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Forty-Five Wooden Boats
Publisher: WoodenBoat Books$16.95Deciding what boat to build is one of those wonderful mind pursuits, and study plans catalogs are a great way to get that thought process in gear because you have a nice variety of boats to compare/contrast.
The designs range from three different skin-on-frame boats, to glue-lap-ply dinghies and daysailers, to a 20′ trimaran, and some go-slow canal boats. There are several power boats, including simple skiffs and more rugged powercraft, and weekender type sailboats go up to 24 feet. What sets these design catalogs apart from other such publications is the honest commentary, and the lines provided so you can understand the hull shapes of a three-dimensional boat from a flat piece of paper. Basic particulars are included, as well as building skills needed. And, all of the plans shown are available for purchase from WoodenBoat.
This is the fourth in the very successful series of boat design catalogs published by WoodenBoat. The three prior sutdy plans catalogues have approximately 100,000 copies in print. None of the designs in Forty-Five Wooden Boats are shown in the prior books, and the emphasis is on boats you can build.
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Historic Mahone Bay
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95Mahone Bay has played an important role in Nova Scotia’s history, contributing significantly to the forestry, fishing and shipbuilding industries, and in recent years emerging as an important tourism destination.
With an emphasis on people and anecdotal history and more than 150 photographs and other images, Historic Mahone Bay covers the period from 1754 through 1960, with the focus on the period from the 1880s to the 1930s. -
Tracking Treasure
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Lost, stolen, or undiscovered treasures have long been rumored to be buried throughout Atlantic Canada. Stories abound of loot squirreled away on islands and beaches by pirates and privateers, of fortunes in gold, silver and precious stones lost in the holds of ships wrecked on the jagged rocks of the rugged coast. In Tracking Treasure, Crooker investigates mysterious sites that are the subject of story, myth and song. Some are documented in historical accounts, while others belong to folklore.
William Crooker’s fascination with hidden treasures made him the foremost expert on the great Nova Scotia treasure hunt. -
From the Coast to Far Inland
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95From the landing of the Vikings these stories trace the dramatic evolution of the relationship between aboriginals and non-aboriginals in Labrador; they trace the progress of Labrador from the British conquest to the flowering of the Labrador identity and the rise of the New Labrador Party in the late 20th century. In between are treks through various parts and times of Labrador
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Among the writings: Pierre Berton tracks through iron ore country; Peter Newman paints Lord Strathcona and the Hudson’s Bay Company warts and all; Elliott Merrick, Tony Paddon, the Labrador doctor, and Elizabeth Goudie describe the joys and hardships of life in the central Labrador plateau; Norman Duncan and Michael Crummey bring to life the humour and pathos of those who clung so tenaciously to a barren and bountiful coast; and Richard Gwyn, an adopted son of the province, sketches the rise of the New Labrador Party, a political force bursting with resentment against the neglect and indifference of a distant capital during the last days of Joey Smallwood. -
William Roach: Folk Artist
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$19.95William Roach’s interest – training, if you like – in carving and shaping wood into representations of the world around him, came naturally. When they weren’t making or repairing practical articles and tools, the older men in his life spent countless hours whittling curiosities that delighted children, neighbours and friends.After years working in Ontario, Roach and his family moved home to his Acadian birthplace, Chéticamp, Cape Breton, striving for the stability of family and community. A new life, turning a new leaf, William began expressing himself through his gift – a diversion at first, his passion for creating objects of beauty and value became an obsession and later a business.From his Sunset Gallery and studio on the outskirts of Chéticamp, Roach works tirelessly at his entertaining creations.
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The Making of Tom Cat
Publisher: WoodenBoat Books$19.75A Canadian by birth, Bill’s family moved to Seattle Via Portland, Oregon, in 1928, when Bill was 10 years old. In Seattle, he found himself surrounded by wooden boats of all kinds and sizes-and took full advantage of that wonderful environment.
