Almost Free Game - World of Goo

I first heard about World of Goo ($12.24; PC/Mac) as a WIIWare download ($14.99), but there are versions for your PC, Mac and Linux available, with prices ranging from around $12 to $20. For those of you, like me, who never got around to buying the game or weren't sure if they wanted it, you can get it for your PC, Mac or for Linux as a digital download and pay whatever you want, as little as one penny. It's part of a one-year anniversary sale (World of Goo is a year old) and you can get the game by clicking HERE, then on the Get It button half-way down the screen (there are demos farther down the page). You'll use PayPal to check out, after telling them how much you want to pay, but don't have to have a PayPal account (you can use most major credit cards). The sale ends Monday, Oct 19.

Game Description

• 47 beautiful levels backed with a spell binding soundtrack
• 10 different types of goo, each with their own unique abilities
• Use balloons to steady your creation or give your structure flight!
• A huge variety of different puzzles and situations
• Beautiful, fun, and one of the highlights of this year - PC Gamer

Drag and drop living, squirming, talking globs of goo to build structures, bridges, cannonballs, zeppelins, and giant tongues. The millions of innocent goo balls that live in the beautiful World of Goo are curious to explore. But they don't know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious. The most addicting and awe-inspiring puzzle game will set you on an adventure that you'll never forget!

$1.99 EBook Sale at Drollerie Press

Drollerie Press has been holding a $1.99 sale on their web site - every book at $1.99 or less. They lowered the prices at mobipocket.com, as well and I kept waiting for the Kindle prices to drop, but they never did. In any case, the sale should continue thru tomorrow on the web site. It turns out that the books you buy from them direct are DRM-Free, which means you can load them onto your kindle (unlike the ones at mobipocket.com) and there are multiple formats available, in case you have a different reader. You might want to check out the sale before it ends. If you do buy a book, make sure you don't use the Safari browser to download it. For whatever reason, Safari (at least on the Mac) will scramble the file as it is downloaded, rendering it unreadable. They download just fine with Firefox (on any platform) or Internet Explorer on a PC.

99 Cent Game Download - Ricochet Xtreme

Amazon's Video Game of the Day deal today is a 99 cent game download, Ricochet Xtreme.

Game Description

• 170 Exciting Levels.
• 4 Unique Environments.
• 15 Awesome Power-Ups.
• 13 Specialty Bricks.

Ricochet is an award winning breakout style game featuring state of the art graphics, sound, and lots of new twists on the old classic. It's a winning combination that your WHOLE family will enjoy. As one person wrote us: "My family is thrilled with Ricochet, we have all played it enthusiastically for months!"

SciFi and Fantasy - Bargains and free reads

If you missed Dragonflight/Dragonquest, by Anne Mccaffrey, last November, when it was $1.25, you can still get a good deal on this double volume at it's current $6.39 price. After you read that one, you'll want to check out Masterharper of Pern ($4.79).

Book Description
In a time when the deadly scourge Thread has not fallen on Pern for centuries--and many dare to hope that Thread will never fall again--a boy is born to Harper Hall. A musical prodigy who has the ability to speak with the dragons, he is called Robinton, and he is destined to be one of the most famous and beloved leaders Pern has ever known. It is a perilous time for the harpers who sing of Thread--they are being turned away from holds, derided, attacked, even beaten. In this climate of unrest, Robinton will come into his own. But despite the tragedies that beset his own life, he continues to believe in music and in the dragons, and he is determined to save his beloved Pern from itself--so that the dragonriders can be ready to fly against the dreaded Thread when at last it returns.

Way of The Wolf ($$2.00) is the first in E.E. Knight's Vampire Earth series. I suspect the price drop is part of a promotion due to the most recent release in the series, Winter Duty ($9.99), but it hasn't been publicized by Amazon.

