"Strong Signal" by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell

What an unusual story.  Staff Sergeant Garrett Reid has spent nearly eight years in the Army and is nearing the end of his deployment in the Middle East.  When he's not repairing military vehicles, he's fighting off boredom by playing online games.  It's during one of these games that he meets Kai Bannon, a serious gamer with a famous streaming gaming channel.  Garrett becomes a bit obsessed with Kai, and as their friendship grows through chats and e-mail their mutual desire for each other deepens.  As Garrett counts down the days to freedom, he imagines that meeting Kai in person will lead to their happily ever after; however, Kai has serious problems that may derail all of his plans.

I'd never read much about the online gaming community before this book, because I just couldn't see the point of watching someone I don't know play a video game over the Internet.  This popular pastime is an integral part of "Strong Signal" and brings the two main characters together and even gives one of them a full-time job.  Both characters were fleshed out very well; I felt like I could draw pictures of both of them (if I were an artist) and describe their personalities.  I really related, though, to Kai and his social anxiety.  The authors described his panic attacks and his struggles to do everyday things very well.  Garrett's reactions to Kai's anxiety were wonderful and should be emulated by everyone since he never made him feel ashamed for something Kai couldn't control.  This was a great story to which I would love to see a sequel, but I'll just have to settle fot the next in the series.  229 pages (Kindle edition).

Big Deal by Anthony Holden

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Life of a weekly home game poker player who was fired from his job at the newspaper.  He chose to become a professional who wanted to get to Las Vegas.  Tells of the year of tournaments entered on the world wide poker circuit and the people encountered.

Audio:  11 hrs. 47 min.
Print:  416 pages

Citizenville: How to take the town square digital and reinvent government by Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom, former mayor of San Francisco and current California Lieutenant Governor, would like to make citizen participation in government easier and more effective.  If millions of people play Farmville, why not make citizen participation in government more like a game?  Voting via smartphone, town hall meetings online, crime statistics in real time, are just a few of the ways Newsom suggests making participation in governing easier and more game-like. Of course, making government data more easily available to the public poses enormous security risks.  And then there is the perception that government hosted technology is outdated and even not functional-cue the healthcare.gov website! But anyone interested in improving how government functions will find some interesting ideas here.  272 pages.