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Bud The Spud
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Here is Stompin’ Tom Connors’s famous and irresistible song about potatoes, in a sturdy board book edition perfect for young readers. Travel with Bud as he steers his rig down the highway with a load of “the best doggone potatoes that’s ever been growed.” A Canadian classic by a legendary folk hero.
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Theodore Too and the Excuse-Me Monster (BB)
Artist: Yolanda PoplawskaPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$13.95What’s that splash in Halifax Harbour?Maybe it’s not a monster after all, but a new friend for Guy Seagull, Theodore Too, and Lucy Tugin a splashy disguise!
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A Day With You In Paradise
Artist: Patsy MacKinnonPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95This beautiful picture book depicts a family’s fun-filled day at a Prince Edward Island beach. Racing past dunes, building sand castles, and singing songs by a bonfire at night, the family revels in the peaceful beauty of an Island beach. Lennie Gallant’s lyrical description of a PEI summer day is matched perfectly with Patsy MacKinnon’s sun-soaked illustrations. A Day with You in Paradise is based on Lennie’s song of the same name from the Juno-nominated album When We Get There.
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Lost on Brier Island
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Fourteen-year-old Alex’s life is in ruins. Her family ripped apart by unspeakable tragedy, she is stuck on Brier Island for the summer with her aunt. At first, Alex is desperate to escape this place where everyone’s business is public knowledge and there is too much time to think. But the island begins to work its magic, with its quirky characters, rugged landscape, and whale-filled ocean, and Alex forms a special bond with an adventurous baby whale she names Daredevil.
Through her attachment to Daredevil and the beauty of Brier Island, Alex slowly begins the long journey toward healing. But everything changes when Alex is suddenly thrown into a life-or-death struggle. Can she find the courage and the strength to save Daredevil- and herself?
Moving, funny, and honest, this is a powerful story of losing loved ones and finding yourself, set against the stunning backdrop of Brier Island. -
Sinking Deeper
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95The tiny fishing community of Deeper Harbour is in deep trouble-and so is fourteen-year-old Roland MacTavish. Roland’s mom wants to move with him to Ottawa, away from his father, his weird friend Dulsie, and his even weirder grandfather, Angus. So Roland does what any sane teenager would do: he invents a sea monster. Unfortunately, the scheme quickly spins out of Roland’s control, and he has to go to greater and greater lengths to keep up the illusion. And then Roland must deal with a situation far more terrifying than any sea monster.As moving as it is irresistibly funny, Steve Vernon’s portrait of Roland and Deeper Harbour is perfect for anyone who’s ever been stuck badly enough to do something awesomely, brilliantly, heroically stupid.
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le Goût des Îles 2 (pb)
Photographer: George FischerPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95Du port de peche de Grande-Entrée aux rives du site historique de la Grave, les ÃŽles de la Madeleine forment à la fois une destination touristique de grand charme et un archipel ou chefs et producteurs locaux se recontrent pour faire la fête aux saveurs.Dans ce deuxieme du Gout des ÃŽles, les auteurs mettent l’accent sur le savoir-faire des artisans de la table des iles qui vous proposent ici une selection de leurs meilleurs recettes. Une vingtaine de chefs, aubergistes, producteurs et transformateurs des produits de la mer at de la terre ont genereusement participé a la preperation de cet ouvrage de reference en matiere de cuisine regionale. Le fruit de cette collaboration est illustré par une trame visuelle composée d’images inedites des photographes Pascal Arseneau et George Fischer.Un air de bord de mer, une cuisine authentique ou tradition culinaire et innovation se marient…une invitation a vous laisser seduire par le gout des îles!
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Share and Care
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95Share and Care: The Story of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children is a microcosm of black Nova Scotia history. Founded nearly one hundred years ago to address the needs of neglected and unwanted children in the black community, the home has become a monument to the self-reliance and solidarity that has long defined black culture in Nova Scotia.
With meticulous care, author Charles R. Saunders recreates the day-to-day life of the home and acquaints us with its devotees, the people who founded it, nurtured it, and found refuge in it. Behind the accounts, one senses the spirit of the struggles and challenges faced by the home’s supporters, determined people whose inner strength proved equal to the task of sharing and caring for each other.
The text is generously illustrated with photographs and enriched by poetry—written especially for the book—of George Elliott Clarke.
