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Showing posts from October, 2011

Cornered Best Selling Book In Canada

Guess what is the best selling Canadian non-fiction book? Not just best selling hockey book, but all books period. According to The Globe And Mail Bestsellers List , it's Ron MacLean's new autobiography, Cornered . The book is co-written with Kirstie McLellan Day, who has previously topped the list with Theo Fleury and Bob Probert! MacLean's book tops such books as Cold Hard Truth by Kevin O'Leary, The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha, The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks by Stuart McLean and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. (Somehow The Wealthy Barber Returns by David Chilton tops MacLean on one list, but not Canadian non-fiction) Congratulations Ron and Kirstie!

Hockey Hall of Fame MVP Trophies and Winners

Hockey Hall of Fame MVP Trophies and Winners  tells the story of hockey's three most prestigious individual awards: the Hart Trophy (Most Valuable Player of the NHL regular season), the Ted Lindsay Trophy (MVP of the NHL regular season as voted by the players) and the Conn Smythe Trophy (MVP of the NHL playoffs). Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com The authors present the history and origins of each trophy, as well as a biography of those whom the trophies are named after. Authors Bob Duff and Kevin Shea profile every winner of each trophy and make their own selections for the winners of each award in the seasons preceding each trophy's existence. Solid photography compliments the book. MVP Trophies and Winners recounts the most controversial selections and surprise winners. Readers will be able to relive the best seasons and performances hockey has ever seen as Duff and Shea profile the NHL's multiple MVP winners and the most seminal seasons ever recor

Interview With Translator: I Hate Hockey's Peter McCambridge

I recently had a chance to sit down with Peter McCambridge, Francois Barcelo's translator for the new book I Hate Hockey . In my book review I expressed some concerns about some of the plot lines in the book. McCambridge answers my questions about that, the main character's flaws and the challenges in translating a book. Buy The Book:  Amazon.ca  -  Chapters You can also purchase the original book in French -  J'haïs le hockey Aside from the fact that our narrator obviously hates hockey and that his son plays the game, how is this a hockey book? I Hate Hockey might not be a “hockey book” in the sense that the narrator devotes whole chapters to the Summit Series, but it is most definitely a hockey novel. By that I mean that Canada’s game is a character in the book. The book wouldn’t be the same if it was called I Hate Soccer or I Hate Lacrosse. It just wouldn’t work. As it is, it is hockey that separates Antoine Vachon from his wife, his son, his boss and ultimately

Reflections 2011

The NHL's annual photographic yearbook lives up to it's own high standards with Reflections 2011 . Buy The Book: Amazon.ca Chapters - Amazon.com All of the great moments of the magical 2010-11 season are captured forever in an amazing collection of stunning photographs. Feel the chill as you revisit the great outdoor games where both Pittsburgh's Heinz Field and Calgary's McMahon Stadium became, for a day each, the world's largest backyard rink. And the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup championship. Ad Corey Perry's breakout year. From the first drop of the puck to the hoisting of the Stanley Cup, it's all here. The game is played such a blinding speed. With one blink you miss so many details. The camera catches these details, making this book extra special. I especially love the many facial expressions captured in so many of these 150+ thrilling hockey photos. As always, one of the best parts about this book is a share of the proceeds from the sale of

Black And Gold by Steve Babineau and Rob Simpson

Remember this book from 2008? Well, now that the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011, the book is being re-released. Surprise, Surprise! Now the book will look like this: Obviously Bruins photographer Steve Babineau has added 32 pages of content, mostly new photos to the book, mostly of the 2011 championship and the 2010 Winter Classic from Fenway Park. Don Cherry jumps on board and writes an all new forward. Black and Gold: Four Decades of the Boston Bruins in Photographs is a stunning collection of photographs of Steve Babineau, the Boston Bruins official team photographer since 1973. "Babs," as he affectionately is known, has seen a lot of hockey history through his lens in that time. Now, with writer Rob Simpson, Babineau shares his memories of one of hockey's most storied teams. Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com

The Magnificent Mario by Mike Leonetti

Long time readers of this website know I am a huge fan of Mike Leonetti's long running hockey history themed children's books. 2011 sees the newest book to the series - The Magnificent Mario Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com The book is also available in French This time around the illustrations are provided by a fellow named Gary Chatterton. He takes the series of a books to an amazing new level with the life-like illustrations are simply amazing. If nothing else, just crack the spine of this book to admire the art work. . Product Description : A young hockey player learns the value of playing one's best — no matter what the circumstances — from real-life hockey hero Mario Lemieux! Tyler is already a big Mario Lemieux fan, but he still loves looking at his dad's memento — Mario's rookie card — and hearing about how Mario started out with the worst team in the NHL. Tyler is also on the worst team in his league, and losing so often gets v

Overtime by David Skuy

Charlie Joyce is back in David Skuy's newest entry in the Game Time youth novel series, Overtime . Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters Teenage hockey player Charlie Joyce is facing a new school year, and a whole new set of problems — both on and off the ice. The year has barely begun when Charlie finds out his school is in jeopardy because of some damage to the building. Under threat of being separated and bussed to different high schools, Charlie and friends leap into action to raise some money and keep their high school (and hockey team!) intact. Using all of their skills, they cook up as many fundraising events as they can — until one day a gift comes to them in the form of a hockey tournament with a $5000 prize. Charlie is ecstatic to get his team on the ice — until he realizes that their line-up must be co-ed to compete. It's a whole new lesson in good sportsmanship at Terrence Falls High School. Can they pull it off and save their school?

