A Great Game - Stephen J. Harper

Title: A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs & the rise of professional hockey
Author: Stephen J. Harper
Pages: 320
Published: 2013
Challenges: I Love Libraries, Nonfiction Reading
Genre: Non-fiction, History, Sports
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description: In the tumultuous beginnings of hockey, the fights were as much off the ice as on it. This engaging new book is about the hockey heroes and hard-boiled businessmen who built the game, and the rise and fall of legendary teams pursuing the Stanley Cup. With a historian’s perspective and fan’s passion, Stephen Harper presents a riveting and often-surprising portrait, capturing everything from the physical contests on the rinks to the battles behind the scenes and the changing social conventions of the twentieth century.

A Great Game shows that many things have stayed the same. Rough play, fervent hometown loyalties, owner-player contract disputes, dubious news coverage, and big money were issues from the get-go. Most important in these early years was the question: Was hockey to be a game of obsessed amateurs playing for the love of the sport, or was it a game for paid professionals who would give fans what they wanted? Who should be responsible for the sport – including its bouts of violence – both on and off the ice?

A century ago, rinks could melt, and by half time the blades screwed to the players’ shoes could be sinking in mud. It was during this time that teams such as the Toronto Professionals of 1908 and the Toronto Blue Shirts of 1914 took turns battling for the city’s very first Stanley Cup. Against the fanatical opposition of amateur hockey leaders, these “forgotten Leafs” would lay the groundwork for the world’s most profitable hockey franchise. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: For the most part, I really enjoyed this book and enjoyed the descriptions of the various individuals that were involved in the rise of professional hockey and also those that resisted the change from the Stanley Cup being a challenge cup for amateur hockey players to a challenge cup for the professionals and the resistance from any sort of formation of the professional game.

While there was lots of information that Mr. Harper provided the reader, it was probably too much at times and it felt like he was saying the same sort of things several times.   Maybe it doesn't help that he's a  person that likes to use words a lot (he's the PM of Canada), but I sometimes felt that he didn't get to the point and was maybe a little too verbose at times, when less words would have sufficed to get his point across.  I wish he would have spent a little more time on the team itself rather on the formation of professional hockey in North America.

Bottom line: If you are a hockey fan or a sports fan and are interested in the rise of professional sports and have a general interest in the history of the early 1900s, you might interested in the book and it would be a worthwhile read. Recommended.

Rating: 4/5

Pages for 2014: 1310

Christmas Bliss - Mary Kay Andrews

Title: Christmas Bliss
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Pages: 294
Published: 2013
Challenges: I Love Libraries, Outdo Yourself
Genre: Fiction, Christmas, Romance
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description: Christmas is coming, but Savannah antique dealer Weezie Foley is doubly distracted both by her upcoming wedding to her longtime love, chef Daniel Stipanek and also by the fact that her best friend and maid-of-honor BeBe Loudermilk is due to give birth any day and is still adamantly refusing to marry her live-in-love Harry. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: I saw this book reviewed by another blogger that I read on a regular basis and thought I would give this a try.  Not being able to get to this before Christmas, I was able to start it on New Years Day.   

It was clear from the outset that I had missed quite a bit of the back story of the two main characters, even though there is enough information given throughout the book that you don't really feel like you have to read the previous books to get the drift of the story.

It was a pretty decent read and quick to get through.  Its good for those times during the Christmas holiday season when you need to read something that will take a few days without much thought.

Bottom line: If you enjoy light-hearted romance books or just need something to get through a busy holiday season of parties and family gatherings, this is a perfect read.  Recommended.

