H N I C

"A gritty, fast-paced tale of revenge...Tight, terse prose harkens back to pulp fiction of the 1950s...The work is a breath of fresh air from lengthy, trying-too-hard-to-shock street lit and is an excellent choice for all metropolitan collections." --Library Journal (starred review, Pick of the Month) "The urban setting is unnamed but familiar in this brief, bloody tale of wasted lives lived short and hard." --Publishers Weekly "Simultaneously a fast-paced crime drama and an engrossing, unsentimental moral tale, H.N.I.C. peers into the dark heart that underpins the codes of loyalty and friendship, betrayal and vengeance." --Brooklyn Daily Eagle "In a genre that too often places incorrect ebonics in the mouths of black characters and fails to cross the empathy gap to get into their heads, Savile and Prodigy arrive at a seamless voice that is a refreshing take on crime fiction tropes...if tone and texture are what you're looking for in your hardcore literature...H.N.I.C. delivers the goods." --Okayplayer "H.N.I.C. is written by Prodigy himself and shows the extent to which good rappers can make good storytellers." --Brooklyn Based "Ultimately, H.N.I.C. deals on all the right levels and is completely satisfying." --Blackout Book Review "If you don't have this novella in your library collection already, please be on the lookout for this 2013 release, H.N.I.C., penned by Hip Hop artist Prodigy of the group, Mobb Deep." --StreetLiterature.com "The strength of this novella, in addition to its straightforward prose and rapid pacing, rests on the universal theme at its center: loyalty. Loyalty and the bullshit our friends put us through...Like any good work of crime, H.N.I.C. is grounded in such common experiences and, like any good work of crime, it speaks to all of us, despite the fact that very few of us can bypass an alarm system through some computer trickery." --Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together "It tells the...urban tale of deceit, greed and questioned loyalty with just enough drama to keep you turning the pages." --Literary Jewels "A brutal and quick read...custom-made for the big screen." --Charles Tatum's Review Archive Prodigy, from the legendary hip-hop group Mobb Deep, launches Akashic's new Infamous Books imprint with a story of loyalty, vengeance, and greed. Pappy tries to break out of the game before the head of his crew, Black, gets them all killed. Against his better judgment Pappy agrees to do one last job, but only because it's the price of his freedom. He knows his "brother" Black would rather see him dead than let him walk away. Yet he still agrees to do the job because Black isn't the only one who can't be trusted. Further developing the stark realism and uncompromising streetwise narratives of his lyrics, H.N.I.C. cements Prodigy's position as one of the foremost chroniclers of contemporary urban life. Simultaneously a fast-paced crime drama and an engrossing, unsentimental moral tale, H.N.I.C. peers into the dark heart that underpins the codes of loyalty and friendship, betrayal and vengeance. With H.N.I.C., Prodigy inaugurates Infamous Books, a revolutionary partnership that pairs the Infamous Records brand with Brooklyn-based independent publisher Akashic Books. Infamous Books' mission is to connect readers worldwide to crime fiction and street lit authors both familiar and new.

Hockey Night in Canada will appeal to all readers interested in the wider implications of sport in our society.

Hockey Night in Canada has reached a great age (and for television, practically an immortal one) because it made itself into something that Canada couldn't live without. It is this surge of emotion that connected us all each week, and which connects us through the years to now. Hockey Night in Canada didn't just aim a camera at a game and observe what happened-it actively gave the country a prism through which it could see itself and its evolving diversity. We look where the eye of Hockey Night in Canada looks, and it looks at us. We remember what it remembers. We feel what it feels. That is the dynamic that has made the show much more than a long-lived TV success; it is a cultural juggernaut. Ask fans where they saw their first hockey game, and chances are it was on Hockey Night in Canada. Ask the players-male or female-what first got them into the rink, and the answer will be the same: they wanted to be like the players on Hockey Night in Canada.

