Refereeing Identity: The Cultural Work of Canadian Hockey Novels

Michael Buma offers us the academic release: Refereeing Identity: The Cultural Work of Canadian Hockey Novels

Hockey novels in Canada have emerged and thrived as a popular fiction genre, building on the mythology of Canadian hockey as a rough, testosterone-fuelled bastion of masculinity. However, recent decades have also been a period of uncertainty and change for the game, where players and teams have been exported to the US and traditional gender assumptions in hockey have increasingly been questioned.

In Refereeing Identity, Michael Buma examines the ways in which the hockey novel genre attempts to reassure readers that "threatened" traditional Canadian and masculine identities still thrive on the ice. In a period of perceived crisis and flux, hockey novels offer readers the comforting familiarity of earlier times when the game was synonymous with Canada and men were defined by their physical strength.

This comprehensive study of Canadian hockey novels draws on history, sport sociology, and literary criticism to challenge assumptions and stereotypes about identity. With the return of the Winnipeg Jets refuelling hockey nationalism and the public debate over hockey violence intensifying,

Refereeing Identity is a timely and incisive account of how the game is represented - and misrepresented - in Canadian society.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Stickhandling Through The Margins: First Nations Hockey in Canada

Released in April 2012 by the University of Toronto, Stickhandling through the Margins: First Nations Hockey in Canada offers an inside look at hockey in Canada's Native communities.

Some of hockey’s fiercest and most passionate players and fans can be found among Canada's First Nations populations, including NHL greats Jordin Tootoo, Jonathan Cheechoo, and Gino Odjick. At first glance the importance of hockey to the country's Aboriginal peoples may seem to indicate assimilation into mainstream society, but Michael A. Robidoux reveals that the game is played and understood very differently in this cultural context. Rather than capitulating to the Euro-Canadian construct of sport, First Nations hockey has become an important site for expressing rich local knowledge and culture.

With stories and observations gleaned from three years of ethnographic research, Stickhandling through the Margins richly illustrates how hockey is played and experienced by First Nations peoples across Canada, both in isolated reserve communities and at tournaments that bring together participants from across the country. Robidoux's vivid description transports readers into the world of First Nations hockey, revealing it to be a highly social and at times even spiritual activity ripe with hidden layers of meaning that are often surprising to the outside observer.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

This book is an academic release.

Sports Illustrated: The Great One: The Complete Wayne Gretzky Collection

Sports Illustrated continues to search through their enormous archives to churn out more and more books. The latest hockey entry is The Great One: The Complete Wayne Gretzky Collection.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com - Kindle

Sports Illustrated is no group of fools. Gretzky books sell. Especially in Canada. And SI has a huge collection of Gretzky articles in it's collection. Enough to fill 324 pages. Every article ever published is in this book, creating one of the more unique biographies the hockey book world has ever seen.

Here's more from SI:

Sports Illustrated followed The Great One's career right from the very beginning. Starting in 1978, when Gretzky was a young phenom playing for the Soo Greyhounds, they had their best writers cover his rise to fame and subsequent dominance of the sport. His staggering career stats tend to overshadow the struggles he faced in his career -- the early days in Edmonton, when he was establishing himself as the greatest player, but could not lead his team to a cup. The years after the trade that shook the hockey world he spent years trying to lead a new team to glory, only managing to reach the final once more, in 1993, and losing in five games. Covered as well are his forgotten goal-droughts, the thoughts that he had lost his touch in the early nineties. His struggles with injury and playing though his father's near death. The Great One reads not like a sports book, but a biography of one of the greatest athletes of all time.

Sports Illustrated's greatest writers all contribute articles, EM Swift, Michael Farber, Jack Kalla, to tell the complete story of Wayne Gretzky's career.

