The Book Shelf: Part 2 of 4

The Book Shelf: Part 2 of 4

Just in time for Christmas, here’s a brief look at some of the books I have read over the last while:

The Gods of Guilt -- Author Michael Connelly revisits Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer, in this one. There is a murder victim, who was a prostitute; she also was a former client of Haller’s whom he had tried hard to get out of her line of work. Obviously, it didn’t work. If you read The Lincoln Lawyer (2005) and enjoyed it, you’ll like this one. (Kindle)

His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir -- If you are a sports fan and a reader, you no doubt will have read Dan Jenkins, either in Sports Illustrated, Golf Digest or Playboy, or between the covers of one of his numerous books. Now we have His Ownself, written in Jenkins’ take-no-prisoners style. This is writing the way it used to be, before political correctness smothered a lot of it. Go along with Jenkins on a great ride as he revisits his long and terrific career. But as you read along, you get the feeling that the author is laughing at life, like he knows he has pulled a fast one. Reading this is kind of like watching George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the movie Oceans 11. No one should have as much fun as they do; no one should have as much fun as Jenkins did during his career. (Kindle)

Hockey Card Stories: True Tales from Your Favourite Players -- This is a neat book, but it's not one to be read in one or two sittings. Rather, it's to be enjoyed over a month or six weeks. Author Ken Reid, a card collector who is an anchor with Rogers Sportsnet when he isn't counting cards, has selected a number of hockey cards and tells their stories through conversations with the pictured players. There are some terrific stories here, too. For example, Bryan Maxwell, now an assistant coach with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, has three cards but his picture is on only one of them. (A note to the author: Despite what you might find on the Internet, Butch Goring’s famous helmet was a ‘SPAPS’, not a ‘SNAPS’. Yes, I had one.) (Kindle)

Kid Dynamite: The Gerry James Story -- Gerry James is the greatest Canadian athlete whom few people remember, and that’s unfortunate. Playing for football’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers and hockey’s Toronto Maple Leafs during the same years, James was Bo Jackson before Bo Jackson. James was one of the greatest players in CFL history, twice winning the Schenley Award as the league’s top Canadian. He won scoring championships and Grey Cups; he was one of best and toughest running backs of his day. As a hockey player, he played like, well, a football player. In southern Saskatchewan, he is best known as a senior hockey player, as well as a junior hockey owner, general manager and coach. He also is an enigma, something that is most evident in author Ron Smith’s work. Reading this book, you are left to wonder if James, a contradictarian if ever there was one, knows himself, and if he doesn’t, is there any chance of Smith figuring him out. This book is worth reading, if for no other reason than to understand just what a terrific athlete James was. Unfortunately, there is a bit too much of the author in this book. As well, this book, like so many others today, could have used a good editor. Darth Vadar? Schultz, as in Charles M. Schulz? Sidney Crosbie? Wayne Gretsky? . . . If you’re wondering where the nickname, Kid Dynamite, came from, James’ father Eddie (Dynamite) James was a terrific footballer in his own right. (Kindle)

The King of Sports: Football’s Impact on America -- Author Gregg Easterbrook takes off the gloves as he takes on mostly the NCAA and the NFL, pointing out in no uncertain terms just how it is that football at those levels rules the roost. This just may get you looking at football and all of its money in a different light. (Kindle)

The Lost 10 Point Night: Searching for my Hockey Hero . . . Jim Harrison: When he was a child and first became a hockey fan, David Ward, the author of this little gem, became entranced with Jim Harrison. Almost 40 years later, Ward tracked down Harrison, along with a number of former junior, NHL and WHA teammates, and is able to tell the story of a boy/man and his hockey hero. Harrison is a great story, too, because he has beefs with a team or two, the NHLPA, Alan Eagleson and a few others, and he isn’t the least bit leery about voicing his opinion. This book won‘t get much publicity against some of the big boys that appear before Christmas, but it‘s a wonderful read. (Kindle)

My Cross to Bear -- Give this a read and you’ll wonder how it is that Gregg Allman, he of Allman Brothers Band fame, is still alive. From all the booze and all the drugs and all the wives (six at last count) and all the other women, not to mention the liver transplant, he should have been dead a long time ago. Still, this book, written with Alan Light, provides honest insight into Allman and his music career. You may recall that he once was married to Cher. “I was really glad that she never asked me what I thought of her singing,” he writes, “because I’m sorry, but she’s not a very good singer.” No, that marriage didn’t last either. (William Morrow, 390 pages, soft cover, Cdn$17.99, US$15.99)

Never Go Back -- Someone, and I can’t remember who it was, told me a long time ago to be wary of purchasing a book if the author’s name is larger than the title. Author Lee Child is there with Never Go Back, the latest book in his Jack Reacher series. Oh, it’s as readable and as much escapism as any of the earlier works, but there’s something missing here. Perhaps it’s the introduction of the teenager who may or may not be his daughter, who may or may not show up in a future book. I don’t know. Or maybe I just can’t get it out of my head that Hollywood selected Tom Cruise, all 5-foot-8 of him, to play Reacher, who goes 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, in that movie. Included is a Reacher short story (High Heat) that is quite good. (Dell, soft cover, 607 pages, Cdn$11.99, US$9.99)