Book Description
Louisiana, 2065. A lot has changed in the 43rd year of the Kurian Order. Possessed of an unnatural hunger, the bloodthirsty Reapers have come to Earth to establish a New Order built on the harvesting of human souls. They rule the planet. And if it is night, as sure as darkness, they will come.

But on this pitiless world, the indomitable spirit of man still breathes in Lieutenant David Valentine. And his mission is to win back Earth...

MetaGame ($2.39), by Sam Landstrom, is no longer a penny in the Kindle store - but you can download it for free from his website, in several DRM-free formats (get mobipocket for your Kindle).

Book Description
Life is a game, literally. Winners earn immortality, while losers are condemned to aging and death. D_Light, a gifted player, knows this all too well and he-s willing to do anything to win-even kill. It is no wonder then that when given the chance to enter a MetaGame-an exclusive, high-stakes, anything goes contest-he-s quick to jump at the opportunity. The MetaGame starts out well enough for D_Light, the first quest being to hunt down a dangerous fugitive, but through his own ambition, the tables turn and D_Light finds himself the renegade. Now, D_Light pits himself against his world to find the truth behind -The Game- and must decide between winning it and saving what-s left of his humanity.

This 122,000 word (~400 page) novel blends emerging political and cultural trends, such as gaming culture, globalization, and the ever-increasing hegemony of corporations, with technological trends, such as genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Emerging from this stew is an original world for you to explore through the point of view of its many "players".

The Flame Within ($1.49), by Eric Noss, is Book One of the Keepers' Garden Trilogy

Book Description
The royal seat of Keepers' Garden has been usurped through assassination and the loose confederation of city-states within its borders is crumbling. After months of conflict, the Liberation and Imperials have emerged as the two major contenders for the throne.
But as one battle draws to a climax, another, darker cloud looms on the horizon.

The Flame Within follows Spirit Knight Aralon Mittel, part of a select elite of the soldiery trained in magic and the sword since late childhood. Yet Aralon is less known for his personal achievements than he is for being the younger brother of the missing Hyval Mittel, the Garden's greatest Spirit Knight.

Aralon is accompanied by Darvin Hegg, his former instructor and now his second officer, and Kiyana Irhan, a Mist Elf from beyond the reaches of the Garden. Join them as they attempt to end the Garden's civil war and are propelled into a conflict more profound than any had ever imagined...

Day Omega ($14.95), by Craig Harms, is available for free on his website. His royalties on the book were supposed to go to a charity, but the publisher has apparently disappeared on him, so he hasn't received anything from the Kindle or paperback sales. Instead, he invites you to get the book directly from him and, if you enjoy it, make a donation to www.campcallahan.com.

Book Description
Life in Chicago is bad for Sam Dimas, and it’s about to change – for the worse. After an argument with his wife, Sam storms out of the house. A vivid flash seems to rip the sky apart, and his wife has gone – along with millions of other people around the world. This is an exciting and thought provoking story, with unexpected twists and turns. Prepare for a thrilling ride – the end of the world is coming, the seven-year countdown to Christ’s return has just started!

Shayla Black is giving away , a novella introduction to her Doomsday Brethren series. You can get a free copy from Simon and Schuster, if you sign up for a newsletter, or you can read it online or download it from ScribD and skip the signup.

Book Description
They were meant to be together…but will magic tear them apart?

You can't buy Steven Lake's The Oort Perimeter ($15.99 paperback) in the Kindle store, but you can get it for free from his website (Epub or PDF). You can even download the audio version, HERE.

Book Description
Born of a need to protect their homeworld, Earthfleet, the military arm of the Society, struggles continuously to ensure the safety of Earth and all who live on it. But a dark force arises within the galaxy, one who wishes to use Earth as a pawn in their quest for power. In a struggle for survival, the Society, Earthfleet and their allies must race against time to uncover the truth of this dark force, before it can destroy Earth, and the nine races. Failure means extinction of the human race.

