Subtitled A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth. The backstory to Wildcard - crazy stuff. There were so many red flags from this company but these were blurred by regulators, analysts and tech bros just really wanting the growth to be true and for Germany to have a true Tech company. I’ve read several of this genre, and while those at the center of the fraud are held accountable to some extent, it’s disappointing that the enablers usually get to walk away with little consequence. There was real damage done, particularly to the people trying to shine a light on the fraud and while the company directed the onslaught, regulators, lawyers, analysts and other white-collar professionals enabled, and profited from it.

• Author: Dan McCrum
• Nonfiction      Business

Another recommended reading for those looking for a Reacher substitute. This one shows promise. The main character is interesting and competent while having a distinct backstory. This story has good twists and turns, offering some surprises while always moving forward. I’m just curious how the author will expand on this character as what made this adventure interesting should not occur again.

• Author: Brett Battles
• Fiction      Crime

A novella featuring a secondary character from the Stormlight Archive. If you like that world, you’ll be pleased with this story that doesn’t have a direct impact on the main storyline, but takes place in the same world and provides some additional perspectives.

• Author: Brandon Sanderson
• Fiction      Fantasy

I have a soft spot for Russian history given how much this country has, and continues to, fuck with world history. In this book, the author explores the advent of the Soviet Union as starting in 1891 as spurred by the continued repression of the tsar and his inability to make any changes that would’ve liberalized society and prevented the Bolsheviks from taking power. The Bolsheviks themselves had various plans for what society should look like post the revolution, but it became bastardized during Lenin’s last days. The book paints Lenin as a flexible ideologue, who understood power and repressed dissent to provide some flexibility to implement his version of communism. Unfortunately, his health gave out early, and Stalin stepped in to cement the party around a cult of personality, to Lenin and to Stalin himself. As opposed to other histories I’ve read, the Soviet economy was always a facade and had no hope of becoming a modern society after these initial decisions, although it could’ve certainly plodded on longer.

• Author: Orlando Figes
• Nonfiction      History

Another novella from the Stormlight Archive, featuring the character Lift, who is fun character that takes little seriously. The first chapter is a recap from a chapter in the main book, which ends with some unanswered questions that are addressed in this book.

• Author: Brandon Sanderson
• Fiction      Fantasy

Hat tip to Gonzalo. It was unclear what this book was about and halfway through, I was still trying to piece together the main narrative and direction. I’m hesitant to comment too much more on the book as I think the less you know about the book coming into it, the better the payoff.

• Author: Hernan Diaz
• Fiction      Novels

I started watching the Apple series and became addicted. Understanding it was a 3 book series, I expected that the first book would maybe cover the first season and that I would need to read further to get past the 2 seasons I had already watched. However, the first book pretty much wraps up the TV series. I am generally one of those “the book is always better” people but while the book is solid, I like what they have done with the TV series. Overall, the TV series is very true to the book, particularly the first 1/3 of it, but where the book is very efficient in its story telling, the TV series spends much more time flushing out the characters and expanding on threads mentioned, but not explored, in the book. I’m excited to start the 2nd book in the series, which I understand jumps to a different time period.

• Author: Hugh Howey
• Fiction      Apocalyptic

Great book. In the late 90s following Clinton’s welfare reform, the author takes on the challenge that the poor can work themselves out of poverty. She spends 1 month in 3 different parts of the US (Key West, Maine, Minneapolis) and in 3 different roles (Waitress, House Cleaner, Walmart clerk) and describes her experiences trying to make ends meet. In each role she works her hardest and tries to find the best job she can find as a recent housewife re-entering the workforce. Even with taking two jobs, she finds she can not make ends meet, sharing the experiences of colleagues who at the border of homelessness (living in hotels, cars, sharing trailers, etc). As a society, we should be ashamed.

• Author: Barbara Ehrenreich
• Nonfiction      Economics

Another recommendation for that Reacher replacement. Good book, a real page turner and I will read more of this character. However, I laugh that this character is essentially a female Reacher. Former military cop? Check. Drifter? Check. Lives by her own code and willing to work in the grey for justice? Check. Pretty much unbeatable in a fight? Check. Loves Coffee? Check.

• Author: LT Ryan
• Fiction      Crime

The author has studied tyrants from modern history and share his learnings about why it is so difficult for a tyrant to maintain power. Each chapter details the choices a tyrant needs to make to minimize threats to his reign, often engendering difficult decisions on who can be trusted and for how long. In these personalistic systems, it becomes nearly impossible to run a functioning country, with the tyrant running an internal patronage network that exploits either the people or resources of the country. A military is needed to keep order but is also an alternative power structure, so splitting the command and physically distancing the capital from the main forces are often required. Overall, few tyrants peacefully retire, so once you find yourself on the track, it’s a question of when, not if, you will meet your bloody end.

