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Mi’kmaq
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Another in the series of books detailing the culture of the many people who make up the population of the Maritimes. A history of origins, settlement and contribution to Maritime life.
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End of the Line The Dominion Atlantic Railway – A Trip Back in Time
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$25.95There was a time when railways criss-crossed Nova Scotia, carrying passengers and delivering mail, moving freight and produce, hauling timber, coal, gypsum, and iron ore. But those days have passed thanks in large measure to the advent of the automobile, improved highways, long-haul trucking, and the vagaries of market demands and resource extraction. The number of railways operating today in the province can be tallied on one hand, with fingers left over.
Vestiges of Nova Scotia’s railway heritage are disappearing. Tracks are now Rails to Trails; trestle bridges have deteriorated to decrepitude; and train stations, once the arterial pulse for so many communities, have, for the most part, disappeared. Most poignant, perhaps, is the silencing of that magical, haunting train whistle.
Mike Parker’s latest book End of the Line follows a similar track as three of his earlier best-selling books about ghost towns and deserted island settlements. Presented in Mike’s popular storytelling style, and drawing upon more than 430 images, many of them in colour, End of the Line opens another window to the past, taking the reader for a nostalgic trip back in time on the abandoned Dominion Atlantic Railway along the once-famous Land of Evangeline route from Yarmouth to Halifax through the heart of the Annapolis Valley.
Twenty-five years have passed since the demise of the Dominion Atlantic Railway (1894-1994), which closed just one month and five days short of its one hundredth birthday. There have been many railways but none more storied than the D.A.R., considered to be “one of the more important pages out of Nova Scotia history.”
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Halifax A Literary Portrait
Editor: John BellPublisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Halifax: A Literary Portrait is a lively anthology of thirty-one selected writings about this colourful Nova Scotian port city dating from the early eighteenth century to the present. Included are works by such varied writers as Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Joseph Howe, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, L.M. Montgomery, Hugh MacLennan, Thomas Raddall, Will R. Bird, Irving Layton, Earle Birney, bill bissett and Spider Robinson.
Halifax is captured in its many moods, and the selections, while not always complimentary, are sure to entertain and illuminate.
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Destination White Point
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$17.95White Point Beach Lodge has been in operation since 1928, persevering through early bankruptcy, the Great Depression, World War II, and a sometimes unforgiving climate in the hospitality industry. The resort is situated on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, where authors Zane Grey and Albert Bigelow Paine once travelled to write about the charms of the undisturbed wilderness.The evolution of tourism in southwest Nova Scotia owes much of its early progress to well-connected foreign anglers and hunters, who used their own pipelines to broadcast this Canadian destination as a bountiful game reserve and a gem for tourists to discover. This book depicts the contribution of some of these foreigners, notably Philip Hooper Moore, the creator of White Point. His conception was a vacation haven where discerning sportsmen could hunt and fish while their families enjoyed the state-of-the-art amenities at the resort. The Lodge remained a seasonal destination for several decades until the 1980s heralded a shift to year-round operations. A convention centre and more accommodations were added, all designed to blend with the original rustic log buildings.Destination White Point draws on the oral history of former and current staff and guests, some whose experiences date back to the 1930s, to paint authentic pictures of work and play at White Point. The descendants of a number of guests have perpetuated the White Point vacation tradition, travelling from New England as well as Upper and Lower Canada on an annual basis. Multi-generational connections are commonplace at White Point with a half-dozen or more family members employed at the resort across several decades.For the last thirty years or so, stories of ghostly sightings and manifestations have been circulating around the property. One of the supernatural visitors is believed to be Ivy Elliot, who co-managed White Point with her husband Howard for over forty years. These events recently attracted a group of paranormal investigators, who paid a visit to White Point. Since the 1980s, colourful rabbits have delighted children and adults alike. Today, the lodge remains a popular destination for both Canadians and foreigners and a vital link to our storied past.
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Otto Strasser in Paradise
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$17.95H. Millard Wright was born and grew up in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. He had a successful business career, becoming a vice-president and board member of L.E. Shaw Ltd. And president of Clayton Developments. He is a past president of the Halifax Board of Trade, a past director of the Maritime Chamber of Commerce, past director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and past director of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council. He formed his own company, Colonial Scientific Ltd., in 1971 and retired in 1992. He has published eight books.