Harper Collins is letting you read Terry Pratchett's The Color of Magic ($7.99) for free this month, but online as a online read, HERE.

Book Description
Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent novels are consistent number one bestsellers in England, where they have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody next to Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen.

The Color of Magic is Terry Pratchett's maiden voyage through the now-legendary land of Discworld. This is where it all begins--with the tourist Twoflower and his wizard guide, Rincewind.

In closing, here's an update to a previous post. Ricky Sides, author of The Peacekeepers series, has dropped the price of books 2-5 down to $2.00, at least for the near term. If his sales stay up, the books will stay at that price; if not, they'll go up to the planned $3.99. I've already finished the first two books and have the next three waiting on my Kindle (although I'm taking a break to read another genre for a bit, so I don't burn out on the series). It may take a day or two for the price drop to hit the Kindle store, but the sale price is already in effect at Smashwords: The Birth of the Peacekeepers, Some Gave All, Liberty or Death, Eternal Vigilance and Descent into Madness.

Kindle Bargain Ebook Roundup - Political / War

Blue Dixie ($2.15), by Bob Moser

Book Description
A powerful case for a new Southern strategy for the Democrats, from an award-winning reporter and native Southerner

In 2000 and 2004, the Democratic Party decided not to challenge George W. Bush in the South, a disastrous strategy that effectively handed Bush more than half of the electoral votes he needed to win the White House. As the 2008 election draws near, the Democrats have a historic opportunity to build a new progressive majority, but they cannot do so without the South.

In Blue Dixie, Bob Moser argues that the Democratic Party has been blinded by outmoded prejudices about the region. Moser, the chief political reporter for The Nation, shows that a volatile mix of unprecedented economic prosperity and abject poverty are reshaping the Southern vote. With evangelical churches preaching a more expansive social gospel and a massive left-leaning demographic shift to African Americans, Latinos, and the young, the South is poised for a Democratic revival. By returning to a bold, unflinching message of economic fairness, the Democrats can win in the nation’s largest, most diverse region and redeem themselves as a true party of the people.

Keenly observed and deeply grounded in contemporary Southern politics, Blue Dixie reveals the changing face of American politics to the South itself and to the rest of the nation.

Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics ($2.99), by Doug Bandow & Marvin Olasky (Editor)

Book Description
Beyond Good Intentions brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to the question of how Christianity and politics interrelate. Author Doug Bandow believes the key lies in the correct use of the Bible in addressing public policy issues. Too often Christians either ignore or misapply the Bible in the political arena. Beyond Good Intentions is a much-needed corrective which takes the Bible seriously yet avoids proof-texting and questionable interpretive methods.

Shadows In The Jungle ($4.30), by LARRY ALEXANDER, the second novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling author.

Book Description
David Power and Clare O'Brien both grew up dreaming of escape from the battered seaside town of Castlebay, but they might as well have had the ocean between them. David is the cherished son of a prosperous doctor, while Clare lives with her large family behind their faltering store, longing for a moment of quiet to study. When they both go to university in Dublin-he as a matter of course, she on a hard-won scholarship-their worlds collide. They find freedom in each other-until the families, lovers, and secrets they left in Castlebay come back to haunt them.

The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq ($2.85), by John Crawford

Book Description
John Crawford joined the Florida National Guard to pay for his college tuition, willingly exchanging one weekend a month and two weeks a year for a free education. But in fall 2002, one semester short of graduating and newly married-in fact, on his honeymoon-he was called to active duty and sent to the front lines in Iraq.

Crawford and his unit spent months upon months patrolling the streets of Baghdad, occupying a hostile city. During the breaks between patrols, Crawford began writing nonfiction stories about what he and his fellow soldiers witnessed and experienced.

In a voice at once raw and immediate, Crawford's stories vividly chronicle the daily life of a young soldier in Iraq-the excitement, the horror, the anger, the tedium, the fear, the camaraderie. But all together, the stories gradually uncover something more: the transformation of a group of young men, innocents, into something entirely different.

