Poetic License

On the weekend CBC Radio host Shelagh Rogers interviewed two of the top authors of hockey books in 2008: Don Cherry and Randall Maggs.

While hosting the Canadian books/writing show The Next Chapter, Rogers discovers Cherry reads a lot of books, and talks to The Grapes One about his favorite Hollywood biographies. It turns out Cherry is infatuated with Bette Davis.

She also talks to poet Randall Maggs about his book, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems, documenting the troubled life of Terry Sawchuk. The interview is nothing short of fascinating.

You can right click to download the podcast right here, or visit The Next Chapter's website.

The Stick by Bruce Dowbiggin

When I heard of the 260 page book about the hockey stick, I must admit to being a bit skeptical. How could an author carry the reader's attention for that long about a single piece of hockey equipment?

That was the task facing Bruce Dowbiggin, and he handled it masterfully. Dowbiggin is a very accomplished columnist and beat writer with several book titles on his resume, but none of them rank as high on my list of favorites as 2001's The Stick: A history, a celebration, an elegy.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca | chapters.indigo.ca | Amazon.com

Dowbiggin opens by exploring the hockey stick's origins among the Mi'kmaq indians of Nova Scotia. He moves on to the mass produced wooden weapons to the evolution to graphite and composite sticks that have rendered the wooden hockey stick extinct, at least at serious levels of play.

That is all expected, and dutifully chronicled but in a way that is far more interesting than you would expect. He brings in narratives, often first hand, of some key players in the stick's evolution. Players like Stan Mikita, Bobby and Brett Hull, Wayne Gretzky, Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden and a host of more modern warriors like Adam Oates, Eric Lindros and Jeremy Roenick. It is the player's doting attention to their craft's main tool that makes the story of the stick so interesting.

Equally interesting is how the stick's evolution has greatly impacted the evolution of the game itself. Dowbiggin makes an interesting case that no other on-ice development has had such significant contribution to the game over the years.

Dowbiggin does try to connect the story of the hockey stick to the story of Canada. He writes the book with the purpose of defending the hockey stick as "a quintessentially Canadian symbol," calling the stick "as Canadian as maple syrup and the call of the loon." I do not think the book completely makes that connection because in order to properly chronicle the history of the stick the author needs to cover the increasing globalization of the industry.

This book is nothing short of excellent, appealing to readers who enjoy sports reminiscing as well as readers who prefer more in depth cultural and societal analysis. For me, that is what every great hockey book should strive to accomplish.

Buy The Book: Amazon.ca | chapters.indigo.ca | Amazon.com

A Reading of King Leary

CBC Radio's Between The Covers recently completed reading of Paul Quarrington's hockey-based novel King Leary.

King Leary was the winner of the 2008 Canada Reads contest as the best book in all of Canada, successfully championed by none other than Dave Bidini. Here's the official spin:

Percival Leary was once the King of the Ice, one of hockey’s greatest heroes. Now, in the South Grouse Nursing Home, where he shares a room with Edmund “Blue” Hermann, the antagonistic and alcoholic reporter who once chronicled his career, Leary looks back on his tumultuous life and times: his days at the boys’ reformatory when he burned down a house; the four mad monks who first taught him to play hockey; and the time he executed the perfect “St. Louis Whirlygig” to score the winning goal in the 1919 Stanley Cup final.

Now all but forgotten, Leary is only a legend in his own mind until a high-powered advertising agency decides to feature him in a series of ginger ale commercials. With his male nurse, his son, and the irrepressible Blue, Leary sets off for Toronto on one last adventure as he revisits the scenes of his glorious life as King of the Ice.

Here are the links to the 20-part audio podcast:

King Leary episode twenty 18-02-09

A shocking gift is left in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Right click to Download King Leary episode twenty 18-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:31]

King Leary episode nineteen 17-02-09

The hot lights of the television commercial bring everything to a head.

Right click to Download King Leary episode nineteen 17-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:44]

King Leary episode eighteen 16-02-09

A ghost visits Percival Leary.

Right click to Download King Leary episode eighteen 16-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:17]

King Leary episode seventeen 15-02-09

Leary must face the truth about both his sons.

Right click to Download King Leary episode seventeen 15-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:27]

King Leary episode sixteen 14-02-09

Leary is challenged as King of the Ice.

Right click to Download King Leary episode sixteen 14-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:39]

King Leary episode fifteen 10-02-09

Their friendship changes when Clay is named manager of the hockey team Leary plays on.

Right click to Download King Leary episode fifteen 10-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:21]

King Leary episode fourteen 09-02-09

Leary is celebrated at a special hockey night in Maple Leaf Gardens.

Right click to Download King Leary episode fourteen 09-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:29]

King Leary episode thirteen 08-02-09

How Leary picked up his Indian nickname.

Right click to Download King Leary episode thirteen 08-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:32]

King Leary episode twelve 03-02-09

Blue reminds Leary that not all his accomplishments were honorable.

Right click to Download King Leary episode twelve 03-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:32]

King Leary episode eleven 02-02-09

Leary continues both his quest for the crown and his delusions.

