L’Acadie de L’Ile-du-Prince Édouard / The Acadians of Prince Edward Island
Publisher: Acorn Press$27.95This book on the Acadians of Prince Edward Island shows the cultural and historical importance of carefully documented and organized collections of photos. From some points of view this book is like an old-fashioned family album, except that it illustrates the ordinary life of not just one but many Acadian families.
Through My Looking Glass: Nova Scotia: 50 Year Photographic Retrospective 1973-2023
Photographer: Joseph RobichaudPublisher: Pottersfield Press$27.95Through My Looking Glass is the culmination of fifty years of documentary photography in Nova Scotia, spanning from 1973 to 2023. It chronicles a half-century of life in a province where the intertwining of diverse cultures and experiences creates a rich and multifaceted narrative. The striking images in this book reflect the many threads of Indigenous, Acadian, and Black experiences. The Mi’kmaq people, the original stewards of this land, have walked these shores for millennia, forging a deep connection with the natural world. Their resilience has shaped the province?s identity, and their stories are integral to understanding Nova Scotia?s historical and spiritual landscape.
Making a Life Twenty-Five Years of Hooking Rugs (pb)
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$34.95A paperback edition of the heartfelt memoir and coffee table book from beloved rug-hooking artist, featuring images of her favourite projects over the span of her career.
Abandoned Alberta
Photographer: Joe ChowaniecPublisher: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.$29.95The stunning images found in Abandoned Alberta offer a window into our past, showing life as it was then, and stirring in us the emotions of wonder and curiosity about those who have gone before us and the lives they lived. Joe Chowaniec started the Facebook page Abandoned Alberta in January 2017, which today has more than 26,000 members.
Alberta is in Joe Chowaniec’s blood, and you might say Abandoned Alberta is his love letter to the province. Where others may see only decay and rot in these long-forgotten locations, Chowaniec sees exquisite beauty.
Forgotten Saskatchewan
Publisher: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.$29.95From one of Saskatchewan’s great photographers comes Forgotten Saskatchewan. These stunning images offer a window into our past, showing life as it was then, and stirring in us the emotions of wonder and curiosity about those who have gone before us and the lives they lived. Forgotten Saskatchewan is a photographic journey. Come along for the ride. You’ll be glad you did.
Miramichi Dictionary
Editor: Herb CurtisPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$10.95A one-of-a-kind interpretive guide to the distinct dialect spoken in New Brunswick’s Miramichi region. Startin’ off with the “Ah, geez” of the letter A, “zacktly” all the way to the letter Z.
The Race to the Bottom How Scuba Diving in Nova Scotia Saved My Life
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95This is the story of one man’s hobby and its overwhelmingly positive effect physically, emotionally, socially, and mentally on his life. The hobby is scuba diving, but not on the reefs of southern seas. This is about diving in Halifax Harbour. Diving summer and winter in one of the biggest and deepest harbours in the world has given Bob a view of history that few will ever witness.
Inquisitive and energetic, the author spins yarns about the strange and fascinating objects he finds and the hair-raising moments he has experienced, from coming to the surface and seeing the boat drifting out of sight to arriving on the surface in a snowstorm and having to navigate by compass to find the shore.
The bottom of Halifax Harbour has collected artifacts over the centuries from around the world. Each find gets picked up, cleaned, researched, and documented. The author’s database is a gold mine of little details about what arrived, eventually got dumped into the ocean, and is now sitting on display at home and in museums as a reminder of what once was.
The author takes the reader under warships, container ships, and tugboats, through huge docks, and under the ice. Along the way, he reflects on the toll that our civilization is taking on the ocean, of seagulls trying to break open golf balls to find food, of crabs trapped inside tires, and fish that take refuge in castoff bottles and grow too big to stay in but also too big to get out.
The Painted Province Nova Scotia Through an Artist’s Eyes
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$24.95“I gain a strong sense of interconnectedness and belonging when I look at her work. There is a universality and humanity Joy finds every time.” —Sheree Fitch
Since 1972, Joy Laking has lived and painted in Nova Scotia, capturing beauty in watercolours, oils, and acrylics in many locations. She sees beauty in both the usual and the unusual. The Painted Province lets the reader see Nova Scotia through an artist’s eyes.
