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Nova Scotia’s Lost Communities
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95Beaubassin was once a prosperous farming community at the head of the Cumberland Basin; Africville was the vibrant home of Black Nova Scotians who struggled to make a living and found spiritual solace in their church. Both are now gone, one a casualty of long-ago colonial warfare and the other a victim of misguided urban renewal.
In this fascinating book, author Joan Dawson (A History of Halifax in 50 Objects) looks at 37 of Nova Scotia’s lost communities: places like Electric City, Indian Gardens, and the Tancook Islands. Some were home to ethnic groups forced to leave. Others, once dependent on factories, mills, or the fishery, died as the economy changed or resources were depleted. But they were all once places where Nova Scotians were born, married, worked, and died, and they deserve to be remembered. Featuring over 60 archival and contemporary photos and illustrations, Nova Scotia’s Lost Communities preserves those memories with fascinating insights.
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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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Nova Scotia Cookery, Then and Now Modern Interpretations of Heritage Recipes
Editor: Valerie MansourPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95Take one batch of historic recipes, add a handful of local, inspired chefs, mix well, and serve up a modern version of Nova Scotia culinary history. To create this book, food writer and editor Valerie Mansour reviewed the Nova Scotia Archives’s What’s Cooking? digital collection and, along with their staff, pulled out a cross-section of recipes dating back as far as The Halifax Gazette of 1765, and featuring material from wartime newspaper supplement recipes, community cookbooks, and more. Taste of Nova Scotia then matched recipes with Nova Scotia chefs and food-industry specialists, who put a modern twist on the recipes. Using their expertise, today’s food styles, and local ingredients, top chefs from across the province have recreated everything from classic seafood dishes like planked salmon and fish chowder to time-honoured favourites like brown bread and baked beans, with items like Irish potato pudding, rabbit stew with bannock, Gaelic fruitcake, and rappie pie showcasing the province’s multicultural and ever-evolving foodways.
Features over 80 recipes, full-colour photos of the dishes in historic Nova Scotia settings from photographer Len Wagg and stylist Jessica Emin, as well as fascinating archival materials.
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Mi’kmaw Grammar of Father Pacifique
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95First published (1939), as Leçons grammaticales théoriques et pratiques de la langue micmaque of Rev. Father Pacifique Buisson, The Mi’kmaw Grammar of Father Pacifique is a vast and important collection of information on the Mi’kmaw language. It represents a tradition of Mi’kmaw grammatical studies by missionary priests that spans more than 200 years, from the days of abbé Pierre Maillard (ca. 1710-1762), to Father Pacifique, who, although he intended his grammar to be a guide to other priests who wanted to learn Mi’kmaw, seems to have been the last priest to speak the language fluently.
The purpose of updating the orthography is, of course, to give the reader who does not know the language exact information on the pronunciation of each Mi’kmaw word. This was not an important goal for Pacifique, since he recommends, in the original, that the pronunciation should be obtained from a native speaker. Now that the language has been lost from many communities so that native speakers are not as available as they once were, it has become crucially important to use the new, exact, orthography, so that the written word can be used to convey as much information as possible on the accepted pronunciations.
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Untamed Atlantic Canada Exploring the Region’s Biodiversity Havens
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95Spanning 1,200 kilometres from New Brunswick’s Passamaquoddy Bay to Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula, Atlantic Canada stands as a nexus between North America and the North Atlantic Ocean. Its diverse geography, variable climate, and surrounding ocean currents coalesce to create a rich medley of habitats both on the land and in the sea. There are currently eight thousand known species in this little corner of the world, and awardÂwinning nature photographer Scott Leslie has captured a beautiful selection of them on these pages.
In Untamed Atlantic Canada, discover the stunning array of animals living in the region–from elusive black foxes, to clouds of semiÂpalmated sandpipers, and endangered right whales–through 140 colour images with detailed, narrative captions. This photographic collection is perfect for seasoned naturalists and novice nature lovers alike.
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On South Mountain
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95Stories of South Mountain and its notorious Goler Clan are often told in whispers–or not at all.
