Hockey Book Reviews.com

This is Sheldon Kannegeisser. He was a journeyman defenseman in the 1970s, playing with Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, most notably Los Angeles and then in Vancouver. He was a serviceable defender, eating up minutes reliably and clearing the zone with heady passes and clean plays. Best known for his alphabet soup surname, Kannegeisser was a bit of a different bird, at least in NHL circles. He was a very devoted Christian. The only thing he read on road trips as much as the bible might have been the Wall Street Journal. He studied economics, but also studied dehydrated foods. He even experimented with hypnotism, claiming the practice increased his peripheral vision. Kannegeisser retired back in 1978, and has spent the past 30 years or so living in California as an entrepreneur and businnessman, and raising his two sons Brett and Jameson. He also has been working on the motivational speaking circuit. It was during his guest speaker appearances that Kannegiesser realized just how much peop

If you are a die-hard fan of the Rangers/Bruins rivalry from say 1965 to 1976, The Rangers, the Bruins, and the End of an Era by Jay Moran is the book for you. Everyone else will likely be too overwhelmed by the size of the book to enjoy it. Cities have rivalries. Nothing grows the metropolitan antagonism as much as professional sports. Few cities have as big and as deep rooted Boston and New York. The Giants and Patriots. The Knicks and the Celtics. And there's a little baseball rivalry you may have heard about - the Yankees and the Red Sox. Let's not forget about hockey. The Bruins and the Rangers have fed into the tale of two cities nicely. Never more so than during the Emile Francis era in New York, 1965 through 1975. You know, the Big Bad Bruins with Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. Wayne Cashman running around like a wild man and Gerry Cheevers heroics in nets. Then there's the Broadway Blueshirts, with the famous Goal-a-Game Line with Vic Hadfield and Jean Ratelle and R

Fans looking forward to Bruce Boudreau's autobiography Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer need to head over to Japer's Rink for free excerpts of the book each day this week. Buy The Book - | Amazon.ca - chapters.indigo.ca - Amazon.com |

Theo Fleury has been back in the news lately, with his attempted NHL come back bid and rumors of financial disaster. Fleury has been rather quiet about the latter, choosing to focus on his training. Perhaps he will have more to say in his upcoming autobiography, Playing With Fire . The book, published by HarperCollins , is scheduled to be released in early October. Buy The Book - | Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com | Also, just released was John Wong's Coast to Coast: Hockey in Canada to the Second World War . None other than noted hockey author Kevin Shea has already trumpeted to me how good this book is. Buy The Book - | Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com |

While there have been a few hockey titles out already in 2009, the hockey book season really is from October through Christmas. One major entry is already on store bookshelves. Greystone Books and author Benoit Melancon released The Rocket: A Cultural History of Maurice Richard . Buy The Book | Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com | The book was first published in French only and released in Quebec back in 2006. The English version was translated by Fred A. Reed. There is a moving foreword by the eloquent Roy MacGregor and a touching afterword by the elegant Jean Beliveau. I got my review copy last week. It is a real promising title, with some unique imagery inside. This is a look at Rocket Richard, not so much the man or even the hockey player, but the myth and cultural legend that we made him up to be. I am off to Penticton for a soccer tournament this week and will be reading the book while travelling. I'll be sure to let you know what I think when I return.

Here's a couple of new additions to the Chapters Bargain Bins Money Players by Bruce Dowbiggin. $4.99 Money Players is not a fuzzy pink valentine to the game that is played on the ice; it''s a bare-knuckles brawl of a book about how the real game has been played behind closed doors between rich execs and agents. Bruce Dowbiggin''s controversial but eye-opening report takes readers from the locker rooms to the boardrooms. And it''s not a pretty picture. NHL Official Guide & Record Book 2009 by the National Hockey League. $7.99 This edition, revised and updated for the 2008-09 season, features an easy-to-understand expanded format, new statistics, an index of every retired player since 1917, a detailed breakdown of all the hot prospects, and information on every current player. Photos throughout.