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Somewhere I Belong
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95In Somewhere I Belong, we meet young P.J. Kavanaugh at North Boston Station. His father has died, the Depression is on, and his mother is moving them back home. They settle in, and P.J. makes new friends. But the P.E.I. winter is harsh, the farm chores endless, and his teacher a drunken bully. He soon wants to go home; the problem is how.
A letter arrives from Aunt Mayme announcing a Babe Ruth charity baseball game in the old neighbourhood. But Ma won’t let him go. P.J is devastated. The weeks pass, then there is an accident on the farm. P.J. becomes a hero and Ma changes her mind. He travels to Boston, sees his friends, watches Babe Ruth hit a home run, and renews his attachment to the place. But his eagerness to return to the Island makes him wonder where he really belongs.
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Cooking with Glo
Publisher: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.$18.95Cooking with Glo is a return to a dab and a pinch, a dollop and a sprinkle. This is cooking learned at a mother’s apron strings; and her mother from her mother. McNeill believes that healthy cooking is social, convivial and accessible, and the recipes contained here are dispensed with a charm, wit and the sage wisdom pulled from a full life. She really is the Mrs. Beeton for our times.
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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 awardÂwinning illustrator Richard Rudnicki will teach readers about Black Loyalist life, and the value of friendship and patience.
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The Last Canadian Knight
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95From a small-town law office in Nova Scotia to the boardrooms of London, England, where he was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s “privatization ace,” lawyer and businessman Sir Graham Day has established a sterling international reputation as a tough-minded but charming negotiator. In The Last Canadian Knight, award-winning business journalist Gordon Pitts chronicles Day’s meteoric rise and explores the valuable lessons Day has gleaned from a lifetime of global business experience.
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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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Fire in the Belly How Purdy Crawford rescued Canada, and changed the way we do business
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95Purdy Crawford’s name is synonymous with Canadian business and law. But even after education at Mount Allison and Harvard, Purdy arrived on Toronto’s Bay Street as an outsider, the son of a coal miner from tiny Five Islands, Nova Scotia. So how did young Purdy ascend so quickly and so far to become one of Canada’s top lawyers and best-known business mentors? In this biography of Purdy, bestselling business writer Gordon Pitts begins with the moment in 2007 when Crawford was enlisted by some of the country’s leading corporate officials to stave off financial market catastrophe. The book describes the role Crawford has played in mentoring several of Canada’s brightest economic thinkers, and his contribution to changing the way business was done in the boardroom, particularly in opening the door for women. Includes a photo insert of highlights from Purdy’s professional career and private life.
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The Last Canadian Knight
$27.95From a small-town law office in Nova Scotia to the pressure-cooker boardrooms of London, England, where he was Margaret Thatcher’s “privatization ace,” lawyer and businessman Sir Graham Day has earned an international reputation as a tough-minded but charming negotiator.
After a rocky educational start in Halifax, Day found his motivation at Dalhousie Law School and established the contacts and experiences that would guide him through the world of global business. With an impressive resume including troubleshooting roles for large companies (Canadian Pacific Limited, British Shipbuilders, Cadbury Schweppes) around the world, often during controversial times, Day solidified his position as an internationally sought-after change-maker.
In The Last Canadian Knight, award-winning business journalist Gordon Pitts chronicles Day’s meteoric rise and explores the lessons Day gleaned from a lifetime spent in and out of the world’s boardrooms.
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You Might Be From Hamilton If…
Publisher: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.$19.95The Hammer. The Ambitious City. Steel town.
Canada’s tenth largest city, Hamilton, Ontario, has been called a lot of things. But Hamiltonians, near and far, know they can always come home to a place that has a rich history–and a lot of amusing stories only locals would know.
In comes Graeme MacKay, the editorial cartoonist for the Hamilton Spectator. As a Hamiltonian born and bred, he knows this city’s quirks, its characters and its love affair with being the underdog to Toronto’s “Centre of the Universe” mentality. With more than 120 cartoons, MacKay illustrates what so many people have come to love (and perhaps cringe a little) about this port city.