For over a century, a gruesome pattern of sexual and physical abuse, incest, and psychological torture defined the isolated mountain community, and residents of the nearby Annapolis Valley turned a blind eye. But when a fourteen-year-old South Mountain girl finally spoke up, the story and its ensuing investigation captivated the country.
In this twentieth-anniversary edition of the bestselling book The Vancouver Sun called “a terrible story, beautifully told,” acclaimed authors David Cruise and Alison Griffiths return to South Mountain with a new Preface and the original, startling text.
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Called to Serve Georgina Pope, Canadian Military Nursing Heroine
Publisher: Island Studies Press$27.95Georgina Pope is one of the 14 Valiants whose bronze bust at Confederation Square, Ottawa, is viewed by thousands of people every day. The Canadian Mint issued a $5 coin bearing her image. How does a young woman, born in 1862 into privileged circumstances in Prince Edward Island, rise to the top echelons of Canadian military nursing leadership and become a national hero?
Called to Serve details Pope’s path to power through the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th. It addresses the significance of her privileged and powerful lineage, the influence of her parents on her world view, and the inspiration of Florence Nightingale.
Featuring photos from Georgina Pope’s personal photo album with handwritten notes illustrating her wartime experiences PLUS biographies of the Pope family.
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Living Treaties – Narrating Mi’kmaw Treaty Relations
Editor: Marie BattistePublisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$27.95First Nations, Métis and Inuit lands and resources are tied to treaties and other documents, their relevance forever in dispute. Contributors share how they came to know about treaties, about the key family members and events that shaped their thinking and their activism and life’s work.
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Minding the House Volume II 1993-2017
Publisher: Acorn Press$27.95This follow-up collection of biographies of Prince Edward Island MLAs provides an important resource for political buffs or anyone who is interested in policies that shape the province. It records a part of Island history that is not often told—the stories of those who have dedicated a portion of their career to public life. This second volume of Minding the House will be of interest to all Islanders and those who wish to learn the recent history of Prince Edward Island.
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Indigenous Business in Canada: Principles and Practices
Editor: Janice Esther Tulk, Keith G. BrownPublisher: Cape Breton University Press$27.95Indigenous Business in Canada addresses contemporary concerns and issues in the doing of Indigenous business in Canada, reveals some of the challenges and diverse approaches to business in Aboriginal contexts from coast to coast to coast, and demonstrates the direct impact that history and policy, past and present, have on business and business education.
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Home Is Where the Water Is
Publisher: Island Studies Press$27.95Born and raised in tumultuous times in East Asia, Hung-Min Chiang survived earthquakes, wars, foreign occupation, dictatorship, and illness before making his way to Prince Edward Island. While navigating his perilous journey, Chiang practiced the “The Way of Water,” Daoist lessons for living drawn from Nature. Home Is Where the Water Is examines the many critical turning points in a life and how these shaped the person he became.
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Cultivating Success The Life of Acadian Seaplants Founder Louis Deveau
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95Louis Deveau was born in the Acadian village of Salmon River, Digby County, NS, in the early years of the Great Depression. He inherited his father’s work ethic and his mother’s entrepreneurial flair, soon pioneering the creation of the commercial crab industry?now the second-largest fishery in Atlantic Canada. That work put him on the front lines of the industry he would transform over a lifetime: the seaweed business.
At forty-nine, Louis incorporated Acadian Seaplants Limited (ASL), and doggedly grew the company by capitalizing on research and development innovations. Today, ASL employs hundreds of people in more than a dozen nations, keeps a research staff of about fifty, and exports a wide range of products to over eighty nations worldwide.
With dozens of black and white photos and two colour inserts, this comprehensive biography tells the story of a visionary whose determination to build a successful business in Nova Scotia, and whose commitment to church, family, community, and Acadian culture transformed ASL into a world-leading, research- and technology-driven juggernaut.
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Tunes and Wooden Spoons Love Without Measure
Photographer: Margie MacDonaldPublisher: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.$27.95 -
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Rise A Devotion to Whole Grains
Photographer: Jennifer K. MurphyPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95 -
Black Ice
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95Expanded and revised edition of the pioneering work of history about the Coloured Hockey League, founded in Halifax, NS. Now a documentary film.
