Like many a Canadian kid, Stephen Smith was up on skates first thing as a boy, out in the weather chasing a puck and the promise of an NHL career. Back indoors after that didn’t quite work out, he turned to the bookshelf. That’s where, without entirely meaning to, he ended up reading all the hockey books. There was Crunch and Boom Boom, Slashing! and High Stick; there was Max Bentley: Hockey’s Dipsy-Doodle Dandy, Blue Line Murder, and Nagano, a Czech hockey opera. There was Blood on the Ice, Cracked Ice, Fire On Ice, Power On Ice, Cowboy On Ice, and Steel On Ice. In Puckstruck, Smith chronicles his wide-eyed and sometimes wincing wander through hockey’s literature, language, and culture, weighing its excitement and unbridled joy against its costs and vexing brutality. In exploring his own lifelong love of the game, hoping to surprise some sense out of it, he sifts hockey’s narratives in search of hockey’s heart, what it means and why it should distress us even as we celebrate its glories. On a journey to discover what the game might have to say about who we are as Canadians, he seeks to answer some of its essential riddles.

In Playing With Fire, Theo Fleury takes us behind the bench during his glorious days as an NHL player, and talks about growing up devastatingly poor and in chaos at home. Dark personal issues began to surface, and drinking, drugs, gambling, and girls ultimately derailed a career that had him destined for the Hall of Fame. Fleury shares all in this raw, captivating, and honest look at the previously untold story of one the game's greatest heroes.

I've never been in love.I've never had an orgasm, but I've faked plenty.I want to experience love. Real, passionate love.I don't want to die.It's funny what blurts out of your mouth when the plane you're on is going down, and I didn't hold back with my seat mate when my plane decided to crash.My hysterical confessions didn't faze the muscular stranger that sat beside me. In fact, he promised if we survived, he'd give me my first orgasm. We survived.I came.And then he left without telling me who he was.On the first day of my job, I stood in front of the Vancouver Wolves hockey team and called out a number. #33.Imagine my shock when he skated forward.Max is an incredible hockey player, whose wild, out-of-control antics have almost derailed his career. So many secrets shroud his past and continue to threaten his future. Now he's my secret. And that secret could ruin everything. Puck Me SECRETLY. Some secrets are too big to keep.This book is 86,000 words and is a full-length romance intended for adult audiences only.

This book describes the living-room artifacts, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from top to bottom.

No job in the world of sports is as intimidating, exhilarating, and stress-ridden as that of a hockey goaltender. Clint Malarchuk did that job while suffering high anxiety, depression, and obsessive compulsive disorder and had his career nearly literally cut short by a skate across his neck, to date the most gruesome injury hockey has ever seen. This autobiography takes readers deep into the troubled mind of Malarchuk, the former NHL goaltender for the Quebec Nordiques, the Washington Capitals, and the Buffalo Sabres. When his carotid artery was slashed during a collision in the crease, Malarchuk nearly died on the ice. Forever changed, he struggled deeply with depression and a dependence on alcohol, which nearly cost him his life and left a bullet in his head. In A Matter of Inches, Malarchuk reflects on his past as he looks forward to the future, every day grateful to have cheated death—twice.

This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.

New York Times bestselling author Sawyer Bennett scores big-time with the first novel in a sexy new series hot enough to melt the ice. Hockey star Alexander Crossman has a reputation as a cold-hearted player on and off the rink. Pushed into the sport by an alcoholic father, Alex isn’t afraid to give fans the proverbial middle finger, relishing his role as the MVP they love to hate. Management, however, isn’t so amused. Now Alex has a choice: fix his public image through community service or ride the bench. But Alex refuses to be molded into the Carolina Cold Fury poster boy . . . not even by a tempting redhead with killer curves. As a social worker, Sutton Price is accustomed to difficult people—like Alex, who’s been assigned to help her create a drug-abuse awareness program for at-risk youth as part of the team’s effort to clean up his image. What she doesn’t expect is the arrogant smirk from his perfect lips to stir her most heated fantasies. But Sutton isn’t one to cross professional boundaries—and besides, Alex doesn’t do relationships . . . or does he? The more she sees behind Alex’s bad-boy façade, the more Sutton craves the man she uncovers. The Carolina Cold Fury series from New York Times bestselling author Sawyer Bennett can be read together or separately: ALEX GARRETT ZACK RYKER HAWKE MAX ROMAN LUCAS VAN REED MAREK And don’t miss her Arizona Vengeance series: BISHOP ERIK LEGEND The Love Hurts series features sexy standalone novels: SEX IN THE STICKS JILTED And the Sugar Bowl series is one treat you’ll want to read in order: SUGAR DADDY SUGAR RUSH SUGAR FREE “One of the best voices in contemporary romance.”—New York Times bestselling author Lauren Layne Praise for Alex “Wow. Just wow. Sawyer Bennett is my new favorite author.”—Jami Davenport, USA Today bestselling author of Skating on Thin Ice “Warm, witty, and fun, with sparkling dialogue and great characters including a bad boy hockey player, Cold Fury has it all! I’m eagerly awaiting the next in the series.”—Katie Rose, award-winning author of Bring on the Heat “Sawyer Bennett has scored again with Alex, the perfect combination of sexy and emotional. I can’t wait for the next Cold Fury story!”—Julie Cross, author of Third Degree “Alex’s redemption is what makes the happy ending possible and will make readers smile. Recommended for sports romance fans who enjoy seeing the frog turn into a prince.”—Library Journal Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title.