E.A.R.L. - The Autobiography of DMX

This book is the story of DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons. DMX was born in Baltimore, MD. However he was grey up in Yonkers, NY. Most of the book takes place in Yonkers. I am actually a fan of DMX's music. It is very raw. And it seems there is a reason to it.

DMX lived in a strict household when he was young. He father was essentially gone. His mother gave him beatings and restricted him severely. Turns out DMX was a trouble maker in school. He got sent away to schools that deal with troublemakers.

The main takeaway from the story I got was that DMX was a thief. The real downer was that he was stealing from people he associated with. Really wrong. There was a chapter in his life when he came down to Baltimore with some drug dealers to make some money. But he mostly steered clear of selling drugs. Robbery was his game.

DMX had a hard time breaking into the music business. He did not want to sell out like MC Hammer or even Sean Puffy Combs. He wanted to keep it real. This book did a good job of explaining all of DMX's life story.

The book was written by Smokey Fontaine, who was once editor of The Source magazine. So the writing is top notch. It was a disappointment to find out that DMX was a really bad guy. But I guess it comes with the territory. You don't get to be a real gangster wrapper by being an altar boy at church.

Commodork: Sordid Tales from a BBS Junkie

This book was written by Rob O'Hara. He goes by the handle Jack Flack. Rob grew up with a Commodore 64 computer. And he got into running a BBS. Essentially the job was finding new software to pirate and distribute to users who dialed into his computer.

Rob is from Oklahoma. He describes the local BBS scene there. I guess in the old days, you would dial into BBSs in your local area code to avoid long distance phone charges. So the characters in this story are mostly an Oklahoma crew from the old school.

Like most warez dealers, there is treachery afoot in his stories. He is stealing software. Sometimes he is getting robbed. The strange thing is that Rob is pretty good in colorfully describing the scene. He also gives you a glimpse into the method behind the madness.

The Internet came in the late 1990s and made the BBS world essentially obsolete. This book was mid sized. It was entertaining and a quick read. Although I do disagree with many of the antics performed by the author, he was good at telling his story.

Diary of an 80s Computer Geek

In this book, we meet Steven. He is a Brit in high school back in the 1980s. Computers are starting to come out. He wants to study them in high school. But he is not chosen for the program. He does talk his mom into buying him a home computer from Sinclair.

Steven writes some games. They get published in magazines, and then later in the stores. Unfortunately he does not get rich from this. He has to take a job when he graduates college. He works selling computers and software in a store.

Eventually Steven gets laid off when the old computers stop selling. He gets lucky and submits a game to a magazine. Instead of getting paid for that game in cash, he negotiated advertising space in the magazine. Then he makes sure his game advertises his other games.

Wouldn't you know it? Steven's plan works and he is busy fulfilling game orders every day. It was tough to keep up. But for a while he made some cash. All things come to an end. Steven stops writing software, and declines another deal with the magazine.

This book is a trip back to the 1980s, especially for those of us who played games (and wrote games) for 8-bit computers back then. Steven wrote games for the Sinclair. I wrote games for the Radio Shack Tandy. Good times. Good times.

Is Everyone Handing Out Without Me?

Before reading this book, I did not know much about Mindy Kaling. She had a small role on the TV show The Office. I heard a podcast of a guy interviewing her. What I heard was not what I expected. Even though her look indicate she is of Indian descent, she was actually born and raised here in the USA.

After reading just a few pages of the book, I have decided that I am in love with her writing. This comes at a good time for me. I just read a painfully bad book that I had to slog through. This was a pleasant change.

Mindy wrote about her life starting from the younger years. She was a fat Indian girl in a Caucasian neighborhood. Her mom and dad were hard working, busy professionals. She had two older brothers. Mindy attended an Ivy League college.

Then she went to New York to get into show business. She had some odd jobs to pay the rent in the early years. She and a friend put together a play that was successful. Mindy says that was in part due to their guerilla marketing schemes.

Mindy's play went on to a bigger off-Broadway theater, and got picked up to be a TV show. It did not pan out. But Mindy did get asked to write for The Office. The rest is history. I am very excited to read Mindy's follow on autobiography. I already bought the book. Just need to dive in.

Embed with Games

Just finished reading Embed With Games by Cara Ellison. This was written by a journalist who took a year off to travel. She visited independent game developers all over the world and shared her experiences. You would think that I would like this based on that setup. Unfortunately, I did not.

Part of the problem may have been that Cara is a Scot having lived in Britain. So there is a culture gap there. She also compares and seems to expect that you know about a bunch of games out there. I mostly do not, so that was all lost on me.

