Four Days to Glory (Iowa Connection)

Somewhere beyond the circle of money, glitz, drugs and controversy that characterizes professional sports in America, there exists the remnants of the ideal. In Iowa, that ideal survives in the form of high school wrestling, a way of transforming the local virtues--modesty, privation, hard work--into sporting glory. To be a wrestling champion in Iowa is to achieve greatness--individual glory where the only back to pat is your own.

For Jay Borschel and Dan LeClere, though, the stakes have been raised. Already three-time state champions in differing weight classes, each boy has a chance in his senior year of high school to do something historic--to become a "four-timer," joining the most elite group in the sport and essentially ensuring his status as an Iowa wrestling deity. For Jay, a ferocious competitor who feeds off criticism and doubt, a victory would mean vindication over the great mass of skeptics waiting for him to fail. Dan, the kid from a farm near the tiny town of Coggon (population 710), carries other burdens. For his community, for the hard-driving coach who doubles as his father, and for his own triumph over his personal demons, another title is the only acceptable outcome.  

Blurbs from the Backlist highlights items in the Des Moines Public Library collections that are currently available, meaning, you could take one home today!

Heart of the Storm

With all the nail-biting excitement of a thriller, Heart of the Storm brings to life dramatic jungle rescues in the Philippines, the longest helicopter rescue mission in history to save crew members of a Ukrainian freighter 840 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia, harrowing desert operations deep in the Iraqi desert, a nearly disastrous rescue off a listing two-masted schooner during an Atlantic winter storm, and many more.

During the course of his career, Fleming was responsible for saving 293 lives, including that of Dr. Jerri Nielsen, the physician and Antarctic researcher who in 1999 was airlifted from the South Pole in time to receive emergency breast cancer treatment. From the South Pole to the South Pacific to the Arabian desert, Heart of the Storm vividly recounts tales of bravery and adventure under the most extreme conditions. Col. Fleming brings us into the eye of the hurricane to experience life as it is lived by a handful of airborne heroes who routinely risk everything to save strangers from the jaws of death. An engrossing chronicle of a fascinating life, Heart of the Storm is a nonstop adrenaline rush and must reading for anyone who enjoys a rousing true-life adventure story.-- from the inside flap.


Blurbs from the Backlist highlights items in the Des Moines Public Library collections that are currently available, meaning, you could take one home today!

Lost Boy

In the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), girls can become valuable property as plural wives, but boys are expendable, even a liability. In this powerful and heartbreaking account, former FLDS member Brent Jeffs reveals both the terror and the love he experienced growing up on his prophet’s compound—and the harsh exile existence that so many boys face once they have been expelled by the sect.

Brent Jeffs is the nephew of Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the FLDS. The son of a prominent family in the church, Brent could have grown up to have multiple wives of his own and significant power in the 10,000-strong community. But he knew that behind the group’s pious public image—women in chaste dresses carrying babies on their hips—lay a much darker reality. So he walked away, and was the first to file a sexual-abuse lawsuit against his uncle. Now Brent shares his courageous story and that of many other young men who have become “lost boys” when they leave the FLDS, either by choice or by expulsion.

Brent experienced firsthand the absolute power that church leaders wield—the kind of power that corrupts and perverts those who will do anything to maintain it. Once young men no longer belong to the church, they are cast out into a world for which they are utterly unprepared. More often than not, they succumb to the temptations of alcohol and other drugs.

Tragically, Brent lost two of his brothers in this struggle, one to suicide, the other to overdose. In this book he shows that lost boys can triumph and that abuse and trauma can be overcome, and he hopes that readers will be inspired to help former FLDS members find their way in the world. -- from the publisher

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Blurbs from the Backlist highlights items in the Des Moines Public Library collections that are currently available, meaning, you could take one home today!

The Woodsman's Daughter

Dalia is the brassy and beautiful eldest daughter of Monroe Miller, a shrewd turpentine farmer in 1800s southern Georgia haunted by a devastating secret. A resilient and resourceful young woman, Dalia strives to create a better life for herself and will stop at nothing to protect her family, but the sins of the father are never far behind.  In this spellbinding, page-turning epic, Rubio brings the swaying pines, humble shantytowns, and insular bustle of small-town living vibrantly to life. -- from the hardcover edition. 

Blurbs from the Backlist highlights items in the Des Moines Public Library collections that are currently available, meaning, you could take one home today!