Right click to Download King Leary episode eleven 02-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:22]

King Leary episode ten 01-02-09

Past and present start to merge as Leary takes the train to the big city.

Right click to Download King Leary episode ten 01-02-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:22]

King Leary episode nine 27-01-09

We meet the love of Manny's life.

Right click to Download King Leary episode nine 27-01-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:23]

King Leary episode eight 26-01-09

Manny Oz and Leary return from war.

Right click to Download King Leary episode eight 26-01-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:11]

King Leary episode seven 25-01-09

War comes to Little Leary and the Bowmanville Boys Reformatory in KING LEARY.

Right click to Download King Leary episode seven 25-01-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:43]

King Leary episode six 20-01-09

Leary discovers he has a challenger as best player on the ice.

Right click to Download King Leary episode six 20-01-09
[mp3 file: runs 15:52]

King Leary episode five 19-01-09

To keep a boy out of hot water - put him on ice. So begins Percival Leary's training as a future hockey great.

Right click to Download King Leary episode five 19-01-09
[mp3 file: runs 16:44]

King Leary episode four 18-01-09

There's big trouble for Little Leary on Between The Covers this week

Right click to Download King Leary episode four 18-01-09
[mp3 file: runs 16:44]

King Leary episode three 13-01-09

Leary doesn't understand why others don't remember his hockey career the same way he does.

Right click to Download King Leary episode three 13-01-09
[mp3 file: runs 17:02]

King Leary episode two 12-01-09

An aging hockey star is given the opportunity to relive past glory.

Right click to Download King Leary episode two 12-01-09
[mp3 file: runs 17:00]

King Leary episode one 11-01-09

Starting today we present a reading of last year's CANADA READS winner- King Leary by Paul Quarrington.

Right click to Download King Leary episode one 11-01-09
[mp3 file: runs 17:01]

Booking The Golden Jet

Ouch! That must hurt.

That's Bobby Hull, upended and doing a face plant into the ice.

The image is on the cover of an obscure book, which honestly I know little about. Perhaps one of our readers can share more information on that.

The Golden Jet was arguably hockey's most dynamic player ever, making him a natural cover boy. Here's a few more books featuring today's Greatest Hockey Legend, Bobby Hull:

Classic Hockey Book

Here's an old book. It's from 1972, published by McGraw Hill Ryerson and written by Andy O'Brien. O'Brien wrote a few books in the 1970s.

To give you a better feeling for the book, here's a few of the more interesting chapter titles:

1. Plante versus Russia
3. I Started Roving In Self-Defence
8. Life With A Legend: Rocket Richard
10. Only Three Bruins Could Make '58 Habs
11. When Hull Shoots I Must Not Blink

The Jacques Plante Story is this week's Hockey Book Reviews.com Classic Hockey Book Of The Week!

Two New Montreal Canadiens Collectible Edition Magazines Out

There are two new collectible edition Montreal Canadiens magazines available at your favorite newsstand.

The Hockey News has released A Century Of Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years Of Excellence. It retails at $9.99 Cdn.

The best part of this photographically spectacular 146 page publication is the 1-100 feature. THN takes look back at each of Montreal's 100 seasons, as well as numerous features corresponding to each number. It is a potpourri of fast facts, records, jersey numbers, and famous players.

For all the action packed pages, there really is not a whole lot to the magazine besides of the great photo collection, to be honest. Outside of Ken Campbell's introductory 100 Years of Glory article and Brian Costello's back page story about Uncle Herb Gardiner, there is not enough of the usual feature content expected from Jason Kay's top notch crew.

Also just released is Sports Illustrated's The Canadiens Century, available for sale at amazon.ca

Feature content is not lacking here. In addition to new retrospective articles, Sports Illustrated's Adam Duerson went through the SI Vault and collected some great articles from the past. Hockey history, as it happened. Brilliant.

The SI crew adds tons of photos, as well as decade by decade capsules of information. The best of the sidebar specials is the All-Era Teams, honoring the best players from each decade.

The commemorative issue finishes with a nice one page piece written by none other than Jean Beliveau. The Habs' great writes about the team's special connection to Quebec, calling it the team's greatest legacy.

This Sports Illustrated special is pretty pricey at 15 bucks, enough to make me balk initially. But after a thorough flipping-through, I quickly determined it was worth the price.

If 30 bucks (including various sales taxes) is too much for both magazines, I would definitely recommend buying Sports Illustrated's The Canadiens Century over THN's A Century of the Montreal Canadiens.

Tough Guys by Jim Kyte Postponed

First it was Lions In Winter. Now it's Tough Guys. The book by former NHL defenseman Jim Kyte has been indefinitely postponed.

Not surprisingly Red Deer Press offered no real reason for the delay, only reassuring me that the project is still very much in their plans.

Releasing a hockey book in January is an odd decision. After all you miss out on the NHL season opening and the all important Christmas sales season.

My guess is this book will still hit bookstore shelves in 2009, but in the much more traditional autumn months of October and November.