Books & Looks Podcast: Beyond the Final Homestand — Small Towns, Bleacher Dreams, and America’s Soul

Books & Looks: Real Books for Real Readers was started as a literary podcast to supplement Blaine Desantis’ website, ViewsOnBooks.com, and expand into audio and video interviews with authors.

With Books & Looks, Blaine’s goal is to focus on real books that real people will read. At least half of the books he reviews are either new authors or unknown authors that many in the general public are unaware of. After a segment reviewing books or interviewing authors, Blaine ends each episode with a discussion of the movies and TV shows he is currently watching.

Learn more about BookTrib’s partner and Blaine at ViewsOnBooks.com.

This Week’s Episode

When a corporate spreadsheet erased 42 minor league baseball teams from America’s map, it didn’t just kill baseball in places like Batavia, New York — it threatened to dismantle the last institution where a Vietnam veteran finds peace, political adversaries share beers as friends, and a young man with cerebral palsy washes uniforms by hand until 2 AM. In Homestand, author Will Bardenwerper, a former Army Ranger, reveals what happens when profit-driven efficiency collides with our deepest need for belonging. As citizens rally to save their century-old Muckdogs, their story exposes a choice facing communities everywhere: surrender our local institutions to corporate consolidation, or fight to preserve the authentic spaces where strangers become neighbors and divided towns discover common ground.

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