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Lifetime of Rug Hooking
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$34.95Canada’s East Coast has a unique craft heritage that has seen generations hooking rugs during the long winter evenings. Hooked mats and rugs were originally intented as functional pieces–a place to wipe dirty feet at the back door, or a cover for drafty floors. But at some point aesthetics crept into this process, and those simple mats have evolved into the wonderful folk art rugs we see today.
Nova Scotia’s Doris Eaton has been hooking rugs for nearly 50 years and is one of the region’s most well-known rug-hookers.
A Lifetime of Rug-Hooking features over 80 of Doris’s colourful and lively rugs and the inspiration and materials behind her art. Doris also shares some of her tried and true techniques, including her famous “Eaton Edge” for finishing a rug. With a foreword from fellow Nova Scotia rug-hooker and artist Deanne Fitzpatrick, A Lifetime of Rug-Hooking is a marvellous visual tour of the work of an influential East Coast folk artist.
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Louisbourg: From its Foundation to its Fall
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95The only complete history of Louisbourg.
“J.S. McLennan’s Louisbourg From Its Foundation To Its Fall is in several ways a remarkable book. To begin with, it is because of its continuing popularity. Though it was first published many decades ago, it remains the standard work on the 45 year history of the French settlement at Louisbourg. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of detailed studies have been done on Louisbourg since McLennan’s appeared, each one illuminating some theme or aspect of life there, but none has replaced it as the authoritative chronicle of the town’s history.” –A. J. B. Johnston, Historian and Author
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Big Town A Novel of Africville
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$18.95Seventeen-year-old Early Okander lives with his father in a shack, a white family on the outskirts of the Halifax community of Africville. It is the early 1960s, and Early and his young friends, Toby and Chub, start to hear whispers that the city wants to move the residents of Africville out of their homes. As the three try to sort out what relocation might mean for the community, they also struggle to come to terms with their own problems: Early’s abuse at the hands of his father, Toby’s illness, Chub’s family breakdown.
Written from Early’s unique perspetive, Big Town is an unforgettable account of a community in crisis and the remarkable spirit that persists in the face of adversity.
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Ava Comes Home
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95From the author of Relative Happiness and Shoot Me comes a riveting story about one terrible secret—a secret kept in shame, buried deep for self-preservation, and exposed in a moment that changes forever the lives of everyone involved.
Ava Harris is a famous actress living the life of the rich and fabulous in L.A. when a family crisis calls her home. It’s been ten years since she’s set foot in Glace Bay, Cape Breton—back when she was plain old Libby MacKinnon. Why she ran away, no one knows. Returning home, she must face her family, her friends, and her first love, Seamus O’Reilly, whose heart broke the day she left.
Ava is a good little actress, determined that no one will know what happened. She will keep the truth buried at all costs—even if she has to run again. But secrets have a way of surfacing, especially in a small town, and love has a way of blasting through the toughest barriers. While Ava can never go home again, perhaps Libby finally can.
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You Could Believe in Nothing
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Jamie Fitzpatrick’s debut novel tells of a muddled adulthood in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Derek is forty-one years old. His girlfriend has just left him for a job in Ottawa, his father, a DJ at the local classic rock station, is about to go to court, and his rec hockey team is up in arms about a TV reporter’s attempts to glorify their weekly games. When Derek’s half-brother, Curtis, comes home, the visit stirs up nagging questions about their parents’ early days, and Derek examines again what it means to make commitments that may or may not bring real happiness.
Fitzpatrick captures the subtleties of casual conversation and the often understated wit that emerges between old friends. Having grown up after the decline of whatever might have been the real Newfoundland, Derek and his teammates are generally at a loss to defend the urban, mostly wayward lives the occupy. Set into a wet spring in St. John’s, its rinks, streets, and landmarks, and the sunken map of old haunts and years gone by, You Could Believe in Nothing is a study in familiarity and self-definition, underlining how little we sometimes know about ourselves and the people we know best.
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The Winter House And Other Christmas Stories from Atlantic Canada
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95The Winter House includes a delightful mix of fiction and memories about Christmas in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. These 20 stories showcase Christmas scenes past and present, real and imagined—a revelry with a gang of rowdy mummers; childhood memories of school Christmas concerts; the tale of New Brunswick’s very first Santa Claus; and many more.
Selected fiction and non-fiction includes stories by David Adams Richards, Ernest Buckler, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Gary L. Saunders, and many others, with a foreword by Bruce Nunn. The Winter House will bring yuletide cheer in the best Atlantic Canadian tradition.