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The Midnight Murder
Publisher: Breton Books$16.95In his short, vigorous life, McKinnon was the courageous editor of three Cape Breton newspapers, and a successful novelist. He fearlessly found a voice in the Boston literary world. Then he became a Methodist minister and tried to burn his “evil” novels. He died at 33-after a life as romantic and passionate as any of his characters.
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The Grand Change
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95William Andrews’ first novel examines life in a small PEI communityin the 1940s and 50s as changes, so common in the restof the world, begin to take hold. Using a road as an allegory, heweaves a lyrical tale of simple country people, their strugglesand their joys. The story is told through the eyes of a boy calledJake: he is the witness to life on the Hook Road and the eventsthat change that life forever. The book is in some ways like along poem: the people and the world they inhabit are richlyand meticulously described, and the superb writing takes thereader to a world no one will ever see again.
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A Kid’s Book on Boatbuilding
Publisher: WoodenBoat Books$12.05As a kid, Will Ansel would spend hours rowing the creeks around Annapolis, Maryland. From his boat he could look down on the wrecks of Chesapeake skipjacks, and watch the turtles sun themselves on deckbeams and the tops of centerboard trunks. He found other types of Chesapeake boats there too, including the old “log” boats. Years later, Will built scaled-down skipjacks, wrote about them, and eventually went to work at Mystic Seaport as a ships’ carpenter and boatbuilder. Will now lives in Georgetown, Maine, in an old house built at the water’s edge, with a small shop and dock. The inventory of boats and kayaks is currently seven. Besides keeping up, using, and adding to these, he does some writing and painting, and work around a cabin in the woods.
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The Best of Wilfred Grenfell
Editor: William PopePublisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$22.95True life stories of the heroic efforts of people by a man as legendary as his subject. In the fifty years since his death, Wilfred Grenfell has become a folk hero-a missionary doctor who served the northern reaches of Newfoundland and Labrador.
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East Coast Crafted The Essential Guide to the Beers, Breweries, and Brewpubs of Atlantic Canada
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$39.95From the pioneering breweries of historic downtown Halifax to the distinct merroir of rural Prince Edward Island, from the banks of New Brunswick’s St. John River to the far-flung iceberg alleys of Newfoundland, East Coast Crafted features behind-the-scenes profiles of each of Atlantic Canada’s nearly 70 breweries and brewpubs. With a fun, narrative style, authors Christopher Reynolds (Cicerone, beer judge, co-owner, Stillwell beer bar) and Whitney Moran (beer journalist and editor) get to know the people behind the pints and offer readers dozens of recommendations as they explore their favourite suds from across the region. The result is the first comprehensive guide to Atlantic Canada’s evolving craft beer industry, an ideal read for beer tourists and local champions of Canada’s fastest-growing craft beer-producing region.
Features a foreword from Canada’s preeminent beer writer, Stephen Beaumont ( World Atlas of Beer ), and over 60 colour photos from celebrated photographer Jessica Emin ( The Wine Lover’s Guide to Atlantic Canada ).
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Sable Island the Wandering Sandbar
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Though it was discovered almost 500 years ago, few people have visited Sable Island. Despite modern navigational tools, excessive fog and stormy weather still make travelling to Sable a challenge. Add government restrictions limiting visitors to the remote island and prohibitive travel costs, and Sable is virtually inaccessible.
But the island is part of Maritime lore–dubbed the “graveyard of the Atlantic” because of the number of ships wrecked on its shores. Sable Island also hosts wild horses, tens of thousands of seals, and enchanting “singing” sands and “wandering” dunes. With 18 species of sharks patrolling Sable Island’s waters and the regular fights between bands of horses, not to mention the treacherous patches of quicksand, the island is as dangerous as it is alluring.
In this colourful book, author Wendy Kitts introduces the wonders and stark realities of this wild place. Full of photographs and sidebars, Sable Island: The Wandering Sandbar is an accessible and exciting look at this unprotected, untamed ecosystem.
