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Somebeachsomewhere A Harness Racing Legend from a One-Horse Stable
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$26.95It’s November 2006 and Brent MacGrath, a car salesman from Nova Scotia, has just had his first glimpse of a gorgeous yearling at the Lexington Yearling Sale—and his heart skips a beat. He takes another look. Even this young, the bay stallion has size and “presence.” Against all odds, and with limited funds, MacGrath makes a successful bid for the colt.
Somebeachsomewhere: The Harness Racing Legend from a One-Horse Stable is a work of narrative non-fiction that follows the life and career of the Ohio-born, Canadian-sired superstar pacer known as “Beach” who belonged to a syndicate of six owners from Canada’s East Coast. From a relatively humble lineage, Somebeachsomewhere turned out to be a horse of a lifetime: a world-champion Hall of Famer, smashing records and setting a single-season earning record as a three-year-old. Many consider Beach, who died unexpectedly in 2018, the greatest pacer and Standardbred sire of all time. Canadian and American racing fans loved the friendly stallion with “an extra gear,” and threw “Beach Parties” whenever he raced.
This is the first-ever complete, generously illustrated account of “the Beach,” a horse who captivated the world with his speed, courage and near-flawless gait. It is also a story of improbabilities and magic, featuring dozens of interviews with top American and Canadian horsemen and women, the owners of Empire Stallions in Avenel, Australia, and harness racing industry professionals.
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The Spoon Stealer
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$26.95The Spoon Stealer is a classic Crewe book: full of humour, family secrets, women’s friendship, lovable animals, and immense heart.
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Old Man Told Us (new edition)
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$26.95The Mi’kmaq people have been living in what is now Atlantic Canada for two thousand years or more, yet written history has largely ignored them, presenting them merely as a homogeneous mass or as statistics. Renowned Micmac specialist Ruth Holmes Whitehead, formerly staff ethnologist and assistant curator in history at the Nova Scotia Museum, tries to redress that omission by restoring to the collective memory a true sense of the Mi’kmaq. In this rich collection, oral and written, Mi’kmaq accounts juxtapose contemporary European perceptions of native peoples, as documented in letters, journals, court cases, and much more. Above all, The Old Man Told Us is a historical jigsaw puzzle, a display of fragments of broken mirror in which one can capture moments in the lives of particular people. It is a book of excerpts from whatever scattered documentation has survived over the centuries.
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Frontier Town: Bear River, Nova Scotia A Snapshot in Time
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$26.95Bear River photographer Ralph Nelson Harris captured the village’s waning days of sail and lumber through his camera lens in the early 1900s. Drawing upon hundreds of recently discovered Ralph Harris images, historian and author Mike Parker puts a newfound face to Bear River’s past while utilizing painstakingly researched excerpts from The Telephone, Bear River’s newspaper of the day, to add an informative and entertaining voice to the story. Includes 470 images.
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Nova Scotia at War, 1914-1919
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$26.95When the First World War ended in 1918, its profound impact did not. The war continued to haunt a nation. Nova Scotia at War, 1914-1919 is an in-depth study of Nova Scotia’s role that was, at the time, the most traumatic collective experience in the history of Canadians. As Tennyson explores in nine fascinating chapters, the war effort was more than just the brave soldiers and sailors who went overseas; it was also the civilians who worked in the fishery, on the farms, and in the forests, coals mines, and steel mills.
A specialist in early twentieth-century Canadian political history, author and historian Brian Tennyson examines the economic impact of the war, which shattered Nova Scotia’s dream of becoming the Atlantic gateway and the industrial heartland of Canada. Includes 30 black and white photos.
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Halifax and Titanic
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$26.95The story of Titanic’s tragic sinking on April 15, 1912, has been told countless times in films and books, inscribing it into popular culture as perhaps the best-known disaster of all-time. When Titanic went down off the coast of Newfoundland, the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the base from which recovery operations were mounted. Eventually, 337 bodies were recovered, the majority of them by ships dispatched from Halifax. Of this total, 128 were buried at sea and 209 were delivered to Halifax—150 of those buried in three Halifax cemeteries. They remain there to this day, the largest number of Titanic graves in the world, cared for in perpetuity by the city and visited by thousands of people each year.
On the one-hundredth anniversary of Titanic’s sinking, author John Boileau examines the relationship between the city and the unprecedented tragedy. This illustrated history includes over 100 historical photographs of the people and places involved in Halifax’s sombre recovery effort.
