Reader’s Notebook, 8/26/25

I’ve been on a hot streak this month. In addition to the books below, I have three more I need to share. As they are related, I’m saving those for next week.

King of Ashes – S.A. Cosby
The latest addition to Cosby’s growing collection of terrific thrillers. Here Roman, a rising Atlanta financial advisor to athletes and other celebrities, returns to his childhood home in Virginia when his father goes into a coma following a car accident. When he arrives he learns that accident was most likely the result of poor decisions his younger brother has made. Soon Roman is about as deep as you can possibly be in his brother’s mess, and is using every tool at his disposal to extricate his family.

This book is dark, dark AF as the kids sometimes say. Do they still say that? Roman’s family’s crematorium plays a large role. There is an additional family mystery about the disappearance of Roman’s mother when he was a teenager. When the truth of that is revealed, well, I’ll admit I let out a gasp of shock.

Careless People – Sarah Wynn-Williams
I did not plan on reading this book when I first heard of it. I already knew Facebook is full of horrible people at the tops of its leadership structure. People who routinely break laws, even when instructed by governments and courts to follow them. People who claim to want to transform the world through connecting people in innovative ways, but in reality only care about collecting as much data on its users to sell as many ads as possible. People who spout similar techno-libertarian babble as other Silicon Valley billionaires about standing firmly and proudly for freedom of speech, but never accepting that with freedom of speech comes both responsibilities and the understanding there are consequences that must be faced. And, of course, like so many companies who make the same claim, when forced to pick between protecting free expression and cowering to the wills of authoritarian governments, they will always work to please the autocrats since that means more paths to sell ads.

Again, I knew all this. So this book didn’t interest me. Until Facebook tried to stop it from being published. A request that quickly ignored. And made me suddenly interested in it, if only to strike a small blow against the company.

Wynn-Williams’ tale isn’t that different from other whistleblower accountings. Even when written about different companies in different industries, they often have the same arc: company blows up over a period of rapid growth, along the way its leadership either loses sight of its initial goals and morals or deliberately leaves them behind, people at the highest levels behave poorly, etc. She has all kinds of stories in those veins. None of them are surprises because no matter the industry or era, people will always be people. Thus it is expected that the leaders of Facebook are morally bankrupt who profess one set of values in public while operating under a completely different set behind closed doors. Witness their claims of having zero tolerance for sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior in the workplace, but then protecting senior leaders with long histories of exactly those accusations.

Even if some of her stories aren’t true, hell even if they’re all not true, there’s little doubt that Facebook’s leadership is as rotten and corrupt as any company we’ve ever seen.

The Dad Rock That Made Me A Woman – Niko Stratis
A wonderful memoir/music book detailing Stratis’ life, growing up in the rural Yukon Territories of Canada always being uncomfortable in the body she was born into. She struggles in school, in relationships, in work, but two things are always there to help guide her: her family and music. When she comes out as transgender, and eventually transitions to become a woman, it is only those two things that accept her without reservation.

I Am No Guide: Pearl Jam Song By Song – Brian Stipelman and Brandon Rector
The guys on the State of Love And Trust podcast recommended this book, and have had at least one of its authors on recently. As the title suggests, it is a song-by-song accounting of Pearl Jam’s career. Or at least all their album tracks. With a few exceptions most of the B-sides are skipped over.

I was looking forward to this. It turned out to be over-the-top analysis by super fans who almost never criticize a song. I cranked through it simply because it was so over-the-top. Not every song is a grand statement on life, relationships, or the world around us. Yet they just kept pushing and insisting they were. Here’s an example of the writing, their breakdown of the songs “My Father’s Son”:

The music is nasty and insecure, the bass line angry and self-recriminating like the morning after the familiar repetition of a terrible mistake. The guitar hovers just behind—a shiver up the spine, intimations of broken promises, past failures, and the specters of those we disappointed. The bridge offers a twisted carnival celebrating a tainted, poisoned future—a fresh start forever in view but permanently out of reach. It would be nice if we could cut off our past, and start over, a “volunteer amputee.” But we cannot run from what has happened. There is no getaway. We can only confront and learn from it.

Jesus, give it a rest, fellas.