Quinn: The Life of a Hockey Legend

In this gem of a biography, Robson (The Crazy Game) makes it clear that hockey player, coach, and executive Pat Quinn was a storyteller extraordinaire: "Quinn often regaled his teammates with his tales of life in the minors and back-in-the-day accounts of growing up in Hamilton's east end. Hours would pass, glasses filled and emptied and filled on repeat, with the laughter as constant as hazy clouds of cigar smoke above them." Sitting down to read about his nomadic but fulfilling life might be a little less drunken and smoky but is no less entertaining. Quinn's death in 2014 leaves the narrative bereft of his voice, but family, friends, teammates and colleagues take up the challenge. The book is chock-full of fascinating, intimate details, from the razzing at the Quinn family table to the sparkly underwear%E2%80%94a gift from his grandchildren%E2%80%94that Quinn wore to the 2002 Olympics. Quinn didn't always reveal a lot about himself to the press, so this is not the book that he would have written. Instead, it's a warts-and-all epic that shows few could match Quinn's toughness on the ice (where he famously knocked out Bobby Orr), his swagger behind the bench, or his confidence in the boardroom. Agent: Rick Broadhead, Rick Broadhead and Associates (Canada). (Nov.)