrows, and each maybe tomorrow brings another maybe tomorrow, and then another, until the last line of the last page receives its period.” In 2003, already an older father, National Book Award-winning novelist Tim O’Brien resolved to give his young sons what he wished his own father had given to him—a few scraps of paper signed “Love, Dad.” Maybe a word of advice. Maybe a sentence or two about some long-ago Christmas Eve. Maybe some scattered glimpses of their rapidly aging father, a man they might never really know. For the next fifteen years, the author talked to his sons on paper, as if they were adults, imagining what they might want to hear from a father who was no longer among the living. O’Brien traverses the great variety of human experience and emotion, moving from soccer games to warfare to risqué lullabies, from alcoholism to magic shows to history lessons to bittersweet bedtime stories, but always returning to a father’s soul-saving love for his sons. The result is Dad’s Maybe Book, a funny, tender, wise, and enduring literary achievement that will squeeze the reader’s heart with joy and recognition.

"To call Going After Cacciato a novel about war is like calling Moby Dick a novel about whales." So wrote The New York Times of Tim O'Brein's now classic novel of Vietnam. Winner of the 1979 National Book Award, Going After Cacciato captures the peculiar blend of horror and hallucinatory comedy that marked this the strangest of wars. Reality and fantasy merge in this fictional account of one private's sudden discussion to lay down his rifle and begin a quixotic journey from the of Indochina to the streets of Paris. Will Cacciato make it all the way? Or will he be yet another casualty of a conflict that seems to have no end? In its memorable evocation of men both fleeing and meeting the demands of the battle, Going After Cacciato stands as much more than just a great war novel. Ultimately it's about the forces of fear and heroism that do battle in the hearts of us all.

A CLASSIC FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE THINGS THEY CARRIEDBefore writing his award-winning Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien gave us this intensely personal account of his year as a foot soldier in Vietnam. The author takes us with him to experience combat from behind an infantryman's rifle, to walk the minefields of My Lai, to crawl into the ghostly tunnels, and to explore the ambiguities of manhood and morality in a war gone terribly wrong. Beautifully written and searingly heartfelt, If I Die in a Combat Zone is a masterwork of its genre.Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content

From Amazon: "If I Die in a Combat Zone" is a personal memoir. In twenty-three brief chapters, Tim O'Brien recounts his experience as a young man drafted into military service during the Vietnam War. With thoughtfulness and insight, he illustrates his inner turmoil over his opposition to the war, and his struggle to decide whether or not to dodge the draft or to flee basic training. With the vulgar humor of a foot soldier, O'Brien brings to life the foxholes and night marches through the villages and minefields of Vietnam. He bares his soul in an examination of courage, justice, and the brutal behavior of infantrymen in the Vietnam War. The memoir briefly recounts Tim O'Brien's childhood and education. This serves to help the reader understand what O'Brien stands to lose if he does not report for duty as called for by his country. The personal history also serves as... .

The adage says that there are two sides to every story, but as most contemporary literature teachers can attest, there are many sides to every story-or at least many ways of looking at a story. Prestwick House's Multiple Perspectives Lesson Guides provide the high school teacher with everything she needs to guide her students through the study of the titles she teaches from a variety of critical viewpoints. Every Multiple Perspectives Lesson Guide provides a general introduction to the work (plot summary, introductions to key characters, brief discussions of social and historical background); clear and concise explanations of three critical theories (including feminism, Marxism, Freudianism, new historicism, and formalism); and reading, writing, and discussion activities designed to help students probe the familiar text in new and deeper ways. Teachers who want to take their teaching of literature beyond the tired plot pyramid and want their students to experience the books they love more than reader-response alone will let them, will find Prestwick House Multiple Perspectives Lessons Guides to be an invigorating addition to their course syllabus.