John Grisham – TAKING NOTE

The Book Shelf: Part 3

This is the third of a three-part look at some of the books I read over the past year. Nothing brought back more memories than That Old Gang of Mine, featuring Bill Spunska and some of the gang from Scrubs on Skates. Oh, those were the days! . . . I hope you were able to find a title that intrigued you over the past three days, and here’s to a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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Nocturne — Ed McBain is the author of a series of books on the 87th Precinct. This is No. 48 in the series, and it begins with the murder of an elderly woman who once was a renowned concert pianist. It isn’t long before there are more bodies and some missing money. Oh, and there’s a dead cat; it was shot alongside the old woman. Lots of good gritty stuff here.

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Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made — As much as this book, which was published in 2000, is about Michael Jordan’s climb to the top of the NBA’s world and his life in the business world, primarily with Nike, it’s about basketball’s changing times as money took over. Author David Halberstam wrote this terrific book without sitting down with Jordan, who agreed to be interviewed but later changed his mind. There is lots here about basketball under coach Dean Smith at North Carolina, what the arrival of ESPN meant to the NBA, the bad boy Detroit Pistons, the importance of Phil Jackson to Jordan’s career, the enigmatic Jerry Krause, who was the Chicago Bulls’ general manager, and a whole lot more. I highly recommend this book.

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Playing for Pizza — One day, while in Italy, John Grisham, the author of so many legal thrillers, happened upon a football game — as in American football. This book came out of that experience. It’s fluff, but there is some good fun between the covers as QB Rick Dockery tries to rediscover some positives with the Parma Panthers. No, there really aren’t any surprises. The good news is that the book isn’t especially long.

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Raylan — Published in 2012, this was author Elmore Leonard’s last book before his death in 2013. The book, which chronicles the adventures of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, is highlighted by Leonard’s usual gift for dialogue and whacky characters. Leonard had featured Givens in earlier works (Pronto, Riding the Rap, Fire in the Hole), which led to the TV series Justified. Raylan, Leonard’s 45th novel, was written after Justified already was on the small screen.

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Resurrection Walk — You can’t go wrong with a book by Michael Connelly, can you? In this one, Harry Bosch, retired from the LAPD, is working for his half-brother, Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer. And this one is all about whether a young woman killed her husband, who was a cop, and was wrongfully convicted in a conspiracy involving more cops.

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The Rise and Fall of the Press Box — Leonard Koppett had a lengthy career as a sports writer with stints at The New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, New York Post, Palo Alto Times and Oakland Tribune. Yes, he knew the way to a whole lot of press boxes. In this book, finished two weeks before he died on June 22, 2003, at 79, he walks the reader through the rise and fall of the newspaper industry, while detailing the differences faced by today’s sports writers as compared to those who were on the beats 70 and 80 years ago. Insightful and entertaining.

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The Street Lawyer — Published on Jan. 1, 1998, this was author John Grisham’s ninth novel. Michael Brock, one of 800 lawyers with a high-powered firm in Washington, D.C., is at the plot’s centre as Grisham takes aim at such firms and the homeless issue. It’s good Grisham, and will keep you out of trouble for a day or two.

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Taking Down Trump: 12 Rules for Prosecuting Donald Trump by Someone Who Did it Successfully — Tristan Snell, the author of this book, was an assistant attorney general for the state of New York who led the team that beat Donald Trump in court in a case involving the defrauding of hundreds of students to the tune of US$42 million by Trump University. In his book, Snell details how things went down — from start to finish — and really explains all that went into it. Yes, it’s a blueprint for the legal community. It’s also a good look into what is a seriously flawed justice system.

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Texas — Another magnificent work of historical fiction from the prolific James Michener, this one, published in 1985, covers the Lone Star State’s history, starting with the Spanish explorers. It goes on to explore the impact of, among other things, religion, slavery, missions, immigration, ranching, education and, yes, football on the state. Keep in mind that it’s 1,076 pages long so isn’t exactly a two-day read. But it’s well worth whatever time you might want to invest in it. (P.S.: It took me almost three weeks as I finished it 21 hours before it was due back at the library.)

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That Old Gang of Mine — If you are of a certain vintage, you will have fond remembrances of reading Scrubs on Skates, Boy on Defense, and Boy at the Leafs’ Camp, author Scott Young’s trilogy about Bill Spunska and a handful of other Winnipeg high school hockey players. The first of those, Scrubs on Skates, was published in 1952. A couple of months ago, I rediscovered That Old Gang of Mine, which was published in 1982. Canada’s national men’s hockey team has perished in a plane crash and the Winter Olympics, set for Moscow, are fast approaching. What to do? Why not get the gang from Daniel Mac in Winnipeg back together, fill in a few holes and have them represent Canada? That’s exactly what happens in a book that brought back a lot of childhood memories. Unlike the first three books, this one is an adult read that even includes a federal minister having an affair with the national team’s coach.

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Traitors Gate — This is the sixth book in author Jeffrey Archer’s series that chronicles the life of William Warwick, who by now is Chief Superintendent with London’s Metropolitan Police. This time, Miles Faulkner, Warwick’s long-time protagonist, is working on a heist that involves lifting the Crown Jewels as they are being transported from the Tower of London to Buckingham Palace. The characters are familiar and there are a couple of subplots, involving Warwick’s wife and a fellow officer, but there isn’t much in the way of surprises. Still, like the first five books in the series, it’s a nice, comfortable read.

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12 Months to Live — Jane Smith is a defence lawyer with a client she despises who has been charged with the deaths of three people from one family. She also has been diagnosed with cancer and given 12 months. Oh, and people connected to the trial keep disappearing or being killed. Authors Mike Lupica and the ultra-prolific Richard Patterson spin a gritty tale that is quite readable. . . . I also read the sequel, Hard to Kill, which is similar to the opener. And with the way Hard to Kill ended, it would seem there will be a third entry in the series.

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A Year in the Sun: The Games, The Players, the Pleasure of Sports — George Vecsey, a sports columnist with The New York Times, chronicles his travels through 1986, including soccer’s World Cup in Mexico City, the Mets’ World Series victory (hello, Bill Buckner), some tennis, some basketball and hockey and a whole lot more. Vecsey wasn’t a hack-and-slash columnist; rather he had a soul, and he shows it here. This is a favourite and I can’t believe that I only discovered it in May. Having spent more than 40 years in newspapers, always in sports, there are parts of this book to which I could relate, especially when it came to lugging equipment on road trips.

Part 3 of 3

The Book Shelf: Part 1

While I stopped writing here on a regular basis quite a while ago, I have continued to compile thumbnails of some of the books I have read over the past year.

So . . . with Christmas on the horizon, the annual three-part Book Shelf feature is appearing here this week.

I hope you enjoy it, even though it’s far from featuring all sports-related books — and perhaps it will help with your Christmas shopping.

Enjoy!

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If you haven’t already read it and are only going to read one book in the next while, you should make it author John Vaillant’s Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast.

I re-read it as June was turning into July, finishing it while we were under a heat warning and waiting for the thermometer to hit 40C. This was the best book I read in 2023 and it’s at the top of the list again this year.

This is an accounting of the 2016 fire that swept through Fort McMurray, Alta., but it really is a whole lot more than that, including more than ample evidence that big oil is complicit in the climate change that we now are experiencing.

Fire Weather is right out of Stephen King country, only it isn’t fiction. It’s frightening; it’s glorious; it’s devastating. It’s all of that and so much more. It also was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.

From the nomination: Fire Weather is “an unsparing account of the rapacious Alberta (oil sands) fire, fuelled by an overheated atmosphere, dry forest and omnipresent petroleum products, that consumed the town of Fort McMurray at the heart of Canada’s oil industry, which brings the global crisis of carbon emissions and climate change into urgent relief.”

Vaillant supplies all the scientific evidence needed in explaining to where we earthlings are headed. He also explains that what we don’t know is this — is it too late?

At one point he writes:

“There have been five major extinctions in Earth’s history, but only the end-Permian has been called ‘the Great Dying.’

“It is to this terminal catastrophe — caused, not by meteorites, or by shifts in Earth’s orbit, but by unrelenting combustion — that geoscientists are comparing our own Petrocene Age. Our fire-powered civilization is now in the early stages of replicating that ‘one-in-a-lifetime’ extinction event. It is widely understood in the scientific community that a sixth major extinction is under way, and that it is wholly due to human activity. As confronting as this idea may be, it shouldn’t come as a surprise: never in Earth’s history has there been a disruption like us: billions of large, industrious primates whose evolving behaviour is almost entirely dependent on the universal burning of hydrocarbons. Nor has Earth ever had to carry (at the same time, no less), billions of methane-emitting livestock the size of pigs and cattle.

