Rating: 
Summary: SKATING AWAY
Review: I'm not even really a hockey fan but I am a big sports fan and this book resonated on a lot of levels for me. First of all, Atkinson's descriptions are amazing--he got me involved on the first page and I just kept wanting more. Also, his depiction of what it's like to be on a team was dead on. I didn't expect the book's emotional conclusion but that made it all the more powerful for me. The bottom line is that if you like good writing, you'll like ICE TIME.
Rating:
Summary: Awsome
Review: Ice Time is the best book that i have read i a very long while. Once i started reading it, i couldn't put it down. After i finished it, i read it twice more, and sill did not get tired f it. I recommend this book to any and everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Awsome
Review: Ice Time is the best book that i have read i a very long while. Once i started reading it, i couldn't put it down. After i finished it, i read it twice more, and sill did not get tired f it. I recommend this book to any and everyone.
Rating:
Summary: "The Big, Tough French guy" returns....
Review: My Irish mom, still back in Methuen with a few of my siblings, would surely cringe at me being referred to as the "Big, tough French guy" on page 31 of this fine book. At least Jay had the courtesy to leave my name out of it. I'm grateful, particularly since my recollection of the event in question is somewhat of a departure from his. No matter....This is a fine read, and finer still as it captures so accurately the rabid fervor that is hockey in Methuen, my hometown. Though I had the pleasure of playing for the Rangers' archrival, Central Catholic, Jay and I did play together, along with Dave Martin and Dennis Dube, Bob O'Donnell, Tom McGurren, and a host of other hockey lunatics, for a couple of years on Herb Edwards's team, the Blues. It was a terrific time to be a teenager, without much of the madness that has somehow insinutated itself into youth sports today. Jay's memory is sharp (in most respects... :) and he's drawn the supporting cast in remarkably accurate detail. I can see our former teammate, the boisterous Dave Martin, exhorting his charges to dig deeper in an effort to get at the core of the game, which is all about stripping away the self to serve the greater good of the team. I can also, by the way, easily imagine Dave weedling in, as we used to say, with the officials. What a refreshing, uncomplicated, non-political book this is. No pronouncements, no agenda, other than "this is my memory of a wonderful time." When I find myself staying late, alone, at our local rink to shoot just one more bucket of pucks, I now know I'm not alone, (and my 45 year old elbow also reminds of that the morning after). Somehow, though, I can't imagine not doing it, and it's nice to know that there are a bunch of "old guys" like myself doing the same thing back home. Thanks, Jay, for making it all so real again, and sorry, again, for the dust up that night in the Frost Arena, that hallowed hall of hockeydom. We had some fun. That "Big, Tough, French guy" (all 5'8" of me...), and former Central Catholic hockey captain, -Herve Pelletier
Rating:
Summary: Sports and Everlasting Youth
Review: The author does a good job of conveying the emotions of an athlete growing old but not ready to hang it up just yet. I am sure that anyone who ever participated in high school sports will be able to identify with this book and the travails of the Methuen Rangers. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for fond memories and lifted spirits.
Rating: 
Summary: hits close to home
Review: This is a very well written narrative about the role that youth sports play in forming the adults who we became and who our children will become. This book is also about the nature of the profound father/son bond which can be forged through sport and especially through hockey. Atkinson's observations about the current state of high school sports and youth sports in suburban Massachusetts and particularly about youth hockey, are accurate, perceptive and highly entertaining. His reconstruction of humorous lockerroom conversations is terrific and extremely funny. His recollections about the love of athletics and the athletic life as it is affected by age are fresh, enlightening and moving without sinking into a "Glorydays" sentimentality.
Rating:
Summary: Father and Son reunion
Review: To borrow from and old song, that's what this book made me think about.
I'm from Buffalo, and was a goalie. My Dad, also a goalie, spent countless early morning hours, weekend hours, anytime hours transporting me to various rinks in western NY and southern Ontario.
Jay's book could have been written about my hockey exploits, and the incredible bond it created between Father and Son.
I'm a very infrequent, impatient reader, and I couldn't put this book down.
Congratulations on a great read, Jay!
Rating:
Summary: Father and Son reunion
Review: To borrow from and old song, that's what this book made me think about.
I'm from Buffalo, and was a goalie. My Dad, also a goalie, spent countless early morning hours, weekend hours, anytime hours transporting me to various rinks in western NY and southern Ontario.
Jay's book could have been written about my hockey exploits, and the incredible bond it created between Father and Son.
I'm a very infrequent, impatient reader, and I couldn't put this book down.
Congratulations on a great read, Jay!
Rating:
Summary: An Eyebrow Raiser
Review: You don't have to be from Methuen (I am) to appreciate this well-crafted tale of hockey, parenting, and small town values. This is a great read created by a very talented writer - I felt like I was in the hands of the Bobby Orr of prose. The book's dialog and telling anecdotes about the people involved are sure to raise a few eyebrows - but we could use a little eyebrow raising around here.
Rating:
Summary: An Eyebrow Raiser
Review: You don't have to be from Methuen (I am) to appreciate this well-crafted tale of hockey, parenting, and small town values. This is a great read created by a very talented writer - I felt like I was in the hands of the Bobby Orr of prose. The book's dialog and telling anecdotes about the people involved are sure to raise a few eyebrows - but we could use a little eyebrow raising around here.
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