Hockey Book Reviews.com

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 .

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,...

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 h...

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 :