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Black & White: An Intimate, Multicultural Perspective on "White Advantage" and the Paths to Change
by Stephen DorseyThe anticipated debut by a biracial community leader and citizen activist, exploring his lived experience of systemic racism in North America and the paths forward. My race duality has given me a unique perspective on both the Black and white experience in Canada…. What became most evident to me—most universal—was an important need for building bridges of understanding between Black and white Canadians. A need to inform and educate so that hopefully, in due time, we can achieve real change. As a bilingual, biracial man, straddling Black and white, English and French Canada, Stephen Dorsey lives in a world of dualities. In his deeply personal and insightful debut, he offers readers intimate and unfiltered access to his lived experience of anti-Black racism around the world, including Canada, the United States, and Europe, focusing on his formative years growing up in 1970s Montreal as a Black child in a white family headed by a racist stepfather, and details his personal awakening inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. A powerful blend of autobiography and social analysis, Black & White is an intimate excavation of systemic racism in North America—from our health-care and education systems, to policing and law, to a deep analysis of the uniquely intersectional discrimination faced by minorities in Dorsey’s home province of Quebec. With an inclusive and accessible approach, aimed at community connection and education, Dorsey delves deep into Canada’s history of racial discrimination and, by contrasting it with that of our American neighbours, debunks our nation’s mythological narrative, providing necessary context on white privilege, which he calls “white advantage,” and offers concrete pathways to lasting societal change. Holding readers gently to account, Black & White is the book for the ally in all of us.
Casey: The Remarkable, Untold Story of Frederick Walker "Casey" Baldwin: Gentleman, Genius, and Alexander Graham Bell’s Canadian Protegé
by John G. LangleyEleven months before the historic 1909 flight of the Silver Dart in Baddeck, Frederick Walker “Casey” Baldwin, became the first Canadian to fly. One of Alexander Graham Bell’s young associates, Casey was an aeronaut, engineer and politician—and heralded as a true genius. In this biography by John Langley, Casey’s remarkable story is told in full for the first time.
Sea Wins: Shipwrecks of the Bay of Fundy
by Eric AllabyWe are all drawn to the sea. Those who call the shores of Fundy home take the twice-daily flooding and ebbing of massive tides as a matter of daily routine. But to visiting mariners, the Bay of Fundy posed particular challenges for their sea-borne commerce. Shipwrecks became part of the lore of Fundy life. They were usually enormously dramatic events, too often sadly tragic, occasionally even touched with humour. The strong currents associated with the spring tides are probably the greatest reason for shipwreck in the Bay of Fundy. But shipwreck is seldom attributable to one factor alone. Almost every shipping casualty is the result of a combination of problems working together: fog, incompetence, and, of course, the costly and tragic damages inflicted by the fury of storms. The lore of shipwreck makes up an important part of the history and heritage of the Fundy region. Featuring dozens of paintings and drawings by the author, The Sea Wins: Shipwrecks of the Bay of Fundy vividly recounts more than forty dramatic tales of the real people who faced great odds in their sailing ships, only to discover that inevitably, the sea wins.
Around the Hearth: Tales of Home and Family
by Lucy Montgomery MaudA heartwarming collection of 17 rare short stories by famed Anne of Green Gables author. Although best known for creating the spirited Anne Shirley, L. M. Montgomery had a thriving writing career that included hundreds of short stories and poems. Around the Hearth is a continuation of the Montgomery short story collections edited by Rea Wilmshurst in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, including stories such as “A Baking of Gingersnaps” (1895)—the first story Montgomery published. As with Anne, who found a warm and welcoming home and family at Green Gables, these stories focus on homes and families, and the happiness and love people receive from them. Over many years of careful research and meticulous compiling of resources, Joanne Lebold has curated a collection of short fiction that showcases all the warmth and charisma Montgomery’s fans have come to cherish, and offers a rare glimpse into some of the beloved author’s lesser-known works. Includes seventeen short stories originally published between 1895 and 1935.
A Sure Cure for Witchcraft
by Laura BestWitches are hated in Württemberg, in what is now Germany, in the eighteenth century. It’s not so long since they were burned, and any woman who knows too much, who’s too clever or quick or skilled at healing, is suspect. Young Lilli knows this, and yet she also knows that the wise woman she’s learning from, Alisz, isn’t evil. She is teaching Lilli which plants cure a fever, which help a cough, which speed a difficult labour. She only wants to help people, and so does Lilli. But Lilli’s father hates any sign of witchcraft and is furious at their connection. When Lilli is just thirteen, he surprises the family with news: they are moving to the New World. Alisz and Lilli pledge to be soul friends, inseparable by ocean or years and across time, in present-day Nova Scotia, Lilly and Alice are making their own way towards each other. Lilli’s learning and plight in the 1700s take front an centre in this multi-century story of healing, friendship, and the bravery it can take to be a woman who follows her own heart.