“There is a terribly symmetry in this. What we are allowing to happen now with carbon dioxide and methane is what cyanobacteria did with photosynthesized oxygen billions of years ago: gassing the planet to death.”

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OK. Enough of that kind of talk. On to Part 1 (of 3) of The Bookshelf, a look at most of the books that I read in 2024. . . .

Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels — Paul Pringle, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter with the Los Angeles Times, has stumbled on a drug-riddled scandal involving the head of USC’s prestigious medical school. Write the story. Print the story. Right? Not so fast. It seems there were people at the Times with ties to USC and they threw up one roadblock after another. After more than a year, the story got printed, and this book, which brings to mind Spotlight and All the President’s Men, tells the story of all that went into the investigative reporting, which uncovered two other USC scandals before it was done, and all that went into getting it into print.

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Billy the Kid: The War for Lincoln County — As someone whose early reading habit was fuelled by Louis L’Amour, I have long had a weak spot for good westerns. And make no mistake — this is a really good one. In this novel, author Ryan C. Coleman explores how a young man came to be William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, one of the wild west’s most-notorious gunfighters.

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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee — In this best-seller that was published in 1970, author Dee Brown tells the story of the settling of the American West, and he does it from the side of the numerous Indian tribes, many of which ended up being wiped from the planet. From Time magazine’s review: “Compiled from old but rarely exploited sources plus a fresh look at dusty Government documents, (it) tallies the broken promises and treaties, the provocations, massacres, discriminatory policies and condescending diplomacy.” This is a thoroughly engrossing read, but, oh my, is it painful!

One quotation from Sitting Bull really stayed with me:

“And so, in the summer of 1885, Sitting Bull joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, travelling throughout the United States and into Canada. He drew tremendous crowds. Boos and catcalls sometimes sounded for the ‘Killer of Custer,’ but after each show these same people pressed coins upon him for copies of his signed photograph. Sitting Bull gave most of the money away to the band of ragged, hungry boys who seemed to surround him wherever he went. He once told Annie Oakley, another one of the Wild West Show’s stars, that he could not understand how white men could be so unmindful of their own poor. ‘The white man knows how to make everything,’ he said, ‘but he does not know how to distribute it.’ ”

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Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and The Washington Post — Author Martin Baron was the executive editor of the Washington Post when Amazon honcho Jeff Bezos purchased the newspaper. Baron was in that office through Donald Trump’s first four-year presidency. Those four years included all kinds of verbal attacks by Trump on Bezos and the Post. All of that, and more, is chronicled in great detail here, as is the impact of social media on young people entering newsrooms, something that ultimately led to Baron’s retirement.

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A Cool Breeze on the Underground — I’m a big Don Winslow fan; the man can write, for starters. Also, he has great characters and does a wonderful job of developing them. Such is the case here, in one of his earliest works, the first of five books featuring Neal Carey as the main character that was published in 1991. A pick-pocket as a youngster, Carey now is a private detective of sorts; in this one, he is tasked by a U.S. senator and his wife with bringing back a teenage runaway from London. Lots of grit in this one, too. . . . I also read While Drowning in the Desert, the fifth of Winslow’s Neal Carey books. It also was a fun read.

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The Country and the Game: 30,000 Miles of Hockey Stories — Everyone is well aware that hockey plays a rather large role in the lives of many Canadians. But just how large? And what about in some of the places that are somewhat off the beaten path? Author Ronnie Shuker wanted to find out, so he packed up his car — named Gumpy, after, yes, Gump Worsley — and went coast to coast to coast, taking notes the whole time. The result is an entertaining piece of hockey lore.

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The Daybreakers — When I was a whole lot younger than I am today, I was a huge fan of Louis L’Amour’s western novels. I revisited his work in the heat of July 2024 and I wasn’t at all disappointed. This book, from 1960, is the first of 17 he wrote about the Sackett family, and it’s just really good storytelling. There are a whole lot of L’Amour books out there, and they are quick and entertaining reads. . . . I also revisited another Sackett book, The Quick and the Dead, and it didn’t disappoint, either.

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The Deep Blue Good-by — While I had heard of Travis McGee, for some reason I had never read any of writer John D. MacDonald’s 21 books in which he is featured. Well, this one is the first, published in 1964, and it is terrific. McGee is a salvage consultant, whatever that means, who is a PI when he needs the dough. He lives on a houseboat in Florida. While McGee searches for a fraudster who specializes in feasting on vulnerable females, the reader should be prepared for MacDonald’s delicious habit of pontificating on the woes of society, with many of those thoughts still in play all these years later. . . . (BTW, the first four books in the series all were published in 1964.)

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The Diamond Eye — Author Kate Quinn’s book — it’s historical fiction — tells the story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who went from aspiring Russian historian/librarian to a sniper known as Lady Death in the early days of the Second World War. An engrossing story that involves a friendship between Lady Death and Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the then-U.S. president. This one was rather different from my usual reading tastes, but I quite enjoyed it. I had it finished before I discovered that it was based on a true story, too.

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Even Dogs in the Wild — Author Ian Rankin’s John Rebus is one of the really good characters in crime fiction. And the Rankin-Rebus connection comes through, as usual, in Even Dogs in the Wild. Rankin also manages to surround Rebus with interesting characters and that certainly helps make his books so readable.

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The Exchange — The prolific John Grisham offers this one up as a sequel to The Firm, which introduced us to Abby and Mitch McDeere. However, this one doesn’t nearly approach The Firm as a tense legal thriller. I really was expecting a twist or two, but . . .

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Fer-de-Lance — This book, written by Rex Stout and published in 1934, introduced the world to Nero Wolfe. It also gave us Wolfe’s assistant, Archie Goodwin, who gets more print time than Wolfe and definitely steals the show. Yes, it’s a mystery novel — there has been a murder on a golf course and Wolfe wants the 50-grand reward being offered by the widow to solve it — and a great one. BTW, before Stout was done, according to Wikipedia, he had Wolfe in 33 books, along with 41 novellas and short stories.

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Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion — “Lifelong Phillies fans closely resemble the victims of a chronic sinus condition; they sometimes feel better but never for long.” That is just one sentence from this gem of a book by Roger Angell, perhaps the No. 1 baseball essayist of our time. Here, he writes about the MLB seasons from 1972 through 1976, and he does it with wit, clarity and a real love for the game. He also takes MLB — especially the owners — to task on more than one occasion for what it has done to a game that now decides its champion on frigid fall nights. Great stuff!

Part 1 of 3

The Book Shelf: Part 1 of 3

Having stepped away from writing on this site a few weeks ago, I hadn’t decided whether to post the annual Book Shelf feature here. As I finished reading books, I have been writing thumbnails, out of habit more than anything, I suppose. But I wasn’t sure what I would do with them.

However, the Book Shelf is back by popular demand. Well, I received one email asking for it and I know of at least one other person who has been hoping for its appearance.

So here it is . . .

As usual, it will appear in three parts over three days, and the last part will include my top 10 reads of 2023.

Note that I have been cleaning out bookshelves over the past months, so there are some books on this list that have been around for a while and then some.

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All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel — Oh my, S.A. Crosby can write! This time he has conjured a story centred on Titus Crown, a former FBI agent with a skeleton in his closet, who now is the first Black sheriff in the history of a small Virginia city. And now he finds himself chasing a serial killer. This one is bloody, but, oh my, Crosby can write. A taste: “The myth of Main Street in the South has always been a chaste puritanical fantasy. The reality is found on back roads and dirt lanes under a sky gone black. In the back seat of a rust-mottled Buick and the beds of ramshackle trucks.”

The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal — Rowing is an interesting sport if only because there isn’t a career lined with gold at the end of the day. But you can’t question the dedication of the athletes involved. In this book published in 1985, author David Halberstam writes about that and a whole lot more as he follows four Americans chasing 1984 Olympic gold. They are friends and they are competitors, which leads to some complicated relationships and an interesting read.

