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Prince Edward Island Seafood : Local Fare, Global Flavours
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Paul Lucas is the executive chef of a world-famous seafood restaurant on the Charlottetown waterfront. He draws on local, classical, and international flavours to inspire and create original true fusion cuisine that is truly his own. He lives in Stratford with wife Bethany and their two children.
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Vet Behind the Years
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Bud Ings was born in 1926 on Prince Edward Island and graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph, ON. He practised in rural King’s County, was a Liberal member of the legislative assembly, and served as agriculture and health ministers. A long-time member of the Queens County Fiddlers, Bud lives in Montague.
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Revenge of the Lobster Lover A Shores Mystery
Publisher: Acorn Press$22.95It’s lobster season at The Shores, a fishing village isolated from The Island in a storm surge. Parker, a collector of antiquities, has moved there with his partner Guillaume, a chef just out of rehab. “Hy” McAllister, a website writer looking for lobster recipes for a client’s newsletter, also needs a speaker for her Women’s Institute meeting. Enter Camilla, founder of the Lobster Liberation Legion, spouting crustacean right-to-life rhetoric. The legion starts freeing lobsters from their traps, angering the villagers and the man who runs Parker’s fisheries empire. In the tragic events that follow, the hidden connection between Parker, Guillaume and Camilla reveals itself.
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Afternoon Horses
Publisher: Acorn Press$16.95Deirdre Kessler teaches creative writing and children’s literature at the University of Prince Edward Island. Her poetry has appeared in a number of collections, including The New Poets of Prince Edward Island and Landmarks: An Anthology of New Atlantic Canadian Poetry of the Land, and in chapbook form: Subtracting by Seventeen. She is the author of five children’s novels, including the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Award-winning Brupp Rides Again, and six picture books, including perennial favourites Lobster in My Pocket, and Lena and the Whale.
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Fixer-Upper
Publisher: Acorn Press$16.95Funnyman Lorne Elliott’s take on Island life. When Bruno MacIntyre decides to rent his ramshackle cottage to summer tourists, the wacky merriment begins. Lorne Elliott, comic master of mirth and mayhem, takes us to Savage Bay on the south shore of Prince Edward Island, where the hapless Bruno turns to his clever and caustic Aunt Tillie for help in securing tenants. First, the cottage, inherited with a bad reputation from Bruno’s ne’r-do-well father, must be renovated. Then, Bruno must duel with his aunt’s wry insults and sly plans, a sardonic would-be author, and two torrid tenants. Elliott’s celebrated gifts for sharp-witted repartee and vivid characterizations are in full force. So, too, are Elliott’s keen eye and ear for our fumbling aspirations, bittersweet banterings, self-deceptions, hard-won wisdom, surprising tenderness, and zany outcomes. The Fixer-Upper–the novella adaptation of his play, Tourist Trap–is classic Lorne Elliott, with a brash and cheeky Maritime flavour.
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Shades of Green
Editor: Brent MacLainePublisher: Acorn Press$16.95Brent MacLaine is Professor of English and a 3M Teaching Fellow at the University of Prince Edward Island where he teaches twentieth-century literature. He was born and grew up in the rural community of Rice Point, PEI, to which he returned after teaching at universities in Vancouver, Edmonton, China, and Singapore. In addition to numerous articles on modern literature and the literature of Atlantic Canada, he has published two volumes of poetry, Wind and Root (Vehicule 2000) and These Fields Were Rivers (Goose Lane 2004). He has also edited with Hugh MacDonald Landmarks: an Anthology of New Atlantic Canadian Poetry of the Land (Acorn 2001).
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House of Bears
Publisher: Acorn Press$22.95When Luba Kassim reluctantly returns home to Northern Ontario, the strained relationship with her traditional Ukrainian mother only heightens her feelings of alienation and isolation. A family crisis reunites her extended family and reignites old rivalries and the pain of long-held family secrets. Slowly, Luba begins piecing together her family’s unspoken past, starting in the 1930s in Ukraine, followed by emigration to England and settlement in Canada. In the process, she uncovers some startling truths about her own identity, and learns that she and her mother have much more in common than she thinks.
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Along Lot Seven Shore
Publisher: Acorn Press$14.95Often, folksongs are left to stand alone, with no record as to the events, visions and principles that inspired them. Rarely do we get a glimpse of the poet’s view of the community and people he or she writes about. However, Donnie Doyle, in wanting to give something back to his community, has done just that. Along Lot Seven Shore is a fascinating combination of memoir, anecdote, narrative song and poetry, created by someone who has experienced that which he has written. In so doing, he shares glimpses of a way of life that makes and defines “community”; this particular community happens to be along Lot Seven Shore of Prince Edward Island (named so when the Island was divided into 67 lots and given in a Land Lottery to the English King’s patrons in 1767), but it could be anywhere in rural Canada.