Shoot Me
by Lesley CreweThe South End house where Elsie Brooks and her big, complicated family live is bursting with secrets. Elsie's banished husband lives in the basement. Her lonely sister lives in the attic. Her twenty-something daughters come and go as they please. And when the renegade ninety-one-year-old archaeologist they all know as Aunt Hildy comes home to die, the poor old place becomes impossibly full-of hidden meanings and hidden treasure, of murder and mystery. Shoot Me is a story about family, fortune, and figuring out who you are. Bestselling author Lesley Crewe has created a mixed-up, frantic, ultimately lovable East Coast family. But as Aunt Hildy would say, "Life is not something that needs to be tamed. It's messy. Always was, always will be."
Building a Better Boat: How the Cape Island Longliner Saved Nova Scotia’s Inshore Fishery
by Donald J. FeltmateDuring the first half of the twentieth century, economic recession, a lack of government support, and the incursion of large draggers on coastal fishing grounds meant many inshore fishing communities were facing poverty and starvation. The formation of fishers’ cooperatives started a movement toward recovery, and the introduction of the internal combustion engine along with the development of a new medium-sized fishing vessel equipped with mechanical haulers meant groundfishers who had previously employed handlines from small boats with a single hook could now haul multiple trawl lines from a single vessel. The development of the “government approved” Cape Island–type longliner was perhaps one the most significant achievements in the survival of Nova Scotia’s struggling inshore fishery. Sadly, this important history has gone largely unrecorded. With the help of in-depth archival research and more than thirty little-known historical photographs, Building a Better Boat chronicles the history of the recovery of the shore fishery and the development of a new fishing craft known as wooden Cape Island–type longliners. It is a story that needs to be told, if for no other reason than to honour the brave fishing families who persevered through poverty and hunger and who, despite all odds, developed a vessel that would help them secure their own futures and that of future generations.
Hero
by Paul ButlerIn a St. John's hospital in 1945, Elsa Evans keeps a furtive vigil over the deathbed of Abram Kean, the renowned sealing captain. Remembering her first husband and her two brothers killed in the trenches thirty years before, and another young friend, Noah, frozen on the ice during the sealing disaster of 1914, Elsa contemplates a hideous revenge. The shock of her own bitterness forces her to retrace part of her life which is interwoven with those of her former employers, Simon and Sarah Jenson. On the morning of July 1916, officer Lt. Simon Jenson, severely shell-shocked and demoralized after a year and a half in the trenches, fails in leadership, hanging behind his men as they march through into no-man's-land. When a figure emerges from the drifting smoke, he thrusts the blade of his bayonet forward not into the enemy but into the body of Charles Baxter, a comrade and the brother of his fiancé, Sarah. Surviving against the odds, and with his battlefield actions misinterpreted, Simon is feted as a hero. But when Simon returns from the war, Sarah finds him emotionally fragile and prone to violent rages- not even their young daughter Lucy can cheer him. Worse, their lives are soon overtaken by the shadow of blackmail, and Sarah and Elsa, Lucy's governess, are forced to reconsider everything they once believed about loyalty, valour, and responsibility.
100 Things You Don't Know About Atlantic Canada (For Kids)
by Sal SawlerDid you know that you can walk on the ocean floor at the Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick? Or that there was once a UFO sighting in PEI? Or that someone found a real Maud Lewis painting in a thrift shop? Journalist Sal Sawler, author of the bestselling 100 Things You Don’t Know About Nova Scotia, has collected the most interesting, surprising, and bizarre facts that you never knew about Atlantic Canada, just for kids. 100 Things You Don’t Know About Atlantic Canada (for Kids) includes fun photos and helpful explanations that go with all the wacky and weird trivia that is sure to entertain and educate. As an added bonus, each ‘thing’ is paired with an interactive sidebar suggesting fun family activities, and places to visit.
