The Birth and the Babyhood of the Telephone A Talk to Telephone Pioneers by The Other Man on the Line
Publisher: Breton Books$16.95While Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Thomas A. Watson was the craftsman who gave the telephone life. Model after model, night and day, together they battled disappointment, and were spurred on by hints of success. Then in 1875, Watson’s hands created the first telephone that actually carried the human voice.
Yet the world barely remembers Thomas Watson beyond the first sentence transmitted over the telephone: “Mr. Watson—come here—I want you.”
In this classic book, restored and expanded, The Birth and Babyhood of the Telephone delivers both a detailed record of the development of the first telephone as it also reveals the very human story of the relationship between Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson. We see the younger Watson grow up through the guidance of the better educated and more sophisticated A. G. Bell, as Watson receives books, and lessons in elocution and even table manners.
This moving first-person account keeps alive the story of a relationship between two brilliant, impassioned men who changed the world.
Father Greg – A Life The Cabbage Patch Priest
Publisher: Breton Books$21.95Cape Breton’s renowned social activist and priest comes alive in this warm, personal biography. Crafted from Greg MacLeod’s diaries and letters, plus Doucet’s years as his traveling companion, Father Greg displays the incredible range and vigour of MacLeod’s ideas and their down-to-earth application. Through his daring range of proposals, Fr. Greg relentlessly advocated for the public good. Includes a terrific batch of photographs.
Lifeline The Story of the Atlantic Ferries and Coastal Boats
Publisher: Breton Books$24.95Lifeline is an all-new edition of Harry Bruce’s classic telling of the roots of today’s Marine Atlantic—a history of the courage and determination that maintain the water-links of Atlantic Canada. From Newfoundland to Cape Breton, along the coast of Labrador—from Nova Scotia to Maine and New Brunswick, and across to PEI—through wind and ice, Harry Bruce brings to life a bold, brave, sometimes hilarious and often tragic history. With 40 historic photographs.
Watchman Against the World
Publisher: Breton Books$18.95The story of Reverend Norman McLeod and his people.
The Cape Breton Summertime Revue
Publisher: Breton Books$14.00Through Ron Caplan’s lively and revealing conversations, Mac MacDonald, Bette MacDonald [Mary Morrison!], Maynard Morrison [Cecel!], Leon Dubinsky, Gerald Taylor and Stephen MacDonald share the history and day-to-day work that created Cape Breton’s beloved stage performances of unforgettable song and outrageous comedy. The Cape Breton Summertime Revue takes you to the heart of ten years of a Cape Breton Classic. Warren Gordon’s terrific photographs are worth the price of the book.
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.
Cape Breton’s Christmas A Treasury of Stories and Memories
Editor: Ron CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$19.95FROM THE HEART OF CAPE BRETON, Christmas radiates through stories by Beatrice MacNeil, Hugh MacLennan, Tessie Gillis, Paul MacDougall, Marie Battiste, Wanda Robson, Rita Joe, Ellison Robertson, and many more. From the Christmas tree in the coal mines to a community roasting turkeys at Bernie’s Bakery; from Christmas wrecked to Christmas saved, and Christmas far from home. Cape Breton’s Christmas is a family keeper — for anyone who loves wit, celebration and the generosity of Maritimes life.
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!
10 Nights Without Sleep
Artist: Murdock SmithPublisher: Breton Books$18.95The first book about celtic colours, 10 Nights Without Sleep is an insider’s years of adventure with the Cape Breton’s festival that has won the world’s praise. Both a history and an intense personal memoir, the reader rides on Dave Mahalik’s shoulder as he discovers the joy of driving some of the finest Celtic musicians around Cape Breton through full-blown autumn colours. One huge musical party, year after year, both onstage and at the nightly Festival Club where the music that stretchses to dawn and beyond — into days that end thrilled, exhausted and with breakfas before bedt. And Dave really takes you along.