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Eco-Innovators: Sustainability in Atlantic Canada
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95Eco-Innovators profiles some of the region’s most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in sustainability. These entrepreneurs and educators, activists and agitators, farmers and fishers have all made measurable contributions both in their respective fields of interest and in motivating others to make change.
In the book, we meet Kim Thompson, a strawbale builder and consultant, who has recently brought her building experience to a renovation of an older house in downtown Halifax. Then there’s Edwin Theriault, who bought a bale of clothing back in 1971 and launched Frenchy’s, a chain of seventy-six used-clothing stores that has become an East Coast institution. Edwin doesn’t consider himself an environmentalist at all, but over the years his business has kept countless tonnes of material out of landfills. Also profiled are Speerville Flour Mill and Olivier Soaps in New Brunswick, Sean Gallagher of Local Source in Halifax, David and Edith Ling of Fair Acre Farm on PEI, and Jim Meaney of Cansolair solar heat air exchangers in Newfoundland, among many others.
With ten chapters on matters like reducing consumption, greening the home, sustainable eating, dressing, transportation, and vacationing, the book is an important look into the lives of Atlantic Canadians committed to creating viable green options in our region.
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The Apple a Day Cookbook
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95“An apple a day keeps the doctor away!” It’s no secret that apples are both good to eat and good for you, and The Apple a Day Cookbook is full of inventive and enticing recipes that will have you adding apples to dishes of all kinds. From appetizers to entrees, soups to salads, cookies to cakes, there’s something here for everyone—savoury meals like apple-stuffed spare ribs, delectable desserts like chocolate chip apple cookies, and even an entire chapter devoted to apple pie.
Along with her delicious recipes, author Janet Reeves offers up a wealth of apple trivia, including many tidbits from the Maritimes that are sure to fascinate.
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Taste of the Maritimes
$22.95Contemporary Maritime cuisine reflects both a rich history of seasonal home-cooking with fresh, local ingredients as well as modern flavour influences from around the world. A Taste of the Maritimes is a collection of vibrant new recipes that showcase the best on offer from our fields, orchards, and waters throughout the year. Author Elisabeth Bailey illuminates the joys of local, seasonal eating, presenting each recipe in a casual yet cordial style, with photographs that capture the essence of local flavour.
Broken into five chapters–spring, early and late summer, fall, and winter–the book’s easy-to-follow recipes are interspersed with profiles of local farmers and suppliers including Fox Hill Cheese, Ironworks Distillery, and Speerville Flour Mill. With recipes such as Fiddleheads and Bacon in spring, Balsamic Honey Fruit Salad and Inside-Out Dragn Burgers in summer, Heritage Bean Chili in fall, and Slow-Roasted Turkey in Juniper Brine for the holidays, A Taste of the Maritimes celebrates the seasons in delectable style.
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Taste of Nova Scotia Cookbook
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95A bestseller that blends the rich tradition of “down-home” cooking with modern and innovative ideas for delicious eating.
The best crowd-pleasing recipes from popular inns, restaurants, and home kitchens all around Nova Scotia are collected in this unique cookbook. Blending the rich tradition of “down home” cooking with modern and innovative ideas, The Taste of Nova Scotia Cookbook provides mouth-watering recipes for every inclination. The recipes make use of ingredients for which Nova Scotia is known–from seafood and lamb to apples, blueberries, pumpkins, and maple syrup.
Drawing on the many heritages that make up; the province, from Scottish, Acadian, and Mi’kmaq to Italian, Irish, and German, this cookbook truly reveals the taste of Nova Scotia.Taste of Nova Scotia is a province-wide restaurant program whose members are committed to serving their customers the very best of Nova Scotia’s fine harvests of both the land and sea.
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Cape Breton Facts and Folklore
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Cape Breton is famous the world over for its senic trails, Celtic music and traditions, strong Mi’kmaq community, and unique dialects. Called Unamakikia by the Mi’kmaq, Ile Royale by the French, and Eilean Cheap Breatainn in Scottish Gaelic, the island of Cape Breton is a colourful blend of cultures and history. After the slow decline of the coal and steel industries following World War Two, Cape Breton became a major tourist locale, with such draws as Fortress Louisbourg, the largest eighteenth-century restored fortress in North America and a national historic site; the Cape Breton Highlands, with stunning views and winds that can reach up to 220 kilometres an hour; and the Cabot Trail scenic drive, which attracts thousands of people every autumn to take in the stunning views and foliage.
Cape Breton Facts and Folklore is full of fun and interesting facts about the people, places, and events that shaped this fascnating island. Includes photos of some of the island’s prominent places and personalities.