Black Ice is the first written record of the Colored Hockey League in the Maritimes, founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1895, more than 20 years before the founding of the National Hockey League. The Colored Hockey League was a force in Canadian hockey that was conveniently ignored and whose contributions were stolen as other leagues emerged. Black Ice explores the unique culture that still exists today.
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Through My Looking Glass: Nova Scotia: 50 Year Photographic Retrospective 1973-2023
Photographer: Joseph RobichaudPublisher: Pottersfield Press$27.95Through My Looking Glass is the culmination of fifty years of documentary photography in Nova Scotia, spanning from 1973 to 2023. It chronicles a half-century of life in a province where the intertwining of diverse cultures and experiences creates a rich and multifaceted narrative. The striking images in this book reflect the many threads of Indigenous, Acadian, and Black experiences. The Mi’kmaq people, the original stewards of this land, have walked these shores for millennia, forging a deep connection with the natural world. Their resilience has shaped the province?s identity, and their stories are integral to understanding Nova Scotia?s historical and spiritual landscape.
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Prince Edward Island ~ Epekwitk ~ Climate Almanac
Publisher: Acorn Press$27.95From devastating hurricanes to blizzards that have shut down the Island for days, Jardine creates a fascinating deep-dive into the changing weather patterns of Prince Edward Island and their effect on the landscape. Complete with maps, photos, and tables, this month- by-month guide is an essential reader for those interested in weather, climate change and Island history.
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The Acadians of Prince Edward Island (bilingual)
Publisher: Acorn Press$27.95This book on the Acadians of Prince Edward Island shows the cultural and historical importance of carefully documented and organized collections of photos. From some points of view this book is like an old-fashioned family album, except that it illustrates the ordinary life of not just one but many Acadian families.
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Tunes and Wooden Spoons III
Photographer: Margie MacDonaldPublisher: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.$27.95 -
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In the Blood
Photographer: Gary SamsonPublisher: Cape Breton University Press$28.95A representative set of individuals from Cape Breton provides personal narratives about life and culture on the Nova Scotia island. Cape Breton is a region known for its music (well represented here); its Scottish, French, and Mi’kmaq heritage; and its spectacular scenery, including that along the Cabot Trail through Cape Breton Highlands National Park and around Bras d’Or Lake. While traditional culture has a vibrant existence on Cape Breton, the island also faces serious economic and social challenges. With traditional mining, shipping, farming, and fishing industries depressed, tourism, though significant, is a less-than-adequate replacement as economic engine and the island has faced an ongoing decline in population. A cross-section of Cape Bretoners reflected on these issues and the sacrifices they make and joys they find living in such a culturally and scenically rich place. Among the better-known of them are Ginette Chiasson, Alistair MacLeod, Rita Joe, Buddy MacMaster, Joella Foulds, Bob MacEachern, Keith Brown, and Mary Jane Lamond.
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Cape Breton Weather Watching
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press$28.95Supported by stunning photographs of every imaginable weather phonomena familiar to us all, and diagrams that illustrate just how the weather works, Danielson bring’s Cape Breton’s natural history to life.
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Mersey River Lodge A Window on History and Nature
Photographer: David Burns, Farhad VladiPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$28.95The area defined by Nova Scotia’s Mersey River has been home to many: the Mi’kmaq, the English, the French, the Black Loyalists, even pirates and rum-runners. A location renowned for its natural splendour, in 1930 the Mersey River became home to anouther important resident: the Mersey Folk Lodge.
Originally intended as a respite for friends and family, and potential business partners, of Liverpool’s Bowater Mersey Paper Mill, the Mersey River Lodge has since become a tranquil retreat for both personal and professional excursions.
Written by Halifax historian Blair Beed, with breathtaking photographs by David Burns and Farhad Vladi, this beautiful keepsake celebrates the history of the Mersey River area, its industry, its people, and the lasting cultural legacy of the Mersey River Lodge.