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Diligent River Daughter
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$22.95Bruce Graham is a Nova Scotia writer and former broadcaster, who for many years was the face of the evening TV news in Maritime homes. Bruce and his wife Helen live in their hometown of Parrsboro. Diligent River Daughter is his fifth book. The Ship’s Company Theatre adapted two of his previous novels – The Parrsboro Boxing Club and Ivor Johnson’s Neighbours, both published by Pottersfield – for the stage.
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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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Radio Talk
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Rick Howe has been a reporter, a newscaster, a news director, a commentator and a talk show host. For several years he also wrote a column for the Halifax Daily News, and he has made numerous appearances on CTV and CBC television as a political analyst. With family roots in New Brunswick, Howe has worked in radio in Campbellton, Newcastle, Saint John and over thirty years in Halifax. Currently living in Fall River, Nova Scotia, Howe is married to former ATV/ ASN television journalist Yvonne Colbert.
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Death Ship of Halifax Harbour
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95“On an uncomfortably muggy morning in early autumn, I found myself standing at the far end of a wide, battered wharf in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia, looking for a man in knee-high, white rubber boots answering to the name of Captain Red Beard..I’d come in search of a death ship, or at least the historical whispers of a death ship — an elegant old steamer that limped into Halifax harbour during the early hours of April 9, 1866, with more than a thousand Irish and German emigrants squeezed into its cramped, creaking holds. And I’d come in search of what travelled with them and, in fact, inside many of them: Asiatic cholera. And, finally, I’d come in search of the intertwining tales of those lives inexorably changed by history’s worst cholera epidemic, which killed tens of thousands from Mecca to Manhattan to McNab’s Island in the mouth of Halifax harbour.” So begins another strange and surprising adventure of writer Steven Laffoley as he explores historic McNab’s Island in search of Halifax during its time of cholera. As he investigates the rich history of the island and searches for clues to the many dark, cholera-ship tales, Steven confronts the nature of fear and the fear of nature, including fetid marshes, abandoned buildings, a berry-mad bear, a love-starved beaver, a gaggle of naked maidens, and two drunken revolutionaries just looking for some fun. Death Ship of Halifax Harbour is a fascinating and engaging tale of fate, fear and hope.
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Nova Scotia Visions of the Future
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95In the summer of 2008, Pottersfield editor Lesley Choyce sent a letter to a select and varied list of Nova Scotians to contribute to a book about this province’s future. He invited some of the best minds (and hearts) around the province to present their vision of this possible province of the future.
Contributors would write about the environment, technology, immigration, social aspects, urban life, rural life, energy, politics, government, family, economics, forests, the ocean and much more. The bolder the vision, the better. Stories, personal opinions and controversial ideas were encouraged. Which future? Anything beyond ten years and up to a thousand.
The results of that request were varied, ambitious and surprising. This most insightful book may set in motion some serious action that can help Nova Scotia live up to its full future potential. The writing is personal, provocative, reflective, proactive, and thoroughly captivating by over forty contributors from many divers fields of expertise.
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Pardon My Frenchy’s
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$16.95Pardon My Frenchy’s is a definitive relationship manual for all those who haunt Frenchy’s, Value Village, The Sally Ann and the hundreds of used clothing stores at the Maritimes. Unlike a how-to book, Pardon My Frenchy’s is what-to-do compendium of ideas, quizzes, games and stories all aimed at keeping the Frenchy’s fires burning, the used clothing passion alive and the superbargain excitement as high as it was during that first root in the bins.
The book is like a dose of good old-fashioned relationship counseling, helping Frenchy’s fans rekindle the romance with their favourite stores. It addresses some of these burning questions. Do you still feel that tingle of anticipation as your eyes sweep the bins? Does a superbargain find still make your heart beat faster? And, the ultimate relationship question: do you find yourself casting a roving eye on Wal-Mart or The Bay?
Readers of Pardon My Frenchy’s can rely on a wealth of ideas such as Six Bring-Back-the-Thrill Techniques, Ten Surefire Ways to Pull Out all the Stops, Four Ideas to Put You in the Frenchy’s Mood, Three Ways to Add Zest to the Experience, Four Tips for Initiation Virgin Frenchy’s Shoppers, plus the Ultimate Definitive State-of-the-Art Frenchy’s Self Quiz. There’s even a Frenchy’s song lyrics that are perfect for a shopping crawl with the gang.
