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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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Black Snow
$19.95Black Snow is a love story set during the Halifax Explosion. The 1917 disaster was the largest man-made blast the world had ever known, and it cut Halifax off from the rest of the world for the darkest thirty-six hours in its history. Rich in fact and shocking images, the story sets a blistering pace following one man’s search through a ruined city for the love of his life as he confronts the wreckage of his past.
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We Belong to the Sea
Editor: Meddy StantonPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Nova Scotia’s marine heritage is rooted in the very fibre of the people. In this anthology of the best writing about Nova Scotia and its historic relationship to the sea we hear from numerous well-known authors.
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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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Acadian Christmas Traditions
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Based on written sources and interviews with Acadians throughout the Maritimes, Acadian Christmas Traditions offers a fascinating look at the evolution of Christmas. This very readable book shows how customs, both spiritual and secular, take hold in families, in villages, and in a culture as a whole. Georges Arsenault, the well-known historian and folklorist, examines all the aspects of the feast of Christmas, from midnight mass to holiday foods. As he chronicles the cultural changes that have taken place over the centuries, he proves that Acadian Christmas today is the result of a wonderful blending of old, new, and borrowed traditions.
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I am an Islander
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95No man is a Prince Edward Island. That’s a good thing, because the tiny province is eroding a metre per year. In the collection I am An Islander, Patrick Ledwell explores the hilarity of life viewed from the country’s crumbling Eastern edge. Raised in a big family, the Island comedian looks back at his rural roots and asks: I am an Islander is a funny and heartfelt stockpile of standup, sketches, and rants, banked up to defend your good humour against everything that might erode it.
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Toward the Country of Light New and Selected Poems 1978-2018
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95This collection brings together Allan Cooper’s best poems over the last forty years. He weaves visions of nature with insight into the workings of the human heart. Read them individually or read them as a single long, flowing and eloquent narrative. The meditative and compassionate observations will transport the reader from the chaos of everyday life into a healing realm of possibility.
In Toward the Country of Light, the author offers open sonnets, prose poems, ghazals, small poems inspired by the Chinese and Japanese, and poems influenced by Robert Bly and Francis Ponge. As Cooper observes, “Over the years I’ve come to understand that the poem itself usually demands the form it takes and that language uses us for its own secret purposes.”
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The Old Place
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95The Old Place Describes the plants and animals that live about the author’s property, and encourages readers to become familiar with the large variety of living things that live around their communities.It discusses the wonderful ways in which plants and animals are adapted to life in their particular habitats,and emphasizes the importance of protecting those habitats.
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A Breed Apart
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95This is the best-selling story of Nova Scotia’s famous tolling dog. The legends and stories of the old tolling men and their dogs of Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, is part fact and part fiction. Here, at last, is the full story of the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever and the men and women who bred them, trained them and brought them to prominence.
The Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever is Canada’s first and only true Canadian bred dog. For almost two hundred years the dog was unknown outside of southwestern Nova Scotia. The dog’s particular hunting technique – tolling – was first recorded in North America by Nicholas Denys and became part of the folklore of the Maritimes. Straight out of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” is the dog’s astonishing ability to lure waterfowl.
This powerful and mesmerizing effect in drawing waterfowl toward the shore is just one of the many intriguing secrets associated with this amazing canine. Gail MacMillan became enthralled with Tollers many years ago and became determined to unlock the dog’s engaging past.
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Distinction Earned
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$19.95Distinction Earned highlights the accomplishments of significant Cape Breton fighters like George “Rockabye” Ross (about who MacDougall has also penned a play), Tyrone Gardiner, Blair Richardson and Francis”Rocky” MacDougall and trainers like Johnny Nemis. Between 1965 and 1967 five national boxing champions in different weight classes were from Cape Breton.Paul MacDougall has collected dozens of interviews from participants, enthusiasts and their heirs, from which has evolved this account of an amazing sporting record.