Those stories became this book, a haunting and powerful, brutal but compellingly honest book-punctuated with both humor and heartbreak-that represents an important document revealing the actual experience of waging the War in Iraq, as well as the introduction of a literary voice forged in the most intense of circumstances.

The Air We Breathe ($3.12), by Andrea Barrett

Book Description
In the autumn of 1916, Americans are debating whether to enter the first world war. There are 'preparedness parades', and headlines report German spies. But in an isolated community in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, the danger is barely felt. At Tamarack Lake the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages; charity patients, many of them recent immigrants from Europe, fill the sanatorium.

Her, in the crisp air, time stands still. Prisoners of routine and yearning for absent families, the inmates, including the newly arrived Leo Marburg, take solace in gossip, rumour and secret attachments.

An enterprising patient initiates a weekly discussion group. When his well-meaning efforts lead instead to tragedy and betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment. Andrea Barrett pits power and privilege against unrest and thwarted desire, in a spellbinding tale of individual lives in a nation on the verge of extraordinary change.

Homefront ($0.99), by Kristen J. Tsetsi

Book Description
A cab driving former English professor, an unpredictable alcoholic Vietnam veteran, an anti-war soldier, and a morbid mother-in-law come together in this realistic, sensual, and darkly humorous semi-autobiographical tale of waiting through a war deployment.

Written by a former writer for the Journal Inquirer newspaper who is also a Women's eNews correspondent, a former English Professor, an award-winning fiction writer, literary fiction editor, and the wife of a former Chinook pilot for the 101st Airborne Division who deployed to Iraq in 2003, Homefront is the product of an author uniquely qualified to tell the private story.

Taking On the System ($3.09), by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga

Book Description
The Sixties are over -- and the rules of power have been transformed. In order to change the world one needs to know how to manipulate the media, not just march in the streets. Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, otherwise known as "Kos," is today's symbol of digital activism, giving a voice to everyday people. In Taking on the System, Kos has taken a cue from his revolutionary predecessor's doctrine, Saul Alinsky's Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, and places this epic hand-book in today's digital era, empowering every American to make a difference in the 21st century. As founder of the largest political blog in the nation, Kos knows how it's done, because he's done it withtremendous success. In Taking on the System, he shares practical guidelines on how grassroots movements can thrive in the age of global information, while referencing historical and present examples of the tragedy caused without those actions. The walls between the people and the power -- the so-called rabble and the so-called elite -- are being torn down by technology, and a new army of amateurs are storming the barriers to effect political, cultural, and environmental transformation. Readers will come to understand how they too can change the world.

King's Dream: The Legacy of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech ($1.83), by Eric J. Sundquist

Book Description
-I have a dream--no words are more widely recognized, or more often repeated, than those called out from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. King's speech, elegantly structured and commanding in tone, has become shorthand not only for his own life but for the entire civil rights movement. In this new exploration of the -I have a dream- speech, Eric J. Sundquist places it in the history of American debates about racial justice-debates as old as the nation itself-and demonstrates how the speech, an exultant blend of grand poetry and powerful elocution, perfectly expressed the story of African American freedom. This book is the first to set King's speech within the cultural and rhetorical traditions on which the civil rights leader drew in crafting his oratory, as well as its essential historical contexts, from the early days of the republic through present-day Supreme Court rulings. At a time when the meaning of the speech has been obscured by its appropriation for every conceivable cause, Sundquist clarifies the transformative power of King's -Second Emancipation Proclamation- and its continuing relevance for contemporary arguments about equality.

