Working from Home for a Harmonious Life
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Since Luc Desroches began working from his home office in 2016, he has been writing about how the move has allowed him to create a more harmonious life for both himself and his family. This book was mostly written pre-COVID-19, when working from home was more the exception than the rule. With almost every employee on the planet being encouraged to work from home where possible, COVID-19 has made the necessary transition from office to home more important than ever. Although there’s an explosion of teleworking articles with best practice tips, the author delves much deeper into the personal experience as he reflects on the values and teachings of the Mi’kmaq people who have worked from their homes for over ten thousand years.
The deeper messages of the book are perennial, which is what we need as we face unprecedented challenges. Now is an opportunity for millions of people to make a more informed decision on whether they should continue working from home or return to their pre-COVID workplaces. Now is a potential tipping point that could lead to a happier and healthier life for the individual and for society as a whole.
Doing Time Writing Workshops in Prison
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Poetry can address our most intimate, frightened, hopeful selves. Langille found this to be true as she introduced poems to men and women in prison and gave writing assignments based on the discussions these poems inspired. Over and over participants shared private moments of self-awareness. The support they gave each other and the stories they told were profound. This book puts to rest many of the myths we have about inmates. It confirms both that people cannot be reduced to their worst deeds and that creative expression has a central place in the process of rehabilitation. Most pointedly, Langille’s work reveals how, by failing the men and women behind bars, the prison system harms us all.
Participants in these workshops were complicated people. As Bryan Stevenson, an attorney who fights for the wrongfully accused on death row, says, “People are more than the worst thing we’ve ever done … Even if you kill someone, you’re not just a killer.” Doing Time makes us rethink the myths we have about inmates and gives us insights into the force of trauma and the power of dignity. We get a glimpse of what goes on in a prison system and we learn, as Langille learned, from the men and women she worked with.
The Tides of Time
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95Set in northeastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, The Tides of Time: A Nova Scotia Book of Seasons paints vivid portraits of contemporary labourers whose harvests mark the rhythms of the seasonal year. Each of the twelve monthly chapters tells the story of a labour unique to that month, including jobs like tuna fishing, cranberry farming, maple syrup production, sheep farming, beekeeping, lobster fishing, and foraging for wild mushrooms. Stewart revitalizes an older, contemplative view of the sacredness of time. In keeping with the genre of nature writing, her book offers a meticulous way of looking at the world as she blends first-hand observations of seasonal change with stories of the labourers. The Tides of Time offers a refuge from the rush of urban life. It turns to the seasons, rural life and literature for an alternative mode of time, which is fluid, rhythmic, and gentle. The symplicity is there—close at hand.
Redemption Songs How Bob Marley’s Nova Scotia Song Lights the Way Past Racism
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95Redemption Songs tells the extraordinary story of how one of Bob Marley’s greatest songs was born in Nova Scotia. It opens with Marley’s live acoustic performance of Redemption Song at the end of his life, and reveals that the core lyric comes from a speech Marcus Garvey delivered in Sydney, Nova Scotia, in 1937.
Don’t Panic How to Manage your Finances and Financial Anxieties During and After Coronavirus
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95As soon as the COVID-19 global pandemic hit North America, Licensed Financial Advisor Christine Ibbotson, syndicated “Ask the Money Lady” columnist and recent author of How to Retire Debt-Free and Wealthy, started receiving hundreds of emails from concerned citizens. Should I sell off my stocks? How should I budget my spending during a temporary work stoppage? Is a mortgage payment holiday a really good thing—what’s the catch? How can we use this situation to make money and lower debt?
Ibbotson has worked quickly and diligently in the face of this global financial crisis to provide readers in Canada, the US, and UK with a collection of thoughtful responses to, and practical advice for, their most pressing concerns. Topics include what help banks and governments can offer during the pandemic, what we can learn from past financial crises, how to financially secure your future—including pent-up demand that will turn the markets, and best investment and lending strategies—and how to create a financial plan and move your finances in a different direction, ultimately leading to a safe and secure—and maybe even early—retirement.
Truth & Honour (new edition) The Oland Family Murder Case that Shocked Canada
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95Updated and expanded edition of national bestseller detailing the high-profile murder of Saint John businessman Richard Oland and the trial of his son Dennis Oland.
