Let's say you're a baseball fan. It started when you were a kid, watching games on TV, maybe going to a few in person, and you got into buying baseball cards, those little cardboard bits of delight, with an inedible stick of gum and 15 rectangles with a picture of a player on the front, and his stats on the back. Pure magic.

And let's say you grow up, and decide to get a pack of cards; not just any pack, but a pack from the year you started collecting cards, with the help of ebay where anything can be found and purchased. And you decide to take that pack of cards, and find those players on the card, and interview them in person and write up the interviews for a book. 

That's what Brad Balukjian did. He got a wax pack of 1986 Topps cards, back when the cards were still made on the brown cardboard and sealed with a layer of wax, and opened the pack to find 15 cards; one was a checklist card, but the other 14 carried pictures of big league players, and 13 of them long-time players of ten seasons or more in the major league. One was already deceased, but the others were alive, from Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk to All-Stars Rick Sutcliffe and Garry Templeton to journeymen Randy Ready and Jaime Cocanower. Over his summer break in 2015 from his job as an adjunct instructor of biology at a small college, he sets off on an 8-week journey across the country to find these pieces of the past, men in their late 50s and early 60s, former professional athletes.

The story is nostalgic and involving and funny and sad and...well, it's a must read. Whether you are a fan of baseball, or of road trip sagas, or just the life of Americans in America, this book is wonderfully written, absorbingly emotional, and shockingly personal. I think you will love it from beginning to end.

Disclaimer: I received this book as a free review copy.