Best of 2010: Hockey Biographies

Today HockeyBookReviews.com is going to name the top hockey biography of 2010.

The finalists are:

• Eddie Shore And That Old Time Hockey by C. Michael Hiam 
• Final Call by Kerry Fraser
• The Golden Jet by Bobby Hull with Bob Verdi 
• They Call Me Killer by Brian Kilrea with James Duthie 
• Tough Guy by Bob Probert with Kirstie McLellan Day

And the 2010 HockeyBookReviews.com Hockey Biography of the Year goes to: Tough Guy by Bob Probert with Kirstie McLellan Day.

Simply put, how can you not go with McLellan Day's latest effort. Last year she masterfully turned Theo Fleury's tragic story into a book that remains on the Canadian bestsellers list a year later. With Bob Probert's autobiography, she turns an almost equally tragic story into a book that is every bit the equal of Fleury's book.

Fleury's book was named as the 2009 Hockey Book of the Year winner last year, thanks in large part to McLellan Day. She takes home the new title of 2010 Hockey Biography of the Year, and you are guaranteed that later this week she will be a strong contender to once again take home Hockey Book of the Year in 2010.

Like the class of 2010 hockey books in general, there were some serious contenders that definitely challenged the Probert project. The Kerry Fraser and Brian Kilrea books were fun reads that should not be underestimated, while Bobby Hull's unique coffee table book style autobiography was a home run.

Special mention needs to be made concerning C. Michael Hiam's book Eddie Shore And That Old Time Hockey. He did a wonderful job bringing a long lost and down right foreign era to life. The great stories and history he presents are wonderful, especially considering the lack of first handed accounts, properly recorded history leave a lot of challenging blanks for any researcher in this era. Hiam does a great job accurately presenting history in an enjoyable to read text.