I’ve been reading hockey books since I was a kid and could usually count on finding one under the Christmas tree. I still keep many of those books from my childhood on the shelves in my office. Eventually, I was old enough to buy my own books, some of which are about hockey (and, lucky for me, I continue to receive hockey books as gifts on occasion). When I started to write books, I knew that someday I would write one about the game I love to play, watch and read about.
I wrote...
Klondikers: Dawson City's Stanley Cup Challenge and How a Nation Fell in Love with Hockey
By
Tim Falconer
What is my book about?
Early in 1905, an unlikely team of dreamers arrived in Ottawa to play for the Stanley Cup. The Klondikers had travelled—by foot, bicycle, train, ship, and more trains—for three-and-a-half weeks from Dawson City, Yukon. This is the story of their audacious trek and their equally audacious desire to win the Cup. It’s also the story of how hockey grew from a niche, regional sport when Lord Stanley donated his trophy in 1893 to a national obsession within a dozen years.
Unforgettable characters include Weldy Young, the former Ottawa star who never lost his hunger for the Cup; Joe Boyle, the Klondike King who managed the team; and “One-Eyed” Frank McGee, the game’s original superstar. For lovers of hockey, Canadian history and entertaining tales.
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The Books I Picked & Why
Riding on the Roar of the Crowd: A Hockey Anthology
By
David Gowdey
Why this book?
I love this collection of writing about hockey. It includes memoirs, essays, magazine articles, book excerpts, fiction, poetry, and even a one-act play about the game. Some of my favourites are an elegantly written 1954 magazine article by Hugh MacLennan called "Fury on Ice"; Morley Callaghan’s “The Game that Makes a Nation,” an essay on Canada’s “national drama”; Hugh Hood's riveting close-up look at Jean Beliveau's artistry; and Mordecai Richler’s sad look at a retiring Gordie Howe, who sidelines as an Amway salesman. This book is so full of great reads.
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Wayne Gretzky's Ghost: And Other Tales from a Lifetime in Hockey
By
Roy MacGregor
Why this book?
As a teenager, I read Roy MacGregor’s profiles of players such as Bryan Trottier, Borje Salming, and Bobby Clarke in The Canadian magazine and it made me want to become a writer. Since then, he’s written many great hockey books, including The Home Team, A Loonie for Luck and the Screech Owl series for young readers. Wayne Gretzky’s Ghost—the title refers to when MacGregor ghostwrote Gretzky’s newspaper column—is a collection of some of his best pieces from 1976 to 2011. Read them and I’m sure you’ll agree MacGregor is the game’s best writer.
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Gross Misconduct: The Life of Spinner Spencer
By
Martin O’Malley
Why this book?
The night Brian Spencer first played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, his father was angry that the local TV station was airing another game. After driving to the station with a gun and forcing the staff to show the Leaf game, he died in a stand-off with the RCMP. “Spinner” played 553 NHL games, but life after hockey wasn’t easy. In 1988, a year after his acquittal on kidnapping and murder charges, he died from a gunshot during a drug-related robbery in Florida. O’Malley is an excellent journalist and this is a powerfully told story of a tragiclife.
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The Game
By
Ken Dryden
Why this book?
Given that I’m a fan of the Boston Bruins and Ken Dryden, the great Montreal goalie, broke my heart many times in the 1970s, I didn’t want to like this book. But I did, which is good because no list of the best hockey books is complete without this one. It’s the story of Dryden’s last year in the NHL with flashbacks to previous years as well as his thoughts on the state of the sport. My favourite parts are when he shows us what life is like as a professional hockey player, especially in the dressing room.
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Hockey Dreams: Memories of a Man Who Couldn't Play
By
David Adams Richards
Why this book?
This book by an award-winning Canadian novelist mixes memoir and essay. The memoir is set in New Brunswick’s Miramichi region in 1961. Richards has no use of his left arm; his best friend is going blind due to diabetes. They are in their last year of playing hockey. Woven into that story are other memories—including of distasteful meetings with people who don’t like the sport—as well as his thoughts on the game and its place in the Canadian psyche. Hockey Dreams is highly personal, so it may not be for readers, but I loved it.