99: Gretzky: His Game, His Story -- Keeping in mind that author Al Strachan and former NHL star Wayne Gretzky are good friends, this still is a good read. In fact, it may be worth reading just for the prickly Strachan’s many pokes at NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. There isn’t anything terribly shocking here, but there are a whole lot of Gretzky-related anecdotes that haven’t previously seen the light of day. (Kindle)

The Book Shelf: Part 1 of 4

A brief look at some of the books I have read over the last while, perhaps to help you with your Christmas shopping:

An Accidental Sportswriter – You may know Robert Lipsyte as the ombudsman at ESPN. But in an earlier life, he was a sports writer/columnist at The New York Times. Not really a sports fan, he took a different outlook into press boxes and often wrote in just that fashion. He spent a lot of time around Muhammad Ali, in good times and bad, and examines all of that here. He also explores the hypocrisy of journalists covering baseball during the days of the McGwire-Sosa home run wars and not exploring the issue of PEDs. All in all, there is much food for thought here. (Ecco, soft cover, 246 pages, US$14.99, Cdn$16.99)

The Bad Guys Won! – Author Jeff Pearlman, a prolific writer of really good sports-related books, tells the story of the 1986 New York Mets, who owned New York City before, during and after their run to the World Series title. This was the team of Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry et al, and there are stories. Oh, are there stories! You may remember the 1986 Mets as the team that won when the ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs. No. That happened in Game 6. There was a Game 7. A few words of warning: If you are a sports fan of today‘s generation, you will be used to the porridge served up by today’s overpaid athletes. You may not be prepared for how things were in the mid-1980s. (It Books, soft cover, 297 pages, US$14.99)

Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love – Author Dave Zirin makes a case that tax payers who fund the building of stadiums for billionaire owners should have a whole lot more say in the operation of the franchises that inhabit those facilities. He does it with some nightmarish anecdotes and histories involving the likes of Ed Snider, Daniel Snyder, George Steinbrenner, Donald Sterling, David Glass, James Dolan et al. In the NFL, the Green Bay Packers are a community-owned, not-for-profit operation; the league now has it in its constitution that there can't be another such ownership situation. (The New Press, soft cover, 222 pages, Cdn$20.95)

Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick – If you attend a professional baseball game this season, virtually any of the promotions that take place can be traced back to Bill Veeck, who at one time owned the St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. He was the first owner who understood – really understood – that the fans come first. That didn’t make him popular with fellow owners, a point that is made abundantly clear by author Paul Dickson. What really is amazing about Veeck is that he was able to accomplish what he did despite living daily with an incredible amount of physical pain, most of it brought on by the loss of one leg. (Walker & Company, soft cover,435 pages, US$19.00)

The Black Box – The latest in the Harry Bosch detective novels by Michael Connelly, The Black Box is a good way to while away a few hours on the deck. There really aren’t any surprises – this one involves a cold case, one that Bosch was involved with in its infancy and one that he picks up again 20 years later – but if you’re a Bosch/Connelly fan you are certain to enjoy it. (Kindle, $10.06)

Bobby Orr: My Story — As the title suggests, this is the story of Bobby Orr, a defenceman who changed hockey as much as anyone. It also is the story of a great player whose career was cut horribly short by knee problems, and who became entangled in the Alan Eagleson mess. Unfortunately, while Orr touches on many things that happened during his career, he really doesn’t provide a whole lot of insight. And if you’re looking for dressing room dirt, forget it. His views on today’s game, which he presents near book’s end, are interesting. (Viking, hard cover, 290 pages, Cdn$32.00)

Breakaway: From behind the Iron Curtain to the NHL — the untold story of hockey’s great escapes – Written by Tal Pinchevsky, it is the story of how the first players got from behind the Iron Curtain and into the NHL and, really, about the only thing missing is Steve McQueen on his motorcycle. There are some amazing stories in there, about what players went through as they escaped oppression to get to North America and about the problems some had adapting to life over here. Like the Russian couple who didn’t believe their chequing account was overdrawn because they still had cheques left. Living the way we do, it is awfully hard to relate to the way life once was in that area of the world. (Wiley, hard cover, 274 pages, Cdn$32.95, US$27.95)

Brimstone – Robert B. Parker is perhaps best known for his three dozen or so novels featuring a detective named Spenser. However, Parker is also a writer of many other genres, including westerns. Brimstone is a sequel, if you will, to Appaloosa. And if you have seen the movie that was made based on Appaloosa, you can’t read Brimstone without picturing actors Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen working through the dialogue. This is light and entertaining stuff. (Putnam, hard cover, 293 pages, Cdn$32.50, US$25.95)

The Cocktail Waitress – James M. Cain died in 1977 and it was believed his writing died with him. But some 35 years later a manuscript was discovered – Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai explains it all in an afterword – and that turned out to be The Cocktail Waitress. The book opens with Joan Medford burying a husband and it goes on from there, adding intrigue along the way as she narrates the story. Cain also wrote, among other books, Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Like those, The Cocktail Waitress leaves you wondering if all is as it seems. (Kindle version)

The Cold Dish – This is the first book in author Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire mystery series. Longmire is the sheriff of Wyoming’s Absaroka County. In the series opener, he is dealing with the murder of young men who, a few years earlier while still in high school, had been involved in the rape of a Cheyenne girl. The characters are terrific, as is their development. As well, Johnson can write. As Longmire struggles through a blizzard on foot, you find yourself reaching for a blanket. (Penguin, soft cover, 354 pages, Cdn$16.00, US$15.00)

There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.