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The Fundy Vault A Rosalind Mystery
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Linda Moore’s longÂawaited sequel to Foul Deeds is another highly engaging mix of art and environmental justice. Finally working a real job as a researcher for the Public Prosecution Service, Roz is on her first paid vacation. She has rented a cottage on Nova Scotia’s beautiful Minas Basin with plans to explore ideas for her next theatre production. Accompanied by her cat and a stack of Beckett plays, she has no sooner settled in than she spots what looks like a woman’s body tangled in the roots of a floating tree. Before the local RCMP can send a boat out, the body is retrieved by helicopter, and Roz watches it disappear over North Mountain. It’s time to call in her old sleuthing partner, McBride.
When McBride completely disappears, Roz and her longtime theatre friend Sophie roam the backroads and small towns of the Annapolis Valley in search of clues, narrowing in on the out-ofÂtheÂway quarry no one seems to want them to visit, the tanker trunks that nearly run them off the road, and a young journalist who seems to have come too close to the truth.
The Fundy Vault is a lightning-paced literary mystery that will keep the heart pumping and the brain ticking long after the final page.
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Acadian Mi-Carême
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95The rich traditions associated with Mi-Car’me or Mid-Lent are firmly anchored in the folkways of Acadian communities. To celebrate Mi-Car’me, people visited each other’s homes dressed up in masks and costumes. In the midst of the merrymaking, a mysterious character called the Mi-Car’me gave candies to little children and sometimes even delivered babies. But this strange individual scared many young Acadians because they feared he would take them away if they misbehaved.
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Acadian Traditions on Candlemas Day Candles, Pancakes and House Visits
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Georges Arsenault’s latest edition to the Acadian Traditions series Most English-speaking people just associate the 2nd of February, or Groundhog Day, with superstitions related to the weather. In Acadian communities, however, it was known as Candlemas Day and at one time was an important religious and social festivity. Pancakes were the symbolic food of choice. In many villages, young Acadians went from door-to-door collecting food for a communal feast or to give to the poor. This book by Georges Arsenault enables us to discover a festivity rich in traditions and a significant part of the cultural heritage of Acadians everywhere.
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Gentlemen & Jesuits
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95This is the definitive account of early life in Acadia. The reprint of this outstanding book (originally published by the University of Toronto Press in 1986) coincides with the resurgence of interest in Acadian culture.
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A Land of Discord Always
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95From 1604 to 1755, the Acadian settlers of present-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were the focus of political, economic, and military rivalries between France and Britain. Their stubborn nonconformity and political neutrality baffled and infuriated both European powers fighting for the upper hand. Finally, Britain’s drastic solution was to expel them from their homes.
Little his been published about early Acadia (which included much of the Maine coast and the Maritimes) and the origins of the Acadians. This rich story, peopled with memorable men and women whose lives make fascinating reading, is skillfully chronicled by retired attorney and historical writer, Charles Mahaffie. -
Ocean of Storms, Sea of Disaster
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Here are over sixty stories of piracy, fire, explosions, disappearances, rum running, shipboard mutiny and murder. There are also stories of collisions with whales, icebergs and other ships, as well as wrecks on rocks, islands and sand bars. Vessels, large and small, were struck by lightning, shelled or torpedoed by enemy vessels, crushed by Arctic ice, and even swallowed up whole by unexpected intense gales and hurricanes. These true tales of shipwrecks delve into strange and curious marine disasters. The setting, primarily the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, was the main trading route for passenger steamers and treading schooners plying their way to and from Europe and also the site of the much frequented fishing grounds. It is said to be the “stormiest ocean on earth.” The time range in Ocean of Storms, Sea of Disaster is one hundred years, between the 1850s and the 1950s but the stories themselves are timeless.
