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Nova Scotia’s Lost Highways The Early Roads that Shaped the Province
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95At the turn of the nineteenth century, road travel in Nova Scotia was still in its infancy. Many Nova Scotians still preferred water routes, and those “roads” that did exist were often little more than blazed trails not fit for wheeled vehicles. But it wasn’t long before roads were established around the province to allow for a steady increase in traffic and sophistication of vehicles.
Author Joan Dawson has used nineteenth-century maps and surveys to not only trace the paths of these old roads, but to explore the residents and businesses that sprang up along them. She follows the roads out of Halifax to Windsor and Truro (the “Great Roads”) as well as the oldest post roads along the Annapolis Valley, the South Shore, northern and eastern Nova Scotia, and even Cape Breton. These earliest highways, now mostly forgotten or buried in wilderness, reminds us of the hard-working crews and surveyors who defied geographical difficulties to make travelling easier for Nova Scotia’s residents.
Featuring 40 maps and illustrations, Nova Scotia’s Lost Highways is a fascinating history of early travel in the province.
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Atlantic Seafood
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95Drawing from over 20 years of experience as a professional chef in Chicago, Staten Island, Boston, and the Bahamas, Nova Scotia native and chef Michael Howell brings delicious twists to Atlantic seafood in this new cookbook. The book is organized by seafood type, so finding the right recipe is a breeze, and it also means home chefs will be able to select meals based on what’s available in their area. An additional section on sustainable and ethical food choices helps readers make the right choices when it comes to buying Atlantic fish and shellfish. A must-have for any seafood enthusiast!
Includes 40 colour photographs as well as special instructions for sauces and stocks. Types of seafood include: char, clams, crab, haddock, halibut, lobster, mackerel, monkfish, mussels, oysters, salmon, salt cod, scallops, shrimp, smoked seafood, sole, squid, sturgeon, swordfish, and tuna. -
I Spy a Bunny
Artist: Richard RudnickiPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95Mandy and her Aunt Carla are spending the day at Nova Scotia’s White Point Beach. They are playing I Spy, but Mandy can’t see the white-nosed bunny Aunt Carla spies!
On each page, Mandy sees another beautiful part of White Point. There are surfers out in the water and families playing on the beach. There are big rocks to climb and colourful chairs to relax in. Mandy spies white in the waves, in the sand, in the lighthouse, and even in a white-capped chickadee- and just before she snuggles into Aunt Carla for a nap, she finally sees the little black bunny with a white nose.
This is a wonderful book to read aloud to young children and for early readers to read themselves, especially those who are learning their colours and who love bunny rabbits! -
Back to the Beach
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Back to the Beach is a simple but lively story about Gus and his dog, Sam, who experience a gleeful day at the beach. Amidst their playful romping, racing, splashing, and exploring, Gus and Sam come across various beach treasures. One by one, they present each treasure to Gus’s parents, who relax “back at the blanket,” and one by one, each treasure is denied in the rhyming chorus. This story is suitable for early/emerging readers and beachlovers alike. Written primarily in prose, there is a recurrent rhyming refrain that contributes to its appeal for “chiming in” when shared aloud. The illustrations, intended to be bright, lively, and engaging, feature mixed media, including coloured pencil, graphite, and watercolour.
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Halifax Street Railway 1866-1949
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95The Halifax Street Railway is a photographic history of Halifax’s oft-forgotten transportation system. The book features over one hundred historical photographs documenting technological changes to the street railway system over its eighty-three-year history. The Halifax Street Railway will appeal to history buffs and all those who remember the city’s early transit systems.
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Historic Baddeck
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95Historic Baddeck takes us on the town’s journey of early discovery and later growth, from the first few houses set among Atlantic aboriginal wigwams to what Baddeck is today–a magnificent summer escape and thriving lakeside village. Author Joceyln Bethune has paired some of the town’s most captivating historical images and presented them with compact and interesting vignettes of the region’s past.
Part of the Images of Our Past series.