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Rogues and Rascals True Stories of Maritime Lives and Legends
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Open Rogues and Rascals to any page, and you’ll find yourself drawn into the fascinating lives of ordinary Maritimers. A natural storyteller, Bob Kroll relates more than 200 true tales of our very own ancestors, and introduces us to heroes, failures, murderers, and soul savers who bring the everyday history of the Maritimes to vivid life.
The stories in Rogues and Rascals are loosely arranged into five sections, but can be read in any order you please. With tales from the 1700s through the mid-twentieth century, there are plenty of good starting points–a crime-ridden town on Prince Edward Island where residents take justice into their own hands; a daring escape from the Nova Scotia penitentiary; the tale of a New Brunswicker who smuggles tea for fun and profit; a captain whose ill-timed fit of laughter lands his entire crew in prison…and that’s just to name a few. Interesting, unusual, and always entertaining, these historical anecdotes are an enjoyable window into the feats and follies of Maritimers of the past.
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Dramatic Life of a Country Doctor Fifty Years of Disasters and Diagnoses
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95Dr. Arnold Burden’s career began unintentionally when he performed his first surgery in the woods following a hunting accident at age 14. As a 20-year-old hospital clerk, he handed battle casualties after D-Day in France and Germany. His early years as a doctor began in rural Prince Edward Island, where he served in the combined role of doctor and coroner. Back home in Springhill, Nova Scotia, Dr. Burden was the first medic to enter the mines after the deadly No. 4 mine explosion in 1956 and the No. 2 mine bump, the most severe bump ever recorded in North America, in 1958. In both cases he risked his life alongside the underground rescue teams to bring the gassed and trapped miners to the surface.
In this new edition Dr. Burden gives his account of an active life and of a man dedicated to his patients; a man full of common-sense and interesting stories, who writes candidly of his dealing with patients, unusual cases, and brave efforts made under difficult conditions. As the author states: “The real satisfaction in life has come from helping people.”
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Sable Island
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$27.95Sable Island, the “Wandering Sandbar,” has been the subject of enduring fascination, long known for its many shipwrecks and appreciated for its unique flora and fauna, particularly the beautiful and resilient wild horses that make the island their home. Sable Island also has the world’s single largest breeding colony of grey seals and is home to the Ipswich sparrow, which breeds only on the island. The ever-changing landscape of this island of sand, molded by the intense wind and rain of the Atlantic Ocean, produces natural formations stunning enough to rival some of the world’s most accomplished sculptors.
Sable Island includes over 100 stunning images by photographer Damian Lidgard, images that showcase this magnificent island in its rarely seen splendour. Damian is one of the few regular visitors to the island, and his photography is an expression of the island’s unique beauty.
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Sable Island the Wandering Sandbar
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Though it was discovered almost 500 years ago, few people have visited Sable Island. Despite modern navigational tools, excessive fog and stormy weather still make travelling to Sable a challenge. Add government restrictions limiting visitors to the remote island and prohibitive travel costs, and Sable is virtually inaccessible.
But the island is part of Maritime lore–dubbed the “graveyard of the Atlantic” because of the number of ships wrecked on its shores. Sable Island also hosts wild horses, tens of thousands of seals, and enchanting “singing” sands and “wandering” dunes. With 18 species of sharks patrolling Sable Island’s waters and the regular fights between bands of horses, not to mention the treacherous patches of quicksand, the island is as dangerous as it is alluring.
In this colourful book, author Wendy Kitts introduces the wonders and stark realities of this wild place. Full of photographs and sidebars, Sable Island: The Wandering Sandbar is an accessible and exciting look at this unprotected, untamed ecosystem.
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Crosswords from Atlantic Canada Volume 3
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95A lifetime resident of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Walter Feener has been constructing crossword puzzles for twenty-eight years. He has completed crosswords for the National Post, Forever Young Magazine, the Winnipeg Free Press, and several other newspapers across Canada. He is also the author of O Canada Crosswords (book 11).
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My Goat Gertrude
Artist: Dayle DodwellPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$18.95Starr Dobson is a little girl living in a big, rambling house in the country with her family and lots of pets–including a mischievous goat, Gertrude Allawishes, who is known for eating anything and everything. One day Starr’s cousin Leanne comes to visit, but this time, she’s only brought one chocolate bar and doesn’t want to share with Starr. Before either Starr or Leanne realize what is happening, Gertrude arrives and solves the problem! Although names have been changed to protect certain cousins (who usually shared their chocolate just fine), Starr’s account of Gertrude Allawishes and her bizarre tastes is absolutely true!
