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God of the Rodeo

Author: Daniel Bergner

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: 2011-02-09

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 0307765865

Never before had Daniel Bergner seen a spectacle as bizarre as the one he had come to watch that Sunday in October. Murderers, rapists, and armed robbers were competing in the annual rodeo at Angola, the grim maximum-security penitentiary in Louisiana. The convicts, sentenced to life without parole, were thrown, trampled, and gored by bucking bulls and broncos before thousands of cheering spectators. But amid the brutality of this gladiatorial spectacle Bergner caught surprising glimpses of exaltation, hints of triumphant skill. The incongruity of seeing hope where one would expect only hopelessness, self-control in men who were there because they'd had none, sparked an urgent quest in him. Having gained unlimited and unmonitored access, Bergner spent an unflinching year inside the harsh world of Angola. He forged relationships with seven prisoners who left an indelible impression on him. There's Johnny Brooks, seemingly a latter-day Stepin Fetchit, who, while washing the warden's car, longs to be a cowboy and to marry a woman he meets on the rodeo grounds. Then there's Danny Fabre, locked up for viciously beating a woman to death, now struggling to bring his reading skills up to a sixth-grade level. And Terry Hawkins, haunted nightly by the ghost of his victim, a ghost he tries in vain to exorcise in a prison church that echoes with the cries of convicts talking in tongues. Looming front and center is Warden Burl Cain, the larger-than-life ruler of Angola who quotes both Jesus and Attila the Hun, declares himself a prophet, and declaims that redemption is possible for even the most depraved criminal. Cain welcomes Bergner in, and so begins a journey that takes the author deep into a forgotten world and forces him to question his most closely held beliefs. The climax of his story is as unexpected as it is wrenching. Rendered in luminous prose, God of the Rodeo is an exploration of the human spirit, yielding in the process a searing portrait of a place that will be impossible to forget and a group of men, guilty of unimaginable crimes, desperately seeking a moment of grace.

God of the Rodeo

Author: Daniel Bergner

Publisher: Crown

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13:

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Traces a year in the lives of six convicts at Louisiana's most fearsome maximum security prison and reveals both the brutality of their lives and their human emotions as they compete in the annual prison rodeo.

Cain's Redemption

Author: Dennis Shere

Publisher: Moody Publishers

Published: 2005-08-01

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1575675013

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Formerly known as America's bloodiest prison, the 18,000 acres that comprise Louisiana's Angola State Penitentiary are now home to 5,000 inmates, a full range of seasonal crops, a 9-hole golf course, yearly rodeos, a Bible seminary, a museum, and much more. All of this came into being at the behest of Warden Burl Cain, who is now the longest-standing warden in the history of Angola prison. Under his leadership, the inmate population of 5,000 has gone from regular knife fights to Bible studies. Cain is a strong believer in the ability of the gospel to turn the most incorrigible of sinners into productive, moral citizens. Because eight out of ten prisoners are serving life sentences without parole at Angola, Cain has taken upon himself the task of making the lives of these prisoners productive and educational. Through a partnership with New Orleans Baptist Seminary, prisoners have the opportunity to get a bible degree and even be transferred to other prisons as a missionary. The Angola phenomenon has been covered by such media outlets as: Time Magazine, Christianity Today, and in the award-winning film documentary, The Farm: Angola, USA. Author Dennis Shere combines his background in journalism and law to bring readers this account of redemption and life change in the most unlikely of places: a maximum security prison.

The Cattle on a Thousand Hills

Author: Marty Campbell

Publisher: WestBow Press

Published: 2015-08-27

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 1490883541

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Everyone who rides through God’s creation longs for the romance John Wayne offers from the back of a Hollywood horse. However, the reality of those same folks’ ranch lives often hits them in the side of the head like the handle on a squeeze chute. The whirlwind of the modern-day cowboy life leaves seemingly little time for praying and even less time for sermons that don’t hit home. God needs to be real, and he needs to be found in the everyday, dawn-to-midnight struggles and joys of true-to-life, cow-feeding, bronc-stomping folks who live in a world where there are espresso shacks in feed-store parking lots. In The Cattle on a Thousand Hills, stories of genuine individuals who live life on the working end of a calf-puller teach lessons that only a real God can provide, set in the real world in which cowboys, horsemen, and ranch wives live. Combining true stories and life lessons with biblical wisdom, this book is at the same time humorous and poignant. Its pages will provide a look at life through God’s eyes that can be applied to anyone’s life, but especially to the folks who spend their summers cutting hay and their winters feeding it.

The God of Animals

Author: Aryn Kyle

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2008-03-04

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1416533257

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In her stunning debut, Kyle produces an emotionally powerful coming-of-age story that deftly and movingly captures not only the complexity of love, loss, and human relationships but also the fierce and powerful bond between horses and humans.

