George Culver grew up in a small, poor, blue-collar town in the Central Valley of California. He never really knew his father, and he was raised primarily by his aunt. This book is about his unlikely journey to the Major Leagues, pitching a no-hitter and enjoying a career in professional baseball that would span nearly 50 years.

A vivid journey through California’s vast rural interior, The Heart of California weaves the story of historian. Kern County Museum Director Frank Latta’s 1938 boat trip from Bakersfield to San Francisco with Aaron Gilbreath’s trip retracing Latta’s route by car during the 2014 drought. Latta embarked on his journey to publicize the need for dams to improve flood control. Gilbreath made his own trip to bring this complex yet largely ignored landscape to life.