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I picked this up in dead tree format finally after referring to it often via Safari Books Online / O'Reilly, which I get through my former employer. Since I got a book stipend while I'm attending school to learn studio engineering, I figured I would actually buy some books with it.

The author is definitely opinionated and I don't always fully agree, but he has an analytical approach that I really appreciate. It's difficult to write about audio because it is so subjective, but the author is a strict adherent to using objective measurements when you can, and TRUSTING them. He goes on mini-tirades against many of the myths of professional audio, and especially the romantic notions about analog tape and vinyl and tube electronics.

I particularly value very succinct and clear explanations. The chapter order is occasionally a little odd to me, and some parts have aged much better than others, but this is a great reference for class, and probably the best single book I have found to cover the wide range of topics we are dealing with. A very strong recommend, even with its flaws, for anyone getting into seriously into music or audio production.

The author, Erica C. Barnett, is a Seattle journalist (originally from the south). She was a highly functioning alcoholic for over a decade. Her book describes repeated cycles of "rock bottoms" and "moments of clarity" as she struggled, crashed, got detox/rehab, lived sober for a while, relapsed, etc. Throughout it all, she lied to herself and to everyone around her about her drinking and her control over it.

The common narrative (propagated via film and other popular culture) is that you have to hit "rock bottom" and then you get treatment and start putting the pieces back together. Her experience and the statistics she provides demonstrate that is not often the case; relapse cycles are far more common. Particularly grim was the discussion about what factors seem to predict alcoholism, relapse, and staying sober--because it's not at all clear why some people can get clean and others cannot.

There was an awful lot in this book that I recognized. In 2017, I watched my best friend of twenty years finally finish killing himself with alcohol. I had crashed at his house on and off when I was still a college student. He'd offered me the getaway car at my wedding (while advising me not to get in). We stayed at his place a few times, months at a time, when I was between jobs. Matt was the one who talked me into joining the National Guard in 2003 during one of those periods.

We drank sometimes, but I never even knew he had a problem--because he drank a good deal more in secret. He spent the last few weeks of his life in the ICU and then in the waiting-to-die wing of the hospital. He'd spent several months before that locked in a bedroom, drinking Kirkland vodka by the bottle and urinating in the empties. His wife would find over a hundred piss bottles when she cleaned it out.

I visited a few times a week at the end, mostly just watching movies quietly with him or talking comics and video games and politics and whatnot. Once I did ask him what I, as a platoon sergeant responsible for soldiers in my care, should look for if I thought someone might have a problem with alcohol. He did not even pause. "Lies. They'll lie about how much, how often, what, where, when." There were other signs and hints (especially financial troubles), but that was the big one.

Matt turned out to be the most accomplished liar I have ever encountered. For decades, right up until the end, he lied: to his wife, to his friends, to his boss, to his coworkers, to his family. Even on his deathbed, his kids (whom I've known since they were in elementary school) at first thought he had some sort of cancer or something because he was still lying to them. He was still lying about his drinking up until he lost consciousness for the last time. I think he still believed, even if no one else did.

In any case, I strongly recommend this book to military leaders, no matter your position. We have a drinking culture in the military that is not healthy. Whether you choose to partake or not, it would be good to be able to recognize the kinds of deception--especially self-deception--that may indicate people on your team are struggling with addictive behavior. Many people, maybe most, can control their drinking appropriately--but not everyone. Especially because our military culture encourages drinking, we have an obligation to be especially wary on behalf of our teammates, no matter their rank.

I first read about Rick Rescorla in a deep dive piece about his life after he perished in the World Trade Center attacks. His actions that day (and in the years leading up to it) were almost certainly responsible for many people's escape before the towers collapsed. Decades earlier, he had also been a minor but significant player in the series of battles memorialized in "We Were Soldiers Once.... And Young" as a young but veteran lieutenant in Vietnam. Unfortunately, his story was in the second half of that book, which was sort of ignored by the movie adaptation.

I was predisposed to enjoy this book, and it is good, but it borders on hagiography. The author loves his subject a little too much and the book suffers for it. I think Rick Rescorla was the sort of person who would have preferred a more critical, honest assessment of his life, not flinching from the less admirable parts.