NCW Libraries

A full-length account of the author's prize-winning New York Times story chronicles the exploitation and abuse case of a group of developmentally disabled workers, who for 25 years, were forced to work under harrowing conditions for virtually no wages until tenacious advocates helped them achieve their freedom.

Silent Night in Algona is based on a true story set in Algona, Iowa, in 1944. The film captures the resilience of a small town during WWII when a young farmer with a debilitating back injury devises an unconventional plan to save the corn harvest using German POWs. However, fear and resentment spark tensions among the people and could stand in the way. Can the true spirit of Christmas and shared humanity emerge and remind us of the relevance and enduring...

In 1963, when twins Henry and Helen and their best friends, Alan and Nicki, try to find Alan's missing brother, Carl, they stumble into the knowledge of their "subtle forms" that can separate from their physical bodies, and into a criminal's plot to make himself immortal--at any expense.

"Alice Bullock is a young newlywed whose husband, Charlie, has just joined the Union Army, leaving her on his Iowa farm with only his formidable mother for company. Alice writes lively letters to her sister filled with accounts of local quilting bees, the rigors of farm life, and the customs of small-town America. But no town is too small for intrigue and treachery, and when Alice finds herself accused of murder, she discovers her own hidden strengths"--Back...