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Showing posts from May, 2010

Blood Feuds by The Hockey News

The Hockey News has put out a couple of books each year for the past few years. One of their new 2010 titles is Blood Feuds: Hockey's Best-Ever Rivalries Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com Here's the specs: October 2010 Paperback 224 pages Cover Price: $19.99  From the Transcontinental Press: Blood Feuds: Hockey's Best-Ever Rivalries is the perfect guide to the confrontational passion that makes hockey one of the most exciting sports in the world. Through the voices of the players, coaches and owners who made the history, Blood Feuds delves deep into the game's best rivalries, detailing the history and making the stories come alive once again. From marquee player matchups (Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin, Rocket Richard vs. Gordie Howe) to hated owners, battling fan bases and venomous coaches, the entire hockey timeline and teams from all major levels are covered off. Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com   I would also

Stole This From A Hockey Card by Chris Robinson

On a recent wet and cold camping trip I snuggled up in my sleeping bag and tried to ignore the wind by reading one of my many hockey books I brought with me. I picked the right book, as, completely oblivious to the chilling wind, I breezed right through Chris Robinson's 2005 offering Stole This from a Hockey Card: A Philosophy of Hockey, Doug Harvey, Identity and Booze . Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com The book, often written in a series of vignettes, is an effortless read and very well written. It is part biography of Doug Harvey, and part memoir of our narrator, who we assume is the author Chris Robinson. He sees his life as comparable to Harvey's, and this book is in many ways his discovery not only of Harvey and of hockey, but of himself. Harvey, of course, is one of the greatest hockey players ever, though he was doomed by alcoholism and depression. This drew in our author. Tragedies make for good stories, and we get a double dose here. Fortunately

Six Hockey Hall of Fame Books Coming

Firefly Books Ltd . is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract with the Hockey Hall of Fame to produce six books over the next three years. The first two books will appear in Fall 2010. “I’m delighted to partner with the Hockey Hall of Fame,” says Michael Worek, Associate Publisher of Firefly Books. “Working with the Hockey Hall of Fame is a dream come true for us – they have all the resources we could ask for and they are as passionate about hockey as we are.” The first book to appear will be Official Guide to the Players of the Hockey Hall of Fame (September 2010, $19.95 paperback, 400 color photos). Induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame is the greatest individual honor that can be bestowed upon a professional hockey player. Since the first class of 1945, 244 players have been inducted to its hallowed halls. Official Guide to the Players of the Hockey Hall of Fame features every player who has been so honored. Each Hall of Famer is profiled, complete with stats, fa

Canada's Game by Andrew C. Holman

I finally got a chance to read through editor Andrew C. Holman's compilation of essays in the book Canada's Game: Hockey and Identity . Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com The work is a very eclectic collection of academic offerings that, as the subtitle suggests, looks at for the elusive definition of Canadian identity through the game of hockey. Ten wide-ranging subjects are broached - from the impact of the 1972 Summit Series to hockey in literature to violence on the ice to the commercialization of the game - but with no real tying theme. You can take what you want from each topic - some more than others - but in the end you may not find a satisfactory, all-encompassing conclusion. Part of that problem might be due to a lack of an academic background when it comes to hockey. Holman even points it out in his introduction, spending lots of time applauding the first real academic hockey literature offering - Richard Gruneau and David Whitson's Hockey

A Trail Less Traveled by Don Reddick

Don Reddick is an award-winning author of historical fiction, whose books include Dawson City Seven and Killing Frank McGee . In his new book he returns to the famous story of the famous Stanley Cup challenge from the Yukon, more specifically the re-enactment nearly 100 years later, in The Trail Less Traveled . This book is not fiction. It is an amazingly true story where the author lives out his own story. The book is part history, part adventure story, part travelogue, and a whole lot hockey. It all adds up to one of the most unique contribution to the great Canadian game! On December 18, 1904, the upstart Dawson City Klondikers began a 4,000-mile trek to wrest the Stanley Cup from the Ottawa Silver Seven. Twenty-four days later, after trudging 350 frozen miles by foot, bicycle and dog sled, steaming their way down the famed inside passage, and long days crossing the country by train, the players staggered into Ottawa’s Union Station. In less than thirty-six hours they would

The Montreal Canadiens - 100 Years Of Glory by Darcy Jenish

The Montreal Canadiens are unquestionably hockey's most celebrated team, including in the literary world. Over the years there are several significant volumes that have not only captured the Canadiens mystique, but contributed to it. I'm thinking of books like The Montreal Canadiens by Claude Mouton, or Lions In Winter by Allan Turowetz and Chris Goyens or The Habs by Dick Irvin. And the absolute best of the best - The Game by Ken Dryden, My Life In Hockey By Jean Beliveau and The Hockey Sweater and Our Life With The Rocket , both my Roch Carrier. Can this oncoming onslaught of Canadiens books really offer us anything new? We will have to judge each book on it's own merits. But I can confidently say that The Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years of Glory by D'arcy Jenish does a great job of telling us the story of the Montreal Canadiens. And in doing so he offers us a new look at that history. Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

D'Arcy Jenish: This Is Hockeytown

The Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years of Glory Written by D'Arcy Jenish Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages Publisher: Anchor Canada Book Website ISBN: 978-0-385-66325-0 (0-385-66325-0) Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com This is Hockeytown Other cities may lay claim to the title, says Pierre Boivin during an animated discussion in his corner office on the seventh floor of the Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens. Then, with a sweep of his arm, he gestures at the city beyond his windows. “Make no mistake about it, this is Hockeytown.” Montreal is Hockeytown by dint of history and the citizenry’s enduring passion for the sport. It is where a raw and ragged game – shinny played on the icebound creeks and rivers and lakes of a wintry nation – came indoors and became hockey, the world’s first arena sport. It is where the first rules were written, where the first team was formed – the McGill University Redmen in 1877 – and where the sport’s m

D'Arcy Jenish: A Team Like No Other

The Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years of Glory Written by D'Arcy Jenish Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages Publisher: Anchor Canada ISBN: 978-0-385-66325-0 (0-385-66325-0) A Team Like No Other When we think of the Montreal Canadiens, we think of many things, some obvious, some less so. There’s the Stanley Cup, of course, which was awarded to the Canadiens for championships won in 1916 and 1924, in 1930 and ’31, in 1944, ’46 and ’53, in fifteen of twentythree seasons between 1956 and 1979, in 1986 and again in 1993. We think of longevity, because the Canadiens have been playing for a hundred years, longer than any professional hockey team. We think of the gods of hockey: Plante in goal, Harvey and Robinson on defence, the Rocket, Béliveau and Lafleur for the offence. And a host of lesser deities: the Pocket Rocket, Boom Boom Geoffrion, Cournoyer and Moore; Dryden, Savard and Gainey. Stars from the edge of living memory: Elmer Lach, Butch Bouchard, Ken Reardon and B