Here, Joy has grouped some of her favourite paintings into forty regions, each with her personal commentary. In each of the regions, one of the images will have its GPS coordinates. You are encouraged to bring this book along in your travels to find some of the places where she created paintings. When you discover the exact spot, please take a photo. Then email it to her and she will post it on her website.
Joy constantly finds ways to enhance her own creativity. Every year, she paints in unfamiliar countries, such as Bolivia, Ghana, India, and Sri Lanka, to return home to see Nova Scotia through fresh eyes. Joy has also written a play, children’s books, articles about rural life, and work for the CBC.
Mean Streets In Search of Forgotten Halifax, 1953-1967
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95Following the Second World War, a new generation of politicians and planners across North America set out to reimagine their cities. With great verve and vision, they conceived of brave new urban landscapes filled with elevated highways, modern housing, thriving businesses, and engaging public spaces. All it would take, they said, was a deep collective capacity to dream and a determined willingness to wipe away the past.
And the idea caught on.
With great enthusiasm, these politicians and planners set out to realize their grand vision. They proposed that cities tear down great swaths of their aged, derelict, and decaying homes; destroy antiquated, dilapidated buildings; and tear up sordid streets in an effort they called “slum clearance.” Of course, these “slums” were also communities often populated by the most vulnerable members of the city, the desperately poor and people of colour, those who had little power to make their own decisions and determine their own fate. The whole process was called urban renewal.
Sculpting Towards the Light
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95“Stone carving is a slow, meditative experience. The process can be transformative. Each of my projects has taken life’s rough moments and opens them up to the discovery of our shared humanity. The finished work may be the sculpture, but the creative process is never ending.”
Sculpting Towards the Light is an intimate and insightful story of a sculptor and his work. It follows the paths of imagination and activity which gave birth to a very unique work of art. The paths are diverse and unexpected, twisting into personal history, racing forward into the future, and then resting in the euphoric moments when the mind and its thoughts no longer exist and the carving occurs as if of its own accord.
The author writes, “There is a point in each sculpture where my energies collide. At first there is the initial inspirational emotion, full of conviction, demanding that I communicate its essence. The emotion has been concretely felt but the sculptural representation of that emotion remains vague. It is as if I am sleepwalking, unaware of where I am going. I can also feel playful in a place of excitement where there are no time pressures and few expectations. My mind becomes an elevator with predetermined automatic stops: journal writing, pencil sketches, listening to music, reading and meditative walking in nature. Eventually, a three-dimensional structure materializes from the midst of this contemplation.”
Here is a unique story about play and work, imagination and action. Costanzo looks at the past that has shaped him and his future as an artist working in an ancient medium, while the world races toward digital Armageddon.
Around the Province in 88 Days One Woman, Two Pairs of Sneakers and 3000 Kilometers of Nova Scotia Coastline
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95Early on a May morning, a young Nova Scotia woman straps on a small backpack and leaves the Halifax Common to start her journey along the coastal roads of Nova Scotia. Planning to cover almost a marathon a day, she will walk the perimeter of the entire province in just under three months to raise awareness for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Brigadoon Children’s Camp Society. She billets with locals each night and meets countless Nova Scotians who come out to walk with her, support her project, and tell their stories.
Along the way, fellow walkers share family folklore, tales of buried gold, lost fingers, and detailed instructions on how to catch a beaver by the tail. “We don’t wear make-up and we don’t dust,” explains one of the women Emily meets near Sable River, when asked how she found the time to rebuild the trails in her area and win the Community Spirit Award. Struggling with blisters, fatigue, and an encounter with a bear cub, Emily walks on, overwhelmed by the generosity of her hosts in each community and by the stunning coastal views at every turn. Around the Province in 88 Days details Emily’s beautiful and quirky experiences on the road as she develops an intimate connection with the province and its people, unsuspecting of the vast changes the trip will eventually set in motion in her own life.
Emily Taylor Smith has walked the perimeters of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, the coastlines of New Brunswick and the Gaspé Peninsula, and also completed a 100-kilometre walk from Halifax to Truro in nineteen hours. Born in Salisbury, New Brunswick, she moved to Nova Scotia to study theatre at Acadia University, and perform with the Atlantic Theatre Festival. She is the founder Local Tasting Tours, a culinary walking tour in Halifax. She currently lives in Dartmouth with her husband, their poodle Woody and Wilson the cat.
