Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell

When I wrote about Generation Kill, I mentioned it started a military reading kick. Well, this is one of those books. Unlike Generation Kill, which is about Marines, Lone Survivor is about the Navy Seals.

Marcus Luttrell knew he wanted to be a Seal as a child. He even started training as a teenager and eventually became a sniper for the Seals. In 2005, Luttrell was deployed to Afghanistan on a mission to capture...or kill...Ahmad Shah, a taliban leader. Luttrell and his team, consisting of three other Seals, were ambushed by the Taliban and all, except Luttrell, eventually died. Not only was Luttrell's tale of survival amazing, but the tale of his teammate's deaths is equally memorable.

This book was quite a change from Generation Kill, not only because it was about a different branch of the military, but also because Luttrell's perspective is very different from Wright's (hmmm, Rolling Stone writer vs. hard core Texan...). But like Generation Kill, I found things tangential to the main story really riveting, like the SEAL training Luttrell went through at Coronado and the hell those guys are put through.

My impression overall, a great book. Again, not a big military buff but I'd recommend this book. And not just because it's got a great story. It really opened my eyes to what our military forces have been doing for us and gave me a better understanding of the situation in the middle east.

The Hubs' take: "I liked that story, it was well-written, humorous, very right-wing. Entertaining"

Reviewed by Cathy