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A Long Way From the Road
Publisher: Acorn Press$13.95A collection of 77 anecdotes, this book is humorous and sardonic, insightful and witty, with the warmth and charm for which Atlantic Canada has become famous. Subjects that come under the microscope include politics, religion, sex, human foibles, and insularity that can come from living on a small island.
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North Shore of Home
Publisher: Acorn Press$18.95Since it was first published in 1986, Frank Ledwell’s The North Shore of Home has had an enduring place in Island literature. In warm-hearted prose and poetry, in a voice keenly tuned to the music of Prince Edward Island English, Ledwell explores the Island’s North Shore, and especially the richly historied community of St. Peter’s Bay. Taken together, his poems and stories create a portrait of a community surviving through the Depression and the Second World War – a community at the Island’s edge and at the very cusp of the dramatic changes that would affect all small Prince Edward Island communities in the postwar years.
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Island Sketchbook
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95With characteristic warmth, generosity, and humour, Frank Ledwell seamlessly weaves personal memoir and communal folk wisdom into 60 prose sketches of Island characters, anecdotes, and traditions. The stories are based on real people or incidents; others are fictionalized, evoking the true, remembered landscape of Ledwell’s childhood at St. Peter’s Bay on the North Shore of Prince Edward Island, his experience as a student, teacher, and professor at St. Dunstan’s University, and his later life as a professor, husband, and parent in rural Queen’s County. The sketches also evoke the author’s love of people and place and mark his point of view as that of an inveterate Islander.
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Who Departed This Life
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95George Wright has had a long history of interest in the Burying Ground, with at least nine direct ancestors buried there (great-great-great- and great-great-grandparents). The launch of the book coincides with the 150th anniversary of the founding of the City of Charlottetown.
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Kindred Spirits
Publisher: Acorn Press$24.95Who is your kindred spirit? Who kindles the fire in your soul?
Driven by curiosity about her own intense friendships and soul-to-soul connections, Dianne Hicks Morrow devoted the last 10 years to asking Atlantic Canadians these questions.
In Kindred Spirits, people as diverse as composer Norman Campbell, lyricist Elaine Campbell, country doctor Jim Bowen, author Sheree Fitch, photographer Freeman Patterson, comedian dentist Marina Sexton, theatre director Duncan McIntosh, minister Elizabeth Stevenson, university president Wade MacLauchlan, and actor Deb Allen reveal their passionate connections to the people, places, and animals that inspire their deepest trust, their most intimate contact, and their unconditional love.
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Bridging Islands
Editor: Godfrey BaldacchinoPublisher: Acorn Press$29.95An island is a piece of land surrounded by water. But: what happens when bridges, causeways, tunnels- “fixed links”- irrevocably connect islands to mainlands? Is insularity, and its way of life, threatened? Or is it saved by virtue of a stronger integration with the world at large?Bridging Islands is a critical, interdisciplinary scoreboard of the pros and cons of bridging islands to mainlands. Internationally recognized scholars review the assorted socio-cultural, economic and political impacts of fixed links on small island communities. Included are chapters on Prince Edward Island’s Confederation Bridge (celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007), Cape Breton’s Canso Causeway, islands in Quebec and Newfoundland, the Florida Keys, Ireland, France, Scotland, Sweden, and Singapore.
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Taste of Water
Publisher: Acorn Press$15.95The taste of water is something we all know but need to be reminded of once in a while: how it tastes of shared memory, and of what it means to be human, and of the earth.Prince Edward Island’s second Poet Laureate, Frank Ledwell, invites us to enter his words and world, seeking to share a sense of our common humanity and our interdependent fates, and to recognize communal experience in the particularities of personal experience.The traditional role of the Poet Laureate is to mark occasions, and Ledwell’s poems masterfully make quotidian Island events and lives into special occasions that sing with the “spirit of the spoken word taking hold.”
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Quilts of Prince Edward Island
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$35.00Thoroughly researched and beautifully presented, this book documents the story of quilt making on Prince Edward Island.
In September 1991, Sherrie Davidson began the Heirloom Quilt Survey on PEI. Her goal was to document and preserve the rich island history of quilt making from its beginning in the 1700s to 1970. After almost twenty years, this book, Quilts of Prince Edward Island, is the result
In her quest, Davidson visited over one hundred island homes, each containing memories, often very personal, of family life on PEI through the years. Quilts of Prince Edward Island offers examples of every aspect of island quiltmaking and also documents the story of island quilt making over the past three centuries.
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Prince Edward Island
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95In Prince Edward Island, Wayne Bartett and Anne MacKay take us on a spectacular photographic journey across Canada’s smallest province. See the Island during all four seasons, atop the sand dunes at Greenwich, along the scenic Confederation Trail, past the winding coasts and rolling farmland, and onto the Island’s famous sand beaches.