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Wrecked and Ruined
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Robert C. Parsons was born in Grand Bank, one of the great Newfoundland seaports for sailing schooners in the salt fish, hook and line era. He attended an all-grade school in his community and later graduated from Memorial University with a master’s degree in Language. Wrecked and Ruined is Robert’s twenty-third book. He frequently contributes sea stories to magazines, journals and newspapers and has appeared on the TV series Disasters of the Century.
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Who Departed This Life
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95George Wright has had a long history of interest in the Burying Ground, with at least nine direct ancestors buried there (great-great-great- and great-great-grandparents). The launch of the book coincides with the 150th anniversary of the founding of the City of Charlottetown.
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Charlottetown: Then and Now
Photographer: W.Blair MacDonaldPublisher: Acorn Press$19.95D. Scott MacDonald’s father, W. Blair MacDonald had a keen interest in the changing landscape of Charlottetown, and documented a number of these changes with his slide camera. Instilled with a keen sense of history at an early age, Scott and his family have always treasured the work that their father did to preserve Charlottetown’s history. So, over 50 years later, Scott has nowretraced his father’s steps to record how the city has changed over that time. Standing in the exact spot where his father stood, Scott has captured how the streets and buildings of Charlotttown have changed and remained the same. Scott has also researched the history of the buildings he protrays, both back to his father’s time and much earlier. The result is a fascinating glimpse into why and how even a small city can change so much.
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Door to the Past Abandoned Properties of Prince Edward Island
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95If you have ever gone for a drive around rural Prince Edward Island, you would have noticed that the rural landscape is littered with abandoned buildings. Tony Gallant began to get curious about these properties and started investigate them, looking for signs of thier past. He began to not only photograph the homes, buildings or barns that have been abandoned on P.E.I, but post what he found on his Facebook page. The result is a curious collection of images of the homes and what is left of the former inhabitants, leaving the reader to only imagine the stories they hold.
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Acadian Women of Prince Edward Island Three Centuries of Action
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95From the time of their arrival on Isle Saint-Jean in the early 1700s,Acadian women played a major role in the survival of the colony.Over the generations, they have been active in the home and in the community. They have nursed, taught, worked, sung, prayed, and served. Integrated into a well-documented text with numerous photographs, their testimonies provide a history of the Acadie of Prince Edward Island. This book relates how that history was lived by Acadian women and influenced by their action and determination.
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Chéticamp
Publisher: Breton Books$19.95An esteemed Canadian folklorist, Father Anselme Chiasson’s award-winning books include the songs, tales and history of the Acadians of Cape Breton and the Magdalen Islands.
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Storied Shores
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$19.95Cape Breton Island has many claims to fame, yet far too few people are familiar with the rich and storied past of the coastal areas of Richmond County.For centuries the Mi’kmaq, and later the early European explorers and settlers, shortened their journeys between the Bras d’Or lake and the Atlantic Ocean by means of the narrow isthmus at St. Peter’s. This portage area -eventually a canal – became a haul-over road in the mid-1650s. The portage area and the surrounding shores and waterways of Cape Breton were sites of early and prolonged interaction between the French and the Mi’kmaq during a time when dreams of expansion and empire among European nations, met head on with the realities of North America’s aboriginal peoples.The busy corridor between Chapel Island, St. Peter’s, and Isle Madame was the backdrop for a colourful and intriguing era of our shared histories. Storied Shores presents a history of that time and place – the story of the promise of prosperity and the hope for new lives and the story of the ravages of greed, rivalry, and war.
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Tokens of Grace
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$19.95Beginning in the 17th-century Scotland, when Covenanters met in open defiance of religious repression, open-air communions –the SÃ cramaid – evolved to become the social and spiritual highlight of the year. Primarily a mixture of prayer and religious and kinship feasting, open-air communions were an expression of core communal values and basic kin and religious loyalties.
Particularly between 1840 and 1890, but well into the 20th century as well, the sacramental season and its open-air communions was a dominant symbol in the lives of Cape Breton’s Scots Presbyterians. Whole communities, numbering in the thousands, converged for this great religious occasion, taking part in as many as five days of exhaustive preparatory self-examination.
