Luka loved this thoughtful and frank memoir, and had this to say about it:

You may have heard of Chelsea Manning. At 23, she leaked what would become known as the Iraq War logs—“to show the true cost of war,” she said. It was in the name of this “transparency” that she was charged and jailed—in a men’s prison, despite having come out as a transgender woman. Manning’s years in prison became well-known—both for the advocacy she accomplished in trans prisoners’ access to gender-affirming care, and for the horrific abuses she faced while imprisoned.

Yes, the content is often gut-wrenching, and Manning only spares the details which are technically capital-c Classified. But her frankness and unparalleled wit is highly readable. I was fascinated but appalled while reading about the cruel and often arbitrary bureaucracy behind the scenes of Manning’s military deployment. It was also really interesting to read about the lives of LGBT+ people in the early 2000s, and how they were able to access safe communities, particularly in the days of early internet.

README.txt is a fascinating, charged memoir about transparency, modern warfare, and authenticity. I highly recommend it. – Luka