Reddit reviews The Things They Carried

There's a good book in this. A great book I think. Have you ever read Tim O'Brien's Things They Carried? It's a great example of how you can build an amazing, powerful, historically important portrait of an entire group of people out of little snippets of stories (Vietnam soldiers; modern American cops).

The paper back I have says "together"

this one: http://www.amazon.com/Things-They-Carried-Tim-OBrien/dp/0767902890

Not exactly what you're describing, but The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is about the Vietnam War, and all throughout the book, it's questioned whether any of the stories are fact or fiction. A really really great read!!!

For fantasy, I'd recommend His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.

I'm not really sure where Dark Tower by Stephen King falls, but that's a great read, too. It's not a horror novel, so no fear. It's a long series if you like that kind of thing. I never quite got into it, but I enjoyed the first book a lot when I was your age.

I saw someone else mentioned Garth Nix. I've noticed that most book stores don't have any of his stuff anymore. Sabriel was easily one of my favorite books in high school, and I still enjoy rereading it from time to time.

For Sci-Fi, I recommend Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, Dune by Frank Herbert, and Asimov. For Asimov, The Last Question and The Last Answer are great short stories. Otherwise, his Foundation series is a lot of fun.

Aaand, here's some Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft. I love how it just leaves you with this sense of unease that there's something malign about the world as you know it.

Also, you might really enjoy The Things They Carried by Time O'Brien.

Great read - reminded me a lot of The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.