Publishers sent me a handful of books to review this year, and it wasn't a coincidence that Don Cherry's was the first I decided to take a look at.

And, against all odds, I'll give it a thumbs up.

Don Cherry's Hockey Stories and Stuff isn't like any other hockey book you'll ever read, and Cherry intended it to be that way. There's no floral language here.

"That's what I'd like this book to be — just like we were sittin' down, tellin' stories in my own language," he says on the first page. "I know I'll be criticized, because for some reason people are not too thrilled with the way I speak."

Soon after, he explains he's the reason the book is written the way it is. "So don't blame Random House or Al Strachan [the transcriber] for the way the book is presented. I wanted the book to be like a couple of guys sittin' down with a few pops tellin' hockey stories.

"I hope you enjoy it."

What follows are a series of mini-chapters, vignettes that include small stories from Cherry's vast repetoire. We learn a lot about his early playing days in the rough and tumble AHL, his tenure in junior hockey, his time as the Bruins head coach and even a little something about his charmed life as a Canadian icon on Hockey Night in Canada.

What you learn most from the book is that, behind it all, Cherry's really just your average old-time hockey player, a charismatic underdog who somehow parlayed a one-game NHL playing career into a job coaching the likes of Bobby Orr and eventually TV superstardom.

While he may have won the Jack Adams in 1975-76, it turned out Cherry was made for the small screen and gained his widespread fame there. In one nice passage from the book, he compares his achievement with HNIC to that of the show's former theme song:

I have to tell ya, I love the song and I wish we still had it. I guess the other people offered more money. ... I kinda related it to me in a way. I've been with the CBC for over twenty years and the song has been with us for over forty years.

I must admit my twenty years have been a rocky ride sometimes, what with the seven-second delay and things like that. One boss — who is now gone by the way — called me "reprehensible" and "despicable." ...

My years on Hockey Night in Canada have been a lot of fun, but at times, no bed of roses. I will admit now that I was thinking of leaving ... I was offered more money and a longer contract, and when someone explained to me what "reprehensible" and "despicable" meant, I thought I would grab the money and run, like the people who own the song did.

But I got to thinking, the only reason the other company wants me was that I was — and am — on HNIC. If I hadn't made HNIC and become semi-famous, they wouldn't want me.

In my opinion, this song is in the same situation. The song would be nothin' if it wasn't on HNIC. Sure I love it, and everybody loves it. But I love it because it was on HNIC.

It's just like me. If I wasn't on HNIC, I'd just be another broken-down hockey player. In my opinion, without the song being on HNIC, it would be just another jingle.

There's some humility there, and elsewhere, that you just don't see from Cherry on Saturday nights.

But the book's real strength is its stories, as Grapes breaks out some of his best behind the scenes tales from a life-time in hockey. I particularly liked the one about Lanny McDonald and Kevin Morrison, then teammates with the Colorado Rockies team Cherry coached, having a drinking contest that didn't quite go as expected.

No, it's not poetry, but there's a lot of good stuff in there, and Cherry doesn't sugarcoat anything. If you can accept the writing style for what it is, the book is worth the read.

As an aside, this is actually the only one of the hockey books I've made my way through to this point, but Joe Pelletier has a great list of the top 10 released this year. Check it out and put a few on your Christmas list.