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The Great Maritime Detective
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95He was a sailor a miner, a bounty hunter, a prospector, a ghost hunter, and a railway guard, just to name a few. Whether sinner or saint, Peter Owen Carroll, a.k.a. Peachie Carroll, is best remembered as the infamous Maritime police detective of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Although his methods were sometimes unscrupulous, and he was often considered a mercenary, Peachie Carroll was a formidable investigator. Peachie was fired, re-hired, and quit many times, but as a police officer Peachie solved some of the Maritimes’ best-known crimes, such as the murder of Moncton police officer Joseph E. Stedman. He arrested moonshine-makers and embezzlers, petty thieves, rum-runners, bank robbers, and murderers. In 1896, Peachie gained fame again, solving the New Brunswick murders of Eliza Dutcher and her son.
In The Great Maritime Detective, author Monica Graham profiles this long-standing hero of Pictou County and one of the region’s ultimate characters. -
Halifax Haunts
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95The streets of Historic Halifax are paved with the dark and eerie tales of its colourful and gruesome past. Shadowy secrets and hints of the unknown are lurking around every corner and in the mist that rolls in from the Atlantic. Centuries of tragic happenstance have left behind many restless spirits that are awaiting your discovery: the ghost of an eighteenth-century French admiral has been spotted marching- to the beat of his own missing heart- across the harbour and through the streets of Halifax; the haunting profile of a victim of the Halifax Explosion has been seen in the window of the city’s oldest church; a spectral tall ship has been sighted plying the waters just off Point Pleasant looking for a rematch with its War of 1812 opponent.
Halifax Haunts presents the spooky history behind thirty-three of the city’s scariest places. Master storyteller Steve Vernon serves as your trusted guide and offers phenomenal detail while winding you through the ghostly and ghastly happenings that still haunt Halifax to this day. -
Saint John Curiosities
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Saint John Curiosities is a collection of short and interesting glimpses of the city’s people, places, and events from its very beginning to the present day. Author and well-known storyteller David Goss brings together little-known, fascinating findings that he has uncovered during forty years of research, drawing stories from newspaper articles, maps, and museum and library archives.
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Nova Scotia Quiz Revised Ed.
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$7.95This fully revised and updated edition of the popular provincial quiz book is a must-have for teachers and libraries and trivia buffs.
Who founded the city of Halifax? Which island off Nova Scotia is home to wild horses? Who is the Nova Scotian giantess that toured with P. T. Barnum? You can find the answers to these questions and more inside.
Each quiz offers a variety of topics and difficulty levels, so it’s perfect for teachers, students, parents, researchers, tourists, or anyone looking for a bit of information and entertainment.
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Prince Edward Island Quiz Revised Edition
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$7.95This fully revised and updated edition of the popular provincial quiz book is a must-have for teachers and libraries and trivia buffs.
Which premier led PEI into Confederation? Which PEI town was probably named from the French word for mouse? Whether you think you know it all or want to learn more, this collectioin of trivia from Canada’s smallest province will get you thinking. With 500 questions from easy to difficult, there is something here for readers of all ages and knowledge levels.
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Crosswords from Atlantic Canada
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95An exciting book of 50 all-new crossword puzzles about Atlantic Canada! Designed to amuse and stump all age groups and backgrounds. Clues challenge your knowledge of all things related to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Geography and history are covered as well as more contemporary, popular culture, and general knowledge clues to really test puzzle fans. Each puzzle contains at least twenty percent Atlantic Canadian content.
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Historic Glace Bay
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95**Updated in 2014**
The history of Glace Bay is intimately linked with the development of its coal mines. In this historic series book, Carole MacDonald examines coal as the fuel used to build and maintain Glace Bay and its inhabitants. Poor working conditions, irregular employment, and companies set on increasing their profits at the expense of the miners are all documented. Historic Glace Bay also covers the lives of notable residents, housing, hospitals, churches, schools, transportation, sports, and the community’s contribution to the arts.
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Historic Bridgewater
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95The history of Bridgewater is firmly connected to the beautiful LaHave River because of its importance in terms of geography, commerce, and recreation.Homes and buildings; the railway and the highway; the Davison Lumber Mill; the business life of Bridgewater; and people, events, and daily life are all examined through careful research and selected images to give a complete view of the history of Bridgewater.
