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Calendar of Life in a Narrow Valley: Jacobina Campbell’s Diary, Taymouth, NB 1825-1843
Publisher: Acadiensis Press$19.95Over the course of two decades, the ever-observant Jacobina Campbell coordinated the activities of a busy household and reported on the daily lives of family and neighbours. This remarkable woman’s diary introduces an early 19th-century community on the Nashwaak River where life and work were shaped by the seasonal rhythms of the farming-lumbering economy that came to characterize much of rural New Brunswick.
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Knots and Splices Revised 2nd Edition
$8.95Cyrus Day completed his major work over 50 years ago and did a great deal of research into ropes and ropework in general. Colin Jarmen is an accomplished photographer and journalist and the author of Knots in Use.
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Inspired Halifax
Artist: Dusan KadlecPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Born in 1942 in what is now the Czech Republic, Dusan Kadlec received his Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1967. Shortly afterward, 1968, he immigrated to Canada and settled in Nova Scotia where he now works and makes his home. Internationally recognized for his highly detailed portrayals of important historical events, as well as painting our seafaring and urban past, Dusan Kadlec is generally regarded as Canada’s foremost historical and marine artist.
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Oak Island Revenge A Jonah Morgan Mystery
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Jonah is fourteen and lives on the Western Shore of Nova Scotia in 1958. He and his best friend, Beaz, have figured out a way to get to the forbidden Oak Island to seek treasure. They find a gold locket down one of the treasure shafts and can’t believe their luck—until they realize that the locket is not pirate’s booty but possibly evidence in a current murder investigation, one which Jonah already knows more about than he can handle. Beaz is in danger from his abusive mother if she finds out he’s gone to Oak Island, so Jonah keeps the secret even though there is a killer at large in his small community.
Oak Island Revenge is a coming-of-age story, with much higher stakes than most teenagers have to contend with.
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Seasoned Recipes and Essays from The Spiceman, Costas Halavrezos
Artist: Joanna ClosePublisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95Indulge in a uniquely crafted culinary history and recipe guide as Halifax’s resident “Spiceman,” Costas Halavrezos, blends genres as expertly as he does spices and leads an educational and sensory exploration. With 30 essays and 50 accompanying recipes, Seasoned demystifies domestic and familiar spices, like cloves, fennel, and paprika, and introduces readers to a whole new world of flavour, including Kaffir lime leaves, Moroccan rosebuds, and Isot Kurdish black pepper—and that’s just a taste!
Featuring facts and anecdotes, storage and preparation methods, and recipes from Halavrezos’s personal collection paired with delightful illustrations by Joanna Close, Seasoned is a fabulous resource for foodies, home-chefs, and aspiring spice connoisseurs.
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Amalamkwa’Tekemkewey: Mi’kmaw Colouring Book
Publisher: The Confederacy of Mnlnd.Mi'kmaq$6.95This is more than just a colouring book. It is designed to help teach kids the Mi’kmaw language. Each page has the English and Mi’kmaw words for the objects present.
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Historic Colchester
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95A remarkable collection of over 100 historic images that reflect the diverse array of the area’s activities and people taken from the immense collection of the Colchester Historical Museum.
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My Grandfather’s Cape Breton (new edition)
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$20.95This is the timeless story of a young boy and his grandfather. It is a voyage of discovery that starts for both of them when young Clive arrives one summer at his grandfather’s farm in Cape Breton. Clive, with all the uncertainty of approaching adolescence, has only the vaguest impression of what a cow looks like and what is expected of him. Under the gentle guidance and wry wit of his Acadian grandfather he learns how to gallop a horse without falling off, how to save the hay crop from from an approaching storm, and how to assist with the birth of a calf. This is a story of Grand Étang, a humorous, sensuous vibrant place, and of a boy growing up wise one summer in Cape Breton.
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Grandfather’s House Returning to Cape Breton
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95Grandfather’s House is Clive Doucet’s follow-up to My Grandfather’s Cape Breton, published in 1980 and continuously in print. Now a grandfather himself, Doucet muses about this role. While he believed as a child that to be a grandfather was to own a farm by the sea, he now realizes that his job as a grandfather is to tell stories. In doing so, he traces the history of the Doucets back to Acadie, then to the early years of the Cape Breton village of Grand Étang and to modern-day Ottawa.
Doucet’s musings are interspersed with poetry, short stories, and with summer adventures with his grandchildren in Grand Étang. He paints a loving portrait of his grandfather’s village and the people, past and present, who make it a vibrant community. The themes of resilience and rejuvenation permeate the memoir, which is both rooted in nostalgia and filled with hope for a more sustainable future.