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Hunting Halifax
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95“I was walking into an air-conditioned Halifax tavern on a hot summer afternoon in search of a dark mystery. I was on the trail of a cold-case murder—a murder case 150 years cold. Clearly, I needed a beer.”
So beings the strange and surprising adventure of Hunting Halifax, the true tale of writer Steven Edwin Laffoley as he investigates the mean streets and narrow alleys of historic Halifax, Nova Scotia, in search of clues to a murder, a mystery and a black hole in history.
In the early hours of September 8, 1853, in the shadow of Citadel Hill, a sailor with a crushed skull lies slumped against the staircase of a notorious tavern on Barrack Street. The death is said to be an accident—a fall from a window—until two tavern prostitutes tell Nova Scotia’s famous son, Joseph Howe, that it was murder.
Prepared to do what it takes to find justice for the murdered sailor, the author sleeps in old graveyards, drinks in rough taverns, concerses in trendy coffee shops, pokes about staid Province House, ponders Victorian Age philosophy, and somehow just manages to avoid arrest. Humorous and engaging, Hunting Halifax is an entertaining tale of history, mystery and murder.
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Driving Minnie’s Piano
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Novelist Lesley Choyce weaves together his real-life adventures living by the sea at Lawrencetown Beach on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore. He writes of his love for the rugged coast and tells tales of the ordinary and the extraordinary. His story includes accounts of what it’s like surfing in the Canadian North Atlantic through all four seasons including the frigid depths of winter.
Also threading its way through this narrative is the story of Minnie’s piano. There is music here in word and spirit along with the lessons learned from the old and the young. Driving Minnie’s Piano is an eloquent personal memoir about the precious and fateful moments that change our lives. It is an exploration of what makes us tick and prompts us to be both heroes and fools in the daily enterprise of living. -
Shipwrecks of New Brunswick
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95In the past 20 years, Robert Parsons has become one of Atlantic Canada’s most popular and prolific writers, specializing in the stories of shipwreck, rescue and survival. He devotes much of his time to researching, writing and promoting the sea-going history of Canada’s eastern provinces, their ships and the people who sailed them. His books include Ocean of Storms, Sea of Disaster, In Peril on the Sea and The Edge of Yesterday: Sea Disasters of Nova Scotia.
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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. -
Nova Scotia: A Traveller’s Companion
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95A varied and provacative array of writing about this province by residents and visitors through the centuries.
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Just Wait…There’s More Surviving Cancer
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$15.95Here is a true story of one woman’s experience with surviving the life-altering effects of cancer. Linda Yates is an ordained United Church minister. During her final year in seminary, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy and several rounds of chemotherapy. She graduated from university but was unable to be ordained until 1999. After being given a clean bill of health, she became an active minister in rural Nova Scotia.
Two years later, Linda was told that the cancer had spread to her bones and was incurable. Her research revealed a life expectancy of two years. Reeling from the diagnosis, Linda became aware of other women who had received similar terminal diagnoses. She gathered the women together where they supported one another, prayed for each other and, eventually, buried one another. Two years from the point of diagnosis of advanced cancer, Linda was told that a mistake had been made and she did not, in fact, have cancer. A year later, as minister, she buried the last member of that wonderful group of women sojourners.
Feeling that something amazing and rare had occurred within that group, Linda began to think about writing about her experience. Her concern about how the Canadian health care system functions (or doesn’t), the particularities of being a woman with cancer and the special position of having been given up for dead and then resurrected again all combined to inspire her to record her experience. Just Wait…There’s More is a sometimes humourous, sometimes deadly serious look at the bizarre and often crazy life of living in the land of cancer.
Linda Yates is a slightly irreverent United Church minister. Prior to going into ministry, she managed the Dalhousie Infectious Disease Research Laboratory. Today, she lives and works as a minister in rural Nova Scotia, focussing on women’s issues, family violence, and youth.
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A Hard Chance
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Tom and Melissa Gallant sat in their car at an intersection outside Lunenburg one early summer evening in 1992. After a decade of romance and adventure, they were at a crossroads in their lives. Melissa wanted to settle down and start a business. Tom wanted to sail their schooner around the world. They had decided to go their separate ways. As they entered the intersection, one notorious for brutal accidents, their car was hit by a bus. When Tom woke up in the Fisherman’s Memorial Hospital and asked about Melissa, all anyone could say was, “It doesn’t look good.” She was in intensive care in Halifax. She was in a coma, being kept alive by machines.
