Mirror Mirror

Let's get this out of the way first. "Mirror Mirror" is a book by model Cara Delevinge. It is her first novel. In this book, main character Red (nicknamed because of her hair) has a tough life. Her dad is running off with some mistresses all the time. Her mother is a severe alcoholic. And her little sister is suffering from the family turmoil.

For a while, Red seeks solace in a band formed at her school. There is a super hot girl, Rose, who is the lead singer. Then there is Leo, whose brother is a criminal who has gone to jail but is getting released. And then there is Naomi (Nai for short). By the time the book opens, Nai has been missing and turns up in the river. Nai is not dead, but is severely injured and is in a coma.

Red teams up with Nai's sister Ashley (Ash) to figure out what happened to Nai. Although Nai led a troubled life previously, things were looking up for her after the band got together. Initially Nai's disappearance was chalked up to a girl running away from home. However clues start to point towards some foul play type of abduction.

There are some tragedies in the midst of this book. For example, Leo's criminal brother tries to get Leo to assist with a murder. And Red falls for her best friend, and mistakes that friendship for love. The main plot sticks to the search for what happened to Nai. In the process, Red solidifies her true self and attempts to lead the resolution of problems in her own family's life.

This was quite a book to read. Nice suspenseful plot and some pretty decent character development. At first I thought this was an autobiography. I have since decided it is just fiction. I wonder if Delevinge had a ghost writer produce the text.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened

This book is by blogger Jenny Lawson. She goes by the handle "The Bloggess" online. Jenny was born and raised in a small town in Texas. Her family was poor. Her dad was a weird taxidermist. Her grandparents spoiled her and her sister.

When Jenny grew up and got married, she moved a few hours away in Texas. Turns out she also got an interest in taxidermy. She did not stuff animals like her dad. But she did collect them, to the disgust of her husband. Seems she could not help buy stuffed animals that were dressed up in unusual regalia.

Jenny had some funny lines in this book. But her style was the same chapter after chapter. It was an interesting read to start. Got a bit stale by the end. Most books I keep for  possible future read. Not this one. I bet her blog, although I have never read it, is somewhat interesting too.

438 Days

Alvarenga got into a fight with some local thugs. They were associated with the mob. He feared for his life. So he fled, leaving his young baby daughter and girlfriend behind. He headed south into Mexico. There he learned to be a proficient fisherman. Eventually he was entrusted to rent out a boat and go on deep water fishing trips of his own.


Alvarenga found a spot almost 100 miles off the coast where there were lot of valuable fish. He and his first mate pulled in a haul that brought them a lot of money. A huge storm was approaching. Alvarenga wanted to make one more big score. But his first mate was delayed. So he hired a replacement.whose name was Cordoba.


They made it out to the spot where the fish were aplenty. They filled their nets to the brim and tried to head to shore. The storm overpowered them and their single motor failed. They did radio in to shore for help. But the storm was too powerful. Rescue attempts were unsuccessful. Cordoba and Alvarenga were swept out to sea.


Both of them learned to live off the sea. They had lots of plastic bottles they used to collect rainwater to drink. They fished for food, and later turned to capturing birds that landed on the ship. Cordoba got sick from some seafood he ate. He no longer wanted to eat it, thinking the other food was poisoned too. He lost the will to live and died at sea.


Alvarenga floated in the ocean for over a year. He had enough water and food. But his mind was going crazy. He did have some injuries that kept getting worse. Eventually he ran ashore. But they did not speak Spanish there. Lots of paparazzi harassed him. He had on mission left that drove him on while he was alone. He needed to return to meet a daughter he had not seen in over 10 years. And he needed to go report the demise of Cordoba to his mother.

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

This books takes a look behind the scenes of game development. Here are the games we find out about:

• Pillars of Eternity
• Uncharted 4
• Stardew Valley
• Diablo III
• Halo Wars
• Dragon Age: Inquisition
• Shovel Knight
• Destiny
• The Witcher 3
• Stars Wars 1313

There were many lessons learned here. You can develop a game by yourself. It might take 5 years and be very lonely. You can also do a startup with your pals. You will be hurting for money and it will also take you a very long time. Sometimes the game will be cancelled.

A big time to demo your games is E3. Often times you need to change the game significantly after a demo. It is dangerous to rely on an unproven framework. It is beneficial to target new consoles as they will have much more power.

Scrappy Little Nobody

Just ready Scrappy Little Nobody. It is an autobiography by Anna Kendrick. She had a small part in the Twilight movies series as a high school friend of Bella. She is best known for her role in Pitch Perfect. Anna tells her story from being a little kid up until now.

I liked how Anna spoke to you with her words in the book. She was pretty funny at times. There are surprisingly realistic details such as the time when evil Tori usurped Anna and turned the girls of Anna's sleepover club against her.

Also, Anna tells of a trip she took on a boat to some type of festival. They sailed past some very rough seas. Everyone got sick and scared. Anna fell for her friend's hot brother during that trip. She thought she might be able to score a hookup with the bro. Did not turn out that way.

Only person who knows how to talk to you via prose better than Anna Kendrick is Mindy Kaling.

Repo Madness

Repo Madness is the sequel to The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man. This time around Ruddy finds his fiancé moving out to take a break. His boss has died. And Ruddy's brother-in-law has taken over the repo business.

Ruddy finds that although he initially did not like his brother-in-law, the guy is actually a stand up kind of dude. He gets Ruddy a new tow truck. And he comes through in the tough times for Ruddy.

Ruddy does have some tough times. A new court ordered psychiatrist is insisting that Ruddy stay medicated. Otherwise he will be in violation of his parole and will be locked up. He also discovered evidence that he man not have involuntarily killed a woman long ago. Instead it seems some other perpetrators committed the crime. Ruddy investigates.

Bruce Cameron, the author of the book, is best known for other books on dogs such as A Dog's Journey. I absolutely love his writing. Other books just pale in comparison. There is yet another sequel available only online called The Midnight Dog of the Repo Man. I will surely be getting that.

The FaceBook Effect

Here we go again with another book about FaceBook. The best part of the book focused on the time when FaceBook started getting really popular, and people wanted to buy the company. Zuckerburg was not convinced that selling was the right choice. But he liked talking with important people, which included potential suitors to buy the company.

The main question during the acquisition talks was what the company was worth. Initial low bids were somewhere around 600 million. Visionaries thought FaceBook could be worth 1 billion. Eventually even Zuckerburg thought the company should fetch over a billion dollars.

Another fun part of FaceBook history was when dissenters formed FaceBook groups. The biggest and most vocal groups were ones that protested changes in the look or operation of FaceBook itself. For example, there was a legal change of the terms of service. The change seemed to imply that FaceBook would forever own anything you share on it. Users rioted, created a FaceBook group, and protested. Zuckerburg caved in, revoking the changes.