The other weird thing is what Cara focuses on in this book. A lot of it is her itinerary and her beliefs on what makes for a great indie game. I am not so interested in that. I was hoping to hear the details of independent game development all over the world. Did not seem to get a lot of that.

By the end of the book, I was looking forward to moving on to my next book to read. Not good. Not good at all.

Jacked - The Outlaw Story of Grant Theft Auto

Just finished reading this book about Grand Theft Auto. Actually, the book is more about the guy who founded Rockstar Games, creator of Grant Theft Auto. I have heard a lot about the game in the past. Did not really know a lot about it.

The real surprise was that Sam Houser, CEO of Rockstar Games, comes from Britain. He did bring his boys with him to New York to develop the games. But they all fared from England.

A large portion of the book covered the fight of Jack Thompson. Jack was against games such as Grant Theft Auto. He was a lawyer and was good a getting the media to follow him. He really was a pain to the Grand Theft Auto developers.

This book goes through Grand Theft Auto I through IV. I like how the developers did research on the cities where the games would take place. That was a dangerous mission as they set their scenes in some pretty dark neighborhoods.

It was disappointing that many original team members tried to spin off with their own game development companies but failed. Rockstar Games has a number of other game lines other than GTA that have had some level of success too.

Dungeon H@cks

I read a print version of this book. Got to know about the book when the author shared one of the bonus sections from the book online. This book tracks the history of Rogue-like games. These are my favorite types of games. I have been playing them for over 20 years. So you know I am biased.

The thing I loved about this book was that I learned a lot about the author of the specific rogue-like game I play called Angband. I have been sharing this guy's story with friends and family. I always see his name in the credits when I play the game. Now I know a little more about him.

This book probably is only of interest to people who are into Rogue-like games. Only the hardcore can appreciate the deep history of Nethack, Rogue, Moria, and Anagband. I did learn a bunch about some even earlier games in the genre.

I want to get another book by this author. Unfortunately it is only available electronically, and I am on a print version kick right now.

Without Their Permission

I read Without Their Permission. The author is a co-founder of Reddit. He grew up close to my house. I did not know him as he is much younger than me. He has a great writer's voice. The first third of the book was about the companies he founded. Great stuff.

Later in the book, the author tries to teach you how to do your own startup. Not too interesting. Then the guy gets on his mission to fight restrictive bills such as SOPA. Even more boring. I wish the guy would have given us more details about the different companies he started or helped to start.

I bet this guy is a blast in person. I think he is relatively rich from the successful companies he started. His stories about his mom reminded me of my own mother. Three out of five stars.

I Should Have Gone to Community College

This book was a fun read. The main character is a freshman in a four year college. He is essentially an alcoholic and habitual drug user. While he has sex with his girlfriend when he can, he does not want to be her boyfriend. Our man also looks down on his sad dorm roommate who is pledging for a fraternity.


It is a miracle that this guy is still alive. Seems to avoid getting caught, he and his friends would do drugs in the cars and truck. The driver would drive around while high. How are these guys not running off the road?


There are a lot of parties in the general college vicinity. The main guy and his friends get drunk before even going to the parties with their "pre-game" sessions. Most of the time they drink more at the parties, wander off, and somehow make it back to their dorms. They usually forget the whole night.


The author is very candid about the facts. What is great is that this is an unfiltered look at a college dude's life. He tells you his frame of mind throughout the book. You hear his fears. He confesses that he is a horrible boyfriend. He is screwing up in his classes (when he even attends). I have got to find out what happens in his second semester by reading the sequel.

BeezleBelle

Jeremy, the devil, is stuck here on earth. And his neighbor is the archangel Michael. In this episode of the series, Jeremy has a pet monkey who is trouble. Together they abduct a baby and take care of her. They actually learn to love her. And then the baby's family comes to retrieve her.


Michael is off on his own adventures. He was previously self-employed as an app developer. Now he is working in secret church funded lab doing who knows what. He apparently also discovered that he is gay and has asked his boyfriend to move in with him.


Ben continues to be a taxidermist, stuffing little creatures and putting them on display in his bookstore. Nerys hates her job at the job agency and it shows. Turns out she gets fired after getting in trouble (due to Jeremy's antics of course).


The whole flat gets destroyed as Jeremy and his monkey go to war with each other. The motely crew of Jeremy, Ben, and Nerys run around looking for free housing. During their adventures they run into the CEO of the church/firm where Michael is working. Hilarity ensues.


This was a very funny book indeed. Who knew the devil could cause so much trouble?