Founding father, George Hamilton, would be proud.
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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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The Effective Citizen How to Make Politicians Work for You
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95Effective citizens–engaged, knowledgeable, and persistent, and united in common cause–are the most powerful force that ever was, or ever will be. I hope this book will help citizens to be more effective.
In his uniquely straightforward and accessible style, Political insider Graham Steele pulls back the curtain on our political system and gives readers a look inside. A lawyer, analyst, former Nova Scotia cabinet minister, and author of the Globe & Mail bestselling memoir What I Learned About Politics, Steele answers the burning questions of Canadians: Who really runs the parties? What does a backbencher do? How does a citizen effectively navigate the system, and achieve change through a politician? What is “truthiness?”
A primer for anyone who wants to become a politician or influence one, The Effective Citizen explains how politicians think and what factors influence that thinking; how to interpret the “non-answer” in political speech; and acknowledges that in politics, “bland is safe.” Ideal for political neophytes and junkees all the same, Steele’s newest book will have the whole country talking.
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Nova Scotia Politics 1945-2020 From Macdonald to MacNeil
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95Who has held political power in Nova Scotia? How did they get it? And what did they do with it? In his latest book, best-selling author and former cabinet minister Graham Steele takes us on a roller-coaster ride through seventy-five years of Nova Scotia politics from 1945 to 2020.
The story ranges from Angus L. Macdonald, who won a crushing election victory in 1945 after a bitter falling-out with prime minister Mackenzie King, to Stephen McNeil, who provoked the first-ever teachers’ strike yet won the first back-to-back majorities in thirty years. It covers premiers from the calm intellectual Robert Stanfield, to the acerbic outsider Donald Cameron, to the aloof reformer John Savage, and highlights trailblazers like Gladys Porter, Wayne Adams, and Donald Marshall Jr.
Nova Scotia politics has seen an almost unnatural focus on jobs, roads, and corruption. Steele doesn’t shy away from the controversial parts of our political history: the trial of Gerald Regan for sexual crimes; the political pressure that led to the opening of the ill-starred Westray mine; and the environmental racism that pumped effluent into Boat Harbour for fifty years.
This is a book for anyone interested in modern Nova Scotia history or politics. It’s for the avid politics-watcher, of course, but also for the new voter, the newcomer, the new parent, the newly retired—anyone who wants some historical depth by which to understand today’s politics.
Steele pulls together the threads of history, adding original stories and archival research to the existing rich vein of historical writing, and then applies his own political experience to find the through lines that tie together past, present, and future.
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The Golden Boy A Doctor’s Journey with Addiction
Publisher: Acorn Press$21.95Before opioids destroyed Grant Matheson’s career, he was a pillar of his community. Respected physician, loving husband, devoted father, and trusted friend. Grant was a straight-laced kid who grew up to be a clean-living adult. No drinking, no smoking, and certainly no drugs. It took everyone by surprise, most of all himself, when he became addicted to narcotics in his 30s. His story hit local press when he was found guilty of professional misconduct related to his addiction, including over-prescribing painkillers to patients so he could buy them back–an infraction that caused his physician license to be suspended.
Matheson’s memoir is a gritty account of his narcotic addiction and all that it cost him: various relationships, his career, and almost his life. The Golden Boy takes the reader from the very first day of Matheson’s drug addiction to that moment when he decided to rebuild his life through rehab and recovery.
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Walk Historic Halifax
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Use this convenient guide book to find all the interesting historic buildings and facts about the historic old port city.
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Canadian Maple Syrup
Artist: Marijke Simons$9.95Based on the real-life story of the Allaway family of Tantallon, Nova Scotia. Brian and Simmone Allaway started their backyard project with children Cara and Brian William in the 1980s, and as the popularity of their maple syrup grew, so did their small family business. Acadian Maple Products Ltd. has since developed into a large processing and retail facility with a world- wide distribution network. It employs twenty people and is still fully owned and operated by the Allaway family.