The Appeal — This book by the prolific John Grisham was published in 2008; I have no idea how I hadn’t already read it. Anyway, it was his 21st published book. It begins with a lawsuit involving a company being sued for having contaminated a small community’s drinking water. The jury rules in favour of the plaintiff and Grisham proceeds to put the American judicial and electoral systems on spits and roasts them.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead — John Coglin is with the NYPD and he’s one of the good guys. And then, through no fault of his own, it all goes wrong. Author Michael Ledwidge has given us a gritty read with all kinds of great characters, lots of twists and turns, and a crescendo that leads to a great ending. Highly recommend if you’re into this kind of fiction.

Black & White & Never Right: A Hockey Referee — I stumbled on this book while cleaning up some book shelves early in the year, so it was a re-read. Author Vern Buffey was one of the NHL’s top referees back in the day, before leaving to set up the WHA’s officiating department. This isn’t a long book but it’s full of anecdotes involving lots of NHL names from the six-team era. He also writes about how the NHL office applied heat and discipline to its on-ice officials, at least it did back then.

Brave Face: Wild Tales of Hockey Goaltenders in the Era Before Masks — This is an entertaining read loaded with terrific anecdotes, great quotes and a whole lot of names from hockey’s past. Yes, it’s mostly about goaltenders — from the well-known like Jacques Plante, Terry Sawchuk and Glenn Hall to lesser-knowns like Gaye Cooley, Russ Gillow and Bob Perreault — and their love-hate relationship with masks. Truth be told, it’s the stories involving the lesser-knowns that are the highlights here. There’s also some neat stuff on retired NHL defenceman Craig Ludwig, a shot blocker extraordinaire, his famous shin pads and his aversion to new equipment. Oh, and don’t let the fierce looking cover scare you away. (Disclaimer: Author Rob Vanstone was part of the sports department during my stint as sports editor of the Regina Leader-Post back in the day.)

City of Dreams — This is the second book in author Don Winslow’s trilogy that chronicles the life and times of Danny Ryan, a Rhode Island gangster who is trying to become an ex-gangster — if that is even possible — somewhere in California or Las Vegas. This is a great writer spinning a terrific yarn with all kinds of characters and plot twists. The first book in the trilogy is City on Fire; the third will be City in Ruins.

Desert Star — Author Michael Connelly brings back Harry Bosch and Renée Ballard for another go-round, this time working a couple of cold murder cases. Ballard has returned to the LAPD and now is in charge of the cold-case unit; Bosch, retired from the LAPD, is working for her on a voluntary basis. . . . If you like the Bosch books, this one won’t disappoint. And there’s a twist at the end that may jar you.

Different Seasons — Is there a writer among us today with an imagination and the writing ability of Stephen King? For starters, his imagination is out of bounds. Seriously. In this book, the prolific King gives us four novellas, tales, as he puts it, “that were too long to be short and too short to be really long.” What they also are is really good and, yes, bordering on the macabre. And they will get inside you and twist your guts. Yes, they will.

Draft Day: How Hockey Teams Pick Winners or Get Left Behind — Doug MacLean, who has worn a lot of NHL hats, from president to general manager and coach and beyond, writes openly about the NHL draft and he does it from all angles, providing readers with all kinds of information and anecdotes. He does it with the help of former Toronto Sun hockey writer Scott Morrison; the two worked together at Sportsnet not that long ago.

Evolve or Die: Hard Won Lessons from A Hockey Life — Author John Shannon has had a whole lot to do with the way we view hockey on television today. As a long-time producer with Hockey Night in Canada, he shaped a whole lot about the telecasts — remember the Hot Stove? — and was one of the main planners when HNIC switched from one Saturday night game to the doubleheader format in play today. His employment history also includes Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and the NHL, not to mention various American-based networks. This is his story, including the hirings and firings he endured along the way. There is a whole lot of interesting stuff between the covers, but it really could have used a few more anecdotes involving his relationships with NHL players, coaches, general managers and executives.

Finest Hour. Winston S. Churchill 1939-1941 — Author Martin Gilbert examines in microscopic detail the world of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the first years of the Second World War. It seems that anyone who had anything to do with government kept a diary back then, and Gilbert’s meticulous research allows for a tremendous book. Churchill also was the Minister of Defence at the time, and Gilbert really details how much effort he put into obtaining military help from the U.S. Remember that the Americans didn’t enter the Second World War until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, which occurs in the final pages of this book.

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(FIRST OF THREE PARTS)

The Bookshelf: Part 1 of 3

Bookshelf

The annual three-part Bookshelf feature is appearing here this week — sorry it’s a bit late this year, but COVID-19 has gotten in the way of getting things done in these parts. . . . Perhaps you will find a gift idea for someone on your Christmas list by perusing thumbnails of some of the books I have read in 2022. . . .

Alaska — Beginning with the days of the mastodon and moving on from there, author James Michener chronicles the history of Alaska. Oh, does he ever! This is a meticulously researched work that relates the area’s story through the eyes of various citizens. It’s thoroughly engrossing, but it’s epically long.

The Baseball 100 — We read to be entertained. Right? Well, author Joe Posnanski’s 880-page labour of love is the most entertaining baseball book I have ever read. In fact, it is perhaps the most entertaining sports-related book I have ever read. Period. Posnanski, a longtime baseball writer and obviously a huge fan, has rated his top 100 baseball players and written an essay on each one. Yes, there are statistics here, but the numbers don’t dominate. Rather, the stories do. It took me almost two months to read, because I would only read one or two chapters at a time. Why? Because it was so wonderful that I didn’t want it to end.

Behind the Superstars: The Business Side of Sports — Although Gerry Patterson wasn’t a lawyer — his background was in marketing and sales — he was one of Canada’s first player agents. This book was published in 1978, and it’s rather entertaining to read about contracts Patterson negotiated on behalf of Jean Beliveau, Gordie Howe, Johnny Rodgers, Guy Lafleur and Rusty Staub. It really was a different world back in the day. Patterson died on Jan. 21, 2005. He was 71.

Better Off Dead — Jack Reacher is back for a 26th time and this time he’s in a small Arizona town, fighting to save his country from what may be a terrorist attack. Or is it just someone wanting to set off smoke bombs on July 4? This one is co-written by Lee Child and his younger brother, Andrew.

Black Ice — This is the 20th book by author Brad Thor that features Scot Harvath, a nice guy who tortures and/or kills the bad guys (in this case, Chinese and Russians) all for the greater American good. I have mentioned previously that a book needs a likeable hero in order to keep the reader interested and Harvath is just that. In Black Ice, Harvath is in Oslo, Norway, when he happens to see a man he had already killed. So what’s going on?

Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom — It’s hardly a secret that the newspaper industry has seen better days. Such as when Carl Bernstein got his start as a copy boy and dictationist at the Washington Star. This engaging book provides a neat look into the news room of a major daily newspaper in the days when everyone seemed to read one. Bernstein was there, in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s so he was witness to a whole lot of history. Of course, in time Bernstein moved on to the Washington Post, Nixon, All the President’s Men, and a whole lot more. But he got his start at the Star and that story is all right here.

The Dark Hours — No one writes cop mysteries better than Michael Connelly and his latest, published in November 2021, doesn’t disappoint. He is slowly transitioning this series from spotlighting veteran detective Harry Bosch to featuring Renée Ballard in the lead role. She works the late shift and loves it. In this one, Ballard is masking up amid the pandemic and deteriorating morale on the force, mainly because of the defund police movement, as she works murder and rape cases, always with Bosch there to help, of course.

The Fallen Angel — This is No. 12 in author Daniel Silva’s series of books that involve Gabriel Allon, an extremely likeable Israeli who, in truth, also is a rather effective assassin. He also is perhaps the world’s best art restorer. This book involves the death of a woman — was it really suicide? — in the Vatican, where Allon is restoring a masterpiece. Silva really knows his stuff when it comes to the Middle East and European history, making this another entertaining read.

The First Season: 1917-18 and the Birth of the NHL — Using newspaper archives, veteran hockey writer Bob Duff tells the intriguing story of the early days of the NHL and how it almost didn’t happen. There were teams added and teams subtracted and, yes, there were lawsuits, too. In fact, Eddie Livingstone, who was involved with most of the lawsuits, had a whole lot to do with the NHL surviving. . . . There also are all kinds of nuggets scattered throughout this book. I mean, who knew that Bert Lindsey of the Montreal Wanderers recorded the first goaltending victory in NHL history? And who knew that he was Ted Lindsey’s father? Great stuff.