This is the story of what happened in the months that followed. It is also the story of a love affair full of high seas adventure and romance, of life lived far from the conventions of polite society. It is the tale of two lives shattered in an instant, forever changed by an unmerciful twist of fate. Melissa’s brain had suffered a catastrophic trauma. When she woke from the coma, she would not know who she was, or who Tom was. She would be unable to talk, walk or feed herself.
Theirs was a love facing the greatest of challenges. This is a book about redemption conferred by accepting the hardest things in life with an open heart.
Tom Gallant is a playwright, musician, scriptwriter and journalist. Tom’s poetry and prose has been included in magazines and anthologies. Tom has logged fifty thousand miles of deep water sailing in his Nova Scotian schooner. For a decade he has been a caregiver to his injured wife.
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Clean Sweep
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Who knows more about what’s been swept under the carpet than the cleaning lady?
Forty-something Bonnie Marsden didn’t intend to become a professional charwoman, or an amateur detective. But after she gets swindled out of her job as loans officer at The Friendly Village Credit Union in Membertou County, Nova Scotia, she has to find some way to help pay the bills. Once she starts tidying other people’s houses, she starts stumbling across things that tweak her overabundant curiosity and sense of right and wrong – things like a five-year-old child lost in the woods, and a retired couple killed in a botched home invasion.
Bonnie’s husband, Big Ben Marsden, is skeptical about poking into the corners of other people’s lives. He lost his steady job two years ago and keeps up his half of the mortgage payments by cobbling together odd jobs, some of them so odd he hasn’t mentioned them to his wife. They have three children living away, and a very late surprise package still living at home. Invariably, Ben and the children get drawn into Bonnie’s attempts to suss out what’s going on under the surface.
The surface of the community they live in, like any part of rural Canada, may look bucolic from the highway, but people with several acres between themselves and their nearest neighbours can get up to some strange behaviour without anybody noticing. It’s a place where well-off hobby farmers live just around the corner from people who don’t grow vegetable gardens for a hobby but because they have to, and who make it through their hardscrabble days with humour and grace. Corporal Kowalchuck, the new detachment commander of the local RCMP, is a prairie boy not privy to secrets lurking in the community Bonnie’s lived in all her life. But maybe Corporal Kowalchuck has some secrets of his own.
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Pottersfield Nation
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95A stunning collection of some of Canada’s finest writers who just happen to call Atlantic Canada their home. The book celebrates Pottersfield Press wriers in our 25th year. The array of talent includes non-fiction by Farley Mowat, Harry Thurston, H R Percy, Joan Baxter, Archibald MacMechan, Thomas Raddall, Judith Fingard, Charles Saunders, George Elliott Clarkes, Pete Sarsfield, Gregory Cook, Billy Bidge, Dean Jobb, The Frenchy’s Ladies, Bob Chaulk, Mike Ungar and others.
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Acadia
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$22.95” a rollicking read about the escapades of those larger-than-life characters who dominated the early days of European thirst for dominance in the New World…” Atlantic Books Today Acadia is based on the true story of the blood feud that founded the French colony and the two very different married couples at the centre of it.
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Black and Bluenose The Contemporary History of a Community
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$18.95Black and Bluenose documents the recent history of Canada’s oldest and largest indigenous black community. Saunders writes with passion and insight about issues that are close to his heart and an understanding of the historical forces that shape the headlines of today.
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Remembering Summer
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$16.95A novel of love and hate, peace and war. The setting is Newfoundland in the late 1960s. It is a time of great upheaval in mind and spirit. A challenging and powerful novel.
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Se Debrouiller Par Ses Propres Moyens: Le developpement economique dans les Maritimes
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$32.95En 2006, l’auteur primé Donald Savoie a écrit un livre novateur sur le développement économique dans les Maritimes, Visiting Grandchildren, en prévoyant que ce serait son dernier ouvrage consacré au domaine. Une décennie plus tard, il revient sur cette question en faisant paraître Se débrouiller par ses propres moyens. Préoccupé par l’avenir économique de la région, il a cherché à explorer et à expliquer les raisons de la faiblesse de son développement économique. Le résultat visé consiste à provoquer le débat qui s’impose sur l’avenir des Provinces maritimes.