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Race to Fame
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Race to Fame tells the story of the schooner Bluenose, unbeaten international champion of the North Atlantic. There have been other books written about the Bluenose but none so well researched from the laying of the keel through her lengthy service in the commercial fishery, her long and eventful racing career and her final resting place on a Caribbean reef. The author, a long0time crew member, was personally involved in most of the events in this most interesting book.
R.G. Smith
Former Director of National Sea Foods, Lunenburg -
Le Québec Maritime
Photographer: George FischerPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95George Fischer is the author of numerous books including Destination Fundy Trail, The Adventurer’s Guide to the Magdalen Islands, and Along the St. John River
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Celebrate!
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95Celebrate: The History and Folklore of Holidays in Nova Scotia offers just the inspiration we need to keep is celebrating day after day, month after month. Although most of the holidays described in this book are relevant to Canadians in general, and most originated elsewhere, they have become overlaid with local customs and traditions that give them new forms and flavours. This entertaining and lively account of festivals, holidays and celebrations is a treasure-chest of lore that includes unusual facts, vignetter, and off-beat customs from the old-time celebrations and folk traditions of Nova Scotians. It is a link between our past and present sensibilities, proving once again out indebtedness to our forebears and our ingenuity for adaptation.
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Nova Scotia Moments
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95Clary Croft has gathered intriguing historical moments of Nova Scotian history into a readable and informative look at the province. These inspiring vignettes bring together many of the historical events, accomplishments, and unusual details that make up the more interesting aspects of Nova Scotia’s long history. Over four hundred profiles of inventors, radicals, and rogues make this collection the absolutely best volume of popular and fascinating facts and events covering over five hundred years in the region’s history. From Captain Kidd to Prohibition; from the origin of the Nova Scotian Tartan to the first automobile and the origins of our famous lobster suppers, Clary Croft writes with enthusiasm and genuine affection about his native province.
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A Maritime Christmas
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95The Magic of Christmas is always felt strongly in the Maritimes. This collection of yuletide stories is a mixture of true seasonal remembrances and fictional imaginings of the holiday season. Contributions are from over 20 Maritime writers, and touch on all the things that make Christmas so special: traditions, reunions with family and friends, the humour, and sometimes, the hardships. Some of the collection’s contributions are familiar, many are heartwarming, but every story shares the same spirit of the season.
This yuletide collection includes many well-known writers such as Harry Thurston, Steve Vernon, David Goss, Chris Mills, Heidi Jardine Stoddart, David Divine, and more. -
Witchcraft
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Witchcraft. The subject evokes curiosity, fascination, and sometimes, abhorrence. In the Maritimes, a region with a rich tradition of storytelling, accounts of witchcraft are abundant.
In Witchcraft, folklorist Clary Croft explores the many examples of witchcraft identified in the Maritimes and explains their cultural origins—Scottish, Mi’kmaq, Acadian, German, among others. He finds example of spells, charms, and superstitions involving everything from animal horns and blood to salt and milk. Croft also traces witchcraft’s more official history from the Maritimes’ first witch trial in 1684—the trial of Jean Campagna—followed by others throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
A thoroughly researched history of an often-misunderstood practice, Witchcraft is a rich source of Maritime folklore.
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Helen Creighton
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95Helen Creighton was born at the turn of the nineteenth century and until her death in 1989, she made a remarkable contribution towards retrieving the stories, songs, and legends that have shaped the culture and the people of the Maritimes. Written by her protégé and fellow folklorist, Clary Croft, this intimate biography offers both an intriguing portrait of a woman whose life was destined to become woven into the fabric of Canadian folklore, and a fascinating glimpse into the social mores of her time.
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Clary Croft: My Charmed Life in Music, Art, and Folklore
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95“I have led a charmed life. I know that, and I am grateful every day.”— Clary Croft
Folklorist, recording artist, actor, songwriter, broadcaster, storyteller, author, archivist, artisan, and designer: over a career spanning more than fifty years, Clary Croft has woven the threads of his vast array of talents into a tapestry that has enveloped the life of an artist, and in the process he’s become a household name in Nova Scotia and beyond.
With charming humility and cheeky humour, Clary shares memories and anecdotes of an eclectic career including his work with The Privateers, Sherbrooke Village, Singalong Jubilee, Neptune Theatre, CBC Mainstreet and, perhaps most importantly, his collaboration with eminent folklorist Helen Creighton.
Featuring a foreword by writer, broadcaster, and former co-host of CBC’s Singalong Jubilee Jim Bennet, and with more than fifty images in both colour and black and white, Clary Croft: My Charmed Life in Music, Art, and Folklore is an inspiring and entertaining chronicle of a creative life well lived.
