Recommendations based on Matterhornby Karl Marlantes

* 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. No Country for Old Men

    by Cormac McCarthy
    A gripping tale of violence and pursuit in Texas' desolate landscape.

    The plot follows the interweaving paths of the three central characters (Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh , and Ed Tom Bell) set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the ... (Wikipedia)

  3. The Killer Angels

    by Michael Shaara
    A gripping story of the Battle of Gettysburg, told through the eyes of the soldiers on both sides.

    Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain , one of the major characters, remembers reciting to his father a speech from, Hamlet, : "What a piece of work is man...in action how like an angel!" Sgt. Buster Kilrain ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Lonesome Dove

    by Larry McMurtry
    Epic tale of two former Texas Rangers on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana.

    It is the late 1870s. , Captain Woodrow F. Call and Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae, two famous retired Texas Rangers , run the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium in the small Texas border ... (Wikipedia)

  5. War and Peace

    by Leo Tolstoy
    Epic tale of war, peace, and love, focusing on the lives of five aristocratic families.

    The novel begins in July 1805 in Saint Petersburg , at a soirée given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer—the maid of honour and confidante to the dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna . Many of the main characters ... (Wikipedia)

  6. Wolf Hall

    by Hilary Mantel
    A historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII.

    England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry ... (Goodreads)

  7. Clear and Present Danger

    by Tom Clancy
    CIA analyst Jack Ryan uncovers a covert war against drug cartels in Colombia, leading to a dangerous mission to stop the violence.

    The President of the United States , who is running for reelection, finds a fierce opponent in Ohio Governor J. Robert Fowler, who has rallied the American public behind his administration's failures ... (Wikipedia)

  8. 11/22/63

    by Stephen King
    A time-traveler attempts to prevent the assassination of JFK.

    Jake Epping is a recently divorced high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine , earning extra money teaching a GED class. Epping gives an assignment to his adult students, asking them to ... (Wikipedia)

  9. The Sense of an Ending

    by Julian Barnes
    An exploration of memory and its impact on the present, looking at the choices we make in life.

    By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be ... (Goodreads)

  10. True Grit

    by Charles Portis
    A young girl's quest for justice, accompanied by an aging U.S. Marshall.

    The landmark anniversary edition of the #1, New York Times, bestselling classic novel, “an epic and a legend” (,The Washington Post,) Charles Portis has long been acclaimed as one of America’s most ... (Barnes & Noble)

  11. The Yellow Birds

    by Kevin Powers
    A soldier's haunting experience in the Iraq War and the aftermath of his return home.

    The Yellow Birds begins: "The war tried to kill us in the spring" and follows Pvt. John Bartle, the novel's protagonist and narrator, in Al Tafar, Iraq; Fort Dix , New Jersey ; Kaiserslautern , ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

    by Ben Fountain
    Billy Lynn and his fellow soldiers are hailed as heroes during a football halftime show, but the reality of war and their uncertain future loom over them.

    19-year-old Specialist Billy Lynn is part of an eight-man unit, Bravo Squad, fighting in Iraq. After key moments of a brief but intense fight anointed as "the Battle of Al-Ansakar Canal" are filmed ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Redeployment

    by Phil Klay
    Collection of stories of soldiers' experiences in Iraq, spanning the battlefield and homecoming.

    Phil Klay's Redeployment takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Interwoven ... (Goodreads)

  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. The Orphan Master's Son

    by Adam Johnson
    A man's struggle to survive in a totalitarian North Korean regime and his journey to freedom.

    Part 1 details Jun Do's upbringing in a state orphanage and his service to the state, including as a kidnapper of Japanese citizens , and later as a signal operator stationed on a fishing boat. Due ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Reamde

    by Neal Stephenson
    A thrilling adventure story set in the world of online gaming, with an international cast of characters.

    “Stephenson has a once-in-a-generation gift: he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking, and thrilling.” — Time The #1, New York Times, bestselling author of, Anathem, Neal ... (Barnes & Noble)

  17. Tree of Smoke

    by Denis Johnson
    Epic tale of an American family's journey through the Vietnam War.

    Johnson's novel revolves around the associations and interactions with Francis X. Sands, a retired Air Force colonel and war hero, now a CIA official in Southeast Asia. The story is told primarily ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Bring Up the Bodies

    by Hilary Mantel
    A gripping historical drama recounting the downfall of Anne Boleyn during the reign of Henry VIII.

    Bring Up the Bodies follows closely upon the events of Wolf Hall . The King and Cromwell —now Master Secretary to the King's Privy Council—are guests of the Seymour family at Wolf Hall. The King ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

    by Cormac McCarthy
    A violent and bloody western epic, exploring the depths of human depravity.

    An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." ... (Barnes & Noble)

  20. Pigeon English

    by Stephen Kelman
    A young Ghanaian boy living in London investigates a murder in his community.

    The novel begins with the death of a young boy on the fictional Dell Farm estate in an unspecified area of London. Harri Opoku, a recent Ghanaian immigrant living with his mother and sister, becomes ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Canada

    by Richard Ford
    A family's relocation to a small Canadian town, exploring the depths of human relationships.

    After his parents are arrested for robbing a bank, fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons is left to fend for himself. His twin sister Berner has run off, leaving him to a family friend who secrets him away ... (Wikipedia)

  22. City of Thieves

    by David Benioff
    Two young men embark on a perilous mission in the besieged Leningrad of WWII.

    The story is introduced as the recollections of the narrator's grandfather Lev Beniov, a contemporary Russian Jewish émigré. It is set in the first week of 1942, with the 17-years-old Lev trying to ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Tourist

    by Olen Steinhauer
    A spy thriller set in Europe, where a CIA agent investigates a terrorist attack and uncovers a conspiracy.

    Milo Weaver used to be a "tourist" for the CIA—an undercover agent with no home, no identity—but he's since retired from the field to become a middle-level manager at the CIA's New York headquarters. ... (Goodreads)

  24. 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)

  25. The Passage

    by Justin Cronin
    A post-apocalyptic tale of survival, as the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

    The novel is broken into 11 parts of varying lengths. The story itself is broken into two sections: the first and shorter section covers the origins of the virus and its outbreak, while the second is ... (Wikipedia)

  26. 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)

  27. Drown

    by Junot Díaz
    A collection of interconnected stories of a young Dominican-American struggling to find his place in the world.

    With ten stories that move from the barrios of the Dominican Republic to the struggling urban communities of New Jersey, Junot Diaz makes his remarkable debut. Diaz's work is unflinching and strong, ... (Goodreads)

  28. The Poet

    by Michael Connelly
    A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet's descent into darkness, as he unravels a web of deceit and murder.

    Denver crime-beat reporter Jack McEvoy specializes in violent death. So when his homicide detective brother kills himself, McEvoy copes in the only way he knows how–he decides to write the story. But ... (Goodreads)

  29. The Cider House Rules

    by John Irving
    A moral journey through the rural landscape of 1940s Maine, exploring issues of responsibility, family, and love.

    Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage where he spends his childhood trying to be "of use" as a medical assistant to the director, Dr. Wilbur Larch, whose history is told in flashbacks : After a ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Iliad

    by Homer
    Epic tale of the Trojan War, depicting heroism and tragedy.

    Dating to the ninth century B.C., Homer’s timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, ... (Goodreads)