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Long Ago and Far Away
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Wayne Curtis was born and raised in the rural Miramichi community of Keenan. A high school dropout, he has worked at many jobs in the woods and in factories, including six years with General Motors. He has also been a storekeeper and a river guide. Returning to school during his adult years, he took night courses to get his high school diploma, followed by three years of university, eventually earning an honorary doctorate from St. Thomas University. Wayne has written for The Globe and Mail and The National Post and is the author of three novels, four books of short stories and a screenplay for the CBC. Long Ago and Far Away is his thirteenth book.
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Sleigh Tracks in New Snow Maritime Christmas Stories
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$18.95“The morning was damp and we were feeling Christmas in the air, seeing and smelling it in the trees, as our feet crunched across new snow to where a wire fence stood between our fields and the railway tracks. It was there we saw a fir tree standing, more beautiful than any I can remember. Its limbs were full, well shaped and scented, and it stood proud and tall as though waiting for us.”
Sleigh Tracks in New Snow is a collection of Christmas stories set mostly in rural New Brunswick – principally the Miramichi Region – in a bygone day and age. The stories range from the early 1950s to the 21st century, as Curtis recounts the sweet old Christmases of his boyhood and more modern incarnations of the holiday. In this entertaining book, Curtis honours the deeply held traditions and rituals that made celebrating Christmas such a special time for his family and community.
During the author’s childhood, Christmas meant sleigh rides with horses and jingling harness bells, fresh cut forest Christmas trees and intense blizzards that blocked all roads for days. Winter in a rural community required hardiness, generosity, and sacrifice, qualities that were intensified during the Christmas season. Curtis tells how a grandmother sacrificed to ensure a happy celebration for her family, about the arrival of his sister while he and his father searched the woods for a beautiful fir tree to be trimmed in their farmhouse parlour, and the efforts of a prodigal son to get home for Christmas after years of absence. The holiday season also included the magic of skating on a frozen river with a bonfire of burning cattails, the excitement of the school concert, and the solemnity of a church service. These stories reflect an innocent time when truth, heart and honesty were always central to the celebration of Christmas.
Wayne Curtis was born in Keenan, New Brunswick, in 1943. He was educated in the local schoolhouse and at St Thomas University. He has won the Richards, the Woodcock and the CBC Drama awards and written for The National Post and The Globe and Mail. In 2005 Wayne received an honorary degree from St Thomas University. He divides his time between his cabin on the Miramichi and Fredericton. This is his sixteenth book.
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Homecoming The Road Less Travelled
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95In these 13 carefully crafted short stories, Wayne Curtis explores the theme of homecoming, literally, spiritually, and metaphorically, and the many interpretations of the word “home”. The varied characters discover that home can be found in sometimes unlikely places. In “Night Riders” two teenagers find it on the highway in a stolen car, escaping an abusive institution, bonded together through their complicated love for each other. In “The Poet,” a man grasps for familiar old home feelings at a truck stop, where there is country music, drinks, and laughter. In “The Train,” an eleven-year-old boy finds that he longs to return home when his misjudged escape to town teaches him some hard lessons about who can be trusted.
With his characteristic eye for detail and his skillful ability to evoke emotion and atmosphere, Wayne Curtis once again takes readers into a different time, where people long for what makes them feel most anchored, loved, and valued in an ever-changing world.
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In the Country
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95In the Country is a collection of Wayne Curtis’s unflinching but lovingly told stories of the hardships of rural life for his generation. Despite an abiding love for the natural settings in which he himself grew up, Wayne describes the restrictions facing young people who yearned for a life beyond the farm. Country life, with its tranquility and beauty, its seasonal rhythms and gifts, also held many boys and girls back from achieving their potential.
The setting is rural New Brunswick in days gone by but not easily forgotten. It is a fictional world where the harsher realities of the time come sharply into focus. The old man in “The Last Hunt,” for example, embodies the dashed dreams and festering frustrations that make this final hunt of his life so charged with emotion. In the title story, a young woman soon realizes the death of her father has put an end to her educational goals as well, for now her duty is to help the family on the farm.