Truth and Honour explores the 2011 murder of Saint John businessman Richard Oland, of the prominent family that owns Moosehead Breweries, the ensuing police investigation and the arrest, trial, and conviction of the victim’s son Dennis Oland for second-degree murder.
Oland’s trial would be the most publicized in New Brunswick history. What the trial judge called “a family tragedy of Shakespearian proportions,” this real-life murder mystery included adultery, family dysfunction, largely circumstantial evidence, allegations of police incompetence, a high-powered legal defence, and a verdict that shocked the community.
Today, the Oland family maintains Dennis Oland’s innocence. Author Greg Marquis, a professor of Canadian history at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, leads readers through the case, from the discovery of the crime to the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. Offering multiple perspectives, Truth and Honour explores this question: was Dennis Oland responsible for the death of his father?
This updated edition features a new chapter following Dennis’s imprisonment and successful 2016 appeal, his subsequent retrial, and controversial acquittal in July 2019.
How to Retire Debt-Free and Wealthy A Finance Coach Reveals the Secrets, Tips, and Techniques of How Clients Become Millionaires
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95For most people, planning for the future is usually last on the to-do list. They simply wait to long to save and plan—and then panic. Licensed Financial Advisor Christine Ibbotson offers accessible and realistic guidelines in a series of achievable steps, from debt elimination to wealth management. Ibbotson’s book is sure to leave readers with all the tools and techniques to create an easy-to-follow financial plan.
Before the Parade A History of Halifax’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Communities, 1972-1984
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Before the Parade traces the beginnings of Halifax’s gay, lesbian, and bisexual community. Journalist and activist Rebecca Rose melds insights and perspectives from the people at the forefront with a thoroughly researched, narrative history. Rose brings her queer femme, feminist perspective to this compelling—and never before told—history of Halifax’s early LGB community.
First Degree From Med School to Murder: The Story Behind the Shocking Will Sandeson Trial
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95A murder, a missing body, and a sensational trial that shocked the community. Will Sandeson seemed like a model son. A member of the Dalhousie University track and field team, he was about to start classes at Dalhousie’s medical school. He had attended a medical school in the Caribbean; he worked at a group home for adults with disabilities. “There’s times for whatever reason that things don’t go quite as planned,” a Halifax police officer told Sandeson shortly after he was arrested for the first-degree murder of Taylor Samson, who also, on the surface, seemed like a model son.
Samson lived in a fraternity house near Dalhousie, and when the six-foot-five physics student disappeared without a trace, the focus eventually turned to Sandeson. Sandeson’s trial, blown open by a private investigator accused of switching sides, exposed a world of drugs, ambition, and misplaced loyalties. Through interviews with friends and relatives, as well as transcripts of the trial and Sandeson’s police interrogation, award-winning journalist Kayla Hounsell paints a complex portrait of both the victim and killer, two young men who seemed destined for bright futures. First Degree includes previously unpublished photos and details never made public until now.
Truth and Honour The Death of Richard Oland and the Trial of Dennis Oland
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Truth and Honour explores the 2011 murder of Saint John businessman Richard Oland, of the prominent family that owns Moosehead Breweries, the ensuing police investigation and the arrest, trial, and conviction of the victim’s son, Dennis Oland, for second degree murder.
Oland’s trial would be the most publicized in New Brunswick history. What the trial judge called “a family tragedy of Shakespearian proportions,” this reallife murder mystery included adultery, family dysfunction, largely circumstantial evidence, allegations of police incompetence, a high-powered legal defence, and a verdict that shocked the community.
Today, the Oland family maintains Dennis Oland’s innocence. Author Greg Marquis, a professor of Canadian history at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, leads readers through the case, from the discovery of the crime to the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. Offering multiple perspectives, Truth and Honour explores this question: was Dennis Oland responsible for the death of his father?
This updated edition features a new chapter following Dennis’s imprisonment and successful 2016 appeal, and raises questions about his anticipated retrial.
