Teaser: American Sniper, An Autobiography by Chris Kyle

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB and asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

"Something else happened to me that spring that had an enormous impact not just on my military career, but on my life.

I fell in love.

I don't know if you believe in love at first sight; I don't think I did before the night in April of 2001 when I saw Tara..." (p. 40)

Title: American Sniper: the Autobiography of the Most Lethat Sniper in U.S. Military History
Author: Navy Seal Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice
Publisher: William Morrow, January 3. 2012
Genre: autobiography

Publisher's description: 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.

Comments: This reads like a novel of suspense but it's for real. I can hardly believe that it's published and can't wait to start reading in earnest.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

Book Review: Musical Chairs by Jen Knox

I admire the frank way Jennifer Knox wrote this autobiography and her willingness to share the detailed story of her life - her parent's divorce, her running away from home, her subsequent jobs as a strip dancer among others, her treatments for panic disorder and alcoholism, and her decision to attend college and to write. I was impressed by her struggles, including finding out more about the health history of her great-grandmother Gloria, overcoming her own problems, and eventually coming into her own as a writer.

The book is written in a straight-forward chronological narrative, the story mainly speaking for itself but with Jen's voice briefly commenting on her experiences throughout. I would have liked to read more about her internal journey through these experiences and her reactions now as a writer, looking back on her life. Nevertheless, this is an eye-opening book about one young woman's coping with adverse family health and circumstances.


Jennifer Knox is a fiction editor at Our Stories Literary Journal, a freelance writer, editor, and writing tutor.   (Thanks to the author for providing a review copy of this book).