Over 75 full-colour photographs reveal the rich colours of a distinctive landscape and the warmth of a proud people. Wayne and Anne have spent much of their lives capturing images of PEI, and this collection of photographs reflect their love of the island’s natural beauty.
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Prince Edward Island: An Illustrated History
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95In Prince Edward Island: An Illustrated History, Douglas Baldwin takes the reader on a journey through the incidents and events that have shaped the province and its inhabitants throughout their development, from the first Aboriginal presence over 11,000 years ago, to the arrival of European settlers in the early eighteenth century, to the Charlottetown Conference of 1864, to the opening of the Confederation Bridge in 1997. Along the way, he peppers the narrative with stories of the many people and places that have played a role in making PEI both a tightly knit rural community and an immensely popular tourist destination.
Illustrated throughout with over one hundred historical photos and illustrations, Prince Edward Island: An Illustrated History is a must-read for anyone who has fallen in love with Canada’s smallest province.
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Shipwrecks and Seafaring Tales of Prince Edward Island
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95In the 450 years since Jacques Cartier’s arrival, Prince Edward Island’s history has been tied to the sea. From the first explorers to immigrants, traders, sailors, and fishermen, thousands of seafaring people and their ships have come and gone–many lost to the relentless ocean. Their stories, though, survive in legends and folklore, in archives and family histories.
From PEI author Julie V. Watson comes the telling of these legends in this new edition of Shipwrecks and Seafaring Tales of Prince Edward Island.
Now with a new cover.
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Sensational Seafood
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$14.95Formerly the Fine Catch Seafood Cookbook, this new package brings the book up to date with a whole new look. Beginning with a comprehensive section on how to buy, prepare, and store fish, molluscs, and all kinds of crustaceans, this cookbook provides the how-to for the inexperienced chef, while keeping a good mix of delicious recipes for the more daring expert. With easy-to-follow instructions, suggested serving sizes, and a little bit of seafood history, this cookbook collection provides all the essentials.
Recipe highlights include Crab Stuffed Mushrooms, Smoked Salmon Cheesecake, Grilled Monkfish, Saffron Seafood Cream and Hot Cheese and Crab Dip.
To top it off, Watson adds a separate section for yummy toppings, sauces, and marinades to add the most flavour to your fresh Atlantic seafood. Sensational Seafood is a must-have for any seafood lover. -
Taste PEI
Photographer: Anne MacKayPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95Wayne Barrett and Anne MacKay are a professional photographic team that have published numerous books including True Colors A Writer’s Garden, and the award winning Spirit of Place. They live in St. Catherines, Prince Edward Island.
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One Potato Two Potato
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$20.95The definitive book about potatoes, from growing them to eating them and everything in between. A cookbook and more with special emphasis on Prince Edward Island’s unique role in Canada’s potato industry.
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Discover Prince Edward Island Adventure and Lighthouse Guide
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Dave Stephens and Susan Randles are travel writers and educators living in Nova Scotia.
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D’une rive à l’autre
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Le profil gracieux du pont de la Confederation mystifie le voyageur. Concu pour durer 100 ans, le plus long pont au monde au-dessus d’une mer glacee est un defi d’ingenierie qui a ete releve par les meilleurs esprits techniquees de l’heure et qui a pousse la technologie canadienne aux primiers rangs du genie civil en eaux glaciales.
Entre-temps, le pont de la Confederation, qui s’etire en un “S” allonge au-dessus des eaux blues de detroit de Northumberland, est certes une raison de plus our attirer les voyageurs cenus de loins pour “venir houer dans mon ile.” -
Prince Edward Island True Colours
Photographer: Anne MacKay, Wayne BarrettPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95Wayne Barrett and Anne MacKay are a professional photographic team that have published numerous books including True Colors A Writer’s Garden, and the award winning Spirit of Place. They live in St. Catherines, Prince Edward Island.
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Mammals of Prince Edward Island and Adjacent Marine Waters
Publisher: Island Studies Press$49.95This long overdue book provides a comprehensive guide to the Island’s terrestrial and marine mammals. Rooted in historical accounts and local research, this book illuminates the lives of PEI mammals large and small. From the Little Brown Bat to the Long-finned Pilot Whale, this book highlights each species in illustrated detail and outlines the continued need for conservation efforts in this province.
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Return of the Wild Goose
Publisher: Island Studies Press$14.95Return of the Wild Goose explores the life of writer and activist Katherine Hughes. Set against the intimate relief of a PEI landscape, these poems are inspired by what is known—and unknown—about her contradictory life and character as Catholic teacher, journalist, public servant, and Irish nationalist. This (auto) biographical dialogue between Jane Ledwell and Katherine Hughes offers the reader a fierce remembrance of a PEI radical.