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Honour Roll
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$19.95The Nova Scotia Highland Brigade sailed on the SS Olympic, from Halifax on October 12, 1916, and played a significant role in the victories of World War I, including the now-infamous Vimy Ridge.In time for the 90th anniversary of the battle for Vimy, historian James MacDonald has catalogued information about members of the Highland Brigade (85th, 185th, 193rd, 219th Battalions) killed or mortally wounded in action.The Honour Roll collates, for the first time in a single publication, the name, date of birth, family origin, vocation, enlistment details, date and where they were killed in action and final resting place and of each member. Fifteen battle maps showing troop movements are included, along with a description of Commonwealth war graves where the soldiers are buried.
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Cape Breton Wonders
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$19.95Did you ever wonder why… your mother re-washed the wash?Did you ever wonder why… the lighthouse lights, or why the miners risked their lives?
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Strangers in the Land The Ukrainian Presence in Cape Breton
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$19.95First published in 1986, Strangers in the Land is a carefully researched telling of stories of Cape Breton’s Ukrainians, written by a son of the community, John Huk. Working tirelessly in archives, he spent countless hours combing through municipal and steel company records, collecting press clippings and other relevant papers as well as memorabilia, interviewing community members about their family histories, and working with his family to put together a story of a century of Ukrainian life in Cape Breton. Huk produced a book that stands as a valuable historical document and, in the process, also amassed a wealth of artifacts and documentation now forming the Huk fonds at the archives of the Beaton Institute at Cape Breton University-providing an invaluable source of data for a new generation of researchers. It is the only history of Ukrainian experiences in Cape Breton published to date; all the more impressive is that Huk gathered the information and published the book almost entirely on his own as a self-taught community ethnographer and historian. His work has also inspired more recent research focusing on Canadians of Ukrainian descent, especially their music, dance and the Holy Ghost Ukrainian Parish in Sydney, Nova Scotia. This congregation celebrates the 100th anniversary in 2012. Now with a new introduction by Marcia Ostashewski , PhD, and new appendices, Strangers in the Land is a celebration of the traditions and cultural gifts of Ukrainians in Cape Breton and their contribution to Canadian history.
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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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Railways Of New Brunswick
Publisher: Maritime Lines$19.95Dan Soucoup is the author of numerous books on New Brunswick and the Maritimes including Know New
Brunswick and The New Brunswick Phrase Book. He grew up in a railway family in New Brunswick. -
Logging in New Brunswick, Lumber, Mills & River Drives
Publisher: Maritime Lines$19.95Lumber was and is New Brunswick’s largest inustry and throughout the 19th century the province largely remained a timber colony dependent on its vast forests for most of its revenue. And for 150 years, New Brunswikcers entered the wilderness each fall, lived in primitive lumber camps while cutting, skidding, yarding, and hauling logs to the riverbanks and waited for spring break-up. This Is the story of a great industry, of lumberjacks, the teamsters, scalers, raftsmen, shantyboys, swampers, and rossers. From the wangan, tote road, twitching horse, sacking, due bills, and the corporation drive, the reader is taken inside the lumber world of yesterday. Over 140 historical photographs with extensive captions reveal forgotten logging practices, unique details of river drives, and how the early sawmills were built and organized.
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All Afire! Ore Miners of Newfoundland and Labrador
Publisher: John Kitchen$19.95The book’s title – ‘All Afire!’ was the cry shouted when miners were ready to light their fuses for a blast, warning other workers to seek shelter. This is a story about the life of a miner, focusing on Buchans, with comparisons to other Newfoundland and Labrador mining communities. It explains how a miner goes about the various mining jobs, from mucking ore, to drilling, to being a shift-boss, and the many other jobs in between. It also discusses the hazards and dangers associated with mining – the falls of ground, the dust, the gas, moving machinery, dynamite, etc.