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.