Book Club Friday: American Sniper

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History

By: Chris Kyle

Pages: 298 (nook)

Date Read: 6/23/13

"He is the deadliest American sniper ever, called “the devil” by the enemies he hunted and “the legend” by his Navy SEAL brothers . ..
From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more than 150 of Kyles kills (the previous American record was 109), but it has declined to verify the astonishing total number for this book. Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle earned legendary status among his fellow SEALs, Marines, and U.S. Army soldiers, whom he protected with deadly accuracy from rooftops and stealth positions. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time. A native Texan who learned to shoot on childhood hunting trips with his father, Kyle was a champion saddle-bronc rider prior to joining the Navy. After 9/11, he was thrust onto the front lines of the War on Terror, and soon found his calling as a world-class sniper who performed best under fire. He recorded a personal-record 2,100-yard kill shot outside Baghdad; in Fallujah, Kyle braved heavy fire to rescue a group of Marines trapped on a street; in Ramadi, he stared down insurgents with his pistol in close combat. Kyle talks honestly about the pain of war—of twice being shot and experiencing the tragic deaths of two close friends. American Sniper also honors Kyles fellow warriors, who raised hell on and off the battlefield.  And in moving first-person accounts throughout, Kyles wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their marriage and
children, as well as on Chris. Adrenaline-charged and deeply personal, American Sniper is a thrilling eyewitness account of war that only one man could tell."

{GoodReads}

To be honest, I was a little hesitant about reading this book.  I usually am not a fan of non-fiction.  I don't usually read biographies or autobiographies because I tend to find them dry and boring.  This book caught my eye and after doing a little bit of research on Chris Kyle, I decided to go for it and I am so glad that I did.  I have obviously never been to war but I do understand that it is a hard thing to describe to anyone who hasn't been there and it is certainly hard for civilians to understand the mindset of those involved in a war.  Reading this book gave me insight into someone who was there and saw a lot of action.  It seems this war is downplayed and it is important to know what our men and women really see over there.   This was such an eye opening book, for me.  I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about the war and about the psychology of snipers. 

I gave this a 5/5 on my GoodReads. 

Chicago and Life Stuff

For the last few weeks I have been playing with the idea of helping my friend Heather move to Chicago for a graphic design internship.  The only thing that was left was to figure out dates and make sure that school wasn't starting back up before she needed to move.

Well, she officially gave me the dates and we will be road-tripping from MD to Chicago (my second time) at the end of August!  I am really hoping it works out!  We have several plans in the works but any suggestions are welcome!  It has been almost 10 years since I was last in Chicago so I don't really remember much.


Some of our ideas include:

Falling Water: Frank Lloyd Wrights House.  This is a tad out of the way but it really only makes a 30 minute difference in the total trip time, so it is worth it.  I love nature and Heather loves art so this is the perfect spot for us to check out!

Cedar Point:  This amusement park has been on my list for a long time!  It is located in Sandusky, Ohio

The Christmas Story House:  I mean come on, this would be awesome.  Its only like 10 minutes out of the way!  We can't pass it up!  It is right outside of Cleveland, Ohio.

We are also making plans to go up into Michigan because neither of us has ever been, plus our friend Krystal lives in Detroit so we have a reason to go!  Also, we want to drive up into Wisconsin, again just because we have never been.  We really don't know what our plans are for Chicago or Wisconsin but we have time :)  Any suggestions are more than welcome!

Other Random Life Things:

Wedding Planning is really coming along and I can't wait for the upcoming Wedding Wednesday post's!

Josh and I are doing our Honeymoon in November rather than right after the wedding in May for various reasons.  However, we want to do a long weekend short trip right after the wedding to chill out after the wedding and before going back to work/school.   We are thinking either Charleston, SC or Nashville, TN but we are leaning more towards Charleston because of the beaches.   Any other suggestions??

Today, I am spending the whole day by the pool with some of my favorite work girls!  Yeah, I get a day off of work and I spend it with work people.

Monday starts my summer class!! I could not be more excited for this class!  Also, for the break from working 6 days per week ... ugh.

Ladew Topiary Gardens: Part 2

On Monday, I left off with the Terrace Gardens and today I am going to pick up with the Iris Gardens, my favorite part!  Get ready for a photo overload!!

The Iris Gardens are beautiful and contain over 65 different iris varieties!

Next we went to the sculpture garden.

Tivoli Tea House and Garden

The next few photos are randoms from the Yellow Gardens, White Gardens and Temple of Venus as well as some pretty view of the house. 

These last photos are a few randoms and some close ups of some of the flowers. 

That concludes our visit to the beautiful Ladew Gardens.  I hope to go back later in the summer to check out what is blooming at that time! 

Travel Tuesday: Wilson Botanical Gardens, Costa Rica

Alternative Spring Break:  Las Cruces, Costa Rica with James Madison University - March 2009

My second ASB trip was was to Las Cruces Biological Station/Wilson Botanical Gardens in Costa Rica!  What an amazing trip and beautiful Country.  The trip actually started out Rocky.  We got to the airport and had to run to our terminal only to find out that the flight was delayed.  It ended up being delayed 2 hours which meant we missed our connection in El Salvador.  6 hours in the El Savadorian airport is enough to make anyone stir crazy (you know, with the 4 whole terminals there). Since we arrived in San Jose so late and the rain made it impossible to cross the mountain, we stopped at a hostel to sleep for a few hours before beginning the trek to Las Cruces. Once we got there though it was amazing.  We worked on the biological station doing inventories and learning about different species of plants and animals and two of the mornings we went to a local elementary school to teach English.  It was a really rewarding experience.  I have already written about our experiences at Manuel Antonio after leaving Wilson.

We left Harrisonburg the day before our flight and stayed at one of the girl's brothers house in Arlington in order to catch our flight at Dulles.

Bri could fall asleep anywhere! I was so jealous.

We actually ended up meeting a group of guys from JMU that were headed to Costa Rica for a rafting/hiking adventure!  We were on the same flight out of El Salvador.

We finally made it to Costa Rica behind schedule and stayed in a hostel for a few hours before making the trek from San Jose to Las Cruces.  It was a trip that was approximately 5 hours long. 

I get very motion sick so usually I don't sleep in vehicles but on this trip I was so exhausted that I slept for a little more than 3 hours!  Thank God, because according to some of the other girls, it was a scary drive across that Mountain.  I did catch some photos of the drive after I woke up.

When we got there I was in awe of the place.  I would go back there and work for them in a heartbeat.  It was absolutely beautiful and I couldn't believe that I was getting to spend a whole week there!

We had a beautiful view at meal times and our rooms were comfortable.  Nothing extravagant but comfortable and just what we needed.

Throughout the week, we did work cleaning up the grounds, learning about the plants, learning about animals, inventorying Agoutis and teaching English to local school children.

 

This is a clay-colored Thrush, which is the national bird of Costa Rica.

Little Squirrel joined us daily for meals.

This picture was taken after we went into the rainforest at night to learn about bats with some Grad students studying abroad from Princeton.  It was so neat and will definitely be getting its own post in the future. 

The Kids, definitely deserve their own post as well.

We also felt a legitimate earthquake.  It hit Panama pretty hard and we were feeling aftershocks for a while.  It was a surreal experience for an east coaster who has only felt small tremors.   I had so many great experiences on this trip and it is definitely a trip I wont ever forget.  Costa Rica definitely has my heart.