Fight Global Warming Now ($2.48), by Bill McKibben

Book Description
Bestselling author Bill McKibben turns activist in the first hands-on guidebook to stopping climate change, the world's greatest threat Hurricane Katrina. A rapidly disappearing Arctic. The warmest winter on the East Coast in recorded history. The leading scientist at NASA warns that we have only ten years to reverse climate change; the British government's report on global warming estimates that the financial impact will be greater than the Great Depression and both world wars-combined. Bill McKibben, the author of the first major book on global warming, The End of Nature, warns that it's no longer time to debate global warming, it's time to fight it. Drawing on the experience of Step It Up, a national day of rallies held on April 14, McKibben and the Step It Up team of organizers provide the facts of what must change to save the climate and show how to build the fight in your community, church, or college. They describe how to launch online grassroots campaigns, generate persuasive political pressure, plan high-profile events that will draw media attention, and other effective actions. This essential book offers the blueprint for a mighty new movement against the most urgent challenge facing us today.

The U.N. Exposed ($3.73), by Eric Shawn

Book Description
Over the years, and today more than ever, the United Nations has failed to address the most dangerous threats facing the civilized world, refused to condemn terrorist acts, encouraged America's enemies, and supported some of the world's most oppressive governments, all while wasting billions of dollars. As Fox News Channel reporter Eric Shawn points out, the U.N. is now where our so-called allies scheme against us, while Americans pay a whopping 22 percent of the U.N.'s bloated budget. His book offers a rare insider's tour of the United Nations, focusing on many disturbing aspects that have been ignored by the mainstream media.

Letters to President Obama: Americans Share Their Hopes and Dreams with the First African-American President ($3.79), edited by Hanes Walton Jr., Josephine Allen, Sherman Puckett, Donald Deskins Jr.

Book Description
This collection, which will total between 300 and 500 letters from Americans of all walks of life, will become an important piece of history as it describes the variety of feelings and emotions of Americans about the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Central to the book is the African-American experience and the long road from slavery to the civil rights era to the twenty-first century, but Americans of every race, color, gender, and age will be represented. From children and seniors, from cities and farms, all we have something to say and much to share about how Barack Obama’s election was special to them.

Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial Appointments ($2.82), by Lee Epstein & Jeffrey A. Segal

Book Description
From Louis Brandeis to Robert Bork to Clarence Thomas, the nomination of federal judges has generated intense political conflict. With the coming retirement of one or more Supreme Court Justices--and threats to filibuster lower court judges--the selection process is likely to be, once again, the center of red-hot partisan debate. In Advice and Consent, two leading legal scholars, Lee Epstein and Jeffrey A. Segal, offer a brief, illuminating Baedeker to this highly important procedure, discussing everything from constitutional background, to crucial differences in the nomination of judges and justices, to the role of the Judiciary Committee in vetting nominees. Epstein and Segal shed light on the role played by the media, by the American Bar Association, and by special interest groups (whose efforts helped defeat Judge Bork). Though it is often assumed that political clashes over nominees are a new phenomenon, the authors argue that the appointment of justices and judges has always been a highly contentious process--one largely driven by ideological and partisan concerns. The reader discovers how presidents and the senate have tried to remake the bench, ranging from FDR's controversial "court packing" scheme to the Senate's creation in 1978 of 35 new appellate and 117 district court judgeships, allowing the Democrats to shape the judiciary for years. The authors conclude with possible "reforms," from the so-called nuclear option, whereby a majority of the Senate could vote to prohibit filibusters, to the even more dramatic suggestion that Congress eliminate a judge's life tenure either by term limits or compulsory retirement. With key appointments looming on the horizon, Advice and Consent provides everything concerned citizens need to know to understand the partisan rows that surround the judicial nominating process.

Dude, Where's My Country? ($2.59), by Michael Moore

Book Description
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Stupid White Men comes a hilarious act of sedition to overthrow the 'Thief in Chief'-and effect the kind of change that just may save the country. Michael Moore is on a mission: He aims to unseat the man who slithered into the White House on tracks laid by guilty Enron execs and greased with his daddy's oil associations. And as for 'The Left,' they're just as satisfied to stand idly by as the chasm between the 'haves' and 'have nots' grows wider and wider. That's right, Michael Moore is back with a new book that reveals what's gone wrong in America and, more importantly, how it can be fixed. In his characteristic style that is at once fearless and funny, Moore takes readers on another wild ride to the political edge of righteous laughter and divine revenge.

