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The Strangers’ Gallery
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95St. John’s archivist Michael Lowe’s life is turned on its head when a Dutch acquaintance, Anton Aalders, arrives on his doorstep in 1995. Anton is searching for a father he never met, ostensibly a Newfoundland soldier who was part of the Allied forces that liberated the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War. Anton’s visit stretches from a few days to a few months, reluctant as he is to go in search of his father, and keen to learn as much as he can about Newfoundland, its history, and its people. Rabble-rouser and ardent Newfoundland patriot Brendan “Miles” Harnett, Michael’s friend and sometime bugbear, is obsessed with his own search for the lost “fatherland” of Newfoundland, which relinquished its political independence in 1934. Miles is only too eager to teach Anton—and Michael—the shameful, forgotten history (as he sees it) of the lost country of Newfoundland. The Strangers’ Gallery is a finely crafted, at times humorous, novel about the painful search for identity—both political and personal.
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Quai 21: Écoutez mon histoire
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Découvrez des moments parmi les plus marquants de l’histoire du Canada en apprenant à connaître les enfants et les familles débarqués au Quai 21 de Halifax. Venus de pays lointains tels l’Estonie, l’Italie et l’Ukraine (pour n’en nommer que quelques-uns), ces immigrants ont tous franchi les « ports de la liberté » pour faire du Canada leur nouvelle patrie.
Jamie, un « enfant invité » originaire d’Ecosse et Mariette, une petite orpheline juive, ont tous deux été envoyés au Canada à un jeune âge afin d’échapper à la même guerre. La famille de Heili, in jeune Estonienne, a fui le régime communiste russe en prenant la mer à bord du Walnut. La famille de Luigi est venue d’Italie chercher du travail au Canada après la guerre et la famille de Maryke est arrivée de Hollande à la rechercher de terres à cultiver.
Aujourd’hui connu sous le nom de Mussée canadien de l’immigration, le Quai 21 a accueilli plus d’un million de nouveaux Canadiens, de 1928 à 1971. Beaucoup d’entre eux craignaient ce que leur réservait leur pays d’adoption. Cependant, toutes ces familles, même si elles étaient de cultures et d’origines différentes, ont cru à promesse d’un vie meilleure et plus sûre que leur offrait le Canada. En débarquant au pays, les immigrants échappaient au passé, emportant dans leur cœur de précieux souvenirs de leur lieu d’origine. Le Quai 21 représentait le premier pas vers une nouvelle vie.
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New Brunswick: An Illustrated History
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95Originally the land of the Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, and Passamaquoddy, New Brunswick has a colourful and significant history. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the province was settled by marsh workers and farmers from northwestern France and thousands of Loyalist refugees from a newly independent United States. After a golden age of lumbering, shipbuilding, and overseas trade in the nineteenth century, its economy declined and adjustment to the new continental economy was slow and trying. In the 1960s, premier Louis Robichaud’s Equal Opportunity program granted French-speaking Acadians, long second-class citizens in the province, cultural recognition. Today, New Brunswick remains the only officially bilingual province in Canada.
A lively narrative drawn entirely from published sources, New Brunswick: An Illustrated History is for general readers interested in the development of the province. Over one hundred historical photographs document this changing province, from its beginnings to present day.
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Sinking Deeper Or, My Questionable(Possibly Heroic) Decision to Invent a Sea Monster
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95The tiny fishing community of Deeper Harbour is in serious trouble, and so is fourteen-year-old Roland MacTavish. His parents are separated, and his mother has just told him that she’s moving to Ottawa and taking him with her. She doesn’t think Deeper Harbour, with its closing school and dismal economic future, has anything to offer her and Roland anymore. But Roland disagrees. He loves his father, his weird friend Dulsie, and most of all, his wild, hilarious, unpredictable grandfather, Angus. So with the help of his friends, he does what any rational teenager would do: he invents a sea monster.
News of the monster spreads, until real live tourists start to turn off the new highway and visit Deeper Harbour, giving everyone hope that the town may actually be resuscitated. But before he can celebrate his successes, Roland faces a sadness that goes far beyond separated parents and new cities, and finally discovers that change, however frightening, is not the most painful thing in the world.
