All are welcome to attend the Reading on the Avenue Book Club, which meets in the Community Room of Willow Glen Library. On Wednesday, November 28, we'll be discussing The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

The Things They Carried is a collection of interrelated short pieces which ultimately reads with the dramatic force and tension of a novel. It depicts the men of Alpha Company who battle the enemy in Vietnam, and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss the lives they left back home, yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have.

With the creative verve of the greatest fiction and the intimacy of a searing autobiography, The Things They Carried is a testament to the men who risked their lives and also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. Ultimately, the book and its myriad protagonists call to order the courage, determination, and luck we all need to survive.