The Wedding Reels
Publisher: Breton Books$16.00Not for the faint of heart, Joyce Rankin’s new book returns to the traditional roots she mined for At My Mother`s Door. Now in The Wedding Reels she has gone more to the heart of the moments of grief and doubt that we so often carry alone, and for which we rarely have the words. Eventually, love does abide, and her loyalty to place shines through even the darkest moments life can offer. This is the intimate poetry of the storyteller — frank, clear, unforgettable.“Joyce Rankin`s The Wedding Reels is a collection of poetry whose subjects are as local as a square dance, whose themes are as universal as life itself.” — Frank Macdonald, author of A Forest for Calum.Poet George Elliott Clarke called Joyce Rankin`s best-selling first book “a hymn of survival and settlement.”
I’m Alive. I Believe in Everything
Publisher: Breton Books$16.00“Controlled, fluid, wry and passionate.” —Halifax Daily NewsA generous serving of new and selected poems. Lesley Choyce was declared “a national treasure” by the Ottawa Citizen and “Nova Scotia’s answer to the Renaissance Man” by CBC’s Peter Gzowski. Quill and Quire found Lesley Choyce’s writing “life enhancing, life celebrating.” For a taste of this lasting collection, you can watch Lesley read the title poem “I’m Alive. I Believe in Everything,” which is available on youtube.
Summer Preserves
Publisher: Breton Books$16.00Smart, sassy, and sexy, Summer Preserves is a solid debut collection from poet, teacher, and activist Diane Reid.In Summer Preserves, Diane Reid serves up a generous collection filled with guts and good taste. A genuine keeper.“Bursting at the seams with ideas…powered by energetic engagement.. There is, at the core, a control and serious attention to craft.” —Matt Robinson, whose poetry collections include A Ruckus of Awkward Stacking, No Cage Contains a Stare that Well, and Against the Hard Angle.
Stud Horse Boy
Publisher: Breton Books$14.95From the truck’s horn and the stallion’s whinny, The Stud Horse Boy is called from school for adventures breeding horses that made farm life and woods work possible in Eastern Nova Scotia. The boy is torn between boiling anger and admiration for his one-eyed, alcoholic father. Will he become his father? How do you act amidst the eroticism and smutty jokes? How do you find the courage to live? A wonderful storyteller, Darryll Taylor remembers with great good humour, shockingly realistic scenes, and passionate respect. The Stud Horse Boy is today’s story-a teenager coming of age in difficult and changing times.
Special Link – Early Childhood Inclusion Quality Scale
Publisher: Breton Books$18.95This workbook is a tool for assessing inclusion quality in early childhood centres and for helping centre move toward higher quality inclusion. The Scale provides a picture of sustainable and evolving inclusion quality—an emerging issue as more children with special needs attend communitybased centres and as inclusion pioneers leave their centres and a new generation of directors and early childhood educators take on the inclusion challenges.
Marguerite Gallant A Legendary Acadian – Une Acadienne Legendaire
Publisher: Breton Books$16.95A Friend to all, this unique Acadian comes to life in a delightful new book. Marguerite Gallant is remembered as awoman brave enough to go her own way, to dress as she wished, and to live life to the fullest. Having grown up inpoverty, she struck out in the world, serving as a companion to families in the United States.
Talking Cape Breton Music – Expanded Edition
Editor: Ron CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$19.95Conversations with People who Love to Make Music
Woman From Away
Publisher: Breton Books$19.95Born in 1910 Montana, Tessie Gillis in the 1950s came with her husband Joe to Rear Glencoe in Inverness County to live the hard,satisfying life of rural Cape Breton. Illness finally gave her the opportunity to write, and her friend and editor Evelyn Garbary helped her bloom into one of Cape Breton’s finest writers.
Talk Back
Publisher: Breton Books$14.95It’s been 10 long years since TALKBACK was shuffled off the airwaves, although it was the most popular and highest earning radio show in Cape Breton’s history. For thirteen years, Dave Wilson hosted TALKBACK. This book is his chance to help us all remember, and to sign off on his own terms.
Archie, le rat de mine-un heros
Artist: Louise Brooking-McDowPublisher: Breton Books$14.95C’est l’histoire de l’amitié qui existe entre u mineur, Milton, et un rat de mine, Archie –et de la façon dont Archie est devenu un héros.