Truth and Honour The Death of Richard Oland and the Trial of Dennis Oland
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95Truth and Honour explores the 2011 murder of Saint John businessman Richard Oland, of the prominent family that owns Moosehead Breweries, the ensuing police investigation and the arrest, trial, and conviction of the victim’s son, Dennis Oland, for second degree murder.
Oland’s trial would be the most publicized in New Brunswick history. What the trial judge called “a family tragedy of Shakespearian proportions,” this reallife murder mystery included adultery, family dysfunction, largely circumstantial evidence, allegations of police incompetence, a high-powered legal defence, and a verdict that shocked the community.
Today, the Oland family maintains Dennis Oland’s innocence. Author Greg Marquis, a professor of Canadian history at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, leads readers through the case, from the discovery of the crime to the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. Offering multiple perspectives, Truth and Honour explores this question: was Dennis Oland responsible for the death of his father?
Warmth of the Welcome
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$27.95The allure of Atlantic Canada has been widely publicized to assorted, targeted groups alongside colourful pictures of stunning seascapes. Communities in Atlantic Canada have promoted the region’s purportedly high quality of life, contrasting it with the challenges of “big city” life. In the pitch to newcomers, healthy and safe communities and a lower cost of living, including lower housing prices, are featured in the hope that these considerations will entice immigrants to move to, and make new homes in the region. But for immigrants especially, how much of this is rhetoric, and how much of this is reality? Is Atlantic Canada truly welcoming, and what really makes it a home away from home for newcomers in the region?
The chapters in this volume underscore that a welcoming environment consists not simply of ordinary people’s reception of, and encounters with, newcomers and immigrants in everyday life. Beyond this human “warmth of the welcome” in official literature and by the general public, there are also several institutional and structural layers that constitute and frame such a welcoming environment: favourable political economic conditions; receptive community relations including inter-ethnic group relations; the existence of local, national and transnational family networks; and the presence of policies and practices that not only concern immigration, settlement and integration, but also around such issues as adequate, accessible, affordable housing or childcare. These layers of welcome for immigrants and newcomers ultimately lead and correspond to the dimensions of a broadly defined notion of encompassing the intertwined and interrelated economic, social, political and emotional dimensions and processes of citizenship.
The Rosary and the Rifle The Murder of Mary Ann MacKinnon
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95On July 1, 1931, Mary Ann MacAulay married John Charles ‘JC’ MacKinnon at St. Mary’s Church in Souris, PEI. This mother of 12 children was a busy farmer’s wife, known for her optimistic outlook. Her optimism shone through her weekly column in The Charlottetown Patriot entitled “Mrs. Wiggs and Her Garden Patch”. Mrs. Wiggs’ writings not only identify her as an astute observer and chronicler of local events, educational issues, agricultural practices, and economic issues but also that Mary Ann was one of Mother Nature’s admirers and a person inclined to optimism where it could be found.
Mary Ann’s oldest child, Estelle, was 19 years old in 1951. A very attractive young lady, Estelle had graduated from Grade 11. Not long afterward, she was assaulted by an ex-boyfriend, Joey MacDonald, who was about to be tried for attempted rape. Before the trial, Mary Ann and family sat down to say the Rosary. About half way through, they heard glass breaking and first thought it was the chimney of the Aladdin lamp. Immediately when the sound was heard, Mary Ann swayed on her seat and fell backward. Her family members saw blood coming from behind her left ear and they then realized she had been shot. Mary Ann died on the second anniversary of her husband’s death leaving behind eleven orphaned children.
This is the story of the trial of Joey MacDonald and the family Mary Ann left behind.
The Sniger and the Floose
Artist: Katie BrosnanPublisher: Running the Goat$13.99On a very Random Island
in the North Atlantic Sea,
some very Randomanimals
are hiding in the trees…
So begins Ashley Fayth’s delightful nonsense poem in which readers meet a range of “wild and wondrous” beasts—like the sniger, the floose, the squiffin, and the butterflabbit. With its playful rhymes and rollicking rhythm, this book is a perfect read-aloud. Yet even in its silliest moments, The Sniger and the Floose is a gentle reminder to respect and preserve the beauty of the natural world around us, and a joyous celebration of imagination.