Walker: The Rodeo Legend

Author: Rebecca Winters

Publisher: Harlequin

Published: 2010-06-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1426856822

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Out of nowhere, Walker Cody swoops in and saves Paula Olsen's toddler son from a dog bite. Before she can properly thank him, the handsome Iraq War veteran fades into the crowd. Walker's in training to retake his World Champion Bulldogger title. The practice rides are bruising, but still don't knock thoughts of a certain beautiful young widow and her little boy out of his head. And Paula's shocked to realize she has a bad case of Pervasive Walkeritis. Survivors' guilt and ghosts from their pasts stand between them. Walker's need to prove himself on the rodeo circuit runs deeper than bragging rights. But can Paula risk her healing heart on a troubled man who deliberately puts himself in danger?

God in the Foxhole

Author: Charles W. Sasser

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2008-11-11

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 1416541373

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From the battlefields of the American Civil War through World Wars I and II, from Korea and Vietnam to the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers of all faiths have struggled for understanding and called on a higher power when faced with the realities of combat.God in the Foxholeis a stunning collection of true personal accounts from generations of American soldiers whose faith, in the words of author Charles W. Sasser, "has been born, reborn, tested, sustained, verified, or transformed under fire."A renowned master of combat journalism and a former Green Beret, Sasser has gathered an immensely moving collection of war stories like no other -- stories of spirituality, conversion, and miracles from the battlefield. Be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or atheist, churched since childhood or touched by the divine for the first time, here are the riveting experiences of army privates, bomber pilots, navy lieutenants, marines, prisoners of war, medics, nurses, chaplains, and others who, under desperate circumstances and with every reason to fear for their lives, found unknown strength, courage, and heroism through their remarkable faith.These inspiring accounts transcend the explainable to become stunning portraits of survival and belief: the angelic vision that brought inner peace to an exhausted helicopter door gunner in Vietnam...the makeshift full-immersion baptisms of eleven soldiers on Palm Sunday in Iraq, 2004...two enemies -- a Nazi priest and an American G.I. -- who served Communion Mass in a Belgian sanctuary in 1944...the prescient letter from a Civil War army major to his beloved wife, one week before his death at Bull Run...the 21st-century toddler with a jaw-dropping spiritual connection to a war hero of Iwo Jima...and dozens more.A war chronicle like no other,God in the Foxholeaffirms, for military buffs and readers from all walks of life, the power of faith in the face of adversity.

Chase the Dream

Author: Constance Colson

Publisher: Palisades Press (OR)

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 9780880709286

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Four young people entered the world of high school rodeo, never foreseeing that their paths would diverge and come together again. In Chasing the Dream, the four friends find their way through complicated lives to discover the rewards of professional rodeo life, love, and ultimately, a faith in God. One of them, Tom Rawlings, is a cowboy with a dream of his own, a passion for barrel racer Melanie Monroe, and a heart for God. Through him, each of his friends slowly finds his or her way to Christ. But will Mel find a place in her heart for Tom as well?

Life Sentences

Author: Wilbert Rideau

Publisher: Three Rivers Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13:

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Drawing on their award-winning reporting for the Louisiana State Penitentiary's uncensored newsmagazine, The Angolite, Wilbert Rideau and Ron Wikberg present the stark reality of life behind bars and the human, political, and fiscal costs of our long-running war on crime.

Not My First Rodeo

Author: Kristi Noem

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 2022-06-28

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1538707071

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South Dakota governor Kristi Noem tells her rough and tumble story of growing up on a ranch, and how a blessed life of true grit taught her how to lead. “We don’t complain about things, Kristi. We fix them.” Taking her father’s words to heart, South Dakota's first woman governor Kristi Noem shares heartfelt – and heartbreaking – lessons on making things right in the world, from her childhood on a farm in the vastness of rural America, to the marbled halls of Congress, to the national spotlight amid a global pandemic. From humorous barnyard battles with feisty cattle and rodeo horses, to the tragic and untimely death of her larger-than-life father, to her decision to her decision to return and run the farm and ranch with her family, Noem invites readers into a life defined by work, faith, and helping others. Noem's reflections are offered in the familiar, unvarnished voice of a woman who later defied Washington’s most powerful politicians and led the people of her small, hardscrabble state through natural disasters, the pain of a global pandemic, and the fear and turmoil that gripped the nation after. While filled with plenty of candid observations and refreshingly frank assessments of the country's leading figures, the memoir's most powerful moments nevertheless come from honest glimpses into marriage, motherhood, and leadership in an unpredictable time. Far from a book about politics, Not My First Rodeo is the story of a life lived so far – with characters as richly textured as the Black Hills, and reflections as gentle and powerful as America itself.