DMPL closed Sunday, March 31

All locations of the Des Moines Public Library will be closed Sunday, March 31 for the Easter holiday.

Binge-then-Read: Ted Lasso

Ted Lasso is a bumbling, endearing American college football coach hired to come to the U.K. to manage a struggling London football team (soccer). For many people, this show has been a bright spot of positivity during uncertain times.

The season may be over for now, but our Book Chat team put together Coach's reading recommendations for the offseason to keep you entertained. These books will make you smile, laugh, and, as Ted Lasso would say, remember to be a goldfish.

Check Please

Check Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

If you love Ted Lasso you won't be able to put down this heartwarming story about a figure skater turned hockey player, and his journey to find himself.

Eric Bittle is a former Georgia junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and amateur pâtissier. But as accomplished as he is, nothing could prepare him for his freshman year of playing hockey at the prestigious Samwell University in Samwell, Massachusetts. It's nothing like co-ed club hockey back in the South! For one? There's checking. Second, there is Jack—his very attractive but moody captain.

Check, Please! is the first in a hilarious and stirring two-volume coming-of-age story about hockey, bros, and trying to find yourself during the best four years of your life.

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

Ted Lasso taught us that it's okay to feel, and it's okay to be a little silly. In this laugh-out-loud novel, Nashville's top alpha men start a romance reading club to help them understand their wives.

Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major league trouble. Four weeks ago, he discovered a humiliating secret: his wife has always faked the Big O. When he blows up and then emotionally checks out, that's the final straw in their strained relationship for Thea, who asks him to move out.

Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance-reading club. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the boys aim to coach Gavin into enticing Thea to give him another chance.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

Ted Lasso moved from Wichita to the UK to coach a soccer team. In this book, Sara moves from Sweden to Broken Wheel, Iowa to visit her friend, but when she shows up and her friend has died she stays to open a bookstore in this dying town. do something she is also wildly unqualified for. 

Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara: Sara traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her book-loving pen pal Amy, but when she arrives she finds Amy's funeral guests just leaving. The residents of Broken Wheel are happy to look after their bewildered visitor—there's not much else to do in a dying small town that's almost beyond repair. You certainly wouldn't open a bookstore. And definitely not with Sara the tourist in charge.

You'd need a vacant storefront (Main Street is full of them), books (Amy's house is full of them), and...customers. The bookstore might be a little quirky. Then again, so is Sara. But Broken Wheel's own story might be funnier, more eccentric and surprising than she thought.

The City Baker's Guide to Country Living

The City Baker's Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller

There is something heartwarming when someone is taken out of their environment and plopped into somewhere new and unfamiliar. Fans of Ted Lasso won't be able to resist this charming story about a big-city baker who discovers the true meaning of home—and that sometimes the best things are found when you didn't even know you were looking

When Olivia Rawlings—pastry chef extraordinaire for an exclusive Boston dinner club—sets not just her flambéed dessert but the entire building alight, she escapes to the most comforting place she can think of--the idyllic town of Guthrie, Vermont, home of Bag Balm, the country's longest-running contra dance, and her best friend Hannah. But the getaway turns into something more lasting when Margaret Hurley, the cantankerous, sweater-set-wearing owner of the Sugar Maple Inn, offers Livvy a job. Broke and knowing that her days at the club are numbered, Livvy accepts.

With the joys of a fragrant kitchen, the sound of banjos and fiddles being tuned in a barn, and the crisp scent of the orchard just outside the front door, Livvy soon finds herself immersed in small town life. And when she meets Martin McCracken, the Guthrie native who has returned from Seattle to tend his ailing father, Livvy  comes to understand that she may not be as alone in this world as she once thought.

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

Ted moved to the UK to coach "football," and in this novel Rick Dockery moves to Italy to play football Americano after giving the single worst performance in NFL history, becoming the national laughingstock, and losing his job with the Cleveland Browns.

But all Rick knows is football, and he insists that his agent, Arnie, find a team that needs him. Against enormous odds, Arnie finally locates just such a team and informs Rick that, miraculously, he can in fact now be a starting quarterback. Great, says Rick—for which team? The mighty Panthers of Parma, Italy.

He knows nothing about Parma, not even where it is, has never been to Europe, and doesn't speak or understand a word of Italian.,To say that Italy—the land of opera, fine wines, extremely small cars, romance, and Football Americano—holds a few surprises for Rick Dockery would be something of an understatement.

The Inifinite Noise by Lauren Shippen

The Inifinite Noise by Lauren Shippen

This story about a sixteen year-old running back, and empath finding himself, and learning how to accept who he is through therapy was made for fans of Ted Lasso.

Caleb Michaels is a sixteen-year-old champion running back. Other than that his life is pretty normal. But when he starts experiencing mood swings that are out of the ordinary for even a teenager, his life moves beyond "typical."

Caleb is an Atypical, an individual with enhanced abilities. Which sounds pretty cool except Caleb's ability is extreme empathy--he feels the emotions of everyone around him. Being an empath in high school would be hard enough, but his life becomes even more complicated when he keeps getting pulled into the emotional orbit of one of his classmates, Adam. Adam's feelings are big and all-consuming, but they fit together with Caleb's feelings in a way that he can't quite understand.

