Recommendations based on In the Lake of the Woodsby Tim O'Brien

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. The Things They Carried

    by Tim O'Brien
    A collection of stories about the Vietnam War, interweaving the past and present.

    In 1979, Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato —a novel about the Vietnam War—won the National Book Award. In this, his second work of fiction about Vietnam, O'Brien's unique artistic vision is again ... (Goodreads)

  2. Going After Cacciato

    by Tim O'Brien
    An ambitious soldier's surreal quest to bring a fellow soldier home from war.

    Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found, here, Winner of the 1979 National Book Award, Going After Cacciato captures the peculiar mixture of horror and hallucination that marked this strangest of ... (Goodreads)

  3. Housekeeping

    by Marilynne Robinson
    A story of two sisters navigating their lives in a small town, and the matriarchal figure that unites them.

    Ruthie narrates the story of how she and her younger sister Lucille are raised by a succession of relatives in the fictional town of Fingerbone, Idaho (some details are similar to Robinson's ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Absalom, Absalom!

    by William Faulkner
    A tangled web of family secrets, betrayal, and tragedy in the American South.

    Absalom, Absalom! details the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen , a white man born into poverty in West Virginia who moves to Mississippi with the complementary aims of gaining wealth and becoming a ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Cathedral

    by Raymond Carver
    An unexpected encounter changes a man's outlook on life and his relationships.

    Raymond Carver’s third collection of stories, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, including the canonical titular story about blindness and learning to enter the very different world of another. These ... (Goodreads)

  6. A Confederacy of Dunces

    by John Kennedy Toole
    A satirical tale of an eccentric slacker's misadventures in New Orleans.

    Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found, here, "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles ... (Goodreads)

  7. Ceremony

    by Leslie Marmon Silko
    A young Native American man's healing journey, reclaiming cultural roots and identity.

    Ceremony follows a half- Pueblo , half-white man named Tayo after his return from World War II . His white doctors say he is suffering from "battle fatigue," which would be called post-traumatic ... (Wikipedia)

  8. The Waste Lands

    by Stephen King
    A post-apocalyptic adventure of survival and courage in a world of chaos.

    The story begins five weeks after the end of, The Drawing of the Three, . Roland , Susannah , and Eddie have moved east from the shore of the Western Sea, and into the woods of Out-World. After an ... (Wikipedia)

  9. House of Leaves

    by Mark Z. Danielewski
    A family discovers a hidden door in their home leading to an ever-shifting labyrinth.

    House of Leaves begins with a first-person narrative by Johnny Truant, a Los Angeles tattoo parlor employee and professed unreliable narrator . Truant is searching for a new apartment when his friend ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The Drawing of the Three

    by Stephen King
    A man's battle for survival and acceptance in a dangerous and strange world.

    The book begins less than seven hours after the end of, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, after The Man in Black has described The Gunslinger's fate using tarot cards . , Roland wakes up on a beach, ... (Wikipedia)

  11. The Winter of Our Discontent

    by John Steinbeck
    A journey of self-reflection and moral reckoning as a man struggles to regain his lost integrity.

    The story concerns mainly Ethan Allen Hawley, a former member of Long Island 's aristocratic class. Ethan's late father lost the family fortune, and thus Ethan works as a grocery store clerk. His ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Gilead

    by Marilynne Robinson
    A reverend's reflections on life in the Midwest, and the lessons of faith and family.

    The book is an account of the memories and legacy of John Ames as he remembers his experiences of his father and grandfather to share with his son. All three men share a vocational lifestyle and ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Plot Against America

    by Philip Roth
    An alternate history of America, where a fascist president rises to power.

    The novel is told from the point of view of Roth as a child growing up in Newark, New Jersey , as the younger son of Herman and Bess Roth. It begins with aviation hero Charles Lindbergh , who is ... (Wikipedia)

  14. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

    by Max Brooks
    A collection of interviews recounting tales of the zombie apocalypse.

    It has been nearly twenty years since the start of the apocalyptic worldwide pandemic known as the Zombie War, and about ten years since the war has ended in humanity's victory. The framing device ... (Wikipedia)

  15. Stoner

    by John Williams
    An academic's life of quiet desperation, finding solace in literature.

    William Stoner is born on a small farm in 1891. After high school, the county agent advises he go to agriculture school. Stoner enrolls in the University of Missouri , where all agriculture students ... (Wikipedia)

  16. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

    by Dave Eggers
    An autobiographical account of a young man dealing with grief and responsibility.