Many young country people wanted to mix easily with their more sophisticated contemporaries, but encountered insurmountable obstacles. Feelings of inferiority and embarrassment were often the result among those who lacked the social skills to navigate town relationships. In “The Falconer Spring,” Wayne captures the palpable longing, excitement but ultimately limitations two cousins experience on a trip to town. The sister in “Of Fall and Winter Rain” pays the ultimate price for her longing and naivété. The stories assembled here are both tragic and tender, told with Wayne’s evocative, precise prose.
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Winter Road
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Winter Road is the latest collection of short stories by one of Canada?s most gifted and accomplished storytellers. An award-winning master craftsman of short fiction, Wayne Curtis takes us on a journey from early schooldays to old age, all in a singular rural New Brunswick setting of times gone by.
Here are illuminating stories of love, heartbreak, daydreams, and expectations – fulfilled and unfulfilled. Curtis charts the lives of small-town boys and girls, men and women who struggle with the challenges and limitations of poverty, isolation, and a kind of discrimination rarely documented in fiction.
Each work is marked by the insight of a veteran author whose life has been dedicated to the creation of a singular fictional world unique to the Maritimes but universal in its echoes of the unending longing of the human spirit. It is a world where dreams are born and die and sometimes live on despite the odds.
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Our December Guest Maritime Christmas Stories
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95In Our December Guest, Wayne Curtis once again draws on his own experiences to craft nineteen stories of autumn and winter life in rural New Brunswick in an age gone by. Authentic and true in every detail, his characters combine the strength and resilience required to eke out a living from the woods and the rivers as well as a sensitivity to the beauty of nature and an appreciation of the arts.
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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. -
Birchtown and the Black Loyalists
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95“Although diminished in numbers, Birchtown remains a proud symbol of the struggle by Blacks in the Maritimes and elsewhere for justice and dignity.” So says the plaque at Black Loyalist Heritage Park in Birchtown, commemorating the former Black slaves who fought with the British in the American Revolutionary War to gain their freedom in the form of a small plot of land near Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
In Birchtown and the Black Loyalists, Wanda Taylor recounts the incredible story of the Black Loyalists of Birchtown for young readers. With educational and accessible language, readers are introduced to the journey of Black American soldiers taken from Africa as slaves, their quest for freedom, the settlement and struggle of Black Loyalists on Nova Scotian soil, and the enduring spirit of their descendants in spite of a history marked by hardship and loss. Includes informative sidebars, highlighted glossary terms, recommended reading, historic timeline, an index, and dozens of historical and contemporary images.
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The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95In 1921, prominent lawyer and Nova Scotia Black leader James R. Johnston’s vision of a place welcoming of Black children came to reality. In an era of segregation and overt racism that saw most orphanages refuse to take in Black children, the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children fulfilled an important role.
But despite its good intentions, today the Home is mostly known for a troubling past. Former residents launched a class action lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse suffered at the Home over a period of several decades. In The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children: The Hurt, The Hope, and The Healing, author Wanda Taylor interviews former residents participating in the lawsuit and upcoming public inquiry and connects their stories to her own relationship with the Home. The former residents in this book provide an unsettling, and sometimes graphic, description of what life was like inside the Home and describe the many ways the government system designed to protect them instead exacerbated a culture of abuse and neglect.
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It’s Our Time Honouring the African Nova Scotian Communities of East Preston, North Preston, Lake Loon/Cherry Brook
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95The Black Loyalists were the first large group of people of African ancestry to settle in Halifax, in 1782. In 1796 the Jamaican Maroons arrived. Then in 1813, Black refugees fleeing the United States came. These Loyalists, Maroons, and refugees settled in the Preston area, and although some subsequently left for Sierra Leone, many stayed and established the largest community of African Nova Scotians in the province. Since then, the Preston township—comprising North Preston, East Preston, and Lake Loon/Cherry Brook—has become a web of vibrant neighbourhoods with a rich and complex history.