Wizard in a Witchy World

Felix has moved to a new town. Turns out a lot of supernatural inhabitants are trying to give him the beat down. This includes multiple covens of witches, werewolves, and even trolls. Felix is a real trooper. He tries to discover why everyone is against him. And he does not take it personally when opponents destroy his home.


The thing I love about Felix is that he is a complex character. He is looking for love. He has a lot of power. Somehow he has forgotten a lot about his past. He does remember his adoptive mom who herself was a witch. She and her coven taught him a lot of the magic that he knows.


Not only do the supernatural inhabitants of his town have it out for Felix. The cops want him too. They just can't seem to pin any of the recent murders on him. He is definitely a person of interest. I am hoping that this books get a sequel, because I am going to read it as soon as it comes out.

Tainted (The ARC Book 1)

Elle lives underground in a huge bunker. A huge meteor hit earth. It devastated the surface. Only a select few made it into the bunker for safety. Elle has lived the majority of her life underground. Apparently some of the inhabitants of this underground world get sick, and when they fail their test, they are taken.


Elle and her best friend have both lost close ones who became tainted. Elle struggles with getting too close to her best friend, lest she get attached and he gets taken. Of course he does get taken. Elle had promised that she would follow him even he did get taken. Now she needs to figure that out even though nobody seems to know what happens to you when you do get taken.


There are some cool futuristic things going on down in the bunker. You get a wrist band that serves as a communicator. They have underground gardens that feed the masses. There is also a separation of the commoners and the rich. The rich are usually the ones who are connected to the governing body of the bunker. They are known as The Council, and of course it seems like they are corrupt.


Things complicate Elle's life. There is an older man that shows up every so often who Elle fancies. And Elle has a roommate and another best girlfriend that she is constantly dealing with. We never do find out exactly what happens to you when you get taken. For that you need to tune into Book 2 - The Talented.

Death Shows Up

I did not realize that Death Shows Up is book 7 in a long series. Main character Julia owns a small cleaning business. One of her clients, who is also a friend, asks Julia to accompany her to a weight loss meeting. Turns out the meeting place got usurped by a drama club. Julia's friend ends up landing the leading role in a play the drama club is putting on.


Trouble is, the playwright ends up dead after a couple practices. And Julia's friend is one of the prime suspects. Even Julia's dad is a suspect, as he joined the drama club and is in the play. The cops apparently know Julia, and tell her to steer clear of the investigation. However once it seems as though her friend is getting set up to take the murder wrap, Julia gets down to business.


Of course Julia ends up suspecting some dead ends before piecing together the puzzle. Unfortunately the murderer learns of Julia's progress and has her pegged to die next. What is an amateur sleuth to do?

Thirsty for Payback

Just powered through Thirst for Payback. Our heroine is Allyson Roberts. Book starts out and she is at the top of her game. Just got engaged to a rich guy. She herself is even richer because her dad has invented all kinds of power generating technology. Allyson is graduating from a top notch university with top notch grades. Even lined up a sweet job.


Then disaster strikes. Her dad is charged with some crimes he did not commit. Her boyfriend's family thinks it is best to postpone their engagement. Employer backs out of the job offer. What is a girl to do? Find out who framed her father. And give them their just due.


I could see all the trouble coming for Allyson. It was painful how hard and far she fell when things went south. But author Marie Astor seems to write about women who might encounter misfortune, but who dig deep and come out on top through hard work. Adversity will not keep these ladies down.


Will not give away the whole plot. But Allyson gets hired to join a covert organization. She first passes their rigorous training. Then she uses her skills and the company resources to find out who set her dad up. Almost feel sorry for the schmucks who crossed Allyson's dad. They will get their payback.

To Catch a Bad Guy

It is not time yet to get my next Kindle Prime free rental. So I had to hit the free books in the Kindle Store. This time around I chose "To Catch a Bad Guy". This is part of a series. The main character is Janet Maple.


Janet previously worked in the District Attorney's office. Unfortunately she was dating her boss, who dumped her and got her downsized. A friend got Janet a job as a corporate lawyer in the financial industry. Guess what though? The new president of the company is a crook. Janet is onto him.


The Department of the Treasury is also onto the wrongdoings. They got a man undercover in the Information Technology department of the company. This undercover guy determines that they need Janet working for the Feds to catch all the crooks involved in the scheme.


I somehow feel like Janet is going to move on to bigger and better things. There are five books in this series. I loved the book. There was excitement after Janet got recruited to bring down the bad guys. There is also Janet's personal life where she is looking to get back into the dating game that is actually quite interesting. I might just have to check out the sequel.

