The World's Best Book Summaries
What happens in the chapter “Field Trip” in The Things They Carried? How does “Field Trip” demonstrate how soldiers seek closure after the war is over? We’ll look at the basic elements of the chapter “Field Trip” (The Things They Carried) and look at how the narrator attempts to bring the Vietnam War to life for his young daughter.
Is there truth in fiction? How do we identify the truth of fiction? In what ways is fiction actually truer than nonfiction? We’ll look at Tim O’Brien’s treatment of the theme of truth in fiction in his classic The Things They Carried to see how in war depictions, what’s true may not be best represented by a series of facts.
What happens in the chapter in The Things They Carried called “Church”? How does “Church” demonstrate how soldiers often view the role of luck in their lives? We’ll look at the basic elements of this chapter of The Things They Carried, “Church,” and look at how two soldiers approach religion during battle.
How does your social context, the people around you, affect your behavior? Could your social context be influencing you without you even knowing it? The social context is the immediate setting of a person and the people in that setting. Your social context is made up of the people you interact with. We tend to think of ourselves as products of nature and nurture, meaning the greatest influences on who we are and how we behave are our genetics and our upbringings. However, social context is so powerful that certain situations can eclipse our natural dispositions. Learn how.
How is the power of storytelling depicted in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried? How can the power of storytelling help assuage the wounds of war? We’ll cover how Tim O’Brien uses semi-fictional stories of the Vietnam War to demonstrate how powerful storytelling can be in conveying the brutality of war and reviving those long gone.
What are nonverbal cues? How impactful are they on the decisions you make? Nonverbal cues are signals between people that aren’t verbal. Nonverbal cues may include body language, tone of voice, dress, or facial expressions. We’ll cover the power of nonverbal cues to sway your decisions, affect what you buy…and possibly make you adopt the biases of others.
What happens in the chapter “Good Form” in The Things They Carried? How does “Good Form” demonstrate the power of storytelling? We’ll look at the basic elements of the chapter “Good Form” (The Things They Carried) and discuss why the novel is “true,” even though it’s a work of fiction.
In the 21st century, we can do things that were unthinkable not long ago. Yet highly trained, experienced, and capable people regularly make avoidable mistakes. You may be wondering, Why do I make so many mistakes? After experiencing his own mistakes and observing those of colleagues, Boston surgeon Atul Gawande set out to learn why smart people make avoidable errors and, more importantly, to find a way to prevent them. The result is The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, in which Gawande proposes a simple solution: a checklist. Learn how to use it to prevent yourself from making avoidable
What was Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam like? How did Tim O’Brien’s depiction of the Vietnam War in The Things They Carried demonstrate wider themes of the brutality of war and the power of storytelling? We’ll cover how Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam depicts wider themes of war and discuss the main themes of The Things They Carried.
What is the power of nonverbal communication? How does the nonverbal communication of others affect your decisions? We’ll cover the power of nonverbal communication and discuss why your biases may not be your own, but rather adopted based on someone else’s nonverbal signals.