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Island Year
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95As they neared retirement, Greg Brown and his wife Anne gave up their life in the U.S. to settle on a windswept Nova Scotia island inhabited by wild sheep and deer, where harbour seals sing in the fog and an old lighthouse still keeps watch over the North Atlantic. Island Year: Finding Nova Scotia tells the story of the surprises, challenges and discoveries of their first year alone on an island as they restored an old fisherman’s house, explored the island, and began to learn how to live a Nova Scotia way of life.
This is a story for anyone who dreams of exchanging a fast-paced, high-tech life for something slower and just maybe more meaningful. This is a story about the night sky and the dawn chorus, lobsters and wild raspberries, a famous pirate, the kindness of others, and getting in touch with yourself again. Funny and inspiring, this book redefines what a rich life can mean. -
Truth and Honour The Death of Richard Oland and the Trial of Dennis Oland
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95Truth and Honour explores the 2011 murder of Saint John businessman Richard Oland, of the prominent family that owns Moosehead Breweries, the ensuing police investigation and the arrest, trial, and conviction of the victim’s son, Dennis Oland, for second Âdegree murder.
Oland’s trial would be the most publicized in New Brunswick history. What the trial judge called “a family tragedy of Shakespearian proportions,” this realÂlife murder mystery included adultery, family dysfunction, largely circumstantial evidence, allegations of police incompetence, a high-powered legal defence, and a verdict that shocked the community.
Today, the Oland family maintains Dennis Oland’s innocence. Author Greg Marquis, a professor of Canadian history at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, leads readers through the case, from the discovery of the crime to the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. Offering multiple perspectives, Truth and Honour explores this question: was Dennis Oland responsible for the death of his father?
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Truth and Honour The Death of Richard Oland and the Trial of Dennis Oland
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Truth and Honour explores the 2011 murder of Saint John businessman Richard Oland, of the prominent family that owns Moosehead Breweries, the ensuing police investigation and the arrest, trial, and conviction of the victim’s son, Dennis Oland, for second Âdegree murder.
Oland’s trial would be the most publicized in New Brunswick history. What the trial judge called “a family tragedy of Shakespearian proportions,” this realÂlife murder mystery included adultery, family dysfunction, largely circumstantial evidence, allegations of police incompetence, a high-powered legal defence, and a verdict that shocked the community.
Today, the Oland family maintains Dennis Oland’s innocence. Author Greg Marquis, a professor of Canadian history at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, leads readers through the case, from the discovery of the crime to the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. Offering multiple perspectives, Truth and Honour explores this question: was Dennis Oland responsible for the death of his father?
This updated edition features a new chapter following Dennis’s imprisonment and successful 2016 appeal, and raises questions about his anticipated retrial.
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Truth & Honour (new edition) The Oland Family Murder Case that Shocked Canada
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95Updated and expanded edition of national bestseller detailing the high-profile murder of Saint John businessman Richard Oland and the trial of his son Dennis Oland.
Truth and Honour explores the 2011 murder of Saint John businessman Richard Oland, of the prominent family that owns Moosehead Breweries, the ensuing police investigation and the arrest, trial, and conviction of the victim’s son Dennis Oland for second-degree murder.
Oland’s trial would be the most publicized in New Brunswick history. What the trial judge called “a family tragedy of Shakespearian proportions,” this real-life murder mystery included adultery, family dysfunction, largely circumstantial evidence, allegations of police incompetence, a high-powered legal defence, and a verdict that shocked the community.
Today, the Oland family maintains Dennis Oland’s innocence. Author Greg Marquis, a professor of Canadian history at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, leads readers through the case, from the discovery of the crime to the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. Offering multiple perspectives, Truth and Honour explores this question: was Dennis Oland responsible for the death of his father?
This updated edition features a new chapter following Dennis’s imprisonment and successful 2016 appeal, his subsequent retrial, and controversial acquittal in July 2019.
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Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West
Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing$21.00Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West is a full-colour photographic guide to the identification, edibility, and medicinal uses of over 250 plant species, growing from Alaska to southern California, east across the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Plains to the Great Lakes.