Now available in a softcover edition.
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Mabel Murple (pb)
Artist: Sydney SmithPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$13.95What if there was a purple planet with purple people on it? Sheree Fitch answers this question with a zany tongue-twister of a poem featuring Mabel Murple, a daredevil who rides a purple motorbike through purple puddles, skis on purple snow, and on her pancakes pours maple syrup.
With a rich and vivid purple palette, Sydney Smith’s brand-new illustrations reflect the wild joy in this classic poem. Originally published in 1995, Mabel Murple won the Ann Connor Brimer award for children’s literature.
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Best of Buddy The Bluenose Reindeer
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$18.95Both Buddy books—truly the best of—now in one handsome edition!
First heard on CBC radio, Buddy the Bluenose Reindeer became an instant Maritime Christmas classic. Buddy the Bluenose Reindeer is sad because, despite his best efforts, he just can’t fit in with Nick Klaus’s fishing crew on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Santa, that normally jolly proprietor of Christmas cheer, is worried because his star performer, the famous Rudolph, is sick with a bad cold! How will Santa and Buddy set everything all right?
In Buddy the Bluenose Reindeer and the Boston Christmas Tree, the search for the perfect Christmas tree to send to Boston isn’t going well, and Buddy the Bluenose Reindeer is called on to help. Of course, with his nose so blue and his aim so true, Buddy easily finds the right tree. Little does everyone know that that’s the easy part.
Packed full of playful puns and perfect for old and young listeners alike, Buddy’s adventures are real treats to read and share aloud.
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A Christmas Dollhouse
$18.95Dot’s family is having a hard time. Her father has work, but her mother is terribly sick, and there is barely enough to make ends meet—and definitely not enough money for a lot of presents this Christmas. In the window of the town’s drugstore, Dot sees a beautiful dollhouse that is being raffled away. But her family doesn’t even have a dollar to spend there so she can enter the contest.
A Christmas Dollhouse is about hope in the face of hardship and about communities gathering close and taking care of each other. Set in Nova Scotia during the Great Depression, this is a story that will appeal to anyone who believes in the magic of Christmas.
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Children of the Titanic
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95On April 10, 1912, the Titanic departed Southampton, England, on its first voyage across the Atlantic, carrying 2,240 passengers, 109 of them children. Introducing young readers to the ship that couldn’t sink, Children of the Titanic follows three children—Beth Cook, age six, travelling third class; Charlotte Murphy, age eight, second class; and John Crosby, age eleven, first class. We meet them as they board and get settled in their rooms in different parts of the vessel, witness their experience of the gripping sequence of events early in the morning of April 15, and see their eventual arrival in New York on the rescue ship Carpathia.
Bringing to life the sights and sounds of the ship from a child’s perspective, author Christine Welldon tours youngreaders through the plush first- and second-class staterooms, the gymnasium, swimming pool, library, and French café, as well as the humbler accommodations in third class.
The book includes over 40 photographs, highlighted glossary terms, and sidebars on aspects of shipbuilding, early twentieth-century life, and the events of April 15, 1912.
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Last Summer in Louisbourg
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$11.95Fifteen-year-old Andrea Baxter is thrilled when she is offered a summer job on Cape Breton Island. Although her mother worries that Andrea is too young to move so far away, Andrea welcomes the chance to strike out on her own. It seems the perfect opportunity to escape from all the changes that have come into her life with her mother’s recent marriage: a new stepfather, a new school, and a new house in the suburbs, worlds away from all her old friends.
At last, her mother’s fears alleviated and her bags packed, Andrea sets out on a journey to the east coast that marks the beginning of her most memorable summer ever. Not only does she play a role in a movie that is being shot at the historical site where she works, but Andrea also makes great new friends, finds romance, and learns a family secret that will change her life forever.
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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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Historic New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville and Trenton An Illustrated History of New Glasgow and area
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Well known for its mining and manufacturing activities, New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville, and Trenton, share a fascinating history. First settled by the Mi’kmaq and Acadians, and later by a large influx of Scots, the area became an important hub supported by coal and steel industries that attracted people from all walks of life.
Author Monica Graham outlines the towns’ coal and steel industries, their businesses and institutions, and their best-known people and landmarks. With over 180 historical black and white images from the 1870s to 1940s, Historic New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville, and Trenton is an excellent addition to the Images of Our Past series.