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A Photographer’s Guide to Prince Edward Island
Photographer: John Sylvester, Stephen DesRochesPublisher: Acorn Press$24.95New by award-winning photographer team.
There are very few places as photogenic as Prince Edward Island. With its sweeping landscapes, scenic vistas and miles upon miles of beaches, the Island is a haven for photographers. Taking advantage of potential stunning images of the Island in all seasons, these two award-winning photographers know the best places to set up, when and how best to photograph each corner of the Island and how to get there. The thousands of visitors from all over the world who travel to the Island learn the secrets of these two seasoned experts.
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Prince Edward Island National Park Past and Present
Publisher: Acorn Press$16.95Since Prince Edward Island National Park was first created in 1937 it has welcomed visitors from around the world, captivating the hearts of all who experience its serene and tranquil beauty. Stretching for about 40 km along the north shore of Prince Edward Island between New London and Tracadie Bays and the tip of the Greenwich Peninsula in St. Peters Bay, this dynamic coastal landscape is constantly changing, shaped by the wind and waves. The sand dunes and beaches, wetlands and forests provide a home for many plants and animals. Wildflowers add colour everywhere and marram grass glistens in the sunlight, rippled by the coastal breezes. Great blue herons grace the ponds and marshes and shorebirds feed along the water’s edge. Several species at risk are protected in the park, including the endangered piping plover. People have been part of this coastal landscape for thousands of years. At Greenwich, archaeological evidence reveals 10,000 years of cultural history, from early Aboriginal peoples to the Mi’kmaq, early French and Acadian settlers and immigrants from the British Isles. Once an elegant summer home built in 1896, Dalvay-by-the-Sea National Historic Site is now a heritage inn. Green Gables Heritage Place, also part of L. M. Montgomery`s Cavendish National Historic site, inspired L.M. Montgomery’s setting for Anne of Green Gables. This book, with stunning new photography by the Island’s best photgraphers complimented with archival photos, captures the essence of this special place, preserved and protected for you to return to again and again.
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This Navy Doctor Came Ashore
Publisher: Acorn Press$17.95Dr. Read entered the Royal Canadian Navy in 1943 and worked for three years as a flight surgeon. When the war was winding down, he realized that his career as a flight surgeon was also over. But he remembered how much he had enjoyed the three weeks he spent in Charlottetown when he relieved the medical officer at HMCS Queen Charlotte. This city of 20,000, in which this landship was ‘moored’, was much to his liking partly because he had grown up in Amherst, Nova Scotia, just across the Northumberland Strait, where he thought the culture was very similar. He also knew that as the only medical officer there would be independence, significant responsibility and virtual freedom from naval protocol and politics. One couldn’t ask for more.  But this was during prohibition on the Island and little did he know that a great deal of his time would be spent writing “prescriptions” for alcohol so that the officers could be allowed to drink. Nor did he know that because of the lack of family physicians on the Island, he would be asked to open a general practice in a rural area of the province. For a flight surgeon who had little experience in family medicine, this would be a whole new adventure. This book chronicles some of the noteworthy events of the time he spent spent as a country doctor.
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I am an Islander
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95No man is a Prince Edward Island. That’s a good thing, because the tiny province is eroding a metre per year. In the collection I am An Islander, Patrick Ledwell explores the hilarity of life viewed from the country’s crumbling Eastern edge. Raised in a big family, the Island comedian looks back at his rural roots and asks: I am an Islander is a funny and heartfelt stockpile of standup, sketches, and rants, banked up to defend your good humour against everything that might erode it.
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Riptides New Island Fiction
Publisher: Acorn Press$21.95A call was sent out asking writers to submit unpublished short stories for a fiction anthology featuring newer writers with a significant P.E.I. connection. There were no boundaries for setting or genre, only a limit of 5,000 words. PEI is strong on tradition, which includes out-migration and immigration. Thus, its culture and demographics are changing, and these PEI writers both are Island-born and hail from away – Australia and Calgary, Newfoundland and Ukraine. The result is twenty-three stories, which take the reader from a ritual gathering of PEI widows to Chernobyl in the nuclear disaster’s aftermath, from a menacing marital game of hide-and-seek through the Maritime landscape to gender clashes on an outback sheep ranch, from a religious commune in Alberta to the Enlightenment Tour bus into Quebec. Whether the characters are struggling for dear life in breaking surf, gasping for emotional air at a ladies’ candle party or fearing the Tall Tailor’s scissors, the authors demonstrate a rich variety of fictional talent and imagination emerging from what Island poet Milton Acorn called the “red tongue…In the ranged jaws of the Gulf,” and revising our perception of “the land of Anne.”