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Underground Halifax (2nd edition)
Editor: Paul EricksonPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$26.95Across North America and beyond, urban archaeology is enjoying a widespread and growing popularity, as people are drawn by its sense of mystery and the alluring prospect of discovery. The individual authors of the narratives within Underground Halifax tell stories with a “human face,” bringing people and events-some ordinary, others famous-back to life, and doing so with objects as well as words. Each author in the volume employs an array of illustrations of what once lay hidden underground-map, photographs, and sketches-as well as drawings and photographs of unearthed structures and artifacts. Once you”ve been given a glimpse at what lies beneath the layers of Halifax, walking the city”s streets will never be the same again.
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Endgame 1758 The Promise, the Despair and the Glory of Louisbourg’s Last Decade
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$26.95The story of what happened at the colonial fortified town of Louisbourg between 1749 and 1758 is one of the great dramas of the history of Canada, indeed North America. The French stronghold on Cape Breton Island, strategically situated near the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, was from soon after its founding a major possession in the quest for empire. The dramatic military and social history of this short-lived and significant fortress, seaport, and community, and the citizens who made it their home, are woven together in A. J. B. Johnston’s gripping biography of the colony’s final decade, presented from both French and British perspectives. Endgame 1758 is a tale of two empires in collision on the shores of mid-eighteenth-century Atlantic Canada, where rival European visions of predominance clashed headlong with each other and with the region’s Aboriginal peoples. The magnitude of the struggle and of its uncertain outcome colored the lives of Louisbourg’s inhabitants and the nearly thirty thousand combatants arrayed against it. The entire history comes to life in a tale of what turned out to be the first major British victory in the Seven Years’ War. How and why the French colony ended the way it did, not just in June and July 1758, but over the decade that preceded the siege, is a little-known and compelling story.
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Algonquin Park A Photographic Journey
Photographer: Iain McNabPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$26.95At 7,700 square kilometres, Algonquin Park offers constant surprises, even for McNab, who shoots in all seasons and never tires of the park’s natural beauty. In this travel-friendly keepsake book, photographer Iain McNab shares some of the stunning photographs he has taken in over twenty years of visiting Canada’s first provincial park.
Sunsets, brilliant foliage, foxes, bear, and moose, all shot all with the same eye for detail, Algonquin Park features over 100 colour photos as well as an introduction from McNab, detailing his imperfect quest for the perfect photo.
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Valiant Hearts
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$26.95Valiant Hearts chronicles the stories of inspiration and courage shown by men in wartime, stretching from the Crimean War (1854-1856) to World War Two, telling the life stories of the gallant men from Atlantic Canada who won that most coveted of bravery awards- the Victoria Cross.
The twenty men profiled in this book all have strong connections to Atlantic Canada (11 of them were born in the region; 9 have other ties to the region, having either lived or served here). With a focus on historical accuracy, this book tells the stories of these courageous men by filling in the details of their lives before and, for those who survived, after winning the VC, with attention to the specific events that led to their recognition as heroes.
No comparable book has ever been written. Most books about Canadian Victoria Cross winners cover the entire country and were published some time ago. Most of the previously published books contain little more than citations for the awards or excerpts from them, with only the briefest of personal details. This book is particular to the Atlantic region, and is detailed, personal and informative as well as being carefully written. -
Atlantic Ghosts: Tales from the Haunted Coast (new edition)
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$25.95Expanded new edition of the popular keepsake collection of supernatural folklore from Atlantic Canada, with a selection of new stories and pen-and-ink illustrations.
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How I Made It
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$25.95An accessible, practical, and timeless guide to entrepreneurship from the founder/developer of some of Canada’s most successful businesses, including AMJ Campbell Van Lines and Premiere Suites.
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Ashtanga Yoga The Definitive Guide to Therapeutic & Traditional Yoga
Publisher: Acorn Press$25.95This ground–breaking guide to Ashtanga yoga, by two of the world’s leading teachers, Manju Jois and Greg Tebb, is the only book on yoga you’ll ever need.
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Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea A Living History
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$25.95“It is a good tale, well told, which opens the door to the wanderings of the imagination.” —The Globe and Mail
The history of Nova Scotia is an amazing story of a land and a people shaped by the waves, the tides, the wind, and the wonder of the North Atlantic. Choyce weaves the legacy of this unique coastal province, piecing together the stories written in the rocks, the wrecks, and the record books of human glory and error. In this newly revised sweeping true-life adventure, he provides a thoughtful down-to-earth journey through history that is both refreshing and revealing.