Ice War Diplomat: Hockey Meets Cold War Politics at the 1972 Summit Series — Author Gary J. Smith was a young Canadian diplomat stationed in Moscow who ended up deeply involved in the planning and preparation for the eight-game series between Team Canada and the USSR in 1972. This really is a good look at all that went into the impossible task of trying to keep hockey and politics separate while politicians worked to bring the countries closer together. How involved was Smith in all of this? His press pass indicated that he was a member of the Soviet team. This really is an interesting read.

In Harm’s Way — Published in 2010, this is author Ridley Pearson’s fourth book that features Walt Fleming, the sheriff in Sun Valley, Idaho. As usual, Pearson doesn’t disappoint. There are a lot of personalities and a number of twists and turns to keep a reader interested. For starters, Fleming is divorced — his wife had an affair with one of his deputies and the two now live together. Yes, there is tension in this book, too. Lots of it.

The Judge’s List: A Novel — It’s another highly readable thriller from the keyboard of the prolific John Grisham, with this one featuring a serial-killing judge who has been on the hunt for a long time. This book also features Lacy Stoltz, an investigator for Florida’s Board on Judicial Conduct, who was a main character in The Whistler. Stoltz is approached by a woman whose father was the judge’s second victim and the rest is Grisham at his best.

Part 1 of 3

The Bookshelf: Part 3 of 3

Books

What follows is Part 3 of my annual look back at a year in reading. The list concludes with a list of the 10 books that I most enjoyed in 2021, in alphabetical order. I didn’t include books by Don Winslow in that list because they would have dominated. You really can’t go wrong with anything by Don Winslow. . . .

Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate — Despite the lengthy title, this was a truly fascinating read. It was published in August 2013, and you can bet that not much has changed in the intervening eight years. Author Rose George was able to spend five weeks on the Maersk Kendal, one of those giant container ships you may have seen going under the Lion’s Gate Bridge. To say that this one is an eye-opener would be a real understatement.

Nothing Ventured — In the Clifton Chronicles, author Jeffrey Archer’s seven-book series following one family, one of the characters, Harry Clifton, is a writer of crime novels involving a copper named William Warwick. Now Archer has spun Warwick into a series of his own, starting with Nothing Ventured. There’s nothing deep here, just an easy read. The second and third Warwick books, Hidden in Plain Sight and Turn a Blind Eye, also helped get me through a few days in the latter part of 2021.

October 1964 — Published in 1995, this was picked by The New York Times as its sports book of the year. As much as it’s a story of the 1964 World Series, it’s a story of that MLB season with a heavy focus on the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees. They would meet in that World Series, and this is more a story of how they got there than anything else. Written by the legendary David Halberstam, it is impeccably researched and loaded with anecdotes and notes on many greats and a lot of not-so-greats. I had read this 20 years ago; I think I enjoyed it even more this time around.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — First, Quentin Tarantino made the movie of the same name, then he wrote the novel. If you have seen any of his movies, well, this is just as quirky. It is, as The New York Times, put it “a pulpy page-turner.” It also features Charles Manson and his crew and a whole lot of Hollywood-based gossip.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft — A few years ago, Stephen King — yes, that Stephen King — took a break from writing thrillers to bang out this really neat book. In the first bit, he tells about his early life and how he came to be a fiction writer. Then he goes on to write about writing — some dos and a lot of don’ts. And he finishes up with a detailed report on the accident — he was drilled by a guy in a blue van — that almost killed him. This was a nice, enjoyable look into the life and thought process of one of today’s most-prolific writers.

Pain Killer: A Memoir of Big League Addiction — This one, by former WHL/NHL enforcer Brantt Myhres, is hard to read, especially the first two-thirds. Myhres didn’t have much of a childhood, then went on to fight his way through the WHL and into the NHL. But a lot of it was snort coke, guzzle Jack Daniels, punch an opposing enforcer in the face, get punched in the face. Rinse. Repeat. Myhres really should be dead. Really. This book is ample proof of that. Instead, despite having only a Grade 9 education, he turned things around to the point that he ended up working for the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings as player assistance director. That lasted for three seasons until he lost his job in a regime change. If only this book had fewer cocaine-and-Jack anecdotes and more on Myhres’ life after snorting and drinking, more on why none of the NHL’s other teams has hired him, more on his work with First Nations youngsters. If only . . .

Pat Quinn: The Life of a Hockey Legend — Despite never having met the late Pat Quinn, author Dan Robson has done a more than credible job of chronicling the life of the cigar-chomping guy who was known as The Big Irishman. Quinn never gets nearly enough credit for being ahead of the game as a coach, especially when it came to using video, basic analytics, nutrition and various training techniques. Robson also explores the downside of Quinn’s career, including the eye-opening episode where he agreed to join the Vancouver Canucks — and accepted a hundred grand — while under contract to the Los Angeles Kings.

The Second Life of Nick Mason — After five years in jail and with at least another 20 years ahead of him, Nick Mason, the creation of author Steve Hamilton, makes a deal with a devil named Darius Cole. And thus begins Mason’s second life, one that is on the outside, mostly in the streets of Chicago, but is controlled entirely by Cole. Mason is one of those good bad guys, so this is quite readable and enjoyable. . . . Exit Strategy is the second book in what surely will become a long-running series.

The Sentinel — This is the 25th book in the series that chronicles the adventures of Jack Reacher, the lone wolf who makes his way aimlessly across the highways of a nation, always seeming to find a mess to clean up. In this one, there are Russians and Nazis and a whole lot more. Yes, it’s all good fun. This is the first Reacher book not to have been written solely by James Grant under his pen name of Lee Child. He shares writing credit for this one with his younger brother Andrew Grant, who is Andrew Child in the publishing world.

Serge Savard: Forever Canadien — This book, written by journalist Philippe Cantin, was a huge success in Quebec with the French version selling more than 30,000 copies. And it’s no wonder. Serge Savard was one of the great players in the history of the Montreal Canadiens, one of the NHL’s proudest franchises. Cantin, with Savard’s co-operation, runs through his childhood and his climb up hockey’s ladder — from all-star defenceman to Montreal’s GM, a job he lost four games into the 1995-96 season when president Ronald Corey fired him. Savard lets it all hang out, too, as he pulls back the curtain to show the Canadiens, warts and all.

Ten Innings at Wrigley: The Wildest Ballgame Ever, with Baseball on the Brink — It was May 17, 1979, and the Philadelphia Phillies were at Chicago’s Wrigley Field for a game with the Cubs. The Phillies scored seven runs in their half of the first inning but, with the wind blowing out, it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. Author Kevin Cook takes an entertaining inning-by-inning look at what transpired on that glorious afternoon, with lots of anecdotes and sidebars on participants like Dave Kingman, Bill Buckner, the troubled Donnie Moore and a whole lot more. This is a wild and crazy read.

A Time for Mercy — John Grisham has brought back lawyer Jake Brigance for a third time — after A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row — and he doesn’t disappoint. This time, Drew Gamble, 16, whose family is all but indigent, has shot and killed a policeman. Of course, the story isn’t that simple and, yes, it’s a page-turner.

The Wanted — The homes — 18 of them — belonging to some of the elites have been broken into and it turns out that the perps are three young people. The mother of one of them hires Elvis Cole to get to the bottom of this mess, and he brings sometimes-partner Joe Pike along for the ride. Cole and Pike are regulars in books by author Robert Crais.

The Winter of Frankie Machine — If you haven’t figured it out already, I am a big, big fan of author Don Winslow. And I absolutely loved this book that was published in 2006, Frank Machianno, aka Frankie Machine, is a retired hit man trying to make an honest buck. He runs a bait shack on a pier in San Diego and has a few other things on the go. He’s got an ex-wife, a daughter and a girl friend. But now someone wants him dead. Yes, it’s a familiar story, but Winslow’s writing makes it different.

Without Remorse — It had been a long, long time since I cracked open a Tom Clancy-written book, so I didn’t know what to expect from this one that was published in 1993. The paperback version is 685 pages and I really enjoyed it. This is the first book that features John Clark as the primary character and it bounces smoothly between the various storylines.

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret — Nashville had the A Team. Motown had the Funk Brothers. In Los Angeles, it was the Wrecking Crew. These were the studio musicians who played on oh, so many hit songs, including for the Beach Boys. Did you know that Glen Campbell — think Wichita Lineman and By the Time I Get to Phoenix — was a member of the Beach Boys? Did you know there were two Beach Boys bands, one for the studio and one on the road. Author Kent Hartman has all that and a whole lot more here. I guarantee that if you read this one you won’t ever look at ’60s and ’70s music the same ever again.