The Smeltdog Man
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95“I brushed the crumbs off of the fish and back onto the counter, threw the smelts in the frying pan while I got the eggs out of the fridge and cracked one.”
The Smeltdog Man is the story of how a Cape Bretoner marshalled his accidental invention, a marijuana-induced, munchie-inspired Smeltdog, into the most successful fast food franchise in Canada. As president of his newly formed Good Karma Corporation, he tells the tale of how his business empire grows beyond his control, turning him into a billionaire.
While the business booms and the narrator’s wisdom is being constantly tapped for new ideas and strategies, he consults his Granddaddy Blue, whose pragmatic mixture of horse-trader economics and 1960s hippie ideals provide his grandson with the guiding principles and necessary scams he needs to survive in the corporate world.
From the simplicity of its origins to the ecological disaster of its success, The Smeltdog Man details the influences of country music on our narrator’s understanding of himself, the longing of unrequited love and the accumulation of wealth possessing more zeros than our hero can count.
Signs of Life Images Formed from Words and Clay
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95Gerri Frager has spent much of her life working in the care of critically ill infants and children and integrating the arts into patient care and education. Poetry and pottery have each been a sanctuary during tough times as has noticing the everyday beauty found in nature. In Signs of Life: Images formed from Words and Clay, the author merges these passions to create a most unique and insightful book. Each poem is accompanied by an image of pottery created by Frager, one reflected in and mirroring the other. Signs of Life is a powerful exploration into matters of loss and love through poetry and pottery and the life experiences of a medical professional who has dedicated her life to healing and comforting those she works with.
Acting Up
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95This is a book about life and this is a book about acting.
Exploring Shakespeare’s dictum, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players,” Bill Carr proves it isn’t just dramatic hyperbole but true. During his life, Bill has tried to live authentically while being very conscious he was acting. We are all acting, he claims, and some are better actors than others.
The same skills that work on the stage also work in life. Each requires the same attention to detail and a co-ordination of the inner life with the outer manifestation of that life. So Bill decided to improve his use of theatre techniques to better manage his own life. Now he shares those discoveries with readers.
Through exercises in the Play Journal and relating (often hilariously) his own life lessons, Bill will help you take the performance of your life to the next level – whatever you conceive that to be. Acting Up is about self-creation, taking control of the creative energies in and around you to be who you want to be in any given moment on your life’s stage. It asks you to follow Socrates’ advice, “Know thyself,” and challenges you to manifest that self in each moment. This is no easy task, but the alternative can be too costly.
The ideas here are gifts Bill received throughout his life from mystics, philosophers, seers, artists and seekers, who, like him, have experimented along the way, each offering bits and pieces that resulted in this book. Acting Up is part of an ongoing experiment in living. As you take part in the exercises, you join a company of artists dedicated to the adventure of self-discovery and, ultimately, self-expression. Perform your life as it was meant to be performed. It’s your show, so start acting up.
The Frenchy’s Connection
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$13.95With a wonderful dash of humour, the authors take us on a trip for fashion that doesn’t cost the earth.
The Little Book of Nova Scotia
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$18.95Journey through the incredible landscape of Nova Scotia with award-winning photojournalist Len Wagg. Experience all the colours of one of this scenic paprovince in this travel-friendly book. Features 85 photos with captions.
Stay the Blazes Home Dispatches from Nova Scotia during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Photographer: Len WaggPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and life, at that moment, changed drastically for every Nova Scotian.
People were ordered to practice physical distancing. Everyday tasks like grocery shopping were suddenly fraught with challenges. Travellers scrambled to get home before the borders closed, and were then ordered to self-quarantine. Hospitals and health-care facilities prepared for a potential influx of critically ill patients. Through it all, Nova Scotians reacted with kindness and empathy, and came to recognize their everyday heroes—from grocery clerks to delivery drivers to the doctors and nurses on the front lines. But tales of some who flouted the rules arose. During a daily media briefing, Premier Stephen McNeil made the spirit of the order perfectly clear: “Stay the blazes home.”