In late 2013, Canadians were intrigued to learn the NHL chose Rogers as its exclusive national broadcaster over both CBC and Rogers’s bitter rival, Bell Canada. The decision was met with equal parts fascination, shock and anger. When CBC rank-and-file employees came to believe their leaders missed a chance to hold on to at least a part of Hockey Night in Canada—a move that could have saved some of their jobs—their disappointment turned to outrage. This is also a story of great irony, as the win proved to be costly for the victor in the first years. When Rogers sealed the $5.2-billion, twelve-year deal, it looked like the audacious play might just pay off. The Toronto Maple Leafs, with the biggest fan base in the country, appeared ready to shake off years of mediocrity and become playoff contenders, drawing legions of fans to Rogers’s broadcasts in the process. In anticipation, Rogers gave Hockey Night in Canada a facelift, bringing in hip George Stroumboulopoulos to replace veteran host Ron MacLean. However, in January 2014, the Maple Leafs crashed hard and so did the ratings for Hockey Night in Canada. It was crushing news for Rogers, with cable-cutting already shaping into an existential threat. On top of everything, “Strombo” bombed as host and the network had to bring MacLean back. Then things got even worse—by the middle of the 2015–16 season, the rest of the seven Canadian NHL teams missed the playoffs and ratings fell further, chasing away even more advertising dollars. Simultaneously, viewing habits were changing so quickly no one could predict what would happen next year, let alone in the next decade. Shoalts covers this story from the beginning, and Hockey Fight in Canada details every fascinating play in this intersection of sports and business.

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER From the distinct and vibrant voice behind Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi comes the story of pursuing a dream and defying the odds, reminding us all of hockey's power to unite. BoninoBoninoBonino! Ask a hockey fan if they have heard the wonderfully electric call of Nick Bonino's overtime-winning goal from the 2016 Stanley Cup Final and they will almost surely answer with a resounding yes! That's because video clips of the Hockey Night in Punjabi broadcast immediately went viral, amplifying the profile of Harnarayan Singh, the voice behind the call. Growing up in small-town Alberta, Harnarayan was like many other kids who dreamed about a life within the sanctum of the game they idolized. There was only one small difference--he didn't look like any of the other kids. And when he sat down on Saturday nights to tune in to Hockey Night in Canada with the rest of the nation, he couldn't ignore the fact that the broadcasters or analysts didn't look like him either. Undeterred, Harnarayan worked his way from calling imaginary hockey games with his plastic toy microphone as a child, to funding secret flights from Calgary to Toronto every weekend in the early days of Hockey Night in Punjabi, to making history as the first Sikh to broadcast an NHL game in English. Full of heart, humour, and bursting with personality (and maybe a few family prayers for Wayne Gretzky), One Game at a Time is the incredible and inspiring story of how Harnarayan Singh broke through the longstanding barriers and biases of the sport he loves. But more than that, Harnarayan blends his unabashed love of hockey with a refreshing and necessary positive message about what it means to be a Canadian in the world, making him one of the most influential ambassadors of the game today.

Stories from behind the scenes of one of hockey’s longest running and most popular broadcasts, Hockey Night in Canada’s Satellite Hot Stove, from an insider who’s seen it all. For more than twenty years, hockey fans tuned in during intermission on Saturday nights to watch one of the most popular segments in the game’s long broadcasting history. They’d hear news from around the league, the latest rumours and gossip, and—of course—some of the most controversial opinions of the day. No, we’re not talking about Coach’s Corner. The Satellite Hot Stove was a revolutionary show for talking about the game we love. Here, during the second intermission of the first game of every Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, pundits, and insiders would convene in studios across North America—in arenas and other locales—to discuss the biggest topics. Hot Stove was the best place to get news, opinions, and a good laugh. And Al Strachan was in the middle of it all. A bestselling author and award-winning sports journalist, he has been writing and talking about hockey for more than forty years. As a regular TV pundit on Hot Stove, he witnessed the most exciting and talked-about episodes in the modern game. And more than once, his unfiltered, say-it-as-it-is style added controversy of its own, too. In this new book, he relives the best stories of his long career, from working with some of the biggest personalities, on and off the ice, to the hijinks that went on behind the cameras. From embarrassing himself in front of Scotty Bowman, to cooking up a plan with Wayne Gretzky to save hockey, and frank conversations with Ken Dryden and hockey’s elite, Hockey’s Hot Stove delivers all new hockey stories you won’t hear anywhere else.

Challenging conventional wisdom on a range of issues, Todd Boyd examines the debates over use of the "N-word" and the "get money" ethos of hip hop moguls like Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. He also looks at hip hop's impact on a diverse array of figures, from Bill Clinton and Eminem to Jennifer Lopez.

★ “This simple story of discovery, sport, and friendship is filled with likable characters and innocently joyful moments...Delightful.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review Kenyan orphans, Kitoo and Nigosi, spend their days studying, playing soccer, helping their elders with chores around the orphanage and reading from the limited selection of books in their library. When the librarian gives Kitoo a copy of Sports Around the World he becomes fascinated by an image of the Canadian national men's ice hockey team. Then one day the fates align and Kitoo finds a pair of beat up old roller blades, he teaches himself to skate and dreams of one day playing hockey like the men in his book. But you can’t play ice hockey in Kenya, can you?