As the All-Star Break looms and with it, a lull in pro sports to write about (trivia: What are the only two days on the calendar that have no big-four pro sports games scheduled? aka: vacation time for sportswriters everywhere...), I offer my picks for the best in Sports Summer Reading!

Just because your teams are resting doesn't mean your brain has to, too. How will you keep in sofa-sitting form with the break? How will you condition your attention span during those two long days! What if there's a rain delay in the summer MLB games? You need a backup plan! 

I've got just the remedy. Read a book! Novel idea, I know *ducks tomatoes* but the word on the street is reading is good for you! Not a death sentence, no! So Harcourt & Brace yourself for..

THE SPORTS NUT's BEST DAMN SUMMER BOOK LIST! 

The first two probably don't need any introduction (or extra book promotion from someone's who's not getting a percentage), but they appeal to me nonetheless as a mom and sports nut.

SI's Austin Murphy has been covering sports for longer than he probably cares to remember. Since I graduated high school, in fact, and that's a loooong time ago. But he took a six month hiatus to be a SAHD (stay-at-home-dad). He's funny. The book is funny. I've lent this book out numerous times (sorry, Austin, cutting in the revenue stream, I know!) to friends whose husbands are less than helpful at home. It's still wandering around from friend to friend.

It's a fresh look at full-time parenting from a true XY-chromosoner. Did I mention, it's funny? Anyway, I would've loved if he took more than six months off. Six months is a temp job, as he states. Good read. You'll blow through it before the first pitch at the All-Star Game. Also authored "The Sweet Season," which is buried in the nightstand bookpile. So many books...

Next up, our NY region's own Mike Greenberg from the Mike and Mike Show on ESPN Radio. Greenie! I never listened to his show before I read this book. I eventually did and came to this conclusion: they talk waaay too much about sports on that sports show. What up with that?

But, he, too, is funny. And sel####eprecating. And a metrosexual, admittedly. I laughed at the designer clothing references, but the hardcore XY'er might be taken aback. It's nothing you haven't heard on his show though. (And I just noticed his tie matches the book-jacket!!)

He writes in journal form, during the months before his child is born and a few months after. His beach hat experience killed me. Filled with sports references to keep your testosterone flowing in between the designer tie talk. And he embraces his new role as father, as he acknowledges, his most important job. I also dig the book title and have used it more than once as the bookpile topper. A subtle reminder to the better-half who occasionally screws up. (Love ya, honey!)

Doris Kearns Goodwin, for those non-PBS watchers, is a presidential historian...and baseball fan! She was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan before they broke her heart and moved west. Her book, Wait Till Next Year, is one of the best fan-perspective, literary, baseball, autobiographical books out there. In fact, it's one of the few.

You really feel her pain during the "shot heard round the world" and other classic Brooklynite moments. Also a poignant story of her father/daughter baseball connection, her mother dying and life, as she knew it, in Brooklyn in that bygone era. You'll cry. Even you tough guys.

Still need more books to get the super-saver discount at Amazon? OK, here's a few more!

Mike Lupica, columnist for the NY Daily News, edited the 2005 edition of the "Best American Sportswriting." Have you read any of the "Best American" series? You should. Especially this one.

Lupica's intro, though brief, is some of his best work. (His sports books are in the pile, too.) Partly because he's not whining about the Yankees, George Steinbrenner, cream and clear and the MLB commissioner who shall be nameless. But mostly because you really get the "inside-Lupica." He talks about his favorite sportswriting heroes with the heart and pen of someone who really loves his work.

The articles highlighted in this book are terrific. And its title doesn't disappoint, some of the best sportswriting out there, not including our fabulous FoxSports blogs.

Lastly but not least-ly (?), Summer in the City : New York Baseball 1947-1957 with intro and text by NY Daily News columnist Vic Ziegel. Again a NY bend here, but hey, who doesn't love NY? I loooove New Yaaawk, maybe you do, too.

Vic, if you haven't read him, is the sportswriter's writer. He's not throwing stats at you. He's giving you the inside stuff and giving it to you with laughs and shtick and wit and that bit of edge from someone who's been in the business for as long as he has.

He's covered it all (look for him ringside at the Ali thrilla in Manilla), but I love his baseball writing the best...and I had the pleasure of meeting him this year. I also have a signed copy of this book, which I treasure. Thanks, Vic. You rock.

(Personal note: A few years ago, Vic gave me the kick in the pants to share my writing with someone other than my cat. So, theoretically, you have Vic to curse out for having to read my insanity  from day to day! I have his number in case you want to call.)

Back to the book, it's more of a photo book, with Vic's extended captions and notes about that memorable NY baseball era.  The photos are phenomenal. Makes you wish we all still dressed up for a baseball game. He was a NY Giants fan, so if there was ever a WWF Writers Smackdown, he and Doris could have a pretty good battle! (Watch the left, Doris!)

So there it is, my diverse, incomplete and "way out in left field" summer reading list. Hopefully you'll see something here that you haven't checked out before. You can always read about the cream and clear! This is the good stuff.

Read on!