Rating: 3.5/5

Pages for 2014: 990

Villette - Charlotte Brontë

Title: Villette
Author: Charlotte Brontë
Pages (File Size): 440 (917 KB)
Published: 2012 (originally published 1853)
Challenges: Ebook, The Classics Club, Outdo Yourself
Genre: Classics, Fiction
Edition: E-book
Source: Personal

Description: With neither friends nor family, Lucy Snowe sets sail from England to find employment in a girls’ boarding school in the small town of Villette. There she struggles to retain her self-possession in the face of unruly pupils, an initially suspicious headmaster, and her own complex feelings, first for the school’s English doctor and then for the dictatorial professor, Paul Emmanuel. Charlotte Brontë’s last and most autobiographical novel is a powerfully moving study of isolation and the pain of unrequited love, narrated by a heroine determined to preserve an independent spirit in the face of adverse circumstances. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: I probably took too much time to read this book and should have completed the book in a quicker fashion and that influenced how I rated the book in the end.  But that being said, I did enjoy the book and is one that I would consider re-reading in the future to give myself a different perspective on the book.  

I do admit that my love of Jane Eyre did colour my view of this book and this is why I did read Villette; I wanted to say that I had read more than one Charlotte Brontë book.  

It definitely is a more mature read than Jane Eyre is and explores different things than what Jane Eyre, even though there are some similar themes in the two books, they explore them in different ways.  For example, they both deal with religion.  Whereas Jane Eyre deals with the balance between moral duty and earthly pleasure, Villette deals with the clashes between Lucy's Protestant background and Paul's Catholicism.

Even though Lucy and Jane seem to be around the same age at the start of the book, Lucy seems to be a more mature individual and more aware of what she wants and desires at the outset, while Jane seems to know what she wants and desires, its only when she leaves Thornfield Hall does she realize what she desires and wants.  And Villette seems to deal a little more on what it was like to be a teacher in a boarding school, whereas Jane Eyre deals more with governess aspects (although Anne's book, Agnes Grey, is much darker than Jane Eyre ever was).

Bottom line: If you have read any of Charlotte Brontë's other books and haven't read this one, I would recommend that you read it.  I will likely reread the book to get a better idea of the flow and also the French (that wasn't translated in my e-edition) that was spoken on a regular basis.  Recommended.

Rating: 3.75/5

Pages for 2014: 696

Starry Night - Debbie Macomber

Title: Starry Night
Author: Debbie Macomber
Pages: 256
Published: 2013
Challenges: Christmas Spirit, Outdo Yourself,  I Love Library Books
Genre: Christmas, Fiction, Romance
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description: Carrie Slayton, a big-city society-page columnist, longs to write more serious news stories. So her editor hands her a challenge: She can cover any topic she wants, but only if she first scores the paper an interview with Finn Dalton, the notoriously reclusive author. 

Living in the remote Alaskan wilderness, Finn has written a mega-bestselling memoir about surviving in the wild. But he stubbornly declines to speak to anyone in the press, and no one even knows exactly where he lives.
  Digging deep into Finn’s past, Carrie develops a theory on his whereabouts. It is the holidays, but her career is at stake, so she forsakes her family celebrations and flies out to snowy Alaska. When she finally finds Finn, she discovers a man both more charismatic and more stubborn than she even expected. And soon she is torn between pursuing the story of a lifetime and following her heart. (via Goodreads)

Description: I picked this book basically based on the cover that I saw while roaming my library's OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog, if you wish to know what it means) and because it was a Christmas book that would qualify for the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge.  I was just coming off reading Ms. Macomber's book Call Me Mrs. Miracle and I thought I would give the author another chance.

For at least the first half of the book, the writing was pretty decent and the storyline was intriguing and had me flipping through the book at a pretty quick pace.  But as the story went along, the story got into a somewhat predictable storyline.  It was a pretty easy read and something that could be easily consumed in the couple of months prior to Christmas, as the story is light and not too heavy-handed.  I could have probably finished this book in a day, but if read in a short spurts, one could easily finish it in a few days.

Bottom line: If you are looking for something for next year's Christmas holiday season, this is something that you should possibly consider or something of a similar ilk.  Also if you are a fan of Ms. Macomber's other books, I would possibly recommend this to you as well.  Recommended.

Rating: 3/5

Rating 2014: 256

2014 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge Sign-Up

For full rules and challenge details, please visit The Book Vixen

I did this last year didn't do too well, so I am going to scale back and aim for Getting my heart rate up level.

I will probably do an update post at the start of each month to let people know where I am and to link to reviews for this challenge (and other challenges) that were read during the course of the month.