American Sniper Book Review

Wow the book was somewhat different from the movie. I am not here to say someone is right or someone is wrong. I don't want to fight about 'war.' I have always been amazed by soldiers in general. The fact that they do what they do even though it might kill them amazes me. What I've noticed about soldiers is that to them what they do is not extraordinary. They just say they did there job. Reading Chris's perspective has been somewhat disturbing. You see through his book what war is. He is brutally honest. You see him suffer from PTSD, losing friends and trying to be a father and a husband. I can't imagine being in a different country shooting a gun to going home and hanging out with your family. The thing about the book is that it's so much more descriptive. Not that the movie wasn't like the book but if you want the whole story, read this book. Nearing the end of the book it got harder to read. Not because it was boring but because I knew what was going to happen to Chris. I know that the end of the book doesn't talk about that because the book was already published maybe two years before he died. It's a shame, Chris was going to spend his life helping other soldiers with PTSD. His life, like so many others died to young. It also makes me sick that people pretend to know what war is actually like. It amazes me how we want to help so many people with mental disorders but when it comes to soldiers they're just murderers who deserve to deal with the mental hell they go through. This book also made me think a lot about Taya, Chris's wife. In the movie you don't really get to see her other than when Chris comes home. In the book though you get little snippets of her thoughts. One part of the book Chris was talking to her and he had to hang up but he didn't on accident and Taya heard bombs and guns going off. The next time Chris called her she basically broke into sobs because she had turned on the news and didn't see anything good. I cannot imagine what it was like to be on the other side of that phone call. Not knowing whether your husband was going to make it. Just having a normal day and finding out that your husband has been murdered by a fellow veteran. Also I thought about Chris's kids, they were so young when he died. Another thing that Chris said in the book that if he died Taya was going to have to find another husband who would raise his son to be a good man. In the book he said it so plainly, like it was nothing. I guess that's what happens if you don't know if you'll be alive for long. You are somewhat forced to think about things like that.

With all the criticism that Chris has been getting I don't think he would really care. He doesn't seem like the type of person to care about what people think of him. This story was going to get criticism, it involves politics. There is no avoiding that. So if it bothers you about what people are saying about him just ignore it. That's really all we can do. 
Overall this book was really great. If you liked the movie I would recommend it. 
DFTBA
-AB