Year of the Rocket: John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, a Crooked Tycoon, and the Craziest Season in Football History — There may be just a bit of hyperbole in the title but the CFL’s 1991 season really was one to remember. Prior to the season, comedian John Candy, a true, blue Canadian, hockey star Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall, then a tycoon and later a convict, purchased the Toronto Argonauts. Then they signed Raghib “Rocket” Ismail, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish star who likely would have been the NFL’s first overall draft pick had he not headed north. The Rocket got what then was football’s richest contract and, all these years later, it still makes an observer shake his head. Author Paul Woods, who has followed the Argonauts for years as a journalist, writer and fan, was there for all of it and details the entire story — the good, the bad and the ugly that followed 1991.

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A Promised Land, by Barack Obama

Billy Summers, by Stephen King

Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Crosby

Call Me Indian: From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL’s First Treaty Indigenous Player, by Fred Sasakamoose

Deacon King Kong, by James McBride

The Dynasty, by Jeff Benedict

Newspapering: 50 Years of Reporting from Canada and Around the World, by Norman Webster

Serge Savard: Forever Canadien, by Philippe Cantin

Ten Innings at Wrigley: The Wildest Ballgame Ever, with Baseball on the Brink, by Kevin Cook

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret, by Kent Hartman

Part 3 of 3

The Bookshelf: Part 1 of 3

Books

You: I need to start thinking of thoughtful gift ideas.
Me: Hmmm.
Available where all fine, and not so fine, books are sold. (Mulch not included.) pic.twitter.com/AtzwGhgjPv

— John Branch (@JohnBranchNYT) November 22, 2021

This week I will post the annual three-part Bookshelf, in case you are looking for some help as you do your Christmas shopping — for yourself, a family member or a friend. . . . As I journey through retirement, I have found myself mixing in a few books from days gone by and also note that I have been reading more and more books that don’t have much, if anything, to do with sports. In 2021, perhaps because of the lack of normalcy, there also has been more reading of ‘lite’ fiction. . . . Anyway, here they are — most of the books that I read in 2021. . . .

An Accidental Sportswriter: A Memoir — Robert Lipsyte was there from Muhammad Ali’s career through baseball’s steroid era and a whole lot more. For a lot of that time, he was The New York Times’ lead sports columnist. He revisits all of that here, and also writes about his own hits and misses as a writer in a real gem of a book.

A Man Called Intrepid — Intrepid was the code name for William Stephenson — later Sir William Stephenson — and this is the story of his involvement in the Second World War. It’s a fascinating story about spies and counter spies and codes and code breakers and deception and a whole lot more. The detail provided by author William Stevenson is out of this world. (NOTE: William Stevenson, the author, wasn’t related to William Stephenson.)

A Promised Land — I finished this 700-pager early in February and knew then that I wouldn’t read a better book in 2021. Written by Barack Obama, the two-term U.S. president, it isn’t at all ponderous or heavy slogging. He is a terrific writer with the knack for explaining complicated goings-on in easy-to-understand terms, whether it’s a financial crisis, his country’s relationship with Russia, events leading up to the Arab Spring, or the killing of Osama bin Laden. This is Volume 1 of a two-book set. I eagerly await the next part. Spoiler alert: Mitch McConnell is exactly what you think he is.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup — Elizabeth Holmes had a dream. But is that what it was, or was it really happening? John Carreyrou, a writer with the Wall Street Journal, got a tip about Theranos, a startup that was going to revolutionize the field of blood-testing. His writings for the paper led to this book, one that is an unbelievable read, and one that proves the adage about a fool and his money, or, in this case, fools and their money. (Note: Holmes, who is on trial in San Jose, Calif., has pleaded not guilty to nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy.)

The Bastard — Written by John Jakes and published in 1974, this is Book 1 in The Kent Family Chronicles, historical fiction that charts the growth of the U.S. Book 1 follows Philippe Charbonneau, whose mother never married his father, the 6th Duke of Kent, from France to England and then to Boston. By now, he has changed his name to Philip Kent and finds himself wrapped up in the beginnings of the American Revolution. . . . All told, The Kent Family Chronicles features eight historical novels.

Bearcat Murray: From Ol’ Potlicker to Calgary Flames Legend — If you want to read a hockey book that is loaded with anecdotes, this one is for you. Murray, whose little-used first name is Jim, does the talking and George Johnson, a terrific writer who somehow got squeezed out in one of those Postmedia massacres, does the writing. Hey, the ol’ Bearcat had a fan club with chapters in Boston and Montreal. Who knew?

Big Lies in a Small Town: A Novel — In alternating chapters, author Diane Chamberlain tells the story of two artists who lived 78 years apart and how they became intertwined in so many ways. Their stories take place in Edenton, N.C., so the book is full of southern politics and prejudice. This is a well-written book by an oft-published author that just drags the reader into the story as it progresses.

Billy Summers — Brilliant. This one, from author Stephen King, is absolutely brilliant. Billy Summers is a hitman who has decided that he will do one more job and then hang up his rifle. Of course, it’s a lot more complicated than that, but King does a masterful job of weaving together all the threads. A wonderful read.

Blacktop Wasteland — The main character in this brilliant work of fiction is Beauregard Montage, known as Bug to friends and acquaintances. He’s married with two young sons, and there also is a daughter from another relationship. His is a day-to-day existence, which leads to him living two lives. In one, he’s the proprietor of a small two-bay garage that is fighting to stay open. In the other, he’s a driver — yes, a getaway driver — and he’s really, really good at it. He’s also in a perpetual state of conflict because of all this. Author S.A. Cosby has put this all together into a terrific story that won an L.A. Times book prize for mystery/thriller of the year.

The Breaker — This is the sixth book in author Nick Petrie’s series involving Peter Ash, an ex-Marine who just can’t stay away from bad situations. They find him — indeed, they seem to hunt him out — and then he takes it from there. If you like Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne and Harry Bosch and their ilk, you’ll enjoy Peter Ash and his world.

Broken — Don Winslow has done it again, only this time he hits a home run with six short stories, all of them centred in the world that he seems to know so well — bad guys, bad cops, drugs, thugs and all the rest. If you haven’t already, you’ll want to read his trilogy — The Power of the Dog, the Cartel and The Force. It’s all great stuff, and Broken fits right in there.

The Broken Shore — Having stumbled on Jack Irish, an Australian TV series, I discovered that it was based on novels written by Peter Temple. The Broken Shore isn’t a Jack Irish book, but it is quite good. Temple has a quick wit and a way with words. Keep in mind that it all is Australia-based, but if you stick with it you won’t be disappointed. I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s gritty, bloody and obscene. Oh, and it’s good. Really, really good. . . . The sequel, Truth, is awfully good too.

The Bushman’s Lair: On the Trail of the Fugitive of the Shuswap — More than 20 years have passed since John Bjornstrom, aka the Bushman of the Shuswap, was hiding out in the wilds surrounding Shuswap Lake in the Interior of B.C. With this book, author Paul McKendrick details Bjornstrom’s story and everything is included, from his involvement with Bre-X to his escape from a prison facility near Kamloops to his capture and a run for mayor in Williams Lake, B.C. And when you turn the final page, you are left to wonder whether Bjornstrom was an eccentric running from society or if he really did have a plan.

Call Me Indian: From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL’s First Treaty Indigenous Player — This isn’t a work of fiction. It’s Fred Sasakamoose’s story, one that goes from a residential school in Saskatchewan to four years with the Moose Jaw Canucks to the NHL and back to the area around Sandy Lake, Sask. Sasakamoose doesn’t pull any punches about his time in the residential school or anything else, including his battles with alcohol and his regrets about not being a better father. In short, this is a book that you should read, but know that you won’t soon forget it. Unfortunately, COVID-19 took him from us on Nov. 20, 2020, before his book was published.

Camino Winds — This is a followup to Camino Island, the book that introduced us to Bruce Cable, who owns Bay Books. The prolific John Grisham has another winner here, too, as he writes about a hurricane, a dead writer and a whole lot more. So much of what Grisham writes is relevant to the times and this one isn’t any different. Pay attention to the many chunks of dialogue, some small and some no so small, that are commentary on today’s U.S. political situation as much as anything else.

Part 1 of 3

The Bookshelf: Part 2 of 3 . . .

