Dropping Gloves

USA Today bestselling author Catherine Gayle presents another novel in the emotional Portland Storm hockey romance series. She left to follow her dreams, but came back to find her heart. When Katie Weber decided to pursue her dreams in Hollywood, she left her heart behind in Portland. Now she’s back to make amends with Jamie Babcock, the only man she’s ever loved, but he isn’t willing to forgive and forget. Heartbroken, Jamie refuses to reopen old wounds—no matter how much he still loves her. At some point, he’s got to draw the line. But Katie realizes she’s got the biggest battle of her life on the line—one she can’t win without Jamie by her side. In the game of love, all bets are off. Katie’s Dropping her Gloves to fight for both the life she craves and the man she loves. But is Jamie too proud to end the standoff so he can finally have the one he truly wants? The Portland Storm series reading order: 1. Breakaway 2. On the Fly 3. Taking a Shot 4. Light the Lamp 5. Delay of Game 6. Double Major 7. In the Zone 8. Holiday Hat Trick 9. Comeback 10. Dropping Gloves 11. Home Ice 12. Mistletoe Misconduct 13. Losing an Edge 14. Game Breaker 15. Defensive Zone 16. Power Play 17. Neutral Zone 18. Free Agent - coming soon 19. Journeyman - coming soon 20. Sleigh Bells & Slap Shots - coming soon The Portland Storm series is a hockey romance series, but it is about a lot more than just hockey. Serious themes are explored in each book, including rape, cancer, addiction, miscarriage, molestation, grief, and many others. If you have triggers, please be aware that some or all of these books could contain material which would trigger you. Even if you don't have triggers, consider this your tissue warning. You could ugly cry while reading them. KEYWORDS: sports romance, hockey romance, athlete, tearjerker, emotional romance, cancer, forbidden romance, second chance romance, jock, sexy romance

Barry Melrose's life is hockey. From the time he was old enought to skate, he knew it's what he was meant to do. Growing up in Kelvington, Saskatchewan, he was one of a generation of future NHLers that included Wendel Clark, Bernie Federko, and the Kocur brothers. He fought his way through the Canadian minor league system, eventually getting drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. But Melrose chose instead to play for the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers, beginning a professional career that saw him sent up and down, between the big leagues and the minors, before ending his playing career as a player coach in the AHL. As a coach, he saw success at every level, winning a Memorial Cup, a Calder Cup, and reaching the Stanley Cup Final as coach of the LA Kings. Dropping the Gloves shares Barry's years of experience. He explains the psychology of the game, the inner workings of the locker room, and how many different elements are required to create a winnning team.Told in the same plain-spoken style that has made him ESPN's best-known hockey commentator, Dropping the Gloves is a fantastic compendium of hockey knowledge.

A captivating history of gloves both real and mythical, practical and high fashion. This beautifully illustrated history of gloves draws on examples from across the world to explore their cultural significance. From hand-knitted mittens to exquisitely embroidered confections, and from the three-fingered gloves of medieval shepherds to Bluetooth-enabled examples that function like a mobile phone, gloves’ extraordinary variety is a tribute to human ingenuity. So, too, is the remarkable diversity of their—often contradictory—cultural associations. They have been linked to honor, identity, and status, but also to decadence and deceit. In this book, Anne Green discusses gloves both as material objects with their own fascinating history and as fictional creations in folktales, literature, films, etiquette manuals, paintings, and advertisements. Looking to the runway, Green even explores their recent resurgence as objects of high fashion.

No outfit is complete without accessories. Trinity of hats, scarves and gloves is a common ensemble that is used as modern fashion accessory by both men and women. It was a necessity to protect hands from gusty winds and keep them warm during cold-weather winters. The historic evolution and democratization development of gloves had an exotic trip with detours aplenty throughout the centuries. Gloves in fashion were an exclusive enterprise, a pursuit of the wealthy. Therefore, the use of materials, the length, and fabrication evolved from made at home into real industry. Eventually, an array of hand wear of different styles and colors became available for masses. In the intervening time, Europe countries were the ones that planted the seeds that would define fashion culture, chic and elegance for decades to come. Today, whatever its seasonal vagaries, gloves and mittens as fashion accessories have been a reflection of society as an industry, often stirring provocative debate. Is it art or craft? Who would wear elbow-long opera gloves? Is couture dead? Is department store obsolete? The answers are in the gloves themselves, in their history and present.