    'When you read his extraordinary memoir you don't laugh, then cry, then laugh again; you somehow experience these emotions all at once.' "Well, this was when Bill was sighing a lot. He had decided ... (Goodreads)

  17. Everything Is Illuminated

    by Jonathan Safran Foer
    A young man's journey to trace his family's past, uncovering the secrets of the Holocaust.

    Jonathan Safran Foer (the author), a young American Jew, who is vegetarian and an avid collector of his family's heritage, journeys to Ukraine in search of Augustine, the woman who saved his ... (Wikipedia)

  18. The Sparrow

    by Mary Doria Russell
    A Jesuit mission to an alien planet ends in tragedy, raising questions about faith, morality, and the nature of God.

    In the year 2019, the SETI program at Arecibo Observatory discovers radio broadcasts of music from the vicinity of Alpha Centauri . The first expedition to Rakhat, the world that is sending the ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Amy and Isabelle

    by Elizabeth Strout
    A mother-daughter relationship is tested when a scandal rocks their small New England town.

    Pulitzer Prize winning author Elizabeth Strout’s bestselling and award winning debut, Amy and Isabelle—adapted for television by Oprah Winfrey— evokes a teenager's alienation from her distant ... (Goodreads)

  20. The House on Mango Street

    by Sandra Cisneros
    A young girl navigates life in a poor Latino neighborhood, dreaming of a better future and finding her voice through writing.

    The bestselling coming-of-age classic, acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world from the winner of the 2018 ... (Barnes & Noble)

  21. Beloved

    by Toni Morrison
    A haunting story of loss and resilience in the aftermath of slavery.

    Beloved begins in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio , where the protagonist Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, has been living with her eighteen-year-old daughter Denver at 124 Bluestone Road. The book ... (Wikipedia)

  22. Play It As It Lays

    by Joan Didion
    A woman's search for identity amidst the glamour and emptiness of 1960s Hollywood.

    The novel begins with an internal monologue by the 31-year-old Maria Wyeth, followed by short reminiscences of her friend Helene, and ex-husband, film producer Carter Lang. The further narration is ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Haunting of Hill House

    by Shirley Jackson
    A group of people investigating a mysterious and haunted house, uncovering its secrets.

    It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted ... (Goodreads)

  24. A Visit from the Goon Squad

    by Jennifer Egan
    A mosaic of characters, lives, and relationships as they intertwine and evolve over time.

    Jennifer Egan’s spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. ... (Goodreads)

  25. Bartleby the Scrivener

    by Herman Melville
    A story of a mysterious scrivener whose refusal to comply with workplace demands leads to tragedy.

    The narrator is an unnamed Manhattan lawyer, aged around his late 50s, with a business in legal documents. He already employs two scriveners , Nippers and Turkey, to copy legal documents by hand, but ... (Wikipedia)

  26. American Pastoral

    by Philip Roth
    A man's experience of the American Dream gone wrong, as his daughter's political radicalism unravels his family life.

    Seymour Irving Levov is born and raised in the Weequahic section of Newark, New Jersey , in 1927 as the elder son of a successful Jewish American glove manufacturer, Lou Levov, and his wife Sylvia. ... (Wikipedia)

  27. All Quiet on the Western Front

    by Erich Maria Remarque
    A soldier's harrowing experience of the horrors of war.

    The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, who belongs to a group of German soldiers on the Western Front during World War I . The patriotic speeches of his teacher Kantorek had led the whole class to ... (Wikipedia)

  28. My Year of Meats

    by Ruth Ozeki
    A journey of self-discovery as a Japanese-American woman investigates controversial issues in the US meat industry.

    A cross-cultural tale of two women brought together by the intersections of television and industrial agriculture, fertility and motherhood, life and love—the breakout hit by the celebrated author ... (Goodreads)

  29. All-Star Superman, Vol. 2

    by Grant Morrison
    Superman battles Lex Luthor and his evil plans, while racing against time to save the world.

    Dr. Leo Quintum and his team from P.R.O.J.E.C.T. are exploring the Sun when they are remotely sabotaged by Lex Luthor . Superman rescues them, and acquires the ability to project his bio-electric ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Close Range: Wyoming Stories

    by Annie Proulx
    A collection of short stories set in the rural landscape of Wyoming, exploring the lives of its inhabitants.

    From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short story collections of our time. Annie Proulx's masterful ... (Barnes & Noble)