Bookshelf

What follows is Part 2 of a three-part look at some of the books I have read over the past 12 months. Before we get to those, here are a handful of suggestions from the thumbnails that appeared here a year ago. If you haven’t read these, you can’t go wrong with any of them:

Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times, by Mark Leibovich

Bower: A Legendary Life, by Dan Robson

Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL, by Jeff Pearlman

Hockey Fight in Canada: The Big Media Face-off Over the NHL, by David Shoults

K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, by Tyler Kepner

The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New West, by John Branch

Scotty: A Hockey Life Like No Other, by Ken Dryden

Us Against You, by Fredrik Backman (but only if you already have read Backman’s Beartown)

Now here is Part 2 of this year’s bookshelf . . .

Gloves Off: 40 Years of Unfiltered Sports Writing: Lowell Cohn, now retired, had a lengthy career as a sports columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle and Santa Rosa Press Democrat. This is his look back at some of the people he dealt with and things that he witnessed. He doesn’t pull any punches as he writes about his career; no, it’s not a compilation of columns. I’m a sucker for books of this type, but this one really is an entertaining read.

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The Good Earth: My mother was a reader and I can remember seeing Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth in a bookcase at home. But I can’t explain why I hadn’t read it before the summer of 2020. Published in 1931, it follows the life of a Chinese farmer and his family through more than 50 years of change, and it always returns to the importance of owning land. It won a Pulitzer Prize so I don’t need to tell you how good it is — but it’s great. It also is the first book in Buck’s House of Earth trilogy, the other two being Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935).

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The Gray Man — This is the book that started the legend of The Gray Man, aka Courtland Gentry. He’s an assassin who at one time worked for the CIA but most times freelances. In his debut, there is a bounty on his head, and he faces down a dozen kill squads, but not without paying a price. Author Mark Greaney has created a likeable leading man, and the excitement is palpable between the front and back covers.

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The Grim Reaper: The Life and Career of a Reluctant Warrior — With help from writer Kevin Allen, then of USA TODAY, former hockey enforcer Stu Grimson told his story in a book that came out in the autumn of 2019. The book’s title is a touch misleading because Grimson, who had about 400 fights combined in major junior and the NHL, doesn’t seem to regret any of it. That may seem a bit strange seeing as he was forced into retirement by post-concussion syndrome. Anyway, he provides some valuable insight into the thought-process of NHL heavyweights — their anxieties and fears, both for the present and the future. Grimson, who was adopted, also opens up about his personal life, including a surprising introduction to his birth father.

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The Guardians — Cullen Post is a lawyer/minister who spends more time lawyering than preaching. His lawyering is aimed at correcting wrongful convictions and the group he works with, Guardian Ministeries, has had some successes. This book, by the prolific John Grisham, is about one of those cases, and a whole lot more. It’s good Grisham and the genesis, unfortunately, was a true story, as the author informs us at book’s end.

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The Huntress — I absolutely loved The Alice Network, and The Huntress is every bit as good, if not better. Both books were written by Kate Quinn. The Huntress is the story of two young men who pursue war criminals and are brought together with a Night Witch, a woman who was part of a female crew that flew night bombing missions for the Russians during the Second World War. The hunters’ latest target is a woman in Boston, who isn’t what she is trying hard to be. There are great characters and much intrigue here. You won’t be disappointed.

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The Jordan Rules — I don’t have any idea why I hadn’t read Sam Smith’s book prior to May. I finally read it while taking breaks from watching The Last Dance, the 10-part documentary on Michael Jordan, co-starring the Chicago Bulls, on Netflix. Smith, a writer with the Chicago Tribune, details the Bulls’ 1990-91 season. As the Bulls run to their first NBA title, the reader is left to decide whether The Jordan Rules was the name for the way the Detroit Pistons played defence on Jordan or how his teammates came to feel about what dictated life with the Bulls. If you haven’t read this, it’s great. Interestingly, Smith now writes for the Bulls’ website.

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Major Misconduct: The Human Cost of Fighting in Hockey — Author Jeremy Allingham, a reporter with CBC in Vancouver, takes an in-depth look at the post-hockey lives of three former enforcers — James McEwan, Stephen Peat and Dale Purinton — and what he uncovers isn’t at all pretty. Interestingly, all three got their starts as enforcers in the WHL, a major junior league that has yet to ban fighting. This is a horrifying look at life after hockey fights and should be read by anyone involved in junior hockey — from fans to parents to executives.

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The Mighty Oak — Tim O’Connor is the fighter — goon — for the West Texas Hockey League’s El Paso Storm. But his best days are behind him and he’s feeling it all over. O’Connor, whose nickname is Oak, hasn’t yet come to grips with the fact that a hip and a shoulder and a whole let else have him headed for hockey’s junk heap. He’s hoping the Oxy and Toradol and Adderall and whatever else is available will get him through it. Then he punches a cop. Author Jeff W. Bens has written an engrossing character study of a hockey enforcer trying to find a way back into a previous life.

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Mission Critical — I had heard of author Mark Greaney and his Gray Man books, but I hadn’t ready any of them until this one, which is No. 8 in the series. Court Gentry is The Gray Man; he also is an assassin, code name Violator. In Mission Critical, Violator is working for the CIA and there is a lot of nastiness happening in a paperback that runs 706 pages. But it is readable and it is fun.

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Mohawk — I don’t know if there is an author who captures small-town life in all of its idiosyncrasies like Richard Russo. Such is the case, again, in Mohawk as he follows a handful of citizens through the routine of their daily lives and stays with them as they deal with life’s ups and downs. Mohawk was published in 1986 and it is as great today as it was then.

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Molly’s Game: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World! — A member of the U.S. freestyle ski team suffers a career-ending injury and ends up running high stakes poker games in Los Angeles and, later, in New York City. This is the story of how Molly Bloom did all of that and more. She spills some of the beans in anecdotes that involve players like actors Tobey Maguire, who comes out rather poorly, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck, and some Russian gangsters. The obscene amounts of money thrown around in these games prove only that some people have no idea how the rest of us live. In the end, though, it all comes crashing down. Unfortunately, the book ends before the end, which is the part where Bloom pleads guilty to federal charges. You’ll have to turn to Google to find out what happened in court.

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Next: Part 3 of 3.

The Bookshelf: Part 1 of 3

Bookshelf

There are at least three people who stop off here on a regular basis and have asked in the past few days about the annual book list. Well, it’s here. . . . I have done this for a while now, writing thumbnails on books I have read over the previous 12 months. Perhaps this will help with your Christmas shopping or your own Christmas list. . . . And whatever you do, don’t forget to treat yourself!

As for the books on my Christmas list, you can start with Barack Obama’s A Promised Land; Finding Murph, by Rick Westhead; Broken, a collection of short stories by Don Winslow; and James McBride’s best-selling and award-winning Deacon King Kong. . . . Yes, you also can include The Sentinel, the latest in Jack Reacher’s adventures; Michael Connelly’s The Law of Innocence; and A Time for Mercy, by John Grisham. . . . I also had Al Strachan’s Hockey Hot Stove: The Untold Stories of the Original Insiders on the list, but I cheated and purchased it earlier this week. . . . And I eagerly await Call Me Indian: From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL’s First Treaty Indigenous Player. The story of Fred Sasakamoose, who died last week, it is to be published on April 6. . . . But enough of that . . . here’s the first of three parts of this year’s Bookshelf . . .

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Agent in Place — This is another Gray Man novel by Mark Greaney. I will tell you that the first chapter grabs you and before you know you’re 30 chapters in, and I will leave it at that. . . . Agent in Place is No. 7 in Greaney’s ultra-successful series.

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The Arena: Inside the Tailgating, Ticket-Scalping, Mascot-Racing, Dubiously Funded, and Possibly Haunted Monuments of American Sport — Rafi Kohan, a freelance writer and editor who lives in New York City, has given us a really intriguing look at the arena/stadium/sports facility game. He visited numerous facilities and saw the nooks and crannies, and he wrote about all of it. From the huge food service crew for a New York Mets game at Citi Field, to the end of the days for the Pontiac Silverdome, the Olympic facilities in Utah and a whole lot more . . . it’s all here in an engrossing and ultra-informative read.

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The Black Russian — Frederick Bruce Thomas was born in 1872 in Mississippi. He would go on to become an entertainment mogul in Moscow and later in Constantinople. Author Vladimir Alexandrov tells Thomas’s story between the covers of this book, and it’s an amazing tale. In places like Moscow and Constantinople, Thomas, a Black American, rarely had to deal with a colour line, but it was a different story when it came to politics and upheavals.