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Seashore Life of Eastern Canada A Guide to Identifying Intertidal Marine Species
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95A field guide to over 80 of the most common species—including shells, crabs, seaweed, anemones, sea stars, and urchins—found in the Eastern Canadian intertidal zone. Seashore Life of Eastern Canada provides plenty of information for beachcombers to use as they explore the ocean shore. Each writeup includes an introduction that defines the intertidal zone where the species can be found and provides information about its habitat and appearance. Easy-to-use symbols and detailed colour photographs make identification a breeze.
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Joy of Ginger 2nd edition
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95Slice, smash, chop, grate, and juice it: the addition of fresh ginger to any recipe is guaranteed to send your taste buds into overdrive. Long used in its powered form in Maritime kitchens, fresh ginger –for centuries valued as a preservative and digestive aid –transforms the ordinary into the exotic. And in these health-conscious times, it adds few calories and little fat but packs a powerful zing that will keep you coming back for more.
The Joy of Ginger, with over 150 tantalizing recipes, will have you using the gnarly rhizome in sauces and preserves, stir-frys and salads, and combining it with tofu, lentil, and noodles. Make mouth-watering appetizers like Smoked Salmon Ginger Butter Canapés, healthy and flavourful Ginger and Sweet Potato Soup, and a Real Ginger Beer. The added zip of ginger will have you once again relishing gingerbread, that classic comfort food, while your dinner guests will beg for Ginger Cheesecake, Truffled Ginger, Ginger Ice Cream and Apple, Ginger and Mint Sorbet. With this cookbook and a “hand” of ginger, the taste bud-tingling possibilities are endless!
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Girl on the Run
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95When seventeen-year-old track and field star Jesse Collins’s dreams of a full scholarship are shattered after the sudden death of her dad, she leaves home to work as a summer camp counsellor to escape the nosy stares in small town…and her own secret guilt. After a mix-up at registration, she’s put in charge of a boys’ cabin, and the head counsellor, Kirk, predicts she won’t last the first two weeks.
In the midst of fending off four twelve-year-old boys who are hell-bent on mortifying her and a growing attraction to Kirk, Jesse finds the inspiration to run again from an unlikely source. After all, a good pair of legs can take a girl far, but it’s facing the truth that makes all the difference.
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Wildflowers of the Maritimes A Guide to Identifying 150 of the Region’s Wild Plants
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95Identification is the first major step towards a greater appreciation and understanding of our natural environment. Wildflowers of the Maritimes was written to meet the needs of hikers, students, amateur naturalists, resource professionals, or anyone looking for an affordable, compact, easy-to-follow guide to take with them into the field.
Discover the wide array of wildflowers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island with detailed photographs, drawings, and profile descriptions that include information on a plant’s origins, leaves, flowers, fruits, frequency, habitat, and range. Naturalist Edmund Redfield profiles 150 species of wildflowers from 53 plant families in an organized and easily accessible way. Includes over 350 colour photographs and black and white illustrations.
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In the Company of Animals Stories of Extraordinary Encounters
Editor: Pam ChamberlainPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95Animals fascinate us humans, and we relate to them in a variety of ways. Whether we view them as companions, as workmates, as symbols, as totems, or as food, animals matter to us, and we want to tell their stories. In this collection, 38 writers from across Canada tell thought-provoking stories of extraordinary encounters with animals. From tributes to a favourite cat or dog to tales of a chance encounter with a moose or a cougar, the writers cover a wide range of encounters with a wide variety of animals—from rats and salamanders to wolves and bears. These writers are people who pay attention to animals, their natures and personalities and what they can teach us, and they ask us to pay attention too. In the Company of Animals features contributions from well-known Canadian authors including David Weale, Linda Olson, David Adams Richards, Richard Wagamese, and Farley Mowat, as well as many new and promising voices.
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Le Quai 21
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95For years, Pier 21 in Halifax served as the front door to Canada, the entryway through which more than a million immigrants passed. The radical transition they experienced produced a rich group of stories, presented here in French for the first time. Le Quai 21: La porte d’entrée qui a changé le Canada captures the hope and trepidation of these strangers in a new land. Le Quai 21 is a moving account of the human drama that unfolded at this historic site. Includes over fifty images of staff, volunteers, soldiers, children, war brides, refugees, and immigrants who were a part of the Pier 21 story. New French edition.
