Home Ice

From Library Journal
There is no shortage of books that describe how participating in a particular sporting activity strengthens bonds between people. Falla's book accomplishes this feat through a collection of essays on backyard skating rinks and frozen ponds and how these local skating venues allow their participants to get in touch with the game of hockey in addition to building relationships with family and friends. The author, a sportswriter and author of Sports Illustrated Hockey, is the architect and CEO of his full-scale backyard rink, the Bacon Street Omni, around which neighborhood life seems to revolve during the long, cold months. Each essay is short and provides for excellent recreational reading for people interested in skating in general and hockey in particular. Throughout, the author's love for winter sports is clear, especially as a link between his New England childhood and his current life, but readers who have never put on a pair of skates may have trouble connecting with this well written book. Recommended for public libraries already stocked with a strong collection of winter-oriented sports books.DPatrick Mahoney, Off-Campus Lib. Svcs., Central Michigan Univ. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Robert Lipsyte - The New York Times
The literary hot chocolate that will warm your heart.


Christian Science Monitor
Falla`s rink is a place that enlivens the darkness and cold and pays homage to the New England cultural heritage.


Review
?Home Ice is a treasure.?Possibly the best book since Ken Dryden?s The Game.?
?Eric Duhatschek

?Literary hot chocolate that will warm your heart.?
?New York Times


Book Description
In this collection of lyrical essays, writer Jack Falla`s backyard hockey rink unexpectedly becomes a vital bridge to family and friends, a lens through which he looks at his life in a game he loves, a road leading back to the frozen ponds of a New England childhood and a mirror in which he stares down middle age. Or tries to. Essays in Home Ice range from a thoughtful, sometimes humorous account of Falla`s original attempts to build a rink - `The first law of Hydrodynamics as applied to rink owners: water seeking its own level fits in in your neighbor`s yard`- to a meeting with the world`s most famous backyard rink builder, Walter Gretzky, Wayne`s father. In other essays Falla skates with the ultimate pond skaters -hockey legends Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey, travels to Duluth, Minnesota and Thunder Bay Ontario to visit backyard rink builders, reflects on the death of a parent, the meaning of an early-morning skate with a grandchild, the connection between his 60-by-35 foot backyard rink and the magical Boston Garden, and the life lessons learned shoveling, resurfacing and skating with his wife, son, and daughter. A bonus chapter explains how to build your own backyard rink. Home Ice goes beyond being a sports book. It is a book for readers more interested in family, friends, and relationships than in last night`s hockey scores.


From the Publisher
Jack Falla`s work has appeared in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, THE HOCKEY NEWS, BOSTONIA MAGAZINE, and many more national sports periodicals. He is also the author of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED HOCKEY. Falla is an adjunct professor at Boston University`s College of Communication.


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There is no shortage of books that describe how participating in a particular sporting activity strengthens bonds between people. Falla's book accomplishes this feat through a collection of essays on backyard skating rinks and frozen ponds and how these local skating venues allow their participants to get in touch with the game of hockey in addition to building relationships with family and friends. The author, a sportswriter and author of Sports Illustrated Hockey, is the architect and CEO of his full-scale backyard rink, the Bacon Street Omni, around which neighborhood life seems to revolve during the long, cold months. Each essay is short and provides for excellent recreational reading for people interested in skating in general and hockey in particular. Throughout, the author's love for winter sports is clear, especially as a link between his New England childhood and his current life, but readers who have never put on a pair of skates may have trouble connecting with this well written book. Recommended for public libraries already stocked with a strong collection of winter-oriented sports books.--Patrick Mahoney, Off-Campus Lib. Svcs., Central Michigan Univ. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.


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