Barry Melrose: Dropping The Gloves

The popular and mulleted Barry Melrose is releasing an autobiography in 2012. Dropping the Gloves: Inside the Fiercely Combative World of Professional Hockey is set to hit store shelves in October.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

Here's more from the publisher, Fenn/McLelland and Stewart:

Dropping the Gloves candidly tracks Barry Melrose's career in hockey - a road that has not changed substantially for today's aspiring players. Not many have Melrose's credentials or his breadth of experience in professional hockey. He's played and coached in Junior Hockey, the American Hockey League, and the NHL. As he says, he's been hired and fired, and had his share of disappointments and failures. He's also had successes at every level. Now an ESPN broadcaster and one of the most respected NHL analysts on television. With his trademark hair, custom suits and energetic style, Melrose is applauded for offering fans his honest - tell it like it is opinion.

Written in Barry's voice and style, the narrative follows his career in hockey, from its start in Kelvington, Saskatchewan, through his years in Junior, the WHA, and finally, the NHL. Along the way, Barry muses on the state of the game, what makes some teams work and other fail, and how he worked to instill a winning attitude in all the teams he coached.

Filled with behind-the-scene stories of all the legendary players Barry played with or coached - Gretzky, Yzerman, Messier, Bobby Hull, and Brad Park - Dropping the Gloves is a true to life, insiders account of the world of professional hockey and an absolute must read for fans of the game.

Wayne Gretzky provides the foreword. The book is co-written with Roger Vaughn.

The Hockey Sweater Goes To The Symphony

From the Winnipeg Free Press:

The beloved kids tale "The Hockey Sweater" is going to the symphony.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra says it's offering up a musical take on the classic Canuck story on May 12. The world premiere of "The Hockey Sweater" will be hosted by famed Montreal 

Canadiens goaltender Ken Dryden and narrated by the original author himself, Roch Carrier.

Here's the full story.

Bargain Hockey Books At Chapters

Chapters has a great selection of hockey books currently available for as much as 86% off the cover price. The books include:

Gretzky's Tears by Stephen Brunt: $4.99 - 86% off!
The Golden Jet by Bobby Hull: $5.00 - 86% off!
Gretzky to Lemieux: 87 Canada Cup: $6.99 80% off!
Honoured Canadiens: Hockey Hall of Fame: 12.99 - 71% off!
Saving Face: The Art and History of the Goalie Mask: $12.99 - 69% off!
Canucks Legends: Vancouver's Hockey Heroes: $9.99 - 80% off!
Maple Leafs Top 100: The Greatest Players in Toronto Maple Leafs History: $9.99 - 80% off!
My Greatest Day by Hockey Night in Canada - $6.99 - 79% off!
The Love of Hockey: $10 - 23% off
The Rookie: A Season with Sidney Crosby: $5.99 - 80% off!

Be sure to check out the Chapters bargain book section for these and more deals!

Back In The Bigs: How Winnipeg Won, Lost & Regained Its Place in the NHL

The Winnipeg Free Press is pairing with Penguin Books to publish a commemorative book that will mark Winnipeg's historic re-entry into the National Hockey League.

Back in the Bigs: How Winnipeg Won, Lost and Regained Its Place in the NHL, will be written by award-winning sports writer Randy Turner, and is due out in September.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters

"We want to tell the story by bringing the past to life... not just archives, but dozens of interviews with major players, on and off the ice," Turner said. "There is a direct link to the Jets' early years, which explains why NHL hockey left, but the passion never did -- even for all those 20-somethings celebrating in the streets who barely saw the team play."

The book will track the history of pro hockey in Winnipeg, from the wild days of the World Hockey Association to the Winnipeg Jets's entry into the NHL in 1979; and from the heartbreaking loss of the franchise in 1996 to its triumphant return in 2011.

I had my first chance to view the book while in Toronto at The World's Biggest Bookstore. The presentation quality is high, with some great photos from throughout the years gone by. I could only sample the text, but it seemed deep and interesting.

Because of the beautiful lay out I am sure this book will be a winner with all Jets fans, not only in Winnipeg but throughout Canada and beyond. I will offer a full review when I receive my copy.

In the meantime, The Winnipeg Free Press is offering a free excerpt about John Ferguson's impact on hockey in Winnipeg. Also, check out this video presentation on the book.