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Hope for Wildlife
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95One day, a couple who had run over a skunk with their car brought it to the Dartmouth Veterinary Hospital. When the veterinarians couldn’t look after it, Hope Swinimer decided to take the helpless animal into her care, and that was the start of it all. Now, through her rehabilitation centre called Hope for Wildlife, Hope’s name is synonymous with wildlife rescue in Nova Scotia.Since 1997, hundreds of animals have been saved through the tireless efforts of the staff and volunteers at Hope for Wildlife. Some animals’ stories were so unique that they even garnered national attention-such as Hope’s battle with the department of natural resources over Gretel, a member of the endangered pine marten species. Each creature comes with its own challenges, either through a particularly difficult injury or a quirky personality-like Lucifer the inexplicably bald and ornery raccoon-but each patient leaves an indelible mark on the lives of those around them.Hope for Wildlife tells the stories of fourteen different wild animals from Nova Scotia that have passed through the centre. Colour photographs of the animals and the centre’s efforts supplement the text, and info boxes offer further information on the province’s wildlife. The stories in Hope for Wildlife are educational, heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking-but always filled with hope.
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Black Loyalists Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia’s First Free Black Communities
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95During the American Revolution (1775-1783), the British government offered freedom to slaves who would desert their rebel masters as a way of ruining the American economy. Many Black men and women escaped to the British fleet patrolling the East Coast, or to the British armies invading the colonies from Maine to Georgia.
After the final surrender of the British to the Americans, New York City was evacuated by the British Army throughout the summer and fall of 1783. Carried away with them were a vast number of White Loyalists and their families, and over 3,000 Black Loyalists: free, indentured, apprenticed, or still enslaved. More than 2,700 Blacks came to Nova Scotia with the fleet from New York City.
Black Loyalists is an attempt to present hard data about the lives of Nova Scotia Black Loyalists before they escaped slavery in early South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and after they settled in Nova Scotia to bring back into our awareness the context for some very brave and enterprising men and women who survived the chaos of the American Revolution, people who found a way to pass through the heart, ironically, of a War for Liberty, to liberty and human dignity.
Includes an insert of 20 historical images and documents.
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Halifax and the Royal Canadian Navy
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95On May 4, 1910, the Liberal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier passed the Naval Service Act, which created the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Ever since, the RCN and the city of Halifax-a strategic Canadian port on the Atlantic-have been partners. During the Second World War’s Battle of the Atlantic, Halifax was a major centre of operations for the RCN, which was tasked with the crucial missions of escorting merchant ships and hunting German U-Boats not far off Halifax’s coast. But the relationship with the city of Halifax was not without turmoil: at the conclusion of the war the pent-up frustrations of sailors boiled over into the V-E Day riots.
Part of the popular Images of Our Past series, Halifax and the RCN marks the centennial of the Royal Canadian Navy’s founding in 1910. Author John Boileau’s superbly researched narrative is supplemented with over 150 historical photos of the sailors, ships, and shore establishments that defined the RCN. An accessible and lively photographic history, Halifax and the RCN is a worthy tribute to the Royal Canadian Navy and its home port.
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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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Bridging Islands
Editor: Godfrey BaldacchinoPublisher: Acorn Press$29.95An island is a piece of land surrounded by water. But: what happens when bridges, causeways, tunnels- “fixed links”- irrevocably connect islands to mainlands? Is insularity, and its way of life, threatened? Or is it saved by virtue of a stronger integration with the world at large?Bridging Islands is a critical, interdisciplinary scoreboard of the pros and cons of bridging islands to mainlands. Internationally recognized scholars review the assorted socio-cultural, economic and political impacts of fixed links on small island communities. Included are chapters on Prince Edward Island’s Confederation Bridge (celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007), Cape Breton’s Canso Causeway, islands in Quebec and Newfoundland, the Florida Keys, Ireland, France, Scotland, Sweden, and Singapore.
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Prince Edward Island: Landscape and Light
Photographer: John SylvesterPublisher: Acorn Press$29.95In 2014, John Sylvester is celebrating his 30th year of photographing some of Canada’s most remarkable places. This book is a retrospective of his main inspiration — Prince Edward Island. It includes much new material, but also includes many beloved classic images that have graced the pages of his previous books. Prince Edward Island: Landscape and Light takes us on a journey showcasing John Sylvester’s approach to photography, not only making images at the edge of day and night, but also the nature of photographing on an Island, where both the landscape and the light inspires his spectacular work. Â