With care and precision, award-winning writer Wanda Lauren Taylor delves into the history and development of this area, the organizations and churches that helped bolster the population, and the struggles, successes, and personal stories of several Preston-area residents. Through interviews and archival documents, Taylor shows how a resilient group of marginalized people built a thriving community that generations of African Nova Scotians can be proud of. Contains seventy-five images, both contemporary and archival, of the people and places around Preston.
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Sister to Courage
Publisher: Breton Books$19.95In Sister to Courage, Wanda takes us inside the world she shared with Viola and ten other brothers and sisters. Through touching and often hilarious stories, she traces the roots of courage and ambition, good fun and dignity, of the household that produced Viola Desmond.
Tough and compassionate, Viola shines through beyond the moment she was carried out of Roseland movie theatre for refusing to sit I the blacks-only section. Viola emerges as a defender of family and a successful entrepreneur whose momentum was blocked by racism.
With honesty and wit, Wanda Robson Tells her own brave story, giving new life to two remarkable women and the family the loved.
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Crosswords from Atlantic Canada Volume 3
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95A lifetime resident of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Walter Feener has been constructing crossword puzzles for twenty-eight years. He has completed crosswords for the National Post, Forever Young Magazine, the Winnipeg Free Press, and several other newspapers across Canada. He is also the author of O Canada Crosswords (book 11).
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Crosswords from Atlantic Canada Volume 4
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95A lifetime resident of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Walter Feener has been constructing crossword puzzles for twenty-nine years. He has completed crosswords for the National Post, Forever Young Magazine, the Winnipeg Free Press, and several other newspapers across Canada. He is also the author of Crosswords from Atlantic Canada (Volume Three) and O Canada Crosswords (book 11).
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Honour Roll
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$19.95The Nova Scotia Highland Brigade sailed on the SS Olympic, from Halifax on October 12, 1916, and played a significant role in the victories of World War I, including the now-infamous Vimy Ridge.In time for the 90th anniversary of the battle for Vimy, historian James MacDonald has catalogued information about members of the Highland Brigade (85th, 185th, 193rd, 219th Battalions) killed or mortally wounded in action.The Honour Roll collates, for the first time in a single publication, the name, date of birth, family origin, vocation, enlistment details, date and where they were killed in action and final resting place and of each member. Fifteen battle maps showing troop movements are included, along with a description of Commonwealth war graves where the soldiers are buried.
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Touch of Gold
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95When thirteen-year-old Jamie Francis’s parents divorced, she and her mother moved from Halifax to the small town of River Bend, Nova Scotia. Jamie doesn’t have any friends and isn’t sure how she’ll ever make any, when she comes across a neglected-looking horse in a field: a golden palomino she names Peach.
After befriending Peach’s widowed owner, Jamie learns that her newfound friend is being sold to notorious horse-trainer, Valerie Scott, at nearby Tamarack Stables. Jamie offers to pitch in, mucking out stalls and doing chores around the barn, and becomes enchanted with the world of competitive horseback riding. She even makes a few friends, including Val’s cute red-headed son, Nick, and Naomi, a popular girl from school. But she still isn’t sure if she fits in. If only she could ride Peach herself…
Will horseback-riding be the key to Jamie’s happiness, or will it gallop off into the sunset without her?
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These Were My People: Washabuck, An Anecdotal history The Cape Bretoniana Research Series
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$19.95Most of the people, places and events that Vince MacLean brings to life in these pages are not there anymore – the Washabuck on these pages is the Washabuck that was. MacLean’s lifetime of listening to oral traditions and of his research of every written source he could find, combines for a compelling examination of both the place and its time. Washabuck the place is much more than geographical coordinates on a map; its time spans a few centuries.
Mr. MacLean’s approach to the history of his community is unique and satisfying; we learn of its people by way of the stories they told and the stories told about them – a history rich in character without sacrificing facts and figures. These Were My People is Vince MacLean’s celebration of his community, his people.
These Were My People was awarded the inaugural Robert J. Morgan Grant-in-Aid Program and the Cape Bretoniana Research Series administered by the Beaton Institute at Cape Breton University.
