TWO-CENT TUESDAY

Below are a few somewhat brief $.02 opinions about books I've read or listened to recently but don't have the time, inclination, or opportunity to review in full. Their appearance often here has little to do with merit. Many of these titles I enjoyed as much or more than those that got the full court press. I hope you'll consider one or two for your own TBR stack if they strike your fancy whether they struck mine or not.

Although I generally try to slip some books in here that I wasn't too thrilled with, that isn't the case this week. Whether I read a physical copy or listened to an audiobook, each of these titles was a winner. Some were known authors I knew were unlikely to let me down, a couple were shots in the dark based on my gut that paid off tremendously.

The Mighty Oak, by Jeff W. Bens

I was won over by a cool cover and a short plot summary and found a true gem inside. Tim "Oak" O'Connor is a goon for the El Paso Storm of the West Texas Hockey League. As a hockey hitman, he's paid to be violent and his body is basically jelly held together by a skin suit. He's also been away from home for a long time; long enough to lose his wife to his best friend and miss out on his daughter's life.

When he returns to Boston for his mother's death, he begins to confront all he's given up for a sport he still can't imagine giving up, even as he crunches oxy to keep upright. He also makes new connections with a haunted attorney and a young boy facing issues of his own. Bens writes wonderfully and The Mighty Oak had me entranced from the start.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I can see how someone who knows little about hockey enforces would feel about main character Tim O'Connor and while this is a work of fiction, it did make me think of the enforces on teams that I route for. This book is very gritty and the characters are well developed.

"The movies never, ever talk about the grind. Oak doesn't blame them. Who wants to see that for ten bucks?"

I didn't expect to like The Mighty Oak as much as I did.
The main character Tim aka Oak is a classic hockey goon, the enforcer, the guy who starts and finishes fights in the game, and off the ice is trying to work hard to have a better life. He grew up dreaming of playing in the NHL and instead has spent a lifetime playing in minor leagues and trying to stay above paying to play in a beer league. Along the way, he's had various injuries and in turn, developed an addiction to painkillers. He's got an ex and a kid back home who he hasn't seen in years and some foggy concussion memories of some bad past incidents.
When his mother dies and he decides to go home to Boston for her funeral he's contemplating how to get off the drugs and have a future without hockey. He can't envision what that means for him, but he knows his body just can't take it anymore.
I really enjoyed this look inside the head of a guy who you so rarely read about in fiction. He's very real and I felt his pain and grief in a visceral way. If this was a movie they wouldn't focus on his past or the fact he continues to make bad decisions, but instead about the underdog's way to redemption through love...which it is, just told in a much more realistic fashion where everyone is flawed. The cast of characters is an interesting mishmash of folks and I didn't see the ending coming.

A true tale of modern-day perseverance from a writer I'll be following.

If you like older coming-of-age/changing type stories, violence, hockey and want something like a Mark Wahlberg movie but without a corny ending this is the book for you,

4.5 stars rounded up.

An emotional rollercoaster from start to finish, The Mighty Oak follows a down on his luck minor hockey league player who - upon returning to his home town for his mother's funeral - must confront the life and people he's left behind. With sympathetic characters and poignant, often lyrical, writing, this novel is equal parts a tribute to hockey as well as an examination over a life left largely unlived.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

"The Mighty Oak" is a brilliantly-crafted impossible-to-stop-reading tale about a down-on-his-luck minor league hockey player. Tim O'Connor, aka Oak, is a lifetime minor leaguer, battered, beaten, bloodied, after a career as an enforcer on the ice, committed to putting on a show for the audience, a bloody show resulting in an opponent possibly being permanently scarred or missing an eye, a tooth, or other body parts. On the ice, Oak is Mike Tyson taking down Holyfield. He's an unstoppable force, chugging oxy and dexy and numbing himself to any pain. But as this point he's a broken wreck and he's taken far too many blows to the head.

A return home with his mother's death ought to be a chance to come to terms with his karma, but Oak only falls further and further into the pit of despair, lashing out at everything. Desperate for another chance and unable to pick himself up.

The story could've been about any sad sack end of the line boxer, wrestler, or Minot league footballer, giving up all for a chance to be in the game and seeing double because of all the hits. It may not matter what sport he played. What matters though is how good the action is, how compelling the story is, and how it's so much more than the run of the mill born loser story. This one's got what it takes.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.