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Cape Breton Highlands National Park
$16.95For both the hiker and the armchair traveller, this park lover’s companion to Cape Breton Highlands National Park is a beautifully-written natural history and guide to the northern jewel. Noted naturalist Clarence Barrett speaks to us directly.
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Cape Breton Highlands National Park
Publisher: Breton Books$18.9544 EXCELLENT HIKES! NEW TRAILS! Adventures in hiking, skiing, kayaking-quirks of wildlife-affectionate appreciation of our National Park’s natural beauty-all make for entertaining and informative reading from a legendary outdoorsman, who has rewalked and updated all 44 trails. A good storyteller and retired Park warden, he weaves his adventures into facts about flora and fauna, geology and weather-and where along the road to see the evidence. Much more than a guide-for both hikers and armchair travellers!
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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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Travels With Farley
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$24.95After living in a remote Newfoundland outport and returning to Port Hope, Ontario, Claire and Farley Mowat abandoned the comforts of the mainland to live in the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They moved into a small isolated community and eventually bought a home there.
Claire Mowat writes of the ups and downs of being outsiders on their island but also of their love affair with the Magdalens, with its windswept dunes, endless beaches and raw beauty. It was a rugged life by the sea for the Mowats and sometimes a life of isolation, but they attracted visitors from far and wide, including Pierre and Margaret Trudeau, who arrived by helicopter from Charlottetown. The Mowats eventually gave the Trudeaus one of the puppies they raised. The Trudeaus, fittingly, named the dog Farley. He lived at 24 Sussex with the prime minister’s family, enjoying the comforts of civilization his namesake often eschewed.
Travels With Farley picks up where Claire’s best-selling The Outport People left off. It gives insight into her own writing life as well as Farley’s during the time when he was crafting A Whale for the Killing and researching Sea of Slaughter.
This is a warm and haunting tale of two writers whose lives were woven together by love, adversity and adventure. The book will appeal to both those already familiar with Farley Mowat, one of Canada’s iconic literary figures, and to those who have yet to meet this legendary and often controversial environmentalist.
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Hockey, Kids & Positive Coaching
Publisher: Lofeex Publishing$9.95An inspiring tale about a young boy whose love for the game of hockey is affected by the pressures placed on him by the adults closest to him. It demonstrates the value of love and how a child’s growth and development are enhanced when guided by people who are more concerned about feelings of self-worth than numbers on a scoreboard.
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Under the Electric Sky
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Christopher A. Walsh is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Calgary, Alberta. His work has appeared in the Edmonton Journal and the Halifax Chronicle-Herald and on CBC Radio in Nova Scotia. A native of Halifax, he has covered major political stories across the country and spent a few feverish weeks running with the Maritime carnival in towns throughout the region. This is his first book.
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Quai 21: Écoutez mon histoire
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Découvrez des moments parmi les plus marquants de l’histoire du Canada en apprenant à connaître les enfants et les familles débarqués au Quai 21 de Halifax. Venus de pays lointains tels l’Estonie, l’Italie et l’Ukraine (pour n’en nommer que quelques-uns), ces immigrants ont tous franchi les « ports de la liberté » pour faire du Canada leur nouvelle patrie.
Jamie, un « enfant invité » originaire d’Ecosse et Mariette, une petite orpheline juive, ont tous deux été envoyés au Canada à un jeune âge afin d’échapper à la même guerre. La famille de Heili, in jeune Estonienne, a fui le régime communiste russe en prenant la mer à bord du Walnut. La famille de Luigi est venue d’Italie chercher du travail au Canada après la guerre et la famille de Maryke est arrivée de Hollande à la rechercher de terres à cultiver.
Aujourd’hui connu sous le nom de Mussée canadien de l’immigration, le Quai 21 a accueilli plus d’un million de nouveaux Canadiens, de 1928 à 1971. Beaucoup d’entre eux craignaient ce que leur réservait leur pays d’adoption. Cependant, toutes ces familles, même si elles étaient de cultures et d’origines différentes, ont cru à promesse d’un vie meilleure et plus sûre que leur offrait le Canada. En débarquant au pays, les immigrants échappaient au passé, emportant dans leur cœur de précieux souvenirs de leur lieu d’origine. Le Quai 21 représentait le premier pas vers une nouvelle vie.
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Molly Kool First Female Captain of the Atlantic
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Born and raised in Alma, New Brunswick, Molly Kool started her life at sea helping her father sail the lumber scow the Jean K through some of the most challenging waters in the world, including the changing tides of the Bay of Fundy and the Reversing Falls in Saint John. When it came time for Molly to choose her own career, her first instinct was to get her captain’s licence, but doing so would involve more than just hard work—it would also mean changing some of Canada’s oldest laws. But thanks to her inspiring example and the tireless efforts of contemporaries in the 1930s and ’40s, the Shipping Act of Canada was changed and Molly became the first female sea captain in North America. With interviews, colour photos, and background on other women pioneers and shipping practices in the early twentieth century, Molly Kool: Captain of the Atlantic also includes an interview with the first woman to command a Canadian warship, Commander Josee Kurtz.