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Jerome
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95For many Nova Scotians the name Jerome is synonymous with Maritime mystery, much like Oak Island, the Marie Celeste, or the Shag Harbour UFO crash. Jerome was the name given to the nearly dead, legless stranger who washed up on a Digby Neck beach in 1863. During the next fifty years, Jerome spoke only a few words and never revealed his identity.
Author Fraser Mooney Jr. embarked on a ten-year investigation to find the remarkable truth about Jerome. Using newspaper articles, historic documents, and interviews, Mooney explores and dispels the myths that have long been associated with Jerome and provides amazing detail about his life on Digby Neck. He takes us through Jerome’s life-from his appearance on the beach, through the time he spent living with a number of families in the region, to his death. Most importantly, Mooney discovers the truth behind the identity of the anonymous, mutilated man who took his secret to the grave. Including photos of Jerome, the beach where he was discovered, and those who knew him, Jerome is an incredibly well researched, intriguing book that will appeal to readers who enjoy Maritime mysteries and historical non-fiction. -
Fossil Cliffs of Joggins
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Joggins has been a popular location for fossil buffs and novices alike for two reasons. It is always possible to find interesting fossils there and it always offers something new. As the Fundy tides continually erode the cliffs new fossils emerge each season. Joggins is also of great interest to the scientific community. Dr. Laing Ferguson has introduced thousands of people to the world-famous fossil cliffs at Joggins. He wrote this book in 1988 to help visitors understand the significance of the fossils they may see in the Cliffs and now it’s back in print with a new cover for another generation of budding geologists and visitors.
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Images of the Island
Photographer: Anne MacKay, Wayne BarrettPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Formerly known as Prince Edward Island Connections, Images of the Island is a repackage of the popular book of images by renowned island photographers Wayne Barrett and Anne MacKay. Whether you are a first-time visitor or a long-time resident, Images of the Island is a memento filled with colourful and charming images of an island that conjures up memories and inspires dreams.
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Out of Nova Scotia Gardens Delicious, Nutritious, Vegetable Recipes
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95Bestselling author and newspaper columnist Marie Nightingale has compiled this delightful book on choosing, storing, and cooking delicious local produce. From the lowly cabbage to the more glamorous asparagus and Brussels sprouts, freshly grown vegetables from Nova Scotia are unsurpassed in taste and texture. Offering over 160 delicious recipes, from Leek & Tomato Quiche to Stuffed Onions to Rhubarb & Ginger Jam, Out of Nova Scotia Gardens is organized by vegetable and includes a recipe for everything you can grow in your backyard. It also includes a Chef’s Corner, featuring recipes from famous Nova Scotia chefs.
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The Terrible, Horrible, Smelly Pirate
Artist: Eric OrchardPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95A fun, read-aloud pirate story that will be a favourite with educators.
Set in the misty waters around Halifax Harbour, this fun read-aloud pirate story follows the adventures of a terrible, horrible, smelly pirate named Sydney and his friend Parrot Polly. After answering a riddle set by a tricky mermaid the rascals dig for treasure by the old lighthouse on McNab’s Island. Children will enjoy the anticipation as the chest is raised to the surface, and the surprise as its unexpected contents are revealed. The clean and dirty theme will make this book a circle time favourite with many daycare and library programmers. Parents will love it too.
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Lightning and Blackberries
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$10.95Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Evans is the privileged and naive only child of prominent New Englanders, part of a group of Planters who settled in Nova Scotia following the deportation of the Acadian people. As a teenager, she is leading a carefree life in the Annapolis Valley, tending to her cows on the family farm, daydreaming by the brook, and resisting her mother’s attempts to refine her manners and marry her off. She thinks nothing will ever change. But a stranger’s arrival at Evans Hall, and a chance meeting with a mysterious Acadian girl in the woods nearby turn Elizabeth’s carefree life upside down. And when she learns the truth about the history of the farm she loves so well, she knows nothing will ever be the same.
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St. Andrews By-the-Sea
Photographer: Rob RoyPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95Roy captures the character and beauty of St. Andrews, a town alive with history and natural beauty.