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Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth — This book, written by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, opens with the opening of a gas station in Manhattan and before you know it you’re drawn into what is a stunningly good read. It’s about the oil and gas industry and I guarantee that you will never fill up your car again without thinking about what you read here. You also will have your socks blown off by the amount of money that is in play; you may have heard or seen figures before, but not like what you will read about here. However, if there is a thread here, it is Vladimir Putin and his rise to power. Scary and amazing, all at the same time.

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Blue Moon — Jack Reacher finds himself between Albanian and Ukrainian gangs in Lee Child’s latest book — it’s No. 24 — on the vagabond former military cop who roams the United States righting wrongs as he travels. If you are a Reacher fan, or even if you aren’t familiar with him, you’ll enjoy this one as he eliminates two camps.

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The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood — It was one of the milestone films in big screen history, and author Sam Wasson’s book is just as good. Wasson shapes the book around screenwriter Robert Towne, director Roman Polanski, and actors Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson as he writes about the before, during and aftermath of Chinatown. Good stuff!

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Burke’s Law: A Life in Hockey — Hockey lifer Brian Burke tells his story, with the help of Stephen Brunt, a former newspaper columnist who, like Burke, now is at Rogers Sportsnet. This book is about what you might expect from Burke — loud, obscene and opinionated. It is interesting how he claims on more than one occasion that “white noise” from the media never bothered him, but he then spends a lot time ripping into those same media types. I would have liked a bit more inside dope on the NHL-NHLPA battles, but it wasn’t to be.

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California Fire and Life — If you haven’t yet discovered author Don Winslow through his drug wars trilogy — The Power of the Dog, The Cartel and The Border — get thee to a book store. After that, go back and start reading Winslow’s earlier stuff. California Fire and Life is an insurance company; Jack Wade is an insurance claims investigator. There is a fire and, of course, not all is as it seems. There are good guys and bad guys, and Winslow’s writing.

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Circe — Oh my, what an interesting book! It’s a novel based on Greek mythology. Admittedly, the only time I have an interest in that subject is in the odd crossword puzzle. But author Madeline Miller can write — oh, can she! — and she really brings the subject to life. Circe, a daughter of Helios, the Titan sun god, and Perse, a sea nymph, is banished to an island where she learns all about witchcraft. Give this one a look; you won’t be disappointed.

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The Colorado Kid — Written and marketed in the style of pulp fiction that once was hugely popular — hello there, Mickey Spillane — it is easy to tell that author Stephen King, he of horror fame, had fun with this one. It’s a quick read and it’s different, as you will discover if you give it a try. The story involves two veteran small-town newspapermen relating a local murder mystery to an intern, with some terrific dialogue. King also had fun burying some pearls of wisdom along the way.

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Fair Warning — Chances are that If you are a reader of any kind you have a favourite writer or two or even six. That being the case, you trust your favourites to deliver for you. That’s exactly what Michael Connelly does time after time. In Fair Warning, he brings back journalist Jack McEvoy for a third time, and this time he’s tracking a serial killer.

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Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O’Malley, Baseball’s Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles — I always was of the belief that Walter O’Malley picked up his Brooklyn Dodgers and moved them to Los Angeles in 1957 because he was a greedy old you know what. It turns out I was wrong. As author Michael D’Antonio details in Forever Blue, O’Malley badly wanted to stay in Brooklyn, but with the dawning of the automobile era he needed a ball park with parking. O’Malley was prepared to build the facility with his own money, but he needed land. In Brooklyn, he was up against Robert Moses, who was unelected but immensely powerful. Ultimately, O’Malley came to realize he wasn’t going to get the help he needed. Through it all, city officials from Los Angeles were courting him, all of which finally paid off. . . . I’m a sucker for baseball books from this era, and this one didn’t disappoint.

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The Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Friendship, Memory and Murder — Alexandra Wiwcharuk was 23 years of age in May of 1962 when she was murdered alongside the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon. The murder hasn’t been solved. Author Sharon Butala, who attended school with Wiwcharuk but was hardly what one would call a close friend, decided to write a book about it and, she hoped, come up with some answers. When she was done she had a book that was more about growing up in Saskatoon, at the time a little city that also was growing up, and all that came with it. Butala can write, and this is good, really good. . . . BTW, The Girl in Saskatoon is a seldom-heard Johnny Cash tune. You’ll have to read the book to find out the back story.

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The Girl Who Lived Twice — This is another in the series of books about the adventures of Lisbeth Salander. Author David Lagercrantz had done an admirable job of picking up where the late Stieg Larsson left off. This one is a bit — OK, quite a bit — different than the earlier ones, in that it involves a Sherpa and an Everest expedition as key plot elements. I would have liked to have had more Salander, but, then, that’s all part of the mystery, isn’t it?

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NEXT: Part 2 of 3.

The Bookshelf: Part 3 of 3

Bookshelf

What follows is the third and final part of my annual Bookshelf piece, a thumbnail look at some of the books I have read in the past year. Hopefully, you will find something you want to read or to purchase as a gift. . . .

As for the 10 best books that I read this year, here they are, in alphabetical order (the last three are in the compilation that follows) . . .

Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times by Mark Leibovich

The Border, by Don Winslow

Bower: A Legendary Life, by Dan Robson

K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, by Tyler Kepner

The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New West, by John Branch

November Road, by Lou Berney

The Other Woman, by Daniel Silva

Scotty: A Hockey Life Like No Other, by Ken Dryden

Us Against You, by Fredrik Backman

We Were the Lucky Ones, by Georgia Hunter

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Past Tense — This is No. 23 in author Lee Child’s books that follow the adventures of Jack Reacher. It is a bit different in that for the first while it details two stories that run parallel to each other like side-by-side railroad tracks. As a reader you know that they are going to merge, you just don’t know when. Reacher, for his part, gets caught up in a tangled web when he visits Ryantown, Maine, in search of some family history.

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The Power of the Dog — This is the first of three amazing books that author Don Winslow has written about the U.S. government’s war on drugs. The Cartel and The Border, the latter having been released in February, are the others. Winslow obviously knows his subject inside and out, as he tells the story from the perspective of politicians and law enforcement people from both sides of the U.S./Mexico border, and from those inside the cartels and on the streets. It’s all amazing and gory, and, in Winslow’s hands, it all makes for a tantalizing read.

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The Quiet Game — Author Greg Iles knows his way around the southern U.S., especially Natchez, Miss. This was the first book to feature Penn Cage, a former district attorney in Houston turned best-selling author. In The Quiet Game, Cage is recently widowed and has a daughter, four-year-old Annie. He returns to his hometown of Natchez in an attempt to find some peace and quiet. Of course, he becomes embroiled in a situation that involves his father, who is a popular doctor, especially with the poor folks, an old love, her father and a whole lot more. I must admit that I quite enjoy the Iles-written books that I have read to date.

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The Reckoning — A war hero who is a gentleman cotton farmer in post-Second World War Mississippi kills the local Methodist preacher and doesn’t offer a defence. From there, author John Grisham takes the reader on quite a journey that includes the breaking apart of a family, a wife and mother in a mental institution, war, the Bataan Death March, lawyers, judges, life in small-town Mississippi and a whole lot more. In short, this isn’t your typical Grisham legal thriller; it’s more about historical fiction wrapped around everything else.

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Road to Gold: The Untold Story of Canada at the World Juniors — The biggest complaint about author Mark Spector’s look at Canada and the IIHF’s U-20 World Hockey Championship is that, at 220 pages, it isn’t anywhere near long enough. There are a number of entertaining anecdotes between the covers, and the opening chapter is especially interesting. It details the work done by Murray Costello, then the president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, to get the three major junior leagues to buy into the program that would produce such golden results at this tournament. Spector also explains how the tournament came to be such a major part of TSN’s programming when it started out as the property of CBC.

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Scotty: A Hockey Life Like No Other — Oh, how I looked forward to reading author Ken Dryden’s latest work! Yes, it met all expectations. In fact, it exceeded them. This isn’t a book strictly about Scott Bowman, though. Rather, Dryden, who played goal for the Bowman-coached Montreal Canadiens at one point in his career, had Bowman pick his top eight teams in NHL history in chronological order. Dryden then alternates chapters as he tells Bowman’s story and then writes about one of those top eight teams. Great stuff and a whole lot of memories here.

