AMERICAN SNIPER - Chris Kyle.

Here is a book I finished reading on October 16th 2012 at 1:45pm while at work.

The idea to read this book came after finishing another book called "The Taliban Don't Wave" (also reviewed here) as the two books were in the same section at the local bookstore.

Without giving too much away the book revolves around the missions and experiences of Navy Seal sniper Chris Kyle; who up until the book was penned had the most confirmed kills in US military history.  The book starts with Chris in his childhood working odd jobs and the like until his life is forever changed when he joins the military.  Chris talks about the struggles he and his fellow navy seals had during their training, the obstacles he had to overcome to become one of (what he considered) the elite.  All of this and the taxing relationship this put on his home life are included, as well as sporadic written interludes from his wife which I found to be the most uninteresting parts of the book.
Chris Kyle was a brutally gifted sniper and the way in which he deals with the killing of well over 200 "enemy" troops seems to me almost not human. He was able to live by a code that he used to justify his actions. 
As a Canadian who has never served time in the military I am unable to understand much of the emotion in the book and in his actions. That being said, what I found to be of serious interest while reading this book was how hungry I was as a reader to hear about the gory details of life overseas in the middle of war.  At times I almost felt like I was watching a movie unwind in my head while reading.  It almost seemed wrong.  Again, having never served time in the military myself, I was not sure what to expect, but after reading Chris' accounts and recollections I am confident in saying the theater of war is certainly not an experience I would have thrived in.  One one hand Chris, whether he knows it or not, takes some of the glamor away from the polish that is often put on military life. One the other hand the book is rife with American pride which some might find a tad overwhelming at times. Chris certainly has a way of telling a story regardless of your politics. This is not so much a hero's tale as man describing a job that had to be done, and one he was just naturally (and unbelievably) good at.   
A year after reading this book I was reading the paper at work and read Chris had been murdered by a fellow solider with PTSD.  The irony that Chris spend so much of his life in enemy territory and came back unscathed, only to be gunned down in cold blood by a fellow American back home is not an easy pill to swallow after hearing so much about his life.  To live a life surrounded by guns and murder in the defense of ones country and then to die the same way...speechless. 

I recommend this book for anyone researching a decision on whether or not to join the military, and for those interested in seeing another side to the Iraq war. 

This book is 379 pages long and I was able to finish it in 4 days.

On my sliding scale I give this book a solid 8/10.