Tucked away on a peninsula inside the tranquil waters of Passamaquoddy Bay stands the scenic town of St. Andrews. The natural beauty and picturesque
architecture of the town are unsurpassed in New Brunswick and make it one of Canada’s most popular vacation destinations. Rob Roy’s photographs are both practical and artistic, blending together the everyday scenes of the town with the striking landscapes and historical character of St. Andrews. -
Deportation of the Prince Edward Island Acadians
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95When the fortress of Louisbourg fell to the British in 1758, the Acadians of Prince Edward Island (then known as Île Saint-Jean) were doomed to a horrible fate—deportation from their homes to an unknown land thousands of kilometres away. Shipwrecks and disease took a terrible toll during the voyage to France, and hundreds of the approximately three thousand deportees lost their lives.
Earle Lockerby’s meticulously researched account sheds new light on this tragic event, from its implementation to the experiences of the Acadians who eluded British troops and escaped to the mainland, to the deportees’ arrival in Europe. Featuring excerpts from original documents and letters, Deportation of the Prince Edward Island Acadians is an important record of this neglected chapter in the saga of the Acadian people.
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Wild Plants of Eastern Canada
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95Wild Plants of Eastern Canada is a comprehensive guide to the region’s plants, including their culinary, medicinal, folk, and ecological uses. The book also explores the cultural history of wild plant use among Aboriginal-Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, and Passamaquoddy-and non-Aboriginal-Black, Acadian, and Celtic-peoples. Bridging the academic and the popular, the book includes easy-to-read profiles of sixty plant species, each identified with an actual size leaf-print specimen as well as a realistic reproduction for identification. Nearly sixty recipes are included for use in contemporary cuisine. The book does not include cultivated plants, seaweeds, or trees. Includes safety tips for identifying and avoiding poisonous plants.
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Lost Canoe
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95A contemporary account of tracking a historical explorer across Labrador.
In the mode of Leonidas Hubbard and William Cabot, Hesketh Prichard set out with a group of adventurers in the early 1900s, determined to cross Labrador. Disregarding local advice, his expedition headed up a box canyon and climbed five-hundred-metre cliffs all with a canoe in tow- a gruesome portage. The canoe was later abandoned.
The Lost Canoe is the account of the contemporary search for Prichard’s lost canoe. Over three summers Larry Coady coaxed friends and strangers into searching for Prichard’s
canoe, retracing Prichard’s route, verifying landforms and campsites, and mapping the entire trail. Only hard-nosed hikers immune to blackflies and mosquitoes were enticed to participate. Prichard’s original 1910 photographs and accounts of his journey, published in Through Trackless Labrador, are paired with Coady’s own photographs and writings. The narrative that results reveals a struggle against the elements to cross the ancient landscape of northern Labrador, a subarctic mix of boreal forest and open tundra. The book will appeal to a broad audience, from historians and geographers to adventurers and hikers. -
Captains, Mansions and Millionaires
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$20.95Today is difficult to grasp the magnitude of the prosperity that Maitland enjoyed as a shipbuilding and trading centre during the late 1800s. Fortunes were made in the timber trade, in mining gypsum, and selling Maitland ships. In one summer, nineteen ships were built for a revenue of nearly one million dollars. A thousand men worked in the shipyards of this town on the shores of Cobequid Bay, requiring hotels, boarding houses, taverns, clothing stores, hardware stores and a bank.
Maitland sea captains like W.D Lawrence sailed the globe in huge schooners. A railway was built; there was a telegraph, professional photographer, and eventually a six-car ferry. There were tennis courts, and glorious mansions furnished with the finest articles money can buy.
And then it ended. The golden age of wooden ships and iron men was over, and the economic engine that generated such wealth faltered. The halcyon days of Maitland disappeared but its heritage not forgotten. Much of the town, including its great homes, still stands as it did in the glory days. Maitland has been declared a heritage conservation site, to be preserved for future generations.
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Nova Scotia Black Experience Through the Centuries
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95The Nova Scotia Black Experience Through the Centuries is a comprehensive account of the African Nova Scotian struggle to build a vital community in the face of racial discrimination.