• Author: Marcel Dirsus
• Nonfiction      History

Subtitled “Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. This book is classic Zeihan exposition - big swings, told in a casual manner based on deep insights into demography and history that discounts contemporary events. The big picture idea is demography is destiny, which follows from the geography is destiny synthesis of Jared Diamond. To belittle it for a bit, this view of history would almost say that Europe, then America leading the global order could have been predicted in 10,000 BC based on purely on mountains, navigable rivers and shipping access. The big swing in this book is that America has all the components to lead the next several decades and that most other countries (China, Western Europe save France, Japan, etc) are doomed by their demography.

• Author: Peter Zeihan
• Nonfiction      Geopolitics

• Author: LT Ryan
• Fiction      Crime

• Author: Peter Romer
• Fiction      Crime

Subtitled “A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI”. Highly recommended book. Similar to his book Sapiens, Harari lays out a very accessible and convincing history of communication networks. After building his thesis, Harari defends liberal democracy and pivots this against some recent movements towards majoritarian dictatorship (i.e. Putin, Trump). Overall, Harari echoes Taleb’s Antifragile, stressing that networks should be prized for their self-correcting mechanisms rather than their efficiencies. The book ends with a haunting reminder that liberal democracies needed the printing press, newspapers and radios to flourish and that the AI may create the environment for totalitarianism to flourish.

• Author: Yuval Noah Harari
• Nonfiction      History

The last book of the trilogy I purchased, although the author continues to write this character. I enjoy this character but will take a break for a bit. I like how this book wrapped up as it tied off a red thread that drove the initial books and stopping here is satisfying. Book 4 will have to come up with a new motivation for this character.

• Author: LT Ryan
• Fiction      Crime

Taking place in 2025, I was drawn to this book. King’s 2025 is dystopian, split between have and have-nots where the have-nots are kept in line by free entertainment, in particular a show called the Running Man, where contestants can earn money by staying alive against hunters. King keeps it fairly brief, building the world enough to help the reader understand the stakes but not more.

• Author: Stephen King
• Fiction      Apocalyptic

In the 2nd book of the series, the author fills in the backstory to Book 1 as well as jumps in time to set-up two important protagonists integral to wrapping up the series in Book 3. Enjoyable if you are really interested in the world of Silo, but otherwise could seem like a bit of homework.

• Author: Hugh Howey
• Fiction      Apocalyptic

The final book in the series pulls all the plot lines together. I’ll avoid saying more but just note that it’s a bit more fast paced vs the slow burn of book 1. There are also two adjacent stories after the ending that have a bearing on a main character’s future but are technically not part of the trilogy.

• Author: Hugh Howey
• Fiction      Apocalyptic

It’s amazing to think that Michael Lewis had a front row seat to the collapse of FTX. Just impeccable timing. I recall some controversy around the book, with the accusation that Lewis took it a bit easy on Sam. For the most part, I think Lewis stays balanced and if you have read Michael Lewis before, his approach to Sam is the same as his approach to most his subjects. A bit skeptical, but wanting to find what makes the person special. The growth and the collapse of FTX was major financial news so I was mostly familiar with the story, however I really enjoyed the easy prose of Lewis to fill in the gaps and highlight some of the pivotal moments. In the last chapter, after FTX has collapsed and Lewis is profiling the bankruptcy examiner, John Ray, I do feel as if Lewis became a bit close to Sam, although at no point does Lewis excuse Sam’s behavior. “Sam being Sam” is not presented as an excuse, rather is the explanation of how such a collapse can occur. Overall, Sam is a fascinating character, less so because the intelligence or success, but rather due to his emotional detachment and extreme risk tolerance. He actively sought risk and was not troubled by losses. While many of us dwell too much on losses, it would’ve served Sam better if he was able to pause at one point and contemplated that yes, it could all be lost.

• Author: Michael Lewis
• Nonfiction      Business

I have read about Oliver Sacks in NeuroTribes, which detailed his many contributions to neurology and specifically, autism. As such, I picked up this book expecting to learn a lot about his early research into behavior. Surprisingly, this biography is only up to his university years, up to which point he was enthralled by chemistry. While this is a biography, you will learn a lot about the origins of the periodic table and chemical reactions as it seems this learning journey shaped a lot Sacks’ childhood.

• Author: Oliver Sacks
• Nonfiction      Biography

This. Fucking. Guy. It’s a guilty pleasure reading these types of books which capture several years of headlines in a tidy little book as well as broaden out the characters involved to provide a background to the event. The whole story is really absurd, with Twitter being bought as a personal plaything with really no strategy. The book ends in March 2024, in which case it appears TwiXer may go bankrupt. Just one year later, TwiXer gets bailed out with fresh capital from xAI, itself a shell company with fresh capital from Elon’s minions. We are still waiting for some justice in this world.

• Author: Kate Conger
• Nonfiction      Business