Down North
Editor: Ron CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$12.95A terrific and moving read!
These voices confirm the tenderness, good humor and rich story telling of Cape Breton Island. Down North stands as a solid tested play–whether on stage or among friends. And then, it encourages you to “Make this play your own!”–a unique and compelling invitation.
George Orwell’s Friend
Editor: Ron CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$14.95Born in British Columbia, Paul Potts (1911-1990) lived most of his life based in London’s Soho district, a friend and confidant of many ultimately famous writers. His circle included Dylan Thomas and T. S. Eliot, Elizabeth Smart and Sean O’Casey–and of course George Orwell, a constant friend. George Orwell’s Friend includes autobiography and poetry, an intimate portrait of George Orwell, and the classic anguished memoir of love and vulnerability?elements that rarely find words, and even more rarely find the words of a man. Along with Potts’ intimate essay about George Orwell, ‘Don Quixote on a Bicycle,’ editor Ronald Caplan reclaims the thoughtful work of a passionate, unusual Canadian.
Neighbours are Watching
Publisher: Breton Books$16.95Tony MacKenzie is a beloved historian, teacher and storyteller. He has written three bestselling books, The Irish in Cape Breton, The Harvest Train, and Scottish Lights. The Neighbours are Watching is Tony’s first foray into what might be called “fiction”- but readers will recognize the stories as undoubtedly “true.”
Inclusion Voices
Publisher: Breton Books$16.95This rare book lets child care directors across Canada speak to us directly about the vision of full inclusion of children with special needs, the challenges that their vision has faced, and some of the strategies and techniques each has used to survive. The portrait is not all victory, and the future is not assured. Irwin is able to compare recent conversations with visits she made to those same child care centres ten years earlier. The result is evidence-based storytelling and an accessible book that will be of particular value to practitioners, directors, government decision makers, parents and people in related fields.
Molly Poems
Publisher: Breton Books$12.95The Molly Poems and Highland Elegies contains rare poems written in tribute to the paintings of Molly Lamb Bobak, Canada s first woman war artist. Each poem, while inspired by Bobak s work, takes its own unique direction. And the Highland Elegies section offers powerful new poems that evoke more of the Maritimes world of Donovan s successful first collection, CAPE BRETON QUARRY.
Acadian Tales from Cape Breton
Publisher: Breton Books$16.95An esteemed Canadian folklorist, Father Anselme Chiasson’s award-winning books include songs, tales and history of the Acadians of Cape Breton and the Magdalen Islands.
Acadian Lives
Editor: Ron CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$21.95The Cape Breton Acadian comes alive in this new collection of conversations with remarkable people in an extraordinary place-Acadians of Cape Breton Island. In their own words, this book is a marvelous introduction to their humour, passion, work life and heritage. From fishing life to the cooperative movement, from daily life to sorcery and celebrations-their words and photographs open a door to an intimate portrait of this unique, little-known world. Acadian Lives is a tribute to the tenacity, pride, ingenuity and wit of one of Cape Breton Island’s undeniable treasures. In English, with some French tales and songs.
Tighten the Traces
Publisher: Breton Books$12.95Celebrating over 500 performances worldwide, Breton Books is proud to offer Robbie O’Neill’s extraordinary play in book form, along with photographs and memories of the lead character, the beloved Leo Kennedy of Canso, Nova Scotia. A tribute to terrific storytelling, Tighten the Traces is first of all a good, enchanting read. Here is the voice of Leo Kennedy, whose outrageous humour and fierce persistence overcame cerebral palsy and a suspicious world, to win him a living as a door-to-door salesman in eastern Nova Scotia. You’ll split a gut laughing, with tears in your eyes. Performed from Guysborough schools to the London stage, in Scotland, Australia, the World Exposition in Vancouver and as a CBC Television Special, Tighten the Traces has earned high praise and an ACTRA Best Acting Award for its writer/actor, Robbie O’Neill.