Line Change by W.C. Mack

JT McDonald is back and dealing with a difficult hockey coach — his dad! That's the basis of the new 144 page youth novel Line Change Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters JT McDonald is finally back on the ice with his team, doing better at math thanks to tutoring from his teammate Eddie and sporting the awesome new helmet he bought with his prize money from the Vancouver Canucks contest. Everything seems to be getting back on track for JT. That is, until Coach O'Neil has a bad fall on the ice and the team is left without a coach mid-season. JT is thrilled when his dad steps in to lead the team — but his teammates have a harder time adjusting to the new coach. Suddenly practice time isn't fun anymore, they're fighting among themselves, and they're devastated when they lose a game that should have been an easy win. Can the Cutter Bay Cougars get back on track before the season ends? This book is the long awaited sequel to Mack's Hat Trick

The Devil And Bobby Hull

As the epic battles between Rocket Richard and Gordie Howe reached their zenith in the 1950s, another superstar arrived in the same stratosphere. Bobby Hull - hockey's Golden Jet - was every bit as good as his counterpart #9s. In fact, he was kind of a hybrid of the two. He had Howe's size and strength, and Richard's flare for the dramatic. He may have been the greatest player of his era, the 1960s, carrying the torch from Howe and Richard until Bobby Orr came along. Hull was pro sports first million dollar man, and he had the million dollar smile to go with it. Not unlike Wayne Gretzky after him, his personality was contagiously appealing, almost as important as his athletic prowess. He transcended the game to almost Hollywood proportions But, for a variety of reasons, Hull's lasting legacy does not measure up with the likes of Howe or Richard or Orr or Jean Beliveau. Instead he is painted as a more dastardly character. His key role in jumping to the WHA ruffled ma

East Coast NHLers

The best selling hockey book in the Canadian maritime region this year probably will be East Coast NHLers: The stories of the lives and careers of players from the Maritimes and Newfoundland . Buy The Book: Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com Veteran hockey author Paul White looks at the career and lives of hockey players from Canada's maritime provinces and Newfoundland. Highlighted by Sidney Crosby, Al MacInnis, and Brad Richards, there might not be a lot of Atlantic Canadians in the NHL but their journeys are all fascinating. Modern day fans will appreciate White's look at Crosby's rise from Coal Harbour, Nova Scotia to hockey superstardom, or the day Richards brought the Stanley Cup home to Prince Edward Island, or when Detroit's Dan Cleary and Boston's Brad Marchand and Michael Ryder brought the trophy home to Newfoundland. Every bit as interesting is White's look at some players from the past. He looks back at Nova Scotia's Al MacInnis and hi

Ron MacLean Signing Copies Of Cornered

Pucks On The 'Net Interview on Kukla's Korner

Special thanks to Alanah McGinlay-Downie for her Kukla's Korner feature of an interview with me concerning my new ebook Pucks On The 'Net. Also thanks to Rick Buker for his review on the Pittsburgh fan site PenguinPoop.com and to Dennis Kane for his review on his Montreal fan site. Learn more about my third book and first ebook at PucksOnTheNet.com You can buy the book for just $3.99: Amazon Kindle Barnes & Noble Nook   Kobo   Smashwords (including .pdf file for any computer)  and of course Apple iTunes for iPad/iPod/iPhone Thanks again until next time when put more pucks on the 'net.

Forgotten Heroes: Winnipeg's Hockey Heritage by Richard Brignall

Four years ago author Richard Brignall and J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing got together and decided to make a book about hockey history in Winnipeg. They call it Forgotten Heroes: Winnipeg's Hockey Heritage . By pure dumb luck they decided to release the book in October 2011. That decision was made many weeks before the NHL announced the Atlanta Thrashers were moving to Manitoba to become the re-born Winnipeg Jets. Talk about good fortune! The Jets come back and these guys are ready to welcome them and all the hockey fans back with what promises to be a top notch book about hockey in Winnipeg. Buy The Book - Amazon.ca - Chapters - Amazon.com . And then Brignall and J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing got even more good fortune, as the highly esteemed writer Roy MacGregor boasted about the book in the Globe and Mail's front page feature about Winnipeg's proud hockey history. You can not buy that type of publicity. The Jets returning to Winnipeg certainly has al

Gamble In Goal: The Bruce Gamble Story

Born in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Bruce Gamble's professional hockey career as a National Hockey League (NHL) goalie spanned 14 years, and he saw action with four NHL teams: New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers. He is hardly the most famous goalie in hockey history. Yet his story, finally told in David Nicholson's new book Gamble in Goal, is very interesting. Buy The Book: Chapters Gamble broke into pro hockey in the maskless days of the Original Six. Though he was a solid goalie in the AHL, he never really stuck in the NHL until the late 60's when expansion and the legislated two goalie system saw NHL goaltending jobs grow from 6 to 24. Previously Gamble was best known as the goalie who refused to be subservient to the so called system. He quit hockey in 1965 rather than report to Eddie Shore's team in Springfield. He had had enough of Shore and his irascible ways. So he took 'Shore leave,' quit hockey and we

Winnipeg Jets Merchandise

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The Lost Dream: The Mike Danton Story

One of the most promising titles of the 2011 hockey book season promises to be Lost Dream, The: The Story of Mike Danton, David Frost and a Broken Canadian Family . Like the stories released of Theo Fleury or Bob Probert in years past, this book is not a squeaky clean fun book to read. It is an understatement to say that the Danton/Frost story is sad or even down right disgusting. Perhaps it is because it is so incomprehensibly bizarre, but it is a story that some how captivates us for reasons we might not fully understand ourselves. Maybe it's because it could have happened to any of us or to any of our children. The inconceivable story is of course that of Mike Danton, the NHL player who ended up in jail in a failed murder for hire plot. He wanted his agent, David Frost, dead, or at least that was what the authorities said. Danton later said he wanted his father, Steve Jefferson, gone. Guilty in the court of public opinion if not the courts of law, David Frost is essential