S’inspirant de sa participation passée aux efforts de développement régional (conseiller principal en politiques auprès de l’ancien ministre du MEER; participation à la création de l’APECA) et de ses ouvrages précédents, M. Savoie jette un nouvel éclairage sur un vieux problème et pose les questions difficiles: pourquoi la région des Maritimes ne s’est-elle pas aussi bien développée que les autres régions canadiennes et que peut-on faire pour corriger la situation?
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Bébé Regarde
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$9.95An accordion-style book that can be unfolded to entertain your baby during tummy time. Babies love to look at baby faces and this book is dual-sided, featuring beautiful photos of babies on each side. Younger babies will love the close-up baby faces on one side, while older babies will enjoy the words and actions on the back of the book. The second in the popular Baby Steps series, each of which focuses on a key developmental stage in baby’s first year, Bébé Regarde is the perfect board book for new parents, baby programs, and baby shower gifts.
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An Illustrated History of Nova Scotia Twentieth-anniversary edition
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95In vivid, accessible prose, award-winning author Harry Bruce documents, in text and image, Nova Scotia’s complex and fascinating history. With updates and a new chapter from author Dan Soucoup, An Illustrated History of Nova Scotia is back in print for a whole new generation.
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Deux Pays Le Canada à l’ère du Grand Déséquilibre démographique
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95Ce que l’auteur Richard Saillant appelle le Grand Déséquilibre démographique canadien– « le rythme très inégal auquel vieillit la population des diverses régions du Canada » — est, selon l’expert des politiques publiques Donald J. Savoie, « l’un des défis les plus exigeants du pays pendant les deux prochaines décennies ».
L’ouvrage Deux pays, dont l’orientation générale est profondément ancrée dans la démographie, développe la thèse de Saillant selon laquelle « les forces jumelées de la gravité économique et démographique » causeront de graves difficultés dans l’Est du Canada et l’ensemble du pays si nous n’agissons pas dès maintenant. Nous devons d’abord faire face à la dure réalité : « on observe entre les provinces les mieux et les moins bien nanties un contraste marqué qui est appelé à s’accentuer ». Résultat? Deux Canadas distincts, l’un âgé et peu nanti, l’autre jeune et dynamique. Sans un important changement de cap, affirme Saillant, le Canada sera un pays déchiré.
Deux pays est un incontournable pour ceux qui cherchent une analyse stratégique et basée sur des données probantes de l’avenir incertain du Canada, ainsi que des recommandations visant à remédier aux répercussions du Grand déséquilibre démographique sur toute la population canadienne.
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The Little Book of Nova Scotia
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95The magic of Peggy’s Cove at night, the rugged shorelines and clifftops, the magical expanse of the Cape Breton Highlands mid-winter—all represent the beauty that is Nova Scotia. Journey through this incredible landscape with award-winning photojournalist Len Wagg. These remarkable photos not only capture the immense beauty of Nova Scotia’s natural landscape but also capture the spirit of the people who live in it everyday.
Features approximately 85 photos with captions and a foreword from popular Nova Scotia writer Silver Donald Cameron. Now in a smaller format and with 10 new photographs.
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The Thundermaker
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Mi’kmaw artist Alan Syliboy’s The Thundermaker is based on Alan’s spectacular mixed-media exhibit of the same name. In the book, Big Thunder teaches his son, Little Thunder, about the important responsibility he has making thunder for his people. Little Thunder learns about his Mi’kmaw identity through his father’s teachings and his mother’s traditional stories. Syliboy’s spectacular, vibrant artwork brings the story of Little Thunder to vivid life.
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Abigail’s Wish
$22.95Spring. Beautiful blossoms. Chirping peepers. Trees swaying in their new greenery. Pussy willows glistening in furry white coats. Rain and warmth. New births and new beginnings…
Ten-year-old Abigail Price is excited about spring in her new home in Birchtown. Spring means lots of things, like flower buds and fresh leaves and her Aunt Dinah’s new baby. She’s hoping it also means she’ll get a new dress to wear for the celebration, but new clothing, like many things, is hard to come by.
The first children’s picture book set in historic Birchtown, Nova Scotia, Abigail’s Wish is a window into the life of a Black Loyalist family in the early years of the historic colony. Through the eyes of young Abigail, this stunning collaboration between poet and novelist Gloria Ann Wesley and awardwinning illustrator Richard Rudnicki will teach readers about Black Loyalist life, and the value of friendship and patience.