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Animal Signatures (2nd edition)
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$9.95Animal Signatures is a handy field guide that teaches one how to recognize and interpret animal signs — the tracks, droppings and nibbled twigs that animals leave behind.
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Father’s Message in a Bottle
Editor: Tyler HaydenPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95The responsibility of a father is to be active and present with his children and partner, constantly finding ways to connect and reconnect so his kids know that he loves them and will be there for them, no matter what.
Father’s Message in a Bottle is an inspirational collection of over 60 letters from fathers around the world to the people they love.
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Chloe Sparrow a novel
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Chloe Sparrow is a twenty-five-year-old TV producer with a hit show on her hands. The Single Guy is a popular new reality series, where dozens of women are trying to woo bachelor veterinarian Austin Hawke. As the filming gets underway, though, accident-prone Chloe finds herself in one predicament after another: a wayward puck hits her in the face during a hockey game, she sprains her ankle at a dude ranch, and she falls out of a boat at high speed. But Chloe has bigger problems. The stress of her home life with her nutty but loveable Gramps and Aunt Ollie is getting to her, her job is consuming her, and painful memories from her past threaten to overwhelm her. To top it off, her co-worker Amanda is pressuring her to find a boyfriend. It doesn’t take long before Chloe realizes that not having all her wishes come true might not be such a bad idea.
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What I Learned About Politics Inside the Rise-and Collapse-of Nova Scotia’s NDP Government
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95On October 8, 2013, Nova Scotia’s NDP government went down to a devastating election defeat. Premier Darrell Dexter lost his own seat, and the party held the dubious distinction of being the first one-term majority government in over 100 years.
In this new memoir, former NDP finance minister and MLA Graham Steele tries to make sense of the election result and shares what he’s learned from a fifteen-year career in provincial politics. In his trademark candid style, Steele pulls no punches in assessing what’s right—and what’s often wrong—with our current political system. Includes an insert of colour photographs and a foreword from CBC Information Morning host Don Connolly.
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Big Book of Lexicon Vol 1, 2, 3
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Theresa Williams’s lexicon puzzles have been hugely popular since they were first published in 1988. Half-crossword, half-word search, lexicon puzzles engage and entertain fans of all ages. This edition brings back volumes 1, 2, and 3 and presents them as one large book for hours of fun!
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A History of Disaster (2nd edition) The Worst Storms, Accidents, and Conflagrations in Atlantic Canada
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95A History of Disaster chronicles 43 of Atlantic Canada’s most deadly disasters, many well-remembered and none ever forgotten. Included are not only the region’s iconic disasters like the Halifax Explosion and the Springhill mine collapses, but also lesser-known events, such as the 1977 Saint John jail fire. Photos and illustrations of the aftermath reveal the heartbreak and bravery that accompanied these life-altering catastrophes. Now in a new size.
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Who’s a Scaredy Cat ? (revised edition) A Story of the Halifax Explosion
Artist: Marijke SimonsPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95This is the story of two families in Dartmouth at the time of the Halifax Explosion, December 1917. Flossie Wright is a prankster, taking pleasure in practical jokes. Isobel Morton, whose father is listed as missing in the war, dislikes Flossie’s jokes, and is ridiculed by the other girl. Although Isobel knows she is a not a “scaredycat,” Flossie’s jibes still hurt. Can Isobel prove her bravery and win Flossie’s friendship in the terrible days that follow the Halifax explosion? Who’s a Scaredy-Cat? is an enjoyable, historically detailed novel now back in print. Includes black and white illustrations by Marijke Simons.
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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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Maclean (2nd edition)
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95Twenty-five years after the Great War, John Maclean is still struggling to carve out a meaningful existence in his small New Brunswick hometown.
One late summer day he embarks on a seemingly prosaic search for a little money, a little booze, and a birthday gift for his mother. But he’s haunted by memories—of war, of his cruel father, of opportunities wasted and lost—and each moment is shadowed by his bleak history. Shell-shocked and alcoholic, Maclean is divided between a lonely present and a violent past.
With clean and evocative prose, author Allan Donaldson exquisitely depicts a shattered war veteran’s search for peace. New edition.
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Amazing Grace
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95Can you really move forward without putting the past to rest?
