Arrival of August is a mixed blessing to me. Nothing beats a warm carefree summer day, but those will soon be waning. Would that we could bottle this time of year! For those still heading to some R&R or the beach, I just read a most uplifting book that one of my storytellers shared with me. As before, I like to recommend good stuff I think you will enjoy.

The Soul of Baseball, A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America is an amazing story of an amazing man and the times he lived in. Written in 2007 by Joe Posnansk, a prize winning Kansas City Star sports columnist, the book traces the moving journey of legendary Negro League player and manager Buck O'Neil as he barnstormed the country at age 93 to tell and keep alive the story of the Negro Baseball League. It is the funniest serious book I have read in a while.

Would that I could write like Joe! In Posansk's skillful hands, the story jumps alive. A blend of humor, history, and happenings, it reads easy and engages you like a warm summer breeze. That is until periodically a thunderbolt of lightening and huge clap of thunder sneaks up and jolts you into the realization of what it was really like for these players to live and play in the shameful age of racial discrimination and hatred. Along the way you come to admire and learn from a wise man who lived through that, and had every reason to be bitter, but remained the optimist all of his 94 years.

The ball is round in this one rather than pointed, but you don't need to be a baseball nut to enjoy this book and take away something from it. We need more Buck O'Neils, we need more Joe Posnanski's to tell their stories, and we need people like you to read them and keep them alive.