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My House is a Lighthouse Stories of Lighthouses and Their Keepers
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95Can you imagine yourself as a light keeper? Could you live full-time on an isolated coast? Your job is to keep a light shining out to sea, guiding ships to land, warning them of jagged shoreline, and maybe even assisting with a rescue in the case of a shipwreck.
Even though there are 750 lighthouses across North America, only 51 light keepers actively live and work in one in Canada, and just 1 keeper remains in the United States. In the newest installment of Nimbus’s popular Compass series, Christine Welldon takes readers past the postcard-perfect image and depicts a day in the life of 11 modern light keepers. From Cape Beale, British Columbia, to Puffin Island, Newfoundland, learn about the grit, intelligence, and quick thinking that helps keep our coastlines safe. Expertly weaving the historical with the modern, Welldon shows us how light keepers are still bound by an age-old mission: “Keep the light shining. Be ever watchful. Help those in trouble on the sea.”
Includes over 50 full-colour photos, illustrations, and maps, as well as a glossary, index, and historical timeline.
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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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Pier 21 Listen to My Story
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Discover some of the most important moments of Canada’s history by getting to know the children and their families who arrived at Halifax’s Pier 21. From countries as far away as Estonia, Italy, and the Ukraine (just to name a few), these immigrants all travelled through the “gateway to freedom” to call Canada home.
“Guest child” Jamie from Scotland and Jewish orphan Mariette were both sent to Canada as children to escape the same war. Heili’s Estonian family boarded the Walnut to sail away from Russian Communist rule. Luigi’s family came from Italy to find work in Canada after the war, while Maryke’s arrived from Holland in search of farmland.
Now renamed the Canadian Museum of Immigration, Pier 21 accepted over one million new Canadians between 1928 and 1971. Many were nervous about their new home, but although they arrived from distinct countries and cultures, each family embraced the safety and possibility of a life in Canada. To arrive was to escape the past while keeping memories of their homelands close. Pier 21 was the first step toward a new life.
With over 40 photos, a glossary, timeline, and sidebar features on the pier itself and the home countries of those who passed through it, Pier 21: Listen to My Story provides an excellent introduction for chilldren to this key landmark in Canada’s immigration history.
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Old Winnipeg A History in Pictures
Publisher: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.$24.95Remember the Beachcomber Restaurant, the Assiniboine Park Conservatory, and a very small but well-designed international airport with concrete walls? From the early fortifications of Upper Fort Garry, to the architectonic surge of Winnipeg as a transportation hub—and Canada’s third largest urban centre—to the demolition of the iconic Eaton’s department store, Old Winnipeg is the story of a city that never stopped reinventing itself.
With more than 140 photographs—many of them seen here for the first time—Old Winnipeg: A History in Pictures is a visual treat. It offers us a window into the past, showing life as it was, and stirring in us the emotions of wonder and curiosity about those who have gone before us and the lives they lived.
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Manitoba Book of Everything Everything You Wanted to Know About Manitoba and Were Going to Ask Anyway
Publisher: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.$14.95From the Hudson’s Bay Company, Louis Riel, and the Winnipeg General Strike to bone-chilling winters, flood waters, The Guess Who and profiles of Cindy Klassen, Peter Nygard, Duff Roblin and the Golden Boy atop Manitoba’s Legislature, no book is more comprehensive than the Manitoba Book of Everything. No book is more fun! Well known Manitobans weigh in on the province. Filmmaker Guy Maddin gives us his favourite lost Winnipeg buildings, former Premier and Canadian Governor General Ed Schreyer details Manitobans that he admires most, Olympic goaltender Sami Jo Small provides us with her favourite outdoor sports memories, broadcaster Peter Warren recounts his most memorable interviews and musician Ray St. Germain lists his top Aboriginal acts. From rivers, lakes, and beaches to the Winnipeg arts scene to famous crooks and hoodlums, Manitoba slang, the Métis and the mighty mosquito … it’s all here. Whether you are a native Manitoban or visiting for the first time, there simply is no more complete book about Manitoba. If you love Manitoba, you’ll love the Manitoba Book of Everything!
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Out of Old Manitoba Kitchens
Publisher: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.$24.95Out of Old Manitoba Kitchens is the story of the people and the food they prepared. It is a window into life as it was then. If you want to know what life was really like in early Manitoba, come to the table with us.