Grace Willingdon has everything she needs. For fifteen years she’s lived in a trailer overlooking Bras d’Or Lakes in postcard-perfect Baddeck, Cape Breton, with Fletcher Parsons, a giant teddy bear who’s not even her husband. But Grace’s blissful life is rudely interrupted when her estranged son calls from New York City, worried about his teenaged daughter.
Before she knows it, Grace finds herself the temporary guardian of her self-absorbed, city-slicker granddaughter, Melissa. Trapped between a past she’s been struggling to resolve and a present that keeps her on her toes, Grace decides to finally tell her story. Either the truth will absolve her, or cost her everything.
Crackling with Lesley Crewe’s celebrated wit and humour, Amazing Grace is a heartfelt tale of enduring love and forgiveness, and the deep roots of family.
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Baby Steps (3 Book Set)
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95“Baby Steps” is a series of three board books: Baby Play, Baby Look, and Baby Talk. These are perfect “starter books” for baby’s first year and are offered here in one package. Based on developmental research, the books encourage playful interaction between parent and child. The series features bright, bold images that will grab baby’s attention, bouncy text that parents will love to read aloud, and great information on how parents can connect with their baby.
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Lexicon 17
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$8.95Theresa Williams’s lexicon puzzles have been hugely popular since they were first published by the Halifax Chronicle-Herald in 1988. Half-crossword, half-word search, the lexicon engages and entertains fans of all ages. Puzzle buffs will delight in this opportunity to try 52 all-new puzzles.
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Be a Pond Detective
$17.95Do dragonflies bite? What is the difference between a frog and a toad? Are leeches dangerous? Naturalist and artist Peggy Kochanoff answers these questions and more in this illustrated guide to solving the many nature mysteries of freshwater ponds.
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Better Off Dead Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Canadian Armed Forces
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Fred Doucette always wanted to be a soldier. In the 1960s he joined the Canadian Armed Forces and served in Cyprus in the 1970s and ’80s and Bosnia in the 1990s. When he returned home to New Brunswick in 1999 after his last overseas tour, he was diagnosed with severe chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. Eventually released from the army, Fred found a position with the Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) program, where he supported serving soldiers and veterans for ten years.
Better Off Dead chronicles Fred’s efforts in helping to rehabilitate and support soldiers and veterans suffering from what the military terms “operational stress injuries.” We meet Ted, saved from a suicide attempt by a timely phone call; Bob, at wit’s end and reluctantly seeking help to overcome severe PTSD; Roger, caught in a cycle of violence and drug and alcohol abuse; and Jane, diagnosed with PTSD after having been sexually assaulted while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. These accounts are raw, desperate, and often angry, but as Doucette shows, there is hope and real progress for those able to obtain proper diagnosis and treatment. Includes a colour insert with 15 photos.
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Cure for Wereduck Book 2 of the Wereduck Series
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Kate is an odd duck-literally. When the full moon arrives, the rest of her family turns into wolves, but she is a happy wereduck. Relatively happy, that is. Her family has been uprooted from the wilds of New Brunswick to a placid farming community in Ontario, thanks to a fellow werewolf, Marcus, selling them out to sleazy tabloid journalist Dirk Bragg. When Kate discovers her great-greatgrandmother’s recipe “A Cure for Werewolf,” she can’t help but wonder—is it really possible? Could she one day resist the call of the moon? Could she be free from the constant threat of exposure? When Marcus’s abandoned werewolf son, John, books a desperate train journey back to New Brunswick at the full moon, the ancient recipe and its arcane ingredients are put to the test. Will Dirk Bragg finally corner Kate and John in their wereforms and expose them to the world, or will Cure for Werewolf keep them safe?
A rare sequel that is as full of action and revelations as its predecessor, A Cure for Wereduck is imaginative, exciting, and peppered with Hackmatack Award nominated David Atkinson’s delightful humour.
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Big Book of Lexicon Vol 4, 5, 6
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95Theresa Williams’s lexicon puzzles have been hugely popular since they were first published in 1988. Half-crossword, half-word search, lexicon puzzles engage and entertain fans of all ages. This edition brings back volumes 4, 5, and 6 and presents them as one large book for hours of fun!
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A Distorted Revolution How Eric’s Trip Changed Music, Moncton, and Me
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95In this narrative history and memoir, journalist, musician, and Monctonian Jason Murray follows the rise of the band that put the Maritimes on the map.