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Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike — Phil Knight, the author of this book and the creator of Nike, was heavily in debt in his younger days, as the first part of this book details. By the end of the book, he is worth US$10 billion. This is the story of all that went on in between, and it’s a pretty good read — just don’t expect to read anything about the sins of Tiger Woods. Particularly interesting are the stories emanating from negotiations with Japanese and later Chinese businessmen. A highlight may be the evening in which Knight and his wife, Penny, were leaving a movie in Palm Springs, Calif., and encountered Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in the theatre lobby. I’ll let you try and figure out how much money was standing there and chatting.

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Slow Curve on the Coquihalla — This is subtitled A Hunter Rayne Highway Mystery, Book 1. Hunter Rayne is a former RCMP officer who retired following the suicide of a friend and now is a long-haul truck driver. When a fellow driver dies in an accident on the Coquihalla Highway, Rayne decides to look into it and, yes, it turns out to be murder. Living in Kamloops, which is at one end of the Coquihalla — the other end is near Hope — I found it most interesting to read a novel in which I was familiar with many of the landmarks that were mentioned. Yes, I will search out Book 2, written by R.E. Donald.

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Sold on a Monday — Author Kristina McMorris has written an engrossing novel based on a newspaper photo from 1931 in which two youngsters pose under a sign indicating that they are for sale. Ellis Reed, a newspaper writer with a camera, is looking for his big break. He takes one photo, then comes back for another. One thing leads to another and Reed ends up on a soul-searching journey. This is a fine period piece.

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Us Against You — This is the sequel to Beartown, Swedish author Fredrik Backman’s stunning novel about hockey and life in a small town. The sequel doesn’t disappoint and, yes, it is about hockey as life and one as a metaphor for the other. Pick up either of these books and you will find yourselves lingering as you read, enjoying them like a DQ Blizzard on a hot August day. Oh my, but Backman can write!

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We Were the Lucky Ones — Georgia Hunter spins an amazing story with her first novel, which really is a work of historical fiction. Thanks to a high school English project, Hunter, then 15, interviewed her grandmother about the family’s history. As Hunter learned, that history was quite something, and she was able to turn it into this book a few years later. As the Second World War began, the Kurc family was living in Radom, Poland. They were Polish Jews, so you can imagine what was in their immediate future, and it wasn’t pretty. In the end, though, as Hunter discovered, they really were fortunate. Trust me on this one . . . a huge recommendation.

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The Bookshelf . . . Part 1 of 3

Bookshelf

It’s back, by popular demand (well, Dan Russell always asks for it) . . . For the past few years, I have compiled lists of books that I have read over the previous 12 months, and posted them here. With any luck, you may find an idea or two to help you get through your Christmas shopping.

So . . . here is Part 1 of 3 of the books that I have read so far in 2018.

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All-American Murder: The Rise and Fall of Aaron Hernandez, the Superstar Whose Life Ended on Murderers’ Row — This book chronicles, as the title suggests, the rise and fall — an amazingly quick fall at that — of Aaron Hernandez, who was a tight end with the NFL’s New England Patriots when it all came crashing down. By book’s end, the reader knows that there can only be one outcome. But what leads to that outcome is mind-numbing; it is absolutely incredible how much badness one person of such high visibility was able to cram into his young life. James Patterson, one of the biggest-selling authors of this generation, had a hand in the writing, along with Alex Abramovich, with Mike Harvkey.

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American Gods — If you choose to read Neil Gaiman’s work, suspend all your beliefs and open your imagination wider than it has ever been. This is science fiction and fantasy and everything in between; it is a horror story and reality. It is about gods and non-gods and war and our culture. And it’s likely different than anything else you have ever read. After you have finished it, you will look at the people next to you somewhat differently, whether you are shopping, dining, at a hockey game . . .

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Beartown — Beartown is a town, presumably in Sweden, that loves its junior hockey team. In fact, if there is a word stronger than love, well, that’s what it would be. Written by Swedish author Fredrik Backman (and translated by Neil Smith), Beartown is one of the best works of fiction that I have encountered. It explores the relationship between a team and a hockey-obsessed community, including the parents and sponsors to whom winning is the only thing. This is a dark, dark novel and, if you know anything at all about junior hockey, it is absolutely full of truisms. It often will have you shaking your head, nodding your head and raising an eyebrow — often at the same time.

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Beneath a Scarlet Sky — At the age of 18, Pino Lella finds himself as the personal driver for General Hans Leyers, a man of great power within the Nazi party. It’s late in the Second World War and Leyers is working in the area of war-torn Milan, Italy. Oh yes, the teenager also is a spy for the resistance. Written by Mark Sullivan, this one is based on the story as related to him by Lella, and as you read you have to keep reminding yourself that this is non-fiction.

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The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created — Jane Leavy wrote two earlier baseball classics, The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax, and you can put The Big Fella right there, too. While The Last Boy was about Mickey Mantle, The Big Fella details the life and times of Babe Ruth. Meticulously researched, Leavy writes not only about Ruth but about the impact he had on the people around him and, indeed, society at the time. This is a wonderful, wonderful look at America in Ruth’s time.

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Bottom of the 33rd — Darn, but this is a great book. . . . The Rochester Red Wings visited the Pawtucket Red Sox for an International League baseball game on April 18, 1981. It turned into the longest game in pro baseball history, lasting 33 innings and taking 8 hours 25 minutes to play. The game was suspended on April 19, around 4 a.m., with 19 fans still in the stands at McCoy Stadium. The final inning, the 33rd, was played on June 23 and lasted only 18 minutes. Author Dan Barry magically explores the game, all of its nuances and oh, so many sidebars. Like the pitcher who went home at 1 a.m., but whose wife wouldn’t let him in because she thought he and teammates had been out drinking and carousing. . . . If you haven’t already read this one, find a copy and prepare to be entertained.

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Camino Island — This work from prolific author John Grisham is somewhat different from the legal thrillers that he has written. There aren’t any lawyers involved in what is a book drafted around the world of rare books. The pace is leisurely as it follows Bruce Cable, who owns a bookstore on Florida’s Camino Island, and Mercer Mann, a would-be writer who is trying to find her way into a second novel.

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Clandestine — This cop book, written by James Ellroy, has been around since 1982. Ellroy, of course, also wrote the Black Dahlia and LA Confidential, among other works. He is a master of the noir detective novel and Clandestine is no exception. It follows Fred Underhill, who is an LAPD detective when the book opens but, well, you’ll have to follow the twists and turns to see if he still has a badge at book’s end. If you like the noir genre, you’ll love this one.

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Court Justice: The Inside Story of My Battle Against the NCAA — Ed O’Bannon, a former basketball star at NCAA, and lawyer Michael McCann explain in plain terms how and why the former chose to be the frontman in a lawsuit aimed at allowing so-called student-athletes to control the use of their names and likenesses. It all started after O’Bannon’s college basketball career was over when he saw his image playing in an EA Sports video game. Through it all, the NCAA comes out looking like a plantation owner.

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Darkest Hour: How Churchill Brought England Back from the Brink — Using archived material, author Anthony McCarten provides us with a play-by-play of the days leading up to Britain’s official involvement in the Second World War. Hitler is moving west through Europe and, surely, Britain will be next. At the same time, the political arena in Britain is a mess, with Churchill only days into his run as Prime Minister. There are those who would negotiate with “Herr” Hitler and “Signor” Mussolini. Churchill, though, isn’t so sure. But will he or won’t he?

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Dark Sacred Night — The latest from author Michael Connelly has Harry Bosch, who is officially retired from police work but just can’t give it up, and LAPD detective Renée Ballard teaming up. Bosch is kind of freelancing with the San Fernando PD, and is investigating a cold case, while Ballard works the late show (night shift) with the LAPD. Connelly is a master at writing this kind of fiction, and Dark Sacred Night is another fine addition to the library that includes Bosch.

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Father Bauer and the Great Experiment: The Genesis of Canadian Olympic Hockey — This book, from author Greg Oliver, deserves a prominent spot on the shelf with others that detail important stories in Canada’s hockey history. There was a time when senior hockey teams, most of them having had to fund-raise, represented Canada at Olympic Games and World championships. Then along came Father David Bauer, whose dream changed the face of Canadian hockey. It wasn’t that easy, though, and Oliver has all the stories right here. If you care about Canada’s hockey history, don’t miss this one.

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Finnegan’s Week — Fin Finnegan is a cop in San Diego but he would rather be an actor. He really doesn’t have a whole lot of luck at either. Finnegan, with three ex-wives behind him, is the main character in author Joseph Wambaugh’s book from 1995. It’s full of lots of great dialogue and some truly off-the-wall characters.

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TOMORROW: Part 2 of 3.

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