Here, well into the twenty-first century, he looks back at the full story of Nova Scotia from the geological history to the civilization of the Mi’kmaq, the arrival of the Europeans, and beyond to the stormy history of English and French. Choyce takes a critical look at the wars that helped shape the province, the scoundrels and the heroes who lived here down through the centuries, and the seas and storms that swept through the land of the Bluenosers. The original edition of Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea was published to acclaim by Penguin Books in 1996. This new edition brings the story up to date and looks at the changes in politics, economy, and global climate that will challenge Nova Scotians in the years ahead.
“Lesley Choyce’s writing captures the ebb and flow of Nova Scotia seafaring, from its Golden Age of Sail to the disasters and crimes at sea.” —The Halifax Chronicle Herald
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Titanic True Stories of Her Passengers, Crew, and Legacy
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$25.95This book tells the lives of the passengers on the Titanic‘s ill-fated voyage, and shines a spotlight on the vessel’s lost treasures, its celebrated send-off from Belfast, its animal passengers, the iconic music and movies inspired by the story, and the many, many tales of heroism and bravery that arose from this tragedy. Richly illustrated with archival photographs and newspaper clippings, as well as a comprehensive index, timeline, and suggested further reading, this all-ages book presents an accessible, fascinating history of the world’s most famous ship. Includes over 50 black and white photos.
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Oak Island Mystery: Solved The Final Chapter
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$25.95For more than two centuries, Oak Island, Nova Scotia, has been studied, searched, probed and cursed all the while failing to give up its secrets. Joy Steele’s ground-breaking historical research into the island’s true history is no less intriguing. In this second edition, Ms. Steele is joined by professional geologist Gordon Fader to not only solidify her theory, but to expand on it, including a thorough explanation of the area’s geology.
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Haven in the Heart of Halifax An Illustrated History of the Public Gardens
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$25.95The Public Gardens is one of the finest examples of a Victorian garden anywhere in the world. Nestled in the heart of the city, this important public space has a fascinating history. When you enter the Public Gardens, it feels for a moment as if you have stepped back in time. Everything seems to slow down when you push open one of the iron gates and set foot on the winding gravel paths that meander throughout plantings of astonishing variety. It is seemingly timeless but, of course, it has changed a great deal over almost one hundred years.
Nestled in the heart of the city, the Public Gardens’ origins date from the 1830s. Inside its gates are a staggering variety of beautiful flowers, shrubs, and trees and the most memorable historic structures. The aesthetic of the Public Gardens was the vision of Richard Power, the Gardens’ original superintendent.
Over time, the Gardens took its current form, through the addition of familiar features such as the bandstand, cast iron gates, fountain, and bridges. The structures and monuments in the garden themselves are filled with significance. Citizens and visitors alike have found a quiet oasis of calm in the middle of the downtown core. It is a place where memories have been made, as generation after generation have taken in the seven hectares of beauty. When you enter the Public Gardens, it feels as if you are stepping out of a hectic city and back in time. But the Public Gardens has survived through the careful stewardship of a cross section of the community.
This lavishly illustrated book is the first comprehensive history of this remarkable place.
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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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The Blind Mechanic
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$25.95Eric Davidson was a beautiful, fair-haired toddler when the Halifax Explosion struck, killing almost 2,000 people and seriously injuring thousands of others. Eric lost both eyes—a tragedy that his mother never fully recovered from. Eric, however, was positive and energetic. He also developed a fascination with cars and how they worked, and he later decided, against all likelihood, to become a mechanic. Assisted by his brothers who read to him from manuals, he worked hard, passed examinations, and carved out a decades-long career. Once the subject of a National Film Board documentary, Eric Davidson was, until his death, a much-admired figure in Halifax.
This book does not gloss over the challenges faced by Eric and by his parents. Written by his daughter Marilyn, it gives new insights into the story of the 1917 Halifax Explosion and contains never-before-seen documents and photographs.
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Escape to Reality How the World is Changing Gardening, and Gardening is Changing the World
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$25.95Why do we garden? Why should we? How is gardening changing the world?
These are just some of the philosophical gardening questions pondered in this heartfelt and gorgeously designed book. An informed and personal reflection on gardening in Canada from the country’s preeminent horticultural expert, Escape to Reality goes beyond the hows that are the focus of most gardening books and explores the whys. In short, narrative essays, topics range from garden and nature as therapy to who we are as gardeners and what life values we gain through the experience of gardening. It also includes some practical tips for cultivating and coexisting with your garden. Co-written with son, Ben Cullen, bestselling author and horticultural consultant Mark Cullen’s newest book is sure to find a home on the shelves of mindful gardeners across the country, and beyond. Proceeds benefit the Highway of Heroes. Includes original illustrations.
