Ask a Bookseller: 'Fathers, Sons and the Holy Ghosts of Baseball'

You don’t have to live in a small town or even like baseball to enjoy Tommy Murray’s novel, “Fathers, Sons, and the Holy Ghosts of Baseball,” says Lisa Deyo of Sweet Reads. Set in small-town Iowa in 1974, the novel focuses on three elderly baseball coaches determined to see the Holy Trinity High School team win the state baseball championship for the first time, despite the odds. The book reminded Deyo of the film “Grumpy Old Men.”  “It turned out to be one of my favorite books this year,” says Deyo. It's a town where baseball is religion. One of the coaches, a Catholic priest, makes the team prayer the rosary before practice. The characters were highly relatable, says Deyo; learning the coaches’ backstories and seeing these men in their 80s relate to their high school team kept her smiling throughout. Ask a Bookseller features bookstores all over the country, so it’s worth pointing out that this week is a Minnesota triple play of bookstore, author and publisher. The bookstore, Sweet Reads, is located Austin, Minn.—"across from the Spam Museum,” Deyo is quick to add, and it’s self-published by Shoreview author Tommy Murray through Beaver’s Pond Press in St. Paul.