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Afraid of the Dark
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Through prose and poetry, Guyleigh Johnson tells the story of sixteen-year-old Kahlua Thomas. With a hard life at home, on the streets, and in school she finds an escape during her grade ten history class through writing poetry. Hiding in the back of the class, she writes, passionately expressing and releasing emotions about identity, home, community, culture, and forgiveness. All Kahlua wants is freedom, whatever that really means.
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Myth and Milieu: Atlantic Literature and Culture 1918-1939
A lively look at the cultural history of the Maritimes and Newfoundland in the years between the two world wars. This is the world of Lucy Maud Montgomery and Thomas Raddall, E. J. Pratt and Helen Creighton, Margaret Duley and Frank Parker Day. In a wide-ranging review of regional culture, Myth & Milieu explores novels and poetry, painting and folklore, music and film, local dialect and political cartoons.
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Studies in Maritime Literary History 1760-1930
Publisher: Acadiensis Press$16.95From the early diarists and satirists to the women writers of the nineteenth century and the poetic Song Fishermen of the twentieth, Maritime writers have made distinctive responses to the social, political and geographical realities of their time. These essays reveal how the region’s writers have shaped and reflected the identity of the Maritimes.
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Historic Houses of Prince Edward Island
Publisher: SSP Publications$19.95The first of its kind, this fully illustrated book examines the evolution of domestic architecture on Prince Edward Island up until the advent of WWI. It describes 82 of the most significant heritage houses on the Island and includes the exquisite black and white and colour photography of Lionel Stevenson, floor plans of selected buildings and interesting aerial photographs of some of these houses in their rural context. Author Scott Smith has won several awards and is himself an historian, publisher and architect.
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Historic Churches of PEI (2nd Ed)
Publisher: SSP Publications$16.95Originally published in 1986, Historic Churches of Prince Edward Island won the Award of Merit, from the PEI Heritage Foundation. The book includes photos, floor plans, and descriptions of pre-1914 churches, from simple rural structures to the splendor of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Charlottetown. Not intended as a history text or a manual of preservation, the author hopes that the book will prove useful in conserving the past.
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A Light in the Field
Publisher: SSP Publications$16.95A Light in the Field features the historic architecture of lighthouses, fishery buildings, barns and mills on Prince Edward Island.
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Silver Dart The Story of J.A.D. McCurdy, Canada’s First Pilot and the First Airplane
Publisher: Breton Books$18.95A WARM, ENTHUSIASTIC AND ENTERTAINING biography of the fearless pioneer pilot who flew Canada into the Aviation Era when his Silver Dart lifted off lake ice in Baddeck, February 23, 1909. The story of the Aerial Experiment Association — four young men around Alexander Graham Bell — that developed and flew the flimsy planes that became the legendary Silver Dart. A story of companionship, invention and courage, as Canadian aviation was born in Cape Breton Island.
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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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Queen of the Crows
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Elsa’s mom has disappeared again, but eleven-year-old Elsa is doing her best to fool the world into thinking her life is normal. As food, money and luck begin to run out, Elsa fears she won’t be able to keep her desperate, lonely secret any longer.
Then one day a crow talks to Elsa and a world of wonder opens up to her. The queen of the crows has also gone missing and the rest of the crows struggle to know what to do next.
Could the secret, magical world of the crows be the key to Elsa’s mental health?
Based on the award-winning short film screened by Telefilm Canada at the Cannes Film Festival, Queen of the Crows explores a family story of mental illness, love and imagination and triumph.
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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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Build the Instant Catboats
Publisher: WoodenBoat Books$15.95Featuring one of Phil Bolger’s clean, simple designs. Dynamite clearly explains the building process that will result in your own 12′ gaff-rigged catboat using the stitch-and-glue plywood method.
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Instant Boats
Publisher: WoodenBoat Books$17.60How to build simple, well-designed plywood boats without a complicated building jig, featuring complete scaled-down plans for five easily-built boats designed by Phil Bolger. From a small punt to a 31′ daysailer with a schooner rig. The step-by-step example being a 12′ double-ended sailing skiff.
