Jack Todd

Skating on Thin Ice exposes the culture of toxic masculinity in professional hockey and suggests how sport and society can change the narrative on sexual assault and violence. Why is it that professional sports, and notably hockey, remain a bastion for rape culture and violence against women? What are the conditions that allow a culture of toxic masculinity to persist despite awakenings elsewhere in society? What is the path forward, and how do we make officials, coaches, and athletes accountable? Drawing on decades of award-winning sociological research and sports journalism, Walter S. DeKeseredy, Martin D. Schwartz, and veteran sportswriter Stu Cowan find answers to these questions in Skating on Thin Ice. The book examines the abusive, misogynistic, racist, and homophobic behaviors found in professional hockey and explains the larger societal forces that perpetuate and legitimate these harms. Confirming a recent federal government inquiry into Hockey Canada’s handling of sexual assault allegations, the book reveals that young men enter the NHL and other revenue-generating hockey leagues already trained and primed to treat women as objects – and often to commit violent acts against them. Rooted in the authors’ work in the sports world as well as their work with activists and governments, Skating on Thin Ice doesn’t just highlight the problem of hockey and rape culture, it also provides collaborative solutions for fixing it.

In 1969 Jack Todd was twenty-three and happy beyond his dreams. He had left behind a hardscrabble youth in a small Nebraska town, had an exciting job as a reporter for the Miami Herald, and was in love with his beautiful Cuban American girlfriend. As the war in Vietnam drew closer, he assumed that he would fight, as the men in his family had always fought, though he was increasingly troubled by America's role there. His oldest friend, who had just returned from Vietnam, pleaded with Jack to dodge the draft and go to Canada, but Jack entered the army. He had almost completed basic training when, on Christmas leave, he made an agonizing decision. By now deeply opposed to the war, he crossed the border into Canada, leaving behind his family, the girl he loved, and his homeland. Now one of Canada's most successful journalists, Jack Todd is a remarkable writer of great power and vibrancy. It has taken him thirty years to come to terms with the guilt and shame of desertion, to break the silence, and to tell this controversial, moving, and profoundly American story. The result is an eloquent account of a tortured time in our nation's history told with searing honesty, passion, and literary verve.

From the award-winning author of the acclaimed Sun Going Down comes an intimate portrait of a marriage and a family struggling to survive turbulent times that echo our own. THE PAINT FAMILY built an American empire on the legendary strength of their character, their wit, and their resolve, but the foreclosures, bank failures, and joblessness of the Great Depression may bring their world down around them. The family's foundation is further weakened by a rift running through two generations, scarred over by stubbornness and pain. Come Again No More is a uniquely American story about a family navigating a changing world and the tough choices it presents. The indomitable family patriarch, Eli, owns everything as far as the eye can see, but there is an emptiness in his heart. After a dramatic accident leaves him struggling for life, he must reckon with the decisions he made that separated him from the daughter he loved most. A chance for redemption presents itself in his granddaughter Emaline. Eli has faced his own mortality many times, but his pride seems to have a death grip on him. Emaline marries Jake, a womanizing prizefighter who promises to help her realize her dream of making a life on a farm. But Jake's inner demons and nature itself conspire against Emaline's fierce determination to make their marriage work. Life sends Emaline many joys when she least expects them, but ultimately, she must make tough decisions about holding on and letting go. Based on the author's family letters and diaries, Come Again No More is a bittersweet novel, a moving and vivid portrayal of a family's triumphs and tragedies paralleling the glories and shameful underbelly of a nation struggling through the Great Depression.

From an award-winning author whose ancestors lived the adventures in this novel comes a spectacular new epic about the American West. Part history, part romance, and part action-adventure novel, Sun Going Down follows the fortunes of Ebenezer Paint and his descendants -- rough and tough individuals who are caught up in Civil War river battles, epic cattle drives through drought and blizzards, the horrors of Wounded Knee, the desperation of the dust bowl, and the prosperity of the roaring 1920s. The page-turning plot is peopled by a vibrant, unforgettable cast of characters: a grizzled Mississippi steamboat merchant, two horse-thieving brothers, five Annie Oakley-like sisters who can outride any cowboy, a half-Sioux bride who demands her new family claim her heritage, and a courageous daughter who defies her father and braves the West alone. Throughout their lives, the Paint family must battle both internal and external elements, and learn to live with spirit and wit. Letters and diaries from the author's own family archives form the basis for all the events and characters in Sun Going Down, infusing the novel with richly detailed authenticity and deep emotional power. It is intimate in its portraits of the unforgettable characters who settled our country, sweeping in its geographical reach from Vicksburg up through Montana and the Dakotas, and epic as it spans four generations from the Civil War to the Great Depression. Masterfully written, Sun Going Down holds the reader fast through tears, laughter, terror, and joy until the very last heart-gripping page is turned.