Holy Terrors, Second Edition: Thinking About Religion After September 11 ($2.79), by Bruce Lincoln

Book Description
n the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, it is tempting to regard their perpetrators as evil incarnate. But their motives, as Bruce Lincoln shows in this timely offering, were profoundly and intensely religious. What we need, then, after September 11 is greater clarity about what we take religion to be. With rigor and incisiveness, Holy Terrors examines the implications of September 11 for our understanding of religion and how it interrelates with politics and culture.

Lincoln begins with a gripping dissection of the instruction manual given to each of the hijackers. In their evocation of passages from the Quran, we learn how the terrorists justified acts of destruction and mass murder "in the name of God, the most merciful, the most compassionate." Lincoln then offers a provocative comparison of President Bush's October 7 speech announcing U.S. military action in Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden's videotape released hours later. Each speech, he argues, betrays telling contradictions. Bin Laden, for instance, conceded implicitly that Islam is not unitary, as his religious rhetoric would have it, but is torn by deep political divisions. And Bush, steering clear of religious rhetoric for the sake of political unity, still reassured his constituents through coded allusions that American policy is firmly rooted in faith.

Lincoln ultimately broadens his discussion further to consider the role of religion since September 11 and how it came to be involved with such fervent acts of political revolt. In the postcolonial world, he argues, religion is widely considered the most viable and effective instrument of rebellion against economic and social injustices. It is the institution through which unified communities ensure the integrity and continuity of their culture in the wake of globalization. Brimming with insights such as these, Holy Terrors will become one of the essential books on September 11 and a classic study on the character of religion.

The Faith of the American Soldier ($2.26), by Stephen Mansfield

Book Description
What goes through the mind of an American warrior spiritually and religiously when facing the enemy? Touching on a subject that few books have treated, The Faith of the American Soldier examines the religious and spiritual issues in America's wars, and then considers what is lost to our military through a secular approach to battle, recording the reflections and testimonies of men and women who have fought on the front lines from Lexington to Iraq.

Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity ($3.72), by Charles Marsh

Book Description
In Wayward Christian Soldiers, leading evangelical theologian Charles Marsh offers a powerful indictment of the political activism of evangelical Christian leaders and churches in the United States. With emphasis on repentance and renewal, this important work advises Christians how to understand past mistakes and to avoid making them in the future.

Over the past several years, Marsh observes, American evangelicals have achieved more political power than at any time in their history. But access and influence have come at a cost to their witness in the world and the integrity of their message. The author offers a sobering contrast between the contemporary evangelical elite, which forms the core of the Republican Party, and the historic Christian tradition of respect for the mystery of God and appreciation for human fallibility. The author shows that the most prominent voices in American evangelicalism have arrogantly redefined Christianity on the basis of partisan politics rather than scripture and tradition. The role of politics in distorting the Christian message can be seen most dramatically in the invasion of Iraq, he argues: Some 87% of American evangelicals supported going to war, while every single evangelical church outside the United States opposed it. The Jesus who storms into Baghdad behind the wheel of a Humvee, Marsh points out, is not the Jesus of the Gospel. Indeed, not since the nazification of the German church under Hitler has the political misuse of Christianity led to such catastrophic global consequences.

Is there an alternative? This book proposes that the renewal of American churches requires a season of concentrated attention to faith's essential affirmations--a time of hospitality, peacemaking, and contemplative prayer. Offering an authentic Christian alternative to the narcissistic piety of popular evangelicalism, Wayward Christian Soldiers represents a unique entry into the increasingly pivotal debate over the role of faith in American politics.