Fighting for Change
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95This book is about Black social workers breaking barriers and fighting for change, not only for themselves as professionals, but also for their clients and communities. These workers tell their own unique stories in this volume, from gaining entry to social work education to their experiences in social work. They also write about the strategies that made a difference in their lives and the lives of the people they work with.
The first section tells the story of Black Social Workers’ entry into the profession and chronicles the poignant story of the life, and eventual death, of the Association of Black Social Workers in Montreal from where it spread to Halifax. In the second section, seasoned Black social workers, each trailblazers in their own right, tell their narratives of studying social work and beginning practice in Halifax in the late 1970s to early 1990s.
The third section spotlights current students who relate stories of their reasons for entering the social work profession and the barriers they face as they pursue their future career goals. The fourth section focuses on Africentric perspectives and puts forward some findings from exploratory research in this area. The final section explores experiences in a social work program which uses the media to expose students to cultures different from their own as well as some of the students’ experiences in interrogating the media itself.
Refugees & Forced Migration: The Canadian Perspective An A-Z Guide
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Although refugees have been pushed into the spotlight over the past few years, particularly as a result of the Syrian crisis, they are never far from public consciousness or policy debates. Based on years of close community and academic involvement in local, national, and international refugee affairs, Drs. Catherine Baillie Abidi and Shiva Nourpanah have created an accessible A-to-Z reference book focused on raising awareness on refugee and forced migration issues in Canada, with a specific focus on Atlantic Canada. Defining key concepts, from “asylum seeker” to “Generation Z,” this accessible guide is situated within a critical framework, acknowledging Canada’s complex immigration history.
This one-of-a-kind guide will be an extremely useful tool for refugee aid and settlement practitioners and advocacy groups, as well as for all Canadians eager to better understand the realities of refugees and forced migrants. Includes over 40 photographs by local refugee and settlement artists.
Somebody’s Daughter
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95First released in 1996, Somebody’s Daughter takes us inside the lives of real players in Canada’s prostitution game. This book is about what we don’t know about prostitution and perhaps what we don’t want to know; what goes on inside that violent underworld know as The Game, and who the girls in the tight skirts really are. Author and reporter Phonse Jessome traces the short careers of several young girls actively recruited by pimps and describes the anti-pimping efforts of law enforcers who work to get teenage girls out the The Games and off the streets.
An Introduction to Island Studies
Publisher: Island Studies Press$39.95An Introduction to Island Studies examines the key issues concerning islands today: tourism, economic change and development, geopolitics, climate change, epidemiology, and migration. This introductory textbook will help students and instructors develop a more comprehensive understanding and appreciation of island issues and the lessons they provide for our global society.
Talk About Sex
Editor: Robert StewartPublisher: Cape Breton University Press$27.95Yeats once wrote that “only two topics can be of the least interest to a serious and studious mood–sex and the dead.” While Talk About Sex foregoes any discussion of death, it explores sex from myriad angles from a wide array of disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, political science, women’s studies, literature and social work.
Included are discussions ranging from sexual classification –about sexual orientation, gender and sexual desires –to the ways in which sex, love and relationships are connected. Talk About Sex also ponders the extent to which technology has had an impact on sex and considers whether this impact is positive or negative and asks questions about various aspects of sexual activities. Can commercial sex ever be non-exploitative? What does transsexualism tell us about gender identity and authenticity?
Little Black Lies
Publisher: Heritage Group Distribution$16.95Beginning in 1967 and for just over 30 years, the oil industry toiled in the relative obscurity of Northern Alberta as machines peeled away earth and boreal forest to exhume what has now become one of humanity’s most precious and contentious resources: bitumen. As the years passed, the bitumen mines sprawled, poisonous tailings ponds spread, toxins polluted the environment, cancer reared its head downstream and the price of petroleum soared beyond all expectations.
As plans continue to build the Keystone and Northern Gateway pipelines, a growing number of scientists, journalists, First Nations and environmentalists are fighting to raise the alarm about the implications and propaganda surrounding the world’s largest energy project.
In his second RMB Manifesto, Jeff Gailus dissects the global war on truth that has come to define the battle for oil. It is a battle fought not with bullets and bombs but with a dark web of Little Black Lies that poses a threat not only to environmental and human health, but to our moral and social well-being.