Through dozens of powerful stories that illuminate the generosity and ingenuity of Nova Scotians, Stay the Blazes Home captures the many ways Nova Scotians adapted to and embraced life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring photographs by author and award-winning photographer Len Wagg, in addition to submitted images from all over the province, Stay the Blazes Home serves as a record of the resilience and the spirit of Nova Scotians in a time of crisis. Portions of the proceeds from this book will be donated to local mental health initiatives.
Canada Above & Beyond
Photographer: George FischerPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$32.95One of the country’s most celebrated photographers brings Canada to vivid life with this brand new aerial photography book, featuring spreads of all thirteen provinces and territories, as well as detailed captions that add local colour. From the Rocky Mountains and the True North to the outports of Newfoundland, and the Prairie, great lakes, and rugged terrain and cityscapes in between, Canada: Above & Beyond is a cross-country tour for locals and tourists alike.
A Sea Glass Journey Ebb and Flow
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95A Sea Glass Journey is your go-to resource for everything sea glass. Sea glass collector and artist Teri Hall describes the origins of sea glass, where the best glass is found, a handbook of sea glass shapes and colours, and tips for easy, fun sea glass projects. Includes 50 colour photographs.
Somebeachsomewhere A Harness Racing Legend from a One-Horse Stable
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$26.95It’s November 2006 and Brent MacGrath, a car salesman from Nova Scotia, has just had his first glimpse of a gorgeous yearling at the Lexington Yearling Sale—and his heart skips a beat. He takes another look. Even this young, the bay stallion has size and “presence.” Against all odds, and with limited funds, MacGrath makes a successful bid for the colt.
Somebeachsomewhere: The Harness Racing Legend from a One-Horse Stable is a work of narrative non-fiction that follows the life and career of the Ohio-born, Canadian-sired superstar pacer known as “Beach” who belonged to a syndicate of six owners from Canada’s East Coast. From a relatively humble lineage, Somebeachsomewhere turned out to be a horse of a lifetime: a world-champion Hall of Famer, smashing records and setting a single-season earning record as a three-year-old. Many consider Beach, who died unexpectedly in 2018, the greatest pacer and Standardbred sire of all time. Canadian and American racing fans loved the friendly stallion with “an extra gear,” and threw “Beach Parties” whenever he raced.
This is the first-ever complete, generously illustrated account of “the Beach,” a horse who captivated the world with his speed, courage and near-flawless gait. It is also a story of improbabilities and magic, featuring dozens of interviews with top American and Canadian horsemen and women, the owners of Empire Stallions in Avenel, Australia, and harness racing industry professionals.
Are You Kidding Me?! Collector’s Edition Chronicles of an Ordinary Life
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95For the first time, bestselling novelist, columnist, and humorist Lesley Crewe’s finest newspaper columns are collected in one place.
Not merely razor sharp, Lesley’s wit is also ocean wide, taking in everything from the humiliations of breast pumping to the indignities of aging, from the frantic excess of holiday preparations to the homey irritations of a long marriage.
As precise in her observations as Jane Austen and as fractious on occasion as Oscar the Grouch, Crewe also has a sweet, tender centre, taking us from a hearty laugh to a good cry in a single paragraph. Readers will relate to Crewe’s ache at missing her mom, her nostalgia for her childhood, her frustrations at raising teenagers, and her impatience for terrible parking lot etiquette in equal measure. The book spans sixteen years’ worth of columns for The Cape Bretoner Magazine, Cahoots Magazine, and The Chronicle Herald.
Are You Kidding Me?! is a side-splitting, heartwarming, Cape Breton–flavoured celebration of the little things.
An exclusive Collector’s Edition featuring—not even kidding!—bonus material:
A bookplate, signed by Lesley Crewe
A letter from Lesley to her fans
An essay about how Lesley’s writing career began
A Q&A between Lesley and her long-time editor
A brand-new bonus columnThe Little Book of Peggys Cove and the South Shore
Photographer: Len WaggPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$18.95Journey through the incredible landscape of Peggys Cove and Nova Scotia’s South Shore with award-winning photojournalist Len Wagg. These remarkable photos capture immense beauty from Peggys Cove, the Cape Forchu lighthouse in Yarmouth, and everything in between from dawn until twilight. See the Kingsburg beach campfire under the Milky Way, The Bluenose II leaving port in Lunenburg, and the iconic Mahone Bay waterfront adorned with pumpkin people. Go island-hopping in the Tusket Islands, see above the Kejimkujik Seaside Adjunct, and watch piping plover chicks frolicking on White Point Beach. Experience all the colours of one of the most scenic parts of Nova Scotia in this travel-friendly book.
