I picked up this book because I saw the award-winning movie a few years back, and was intrigued. The book was similar, although it felt like there was less of a narrative thread and more a series of random events that Chris Kyle jotted down and strung together as he remembered them. There were some pretty intense war stories in this memoir, but mostly presented as "this happened, then this happened, then we shot this guy, then we went to this place"-- not very dramatic storytelling. He came off as a competent military guy who hated paperwork and the upper command (who apparently had no idea what was going on). The inserts that his wife wrote were very insightful to his family life and his ability to cope once he returned home. Quite a few stories where he probably should've died, but didn't for one reason or another.

It didn't seem like his random escapades all over Iraq had any coherent purpose, or strategy. This made me wonder if such a strategy exists, or if military strategy is: "There are a bunch of badguys here, let's kill them." They didn't seem too concerned about the never-ending supply of insurgents (how they were recruited, what they wanted), or the condition in which they left the country (Iraqi troops working with ours were unhelpful and untrained, cities were destroyed)... of course the minute we pull out the country crumbles- not a shock! Seems pretty broken, and I'm not sure we did anything useful. Which is sad, because it sounds like there are some pretty solid, competent, brave men and women over there who are not being used in a way that makes the world better.