His therapist, Dr. Bright, encourages Caleb to explore this connection by befriending Adam. As he and Adam grow closer, Caleb learns more about his ability, himself, his therapist—who seems to know a lot more than she lets on—and just how dangerous being an Atypical can be.

"What if the X-Men, instead of becoming superheroes, decided to spend some time in therapy?"

Intercepted by Alexa Martin

Intercepted by Alexa Martin

Ted Lasso faces an uphill battle as the coach of a team where people want him to fail, and yet he succeeds against all odds. Marlee is up against some tough odds in her relationship with her NFL-star boyfriend, and we think you will have fun with this story!

When Marlee discovers her NFL-star boyfriend has been tackling other women on the sly, she vows to never date an athlete again. There's just one problem: Gavin Pope, the new hotshot quarterback and a fling from the past. Gavin fights to show Marlee he's nothing like her ex. Unfortunately, not everyone is ready to let her escape her past. The team's wives are not happy with Marlee's return, and they want to take her down. Between their own fumbles and the wicked wives, it will take a Hail Mary for Marlee and Gavin's relationship to survive the season.

Bear Town by Frederik Backman

Bear Town by Frederik Backman

In Ted Lasso, AFC Richmond means the world to the community, and in Frederik  Backman's Beartown winning a junior ice hockey championship means everything to the residents of Beartown. The community is being eaten alive by unemployment and the surrounding wilderness. This emotionally powerful, sweetly insightful story explores what can happen when we carry the weight of other people's dreams on our shoulders.

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Berry

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

Ted Lasso's team AFC Richmond are the underdogs, and the same is true in Quan Barry's novel, about a field hockey team that turns to witchcraft in the town where the Salem Witch Craft Trials first were held.

Set in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts, where the accusations began that led to the 1692 witch trials, We Ride Upon Sticks follows the 1989 Danvers High School Falcons field hockey team, who will do anything to make it to the state finals--even if it means tapping into some devilishly dark powers. In chapters dense with 1980s iconography—from Heathers to "big hair"—Barry expertly weaves together the individual and collective progress of this enchanted team as they storm their way through an unforgettable season.

Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam (a descendant of the infamous Salem accuser Ann Putnam) and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza (whose bleached blond "Claw" sees and knows all), the Falcons prove to be wily, original, and bold, flaunting society's stale notions of femininity in order to find their glorious true selves through the crucible of team sport and, more importantly, friendship.

A Natural by Ross Raisin

A Natural by Ross Raisin

From dreams of soccer glory to the realities of the minor leagues, the high-stakes world of English football comes to life in this vivid coming-of-age novel for fans of Nick Hornby, The Art of Fielding, and Ted Lasso.

After his unceremonious release from a Premier League academy at nineteen, Tom feels his bright future slipping away. The only contract offer he receives is from a lower-level club. Away from home for the first time, Tom struggles on and off the field, anxious to avoid the cruel pranks and hazing rituals of his teammates. Then a taboo encounter upends what little stability he has, forcing Tom to reconcile his suppressed desires with his drive to succeed.

Meanwhile, the team’s popular captain, Chris, is in denial about the state of his marriage. His wife, Leah, has almost forgotten the dreams she once held for her career. As her husband is transferred from club to club, and raising their first child practically on her own, she is lost, disillusioned with where life has taken her.

A Natural delves into the heart of a professional soccer club: the pressure, the loneliness, the threat of scandal, the fragility of the body, and the struggle of conforming to the person everybody else expects you to be.

The Guncle by Steven Rowley

The Guncle by Steven Rowley

From the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus and The Editor comes a warm and deeply funny novel about a once-famous gay sitcom star whose unexpected family tragedy leaves him with his niece and nephew for the summer. Ted Lasso is the story of someone learning as they go, and the same is true for Patrick as he tackles parenthood.

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is, honestly, overwhelmed.

So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick's brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of "Guncle Rules" ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled acting career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting--even if temporary--isn't solved with treats and jokes, Patrick's eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you're unfailingly human.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

Ted Lasso is a heartwarming story about found family through soccer, and The House in the Cerulean Sea ticks all of those boxes in an orphanage for magical youth.

A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist.

Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they're likely to bring about the end of days. But the children aren't the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn. An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Coach's offseason reading list would not be complete without A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Fans of the show will remember that Ted Lasso gifted each of the players a copy of this book to all of the players in season one. This novel is all about discovering your inner gifts and what it means to be a hero. 

Fifty years ago, Madeleine L'Engle introduced the world to A Wrinkle in Time and the wonderful and unforgettable characters Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe. When the children learn that Mr. Murry has been captured by the Dark Thing, they time travel to Camazotz, where they must face the leader IT in the ultimate battle between good and evil—a journey that threatens their lives and our universe. A Newbery Award winner,A Wrinkle in Time is an iconic novel that continues to inspire millions of fans around the world. This special edition has been redesigned and includes an introduction by Katherine Paterson, an afterword by Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis that includes photographs and memorabilia, the author's Newbery Medal acceptance speech, and other bonus materials.

Published on October 18, 2021
Last Modified March 28, 2024