Hockey Book Reviews.com

I am pleased to tell you, the winner of the 2008 Canada Reads has been announced, and it is Paul Quarrington’s King Leary ! 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. King L...

Roch Carrier is a successful novelist and playwright but he is famous (and undoubtedly rich!) for his quintessential children's hockey book The Hockey Sweater . But if you ask me, his most important title has to be Our Life With The Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story . This book is neither a biography nor a memoir of Quebec's greatest hockey player. No in fact it is in many ways a thoroughly researched and infectiously proud all grown up version of The Hockey Sweater. It's about what it was like to be French Canadian at a time when the Rocket was hockey's most dynamic player. In many ways it is more a story of Carrier's youth than Rocket's exploits. But Carrier's youth is mirrored by countless other Quebecers who experienced the same social and political circumstances. Richard was the bigger-than-life albeit inadvertent super hero who came to symbolize Quebecers plight. This is what the back of the book says: "Roch Carrier captures a world in which a bro...

This is Mark Napier . Napier is a long forgotten goal scoring wizard. He was as feared of a sniper ast there was in junior and in the WHA in the late 1970s. He would join the Montreal Canadiens and by the early 1980s it was Napier who assumed the offensive reigns after Guy Lafleur slowed down. Interestingly, Napier finished his career with a stint in Buffalo, wearing jersey #65 back when such NASCAR numbers were not so common place. Since his favored #9 was already in use courtesy of Danny Gare, Napier chose 65 because of his involvement with the charitable Cystic Fibrosis Foundation where he was an honorary chairman. The terrible disease is often mispronounced by its youngest victims as Sixty Five Roses, leading to the annual fundraising and awareness campaign by the same tagline. Napier brought further attention to the cause by donning the jersey number. That is just one of the many jersey number oddities I unearthed when I recently picked up the book The Little Book of Hockey Sweate...

From The London Free Press : Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems recounts the life, in and out of hockey, of arguably the best goaltender who ever played the game. He also was one of hockey's most tragic figures, dying in 1970 at the age of 40 after fighting with teammate Ron Stewart in the off-season. He suffered from untreated depression. Maggs is a professor in Newfoundland. His book is being published by Brick Books in London and will be released during the next few weeks. It's a unique look at Sawchuk's thoughts and fears and by extension, looks at the world of hockey in a much different light. The book brings Sawchuk back to life for long-time hockey fans, and introduces him to a new generation. Sawchuk's name will surface more often as New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur closes in on Sawchuk's record for most shutouts. Sawchuk had 103 regular-season shutouts. Brodeur is at 96. Read the full article by Morris Dalla Costa, including a sample poem.

Author Jason Farris, a goalie at heart, set out to take a fresh approach to writing a hockey book. He certainly accomplished just that in his homage to his favorite hockey player since childhood - Cesare Maniago . Perhaps homage is not quite the right word. He has created an absolute shrine to goalie best remembered for his days with the Minnesota North Stars and the Vancouver Canucks. This book is an interesting undertaking, as it hints at several formats all in one. In doing so the book is visually appealing though quite unconventional. Maniago was a very popular player in both Minnesota and Vancouver, as well as his many minor league stops where he served as arguably the best goalie outside of the 6-team NHL. His unique name and his valiant efforts made him the fan favorite of some real weak teams. He was at times as spectacular as his teams were bad. Because he played on so many weak teams, he never received many accolades or notable success. He quite literally was these t...

Le Chandail de hockey . The Hockey Sweater . Roch Carrier 's most famous story is about a young boy who orders a Montreal Canadiens sweater from the Eaton's catalogue, but receives a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey instead. Brilliantly capturing the cultural tensions between English and French Canada, it is considered to be one of the most important works of Canadian literature ever written. The book is based on the real experience of Carrier growing up in an isolated part of Quebec in the 1940s. He, like all boys his age, was a big fan of the Montreal Canadiens and their star player, Maurice "The Rocket" Richard. When Carrier's Montreal Canadiens hockey sweater wears out, his mother orders a new one from Eaton's. Unfortunately, the department store giant sends a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater instead, the Canadiens' bitter arch rivals. A loyal fan of Les Habitants , Carrier protests having to wear the new sweater. But his mother refuses to let her son wear the ol...

The two winners of our Future Greats and Heartbreaks book giveaway contest are L. Allen of North Carolina, and Mattias Svensson of Malmo, Sweden.

It is a question I've been asked commonly this hockey book season: Which of the new hockey books is the best? Unlike in 2006, I did not feel that there was truly a must-have title that would go on to be a classic. Of course such books are rare in jock literature, but last year I felt Stephen Brunt's Searching For Bobby Orr will achieve that lofty status. Without that clear number one, it really is tough to say which hockey book I would deem to be the best. The content should be the bottom line, and therefore any listing is really based on personal preference. But people want to know, and Christmas shopping time is running out. So without further adieu, here's my ranking of the best newhockey books published in 2007. #1 World of Hockey - I really enjoyed this IIHF release because I felt it offered the greatest educational experience. No matter what age or level of fan you may be, this book will wow you but not overwhelm you with information. It is also a beautifully laid o...