Features 85 photos with captions and a foreword from popular Nova Scotia writer Silver Donald Cameron.
Are You Kidding Me?! Chronicles of an Ordinary Life
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95For the first time, sixteen years’ worth of Cape Bretoner Lesley Crewe’s finest newspaper columns are collected in one place. The bestselling novelist, columnist and humorist employs a sharp, versatile wit, anchored by a tender centre, to bring readers laughter and tears. Crewe celebrates life, and all its warts, in this side-splitting, heartwarming collection.
All ‘Bout Canada A Compendium of Canadiana
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95This fun, informative celebration of Canada is a combination rhyming alphabet book and compendium of factual information about Canada from “Aurora Borealis” to “Zellers” that uses a blend of poetry, prose, posters, jokes, and quizzes—many with a humorous twist—to educate and inform a diverse readership.
Canada:150 Panoramas (pb)
Photographer: George FischerPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95From frosty Mount Logan in the Yukon to the salty shores of Newfoundland, George Fischer’s stunning landscape photography celebrates the diverse appeal of every province and territory in Canada. With a chapter devoted to each region, Fischer captures the rugged natural beauty, vibrant city life, and abundant flora and fauna of this wide country.
Short, narrative introductions accompany the stunning spreads and include brief historical anecdotes, interesting facts, provincial/territorial flowers, mottos, and capitals, and the date each province/territory joined Confederation. The perfect way to celebrate Canada’s 150th, Canada: 150 Panoramas is an essential collection for any photography lover, whether they call Canada home, or wish they did.
Nova Scotia Folk Art An Illustrated Guide
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95There may be many folk artists in Canada, but there is only one integrated folk art scene: the one in Nova Scotia.
Classic folk art is the work of artists who did not think of themselves as artists, who made art that they never considered to be art at all. There were no festivals, no galleries, and no touring exhibitions when they started—just a sign by the side of the road, a painted house, or colourful sculptures in the yard to attract the attention of passers-by. Today in Nova Scotia, contemporary folk art has become a distinct style, one which stresses individual creativity over collective utility. The maker, and their stories, is central to the appeal.
Written by former Art Gallery of Nova Scotia curator Ray Cronin, Nova Scotia Folk Art features profiles of fifty artists—some obscure and some well known—from the first, second, and third waves of folk art. The list includes Barry Colpitts, Laura Kenney, Ralph Boutilier, Craig Naugler, Joseph Norris, and Maud Lewis. With more than 150 colour images, this illustrated guide explores the exhibitions, collections, and festivals that allowed a group of Nova Scotia artists to move their creations from the roadside to the museum, and in so doing to create its own genre: Nova Scotia Folk Art.
The Book of Selkie A Paper Doll Book
Artist: Briana Corr ScottPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95Stories about the selkie have been told for hundreds of years by those who live near the North Atlantic and North Sea. Sometimes called “seal folk,” the selkie, as humans, are tall and strong with dark hair and eyes. Extremely private, they keep their seal coats hidden away until they get restless and are called to the sea, and take on their seal forms.
In her lyrical follow-up to She Dreams of Sable Island, artist and author Briana Corr Scott explores the Selkie legend in a book of short, whimsical poems. Find out what Selkie likes to eat, where she lives, how she spends her time on land and in the sea, and learn a Selkie lullaby. Lilting and lyrical, with acrylic paintings that recall the ocean?s depths, this magical book is ideal for both bedtime and playtime. Features a paper doll, clothes, and seal.
Ultimate African Heritage Quiz 10th Anniversary edition
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95The Ultimate African Heritage Quiz Book will test your knowledge of the many notable people, places, and events that have shaped African culture in the Maritimes. Based on the immensely popular African Heritage Youth Quiz contest held at Halifax North Memorial Public Library every year, The Ultimate African Heritage Quiz Book is a great way to bring the fun and excitement of the game home.
Packed with over three hundred questions about black literary figures, civil rights leaders, sports stars, historical events, and a wide variety of other topics, The Ultimate African Heritage Quiz Book is sure to challenge and entertain trivia fans of all ages and ethnicities.