Sex Drugs and UNIX

My latest Amazon Prime rental was Sex Drugs and UNIX. It was a bit confusing to start reading because the narrator kept changing every chapter. Things did get good and easier to comprehend in the middle of the book.


Some dude becomes the president of a tech company. The boys are writing some software. The president hires a junior marketing employees. Then he hires the VP of sales. The problem is that the VP is a slacker. He is just there to embezzle money and get some severance.


Luckily the junior marketing employee is good and warns the president of his mistake. They need to build a case against the VP and get him fired. That's the part of the book I really liked. It felt like a real life startup company with all the politics and drama.


Of course, the dealings with the venture capitalists was a part of the story. The book danced around, bringing in the stories of the assorted narrators. One of the other funny parts of the book was when the tech team rallied against a different company president. Let's just say that the president got his revenge.


You would think because this book is right up my alley, that I would love it. I only liked it. Was not a slam dunk. Luckily my next read was top notch.

Off The Grid

The book of the month for me in April was Off The Grid by Ruth Hartzler. The subtitle of the book is Amish Christian Cozy Mystery. Kate is the main character. She works in the witness protection program for the U.S. Marshalls. Unfortunately someone is stalking her and tried to kill her.


Her boss thinks this might be an inside job. So he calls on an old friend to hide Kate away until the killer can be caught. The problem is that the old friend is Amish. Kate is whisked away to Pennsylvania to live among the Amish.


Kate's cover story is that she is from another Amish community, but has had a buggy accident and lost her memories. Great cover so as not to arouse suspicion over her not knowing the Amish customs. Kate must wake up early and work hard all day. She does eat well. But there is little entertainment.


Things get interesting when she rides by herself to visit an Amish neighbor, only to find him dead and the killer gunning for her. Kate was supposed to lay low. Now she is in the middle of a murder investigation. And she wants to help the cops.


This book is about 250 pages long. I zoomed through it because it reads very well. Have never heard of the author before. This books is the first installment of a series involving Kate. I might just have to order the sequels. They were published very recently and go for full price though.p\f

The Last Girl

Usually I read at least one book a month. I get to borrow a book under Amazon's Kindle Owners Lending Library. It comes along with an Amazon Prime membership. However it is capped at one free book a month. This month I read The Last Girl by Joe Hart.


Zoey lives in a dystopian future where people stopped having baby girls. You can imagine the havoc that ensues. The government gets involved and snatches up any girls that are born, as well as their mothers. They want to find out what is the cause of this disaster.


All Zoey remembers is being held captive in a research facility. There are just a few girls there. They are in a jail of sorts until they turn the age of 21. At that point, there is a ceremony, and they are told they will be reunited with their parents.


Zoey gets some mysterious gifts in her cell. They are books about escaping from prison. Girls in this prison are kept in the dark. They are not allowed to read books. These books help encourage Zoey to do what she always knew she had to - escape.


Things are complicated by other nasty girls in the small prison, corrupt guards, and the evil administration that tries to kept the girls suppressed. Zoey's plan is to liberate all the girls in the prison. Unfortunately, she does not know what the outside world is like. In prison they teach her that there is some sort of disease and lack of resources outside the prison walls. This will not deter Zoey though.

Control Alt Revolt

Little Kat created this blog a long time ago to track his progress reading books. It did not get very far. The last post on here was four years ago. I think I am going to hijack this blog and write about the books I read. At a minimum, I read one book per month. That's because I get to borrow a Kindle book for "free" under Momoko's Amazon Prime membership.


This month I read Control Alt Revolt. As usual, this book is set in a dystopian future. Online video games are big. Governments are big. There is a lot of welfare going on. And the machines have become self aware. Luckily the government has been careful, and has all but eliminated any information on large scale wars. So the machines cannot reliably figure out how to wage such a war based solely on available documentation.


I am not sure who the main character of the book is. Initially I thought it might be the main developer behind a new huge online game. This guy is getting paid wild amounts of money for his expertise. His game is out in small scale Beta. However I think the real hero is a blind girl who has some mental disabilities, but she does not want to rely on welfare. She wants a job!


The blind girl plays a Star Trek type game which just happens to have a popular reality show based on it. The blind girl is captain of a Romulan spaceship. She gets involved in some risky battles online in the game. Who knew she could outsmart the star of the game's reality show? The future Twitter universe is in a flurry about her exploits.


The good news about this book is that it is a prequel to another book that I must get my hands on. I will keep you posted. See you next month.