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One sure sign that Christmas is around the corner is the influx of hockey books that will find their way under the tree on Dec. 25.

Penguin has followed last year’s successful Bobby Orr autobiography with a similar effort from Gordie Howe, and USA Today hockey writer Kevin Allen has teamed up with Chris Chelios on a biography that concentrates on the Hall of Fame defenceman’s NHL and international career after leaving the Canadiens.

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But the most interesting book this season may be All the Way: My Life on Ice, by Jordin Tootoo.

Stephen Brunt, who is one of Canada’s leading sports journalists, earns an assist on this effort by giving Tootoo his own voice. Brunt ties the chapters together with brief asides, but most of the words belong to Tootoo. He chronicles his unlikely journey to the NHL in the language of the locker room and the book capture the raw emotion as he deals with his ambivalent relationship with his family, the suicide of his brother, Terence, and his own battles with alcohol.