As a man who spent his entire adult life in show business, Ralph Mellanby knows controversy sells. So when promoting his new book Walking With Legends: The Real Stories of Hockey Night in Canada , the 73-year-old former executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada hasn't shied away from sharing his thoughts on NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. "Bettman to me is the real problem for hockey," said Mellanby. "He's done so much damage to hockey it may never recover. We don't have time to go through the litany of errors." Mellanby backs his case citing teams in bad hockey markets, ignoring Canadian and European opportunities, a deteriorating product, turbulent labour relations, the reluctance to embrace change and some controversial TV deals. "Hockey has never been in worse straits," Mellanby said. "I'm an elder statesman now and I feel at times like a lone voice in the wilderness, but I'm not completely alone. The great minds of the game...

Gary Joyce is a literary gift to the sports world. He is just a marvelous writer, able to paint beautiful imagery with his keyboard. And hockey fans should count themselves as very lucky that Joyce accidentally became a hockey writer. That's one the earliest of revelations in his new book Future Greats and Heartbreaks: a Season Undercover in the Secret World of NHL Scouts . He also reveals a life long passion of studying and analyzing sports drafts, a passion that many fans share. For some fans it is all about hope. Hope of what is to come. For others, like Joyce, it is about academics, which in the sports world doesn't always have a place. To further educate himself and his readers, Joyce sets out to explore the tightly locked hidden world of talent scouting. He is in search of the theory behind scouting, looking for trends as surely there must be some careful strategy when handing out million dollar contracts to junior players and college kids. Frankly, there isn't. Appar...

When the topic of hockey's greatest leader comes up, the usual suspects are always named: Mark Messier. Steve Yzerman. Phil Esposito. Joe Sakic. I think the greatest leader in hockey may not even have been a NHL guy. In fact, the greatest leader may not have been a guy at all. As the long time captain of Canada's national women's team, Cassie Campbell led the nation to two Olympic golds and a world championship. She is one of Canada's all time most decorated athletes, adding 5 more world championships, as well as an Olympic and world championship silver medal to her medal count. She is the only Canadian hockey player to captain back to back Olympic gold medal championships. And she did all that while earning an honours degree in Sociology and raising 100's of 1000's of dollars for charity. No one earned more respect as a leader than Campbell. Wayne Gretzky was very complimentary of her as a great hockey leader: "I was totally impressed with her ability to m...

Hey what sports doesn't like a little hockey trivia? And it makes for a perfect small Christmas gift or stocking stuffer. Well there's no shortage of options of trivia books again this Christmas. The king of hockey trivia is Don Weekes, author of (by my count) 24 hockey trivia books! In 2007 he's teamed with Greystone Books for two new titles: Shootout Hockey Trivia and Crease-Crashing Hockey Trivia , both selling for under $10! By the way, here's some Don Weekes trivia for you - Weekes is an award winning television producer-director at CTV Montreal, and his trivia has been used by TV stations, radio stations, websites and magazines all around the world. Most interestingly, his hockey trivia has ended up on cartons of Post cereal and Jell-O Pudding Cups! Jesse Ross and Raincoast Books offers something a little more geared towards younger fans in the new title: Hockey: Games, Trivia, Quizzes and More! There's trivia, crosswords, matching games, word searches and...

In 2008 the International Ice Hockey Federation is holding the world championships in Canada for the very first time. Obviously the worlds clash with the NHL playoffs from a timing stand point, and traditionally the worlds aren't as overly accepted in Canada as they are over in Europe, but somehow it seems odd that hockey's world championships have never been held in the sport's motherland. What makes it even weirder is 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the IIHF, a fact I don't think a lot of North American fans realized until recent marketing campaigns. With the games coming to Quebec City and to Halifax, the IIHF has many commemorative projects in the works, including special events, ceremonies, and interactive exhibits both in person and online. A full list of events can be seen here . For hockey book lovers, the IIHF has just released a beautiful 228 page coffee table book, World of Hockey: Celebrating a Century of the IIHF . The project was closely directed by S...

Hockey is a game of numbers. Goals. Assists. Penalty Minutes. Salaries, nowadays. But no numbers are more revered than a player's sweater number. Sweater numbers not only identify players, but forever etch a player into our memory. Think of Wayne Gretzky or Bobby Orr or Mario Lemieux. The numbers on their backs are often as iconic as they are. Hockey Night In Canada with author Scott Morrison has come out with Hockey Night in Canada By the Numbers: From 00 to 99 . The book looks at the great personalities for every number, from 00 to 99. Incredible photography and fast facts make this a beautiful book to thumb through. Controversy is always a great seller, so this book attempts to do so by ranking who was the best player to wear each number. Such strategy is a brilliant way to spark a lively debate and rekindle a lot of fond memories. Can anyone catch Bobby Orr for jersey number 4? Not even Jean Beliveau? How fast is Vincent Lecavalier climbing the list? How about jersey #9, ...

By now fans know me now as The Hockey History Blogger. But my long time readers know me as a big fan of international hockey as well. There's two DVD releases just in time for Christmas 2007 that will have international hockey fans stoked. The first is '72 Complete gift set is the second major dvd set about the 1972 Summit Series. The first, Canada's Team of the Century: The Best of '72 , was a huge success. '72 Complete will cater more to the hard core fans, as the 8 games in the series have already been released and are already in many people's collection. '72 Complete does feature a bonus exhibition game against the Swedes, as well as many new features such as interviews, Hall of Fame coverage, an original documentary, reunion dinner coverage and a feature called Where Were You in '72?. Judging by early results, '72 Complete is going to be another unqualified success. The 1972 Summit Series will never die. Another favorite international tourna...