Hockey Book Reviews.com

I have been following the story of Attila Ambrus since the mid 1990s, when a tiny blurb in The Hockey News alerted North Americans about a goaltender who was busted for robbing banks. Now the story has turned into a best selling book , and, from the sounds of it, a soon-to-be big budget Hollywood production , very possibly starring Johnny Depp . Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, and Broken Hearts was the literary debut for writer Julian Rubinstein, an acclaimed sports journalist. It went on to be one of the most acclaimed books of 2004. It is almost easy to forget that this is a non-fiction book. Ambrus' story is so outrageous and comical that it is almost tough to believe this is all really happened. And Rubinstein writes such an exquisite narrative that he really should be writing novels for Oprah. He's a fantastic writer. Ambrus is this charismatic but lost soul who was born in Transylvania, Romania but is very much a Hungarian at heart....

Trevor Linden, said to be quite the book enthusiast , is supposedly considering writing an autobiography, hints Vancouver Sun columnist Greg Douglas "Already there's been talk of a Trevor Linden autobiography among the literary establishment, but Sun columnist Iain MacIntyre believes it will still take some time for the passion to die down following the emotional fans' farewell of last week before Linden decides what direction he might want to travel. MacIntyre's opinion matters because he would be a publisher's first choice to write a book with Linden. The two long ago established a relationship built on trust." By now you all know Linden is a personal favorite of mine, and I'd be first in line to get this book. But Linden is a very reserved person who would never step people's toes, which of course is a tactic used by many self-biographers to sell books. I highly doubt Linden would give us the juicy truth about the 2005 CBA/lockout, about Mark Messi...

Regular reader Matthew Csaszar wrote me with this message: "Bob Probert and Joey Kocur, along with Bob Duff of the Windsor Star, have a book coming soon. The Bruise Brothers - Hockey's Heavyweight Champions will be released June 1. I bet it ends up being book of the year :)" I bet that that book will be a very popular buy. It also got me thinking: I wonder what other new hockey books we can look forward to in the fall/winter of 2008. Here's what I found: The Meaning of Puck: How Hockey Explains Modern Canada - Hockey is more than a game or even a way of life in Canada. Its a perfect window into the issues that confront the nation as it nears its 150th birthday with all its achievements and its challenges. Canada is a land of contradiction and curiosity that is best summed up in the national sport. In The Meaning of Puck, bestselling author Bruce Dowbiggin takes a tour of the country using hockey as his itinerary. In a series of essays, he shows how the national pass...

You can be forgiven if you are not a fan of NHL.com. The website is very busy and crowded, and easy to get overwhelmed, and there's tons of other, more impartial sites out there. But NHL.com does have some of the best feature writing and feature writers in the business working for them. For a long time I've been faithfully reading Bill Meltzer's "Across The Pond," Phil Coffey's "Ice Age" and Evan Weiner's "Off The Wall." Another favorite of mine is Risto Pakarinen 's contributions to the NHL.com blogging community Only now I've found a more enjoyable and completely new experience in reading it. Pakarinen has published his blog entries into the book Off The Post: Hockey Stories From Around The World . Pakarinen is no stranger to the hockey world. He's a die hard fan who turned his obsession with pucks, ice, Valeri Kharlamov and Wayne Gretzky into a career of journalism . The Swedish-based freelance journalist from Finland is...