Eric’s Trip was a band defined as much by its DIY ethos as its low-fi, discordant music. The four-piece formed in an early-’90s Moncton basement and in a few short years, went from recording themselves on a four-track and selling cassettes at local record stores to signing on Seattle’s Sub Pop records, opening for Sonic Youth, and touring internationally.
Twenty years after the band’s breakup (1996), A Distorted Revolution is the ultimate nostalgia trip. Through personal recollections, interviews with band members and others integral to the early 90s scene, this highly anticipated book offers a rare glimpse inside the band’s formation, success, and ultimate unravelling. Includes over 20 images.
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Last Lullaby
$21.95Set in the fictional town of Paddy’s Arm, Newfoundland, Alice Walsh’s debut mystery novel is at once harrowing and homey, equal parts police procedural and diner gossip. When Claire and Bram’s only child dies suddenly, it at first appears to be a case of crib death. But when the real cause of death indicates homicide and Claire is arrested as the number-one suspect, her friend, lawyer Lauren LaVallee, promises she’ll do everything she can to prove Claire’s innocence.
As Lauren combs Paddy’s Arm for suspects, amid department politics and small-town talk, leads abound. Why are professors Frances and Annabelle being so secretive about their adopted daughter? What’s behind a troubled student’s sudden disappearance? And who is the mysterious platinum blonde observed at the scene of the crime? Meanwhile, Lauren’s own secret—a case that almost cost her her career back in Montreal—and the sudden return of an ex-lover who wants back in her life, threaten to overwhelm the investigation altogether.
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Fire in the Belly
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95A paperback edition of the award-winning biography by of Purdy Crawford, who went from Toronto’s Bay Street as an outsider, the son of a coal miner from tiny Five Islands, Nova Scotia, to one of Canada’s top lawyers and best-known business mentors.
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Bryant Freeman All Things Fishing
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Bryant Freeman was born by a river, and the sound of roaring water was both magical and constant. For the rest of his life, Freeman, an icon in the New Brunswick fly-fishing community, would be drawn to the outdoors, and, invariably, rivers. Freeman has been honoured for his many contributions to fly tying and the conservation of Atlantic salmon and his specialty fly shop, Eskape Anglers in Riverview, New Brunswick, has been a destination for decades, a gathering place for tyers and anglers. Fondly known as Bryant the Banana Finger Man, Freeman is also a born storyteller, and in this book, readers are treated to some of his tales. They even get instructions on how to tie a Carter’s Bug. Author and fisherman Doug Underhill follows Freeman from his childhood on the banks of Nova Scotia’s Medway River to today, revealing fascinating insights into the man and the fine art of fly tying.
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Mary, Mary
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95In a Cape Breton family of black sheep, Mary is pure as the driven snow. She is patient and kind with her alcoholic grandmother and volatile mother, loyal and attentive to her spoiled cousin, and pleasant and polite all day as a grocery cashier. Her well-off aunt, the only other normal person in the family, wants to help her more, but Mary’s mother is too prickly and proud. So Mary goes to work, comes home, takes care of her family, and wonders if there’ll ever be more to life.
When a young couple moves into the apartment upstairs, it sparks a series of changes that leads to major family revelations, and Mary discovers that sometimes doing the wrong thing is the exact right thing to do.
Tender, authentic, and crackling with Lesley’s irrepressible humour, Mary, Mary is a book for anyone who’s ever had a family—good, bad, or a messy mix of both.
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The Black Battalion 1916-1920
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95Black military heritage in Canada is still generally unknown and unwritten. Most Canadians have no idea that Blacks served, fought, and died on European battlefields, all in the name of freedom. The story of the overt racist treatment of Black volunteers is a shameful chapter in Canadian history. It does, however, represent an important part of the Black legacy and the Black experience. It is a story worth reporting and worth sharing.
In this thirtieth-anniversary edition of Ruck’s celebrated history of Nova Scotia’s No. 2 Construction Battalion, known as the Black Battalion, the original text and over 60 photographs and documents is presented for a whole new generation of readers, along with a new foreword and photographs from journalist Lindsay Ruck, Calvin W. Ruck’s proud granddaughter.