Originally published in two volumes as Beneath the Clouds of the Promised Land, this illustrated edition has been extensively updated and includes a new chapter tracing the experiences of Nova Scotia’s black community into the twenty-first century. Author Bridglal Pachai profiles the individuals and organizations that fought for equality in education, business, politics, religion, and the arts, and carved a path for tomorrow’s leaders.
Covering more than four hundred years of a people’s history, heritage, and culture, The Nova Scotia Black Experience Through the Centuries is a powerful record, indispensable to any study of the province’s history.
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Historic Fredericton North
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95This book outlines the history and growth of four distinct communities that make up what is known as Fredericton North: Nashwaaksis, Devon, Barker’s Point, and Marysville. Founding families, such as the Robinsons of Nashwaaksis, and important businesses, like the Marysville Cotton Mill, are profiled in depth, alongside information about churches, schools, industries, and transportation in the region. By using carefully selected historical images, Ted and Anita Jones take their readers on a journey through the life of Victorian-era Fredericton North and the unique events that stitched together four distinct communities in New Brunswick’s capital.
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Historic Eastern Passage
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95Drawing upon powerful images and stories of the past, John Boileau takes readers on a journey through the Eastern Passage region, including Imperoyal, Shearwater, South East Passage, Cow Bay, McNab’s Island, Lawlor’s Island, and Devil’s Island. From fortifications and quarantine sites to aviation bases and even to Bill Lynch’s amusement rides and buried treasure, Historic Eastern Passage illuminates the history of the region to the end of the Second World War.
Follow Helen Creighton on her search to record folk music and stories, or learn how the air base played a role in the first flight across the Atlantic. With attention to both the special and everyday events, a full picture of what life was once like in Eastern Passage is vividly depicted.
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Historic Bedford
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95Bedford, Nova Scotia, was traditionally a resting place for travellers-from Mi’kmaq heading down the Sackville River by canoe to weary stagecoach and railway passengers seeking hot meals and warm beds while heading to or from Halifax. Bedford grew around the wayside houses and businesses that provided services for those passing through, and alongside industries, including lumber mills and shipbuilding yards. The town’s natural beauty made it the ideal setting for outdoor pursuits and legendary celebrations.
Historic Bedford pairs fascinating photographs with careful research and insight. On every page is captured the town’s enduring character as it transforms from temporary stopping place into charming town.
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Maritime UFO Files
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Though UFOs have recently “landed” a significant place in pop culture, they have made their presence known in the Maritimes for decades. In fact, one of the earliest known sightings of a UFO was reported to Judge Simeon Perkins in Nova Scotia in 1796.Beginning with the 1950s, Maritime UFO Files Chronicles, decade-by-decade, dramatic and unusual sightings of a variety of mysterious, multi-shaped UFOs witnessed by pilots, ordinary citizens, and even RCMP officers. These first-hand accounts, based on actually military documents and RCMP reports, range from the observation of unexplainable lights in the sky, to claims of abduction. This book also devotes a chapter to the famous Shag Harbour Incident of 1967 –an event that remains one of the most documented accounts of a UFO crash in modern history.
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Ketchum’s Folly
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$13.95“Even today, after man has been to the moon and regularly takes jaunts into space, the idea of a huge ship being transported by rail over dry land in order to avoid the stormy waters elsewhere sounds like science fiction.” The author states in his introduction. “Perhaps that was the Chignecto Ship’s Railway’s problem.” IN examining Henry Ketchum’s dream, and both his spectacular successes and failures, Jay Underwood contributes to a better understanding of an interesting segment in Maritimes’ history.
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Race to Fame
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Race to Fame tells the story of the schooner Bluenose, unbeaten international champion of the North Atlantic. There have been other books written about the Bluenose but none so well researched from the laying of the keel through her lengthy service in the commercial fishery, her long and eventful racing career and her final resting place on a Caribbean reef. The author, a long0time crew member, was personally involved in most of the events in this most interesting book.
R.G. Smith
Former Director of National Sea Foods, Lunenburg