Dropping the Gloves candidly tracks Barry Melrose's career in hockey - a road that has not changed substantially for today's aspiring players. Not many have Melrose's credentials or his breadth of experience in professional hockey. He's played and coached in Junior Hockey, the American Hockey League, and the NHL. As he says, he's been hired and fired, and had his share of disappointments and failures. He's also had successes at every level. Now an ESPN broadcaster and one of the most respected NHL analysts on television. With his trademark hair, custom suits and energetic style, Melrose is applauded for offering fans his honest - tell it like it is opinion. Written in Barry's voice and style, the narrative follows his career in hockey, from its start in Kelvington, Saskatchewan, through his years in Junior, the WHA, and finally, the NHL. Along the way, Barry muses on the state of the game, what makes some teams work and other fail, and how he worked to instill a winning attitude in all the teams he coached. Filled with behind-the-scene stories of all the legendary players Barry played with or coached - Gretzky, Yzerman, Messier, Bobby Hull, and Brad Park - Dropping the Gloves is a true to life, insiders account of the world of professional hockey and an absolute must read for fans of the game.

The Ultimate NHL Hockey Fight Book by Brian D'Ambrosio. All the NHL's Toughest players from 2000-2010. The 30 Top NHL Goons of the Decade, all the stats, info, fight cards, and data that a hockey fight fan can handle. The best and toughest of the decade are all here, Georges Laraque, Donald Brashear, Brian McGrattan, Jody Shelley, Wade Belak, and Peter Worrell. Here is the ultimate stat, list, and photo book for the NHL hockey fight fan. The book offers familiar terrain for fight fans who know and enjoy watching the likes of Derek Boogard, Darcy Hordichuk and Cam Janssen.

A beautifully illustrated, totally engrossing celebration of the piano, and the composers and performers who have made it their own. With honed sensitivity and unquestioned expertise, Stuart Isacoff—pianist, critic, teacher, and author of Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization—unfolds the ongoing history and evolution of the piano and all its myriad wonders: how its very sound provides the basis for emotional expression and individual style, and why it has so powerfully entertained generation upon generation of listeners. He illuminates the groundbreaking music of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Schumann, and Debussy. He analyzes the breathtaking techniques of Glenn Gould, Oscar Peterson, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Arthur Rubinstein, and Van Cliburn, and he gives musicians including Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Menahem Pressler, and Vladimir Horowitz the opportunity to discuss their approaches. Isacoff delineates how classical music and jazz influenced each other as the uniquely American art form progressed from ragtime, novelty, stride, boogie, bebop, and beyond, through Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Cecil Taylor, and Bill Charlap. A Natural History of the Piano distills a lifetime of research and passion into one brilliant narrative. We witness Mozart unveiling his monumental concertos in Vienna’s coffeehouses, using a special piano with one keyboard for the hands and another for the feet; European virtuoso Henri Herz entertaining rowdy miners during the California gold rush; Beethoven at his piano, conjuring healing angels to console a grieving mother who had lost her child; Liszt fainting in the arms of a page turner to spark an entire hall into hysterics. Here is the instrument in all its complexity and beauty. We learn of the incredible craftsmanship of a modern Steinway, the peculiarity of specialty pianos built for the Victorian household, the continuing innovation in keyboards including electronic ones. And most of all, we hear the music of the masters, from centuries ago and in our own age, brilliantly evoked and as marvelous as its most recent performance. With this wide-ranging volume, Isacoff gives us a must-have for music lovers, pianists, and the armchair musician.

Unique designs from a knitwear pro. “A mitten-covered thumbs-up to Knitting New Mittens [&] Gloves. It’s a nice blend of the classic and the funky” (Go Knit In Your Hat). Growing up in Cape Breton, on Canada’s Atlantic coast, knitwear designer Robin Melanson learned early on the importance of gloves and mittens in a harsh winter climate. Now this self-described “mitten and glove aficionado” shares her enthusiasm for these ordinary items by presenting 28 extraordinary ways to make them for year-round style. Featuring gloves, mittens, arm warmers, mitts, and fingerless gloves, this is the second book in a new STC Craft series that introduces innovative approaches to creating popular knitted items. Knitting New Mittens and Gloves combines traditional and untraditional techniques—as well as influences as far-flung as Gothic architecture, Estonian lace, and Wagnerian opera—in a winning collection of patterns for adults and children. From wool mittens filled with unspun fleece and arm warmers with leather laces, to cotton-mesh fingerless gloves and silk-beaded mitts to be worn as adornments, each design has an unexpected twist. Because they are small, quick to make, and don’t require a lot of yarn, mittens and gloves are perfect projects for knitting throughout the year, and they also offer an ideal opportunity for beginning and more seasoned knitters to experiment with new techniques, yarns, and styles. With its fresh, original sensibility, Knitting New Mittens and Gloves will captivate knitters of every level.