Threshold: Stories
by Carol BruneauFrom the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of Brighten the Corner Where You Are, A Circle on the Surface, and Purple for Sky comes the first collection of short stories since the Thomas Raddall Award–nominated A Bird on Every Tree. Moving from a worldly insouciance to a reckoning with privilege, the stories in Threshold explore the hypocrisies and contradictions of a world broken by racism, homelessness, and climate change. A woman’s grief causes her to see the ghost of her mother in others and in herself; an extended honeymoon cruise has a couple contemplating their gene pools, and their future; and a son’s disappearance prompts his parents to study the migratory patterns of herons. From the piazzas of Naples and Palermo to Halifax’s urban wilderness, waterways, and backyards, Bruneau writes with characteristic empathy, humour, and linguistic precision. These luminescent stories reach beyond first-world worries toward compassion and hope, human resilience and the resiliency of nature.
SWAN: The Girl Who Grew
by Sidura LudwigBefore she became the "The Giantess from Nova Scotia" and travelled the globe with notorious showman P. T. Barnum, Anna Swan was a young girl growing up near the rural town of Tatamagouche, desperately trying to fit into a world for which she was literally too big. In her debut middle grade novel-in-verse, award-winning author Sidura Ludwig imagines a pivotal period in Anna’s childhood, as she struggled to find acceptance in a community that saw her as other.When twelve-year-old, seven-foot-tall Anna’s family moves to her grandmother's farm in Central New Annan, she is forced to attend a new school, abandon the bedroom she once shared with her beloved sister, Maggie, and face bullies young and old. She worries she'll never stop growing, and dreams of dainty boots that fit and church pews that don't topple under her weight. Of a world that sees her as she sees herself: a gentle girl who loves to read books beneath the trees.When Anna discovers a solution that will help her stop growing and get her family out of debt, she agrees to exhibit herself as a curiosity in the big city of Halifax. But her giant heart will be tested as she tries to balance her devotion to her family with her desire for normalcy.A story of faith, family, and learning to love the body you're in, SWAN is a modern classic, an impeccably researched and brilliantly imagined story of a woman who has captivated the world for over two centuries. Features an author's note about the real Anna Swan chronicling Anna's later life, and the little that is known about why she grew so tall (almost 8 feet as an adult), as well as a brief history of the region where Anna grew up.
Children of Africville
by Christine WelldonThe children of Africville, Nova Scotia, lived in a special community where everyone knew their neighbours, and all helped and cared for each other. It was the perfect place for children to play and grow up. The Children of Africville is the remarkable story of these children during the community's final years, before it was torn down and its families were relocated. Full of photographs and stories from Africville people, this book is an important celebration of Nova Scotia black history, its vibrant community, and the children who lived there.
Hit & Mrs.
by Lesley CreweLinda, Bette, Gemma, and Augusta are four lifelong friends who live in Montreal. This year they're all going to turn fifty, so they decide to take a trip to New York together (courtesy of Linda's philandering husband's Visa Platinum). But at the LaGuardia airport washroom, Bette accidentally switches bags with a young mother who's actually smuggling diamonds for the mob, and things start going terribly wrong. When they kill an aggressive cab driver with pepper spray, the four friends know this is not going to be the trip of shopping and Broadway shows they'd expected.A series of miscommunications and mishaps entangles the friends even further into the criminal underworld of New York. But out of all the bad luck (Linda's husband is staying at the same hotel as the friends, with his new girlfriend) and bad people (mobsters, drug addicts, and Linda's husband) emerge four fifty-year-old avengers of truth and justice. In the style of Crewe's Shoot Me, Hit and Mrs. is a wildly entertaining comedic romp.
We're Not Rich: Stories
by Sue MurtaghA stunning debut collection of linked short stories exploring the promises and disappointments of modern life, edited by award-winning author Alexander MacLeod.These are the stories of the people who used to live next-door.The characters in Sue Murtagh’s outstanding debut collection of linked short stories are at a crossroads. Middle-class, middling, they wrestle with the consequences of their decisions and powerful forces outside of their control. Whether it’s a volatile housing market, the ever-present threat of illness, or the slow disintegration of a marriage, this community of neighbours finds themselves trapped between the idyllic promises of the North American dream and the stark realities of modern life.Mice infest every home a woman has ever lived in, no matter the domestic trappings. A charity golf tournament is an exercise in futility for a pair of married insurance entrepreneurs. At a community pool, profound grief manifests as rage. A grandmother’s stories of generational trauma mutate in the retelling. And a suburban wildfire causes a young person to question the idea of home and the values of her parents’ generation.Packing the punch of a novel, these thirteen deftly interwoven stories scrutinize the lives of everyday people with surgical precision, while finding connection and community in the unlikeliest of places. Edited by award-winning author Alexander MacLeod, We’re Not Rich is a wryly observed and deeply thoughtful collection, where nothing is quite as it should be, but everything feels true.
I Lost My Talk
by Rita JoeRita Joe’s powerful poem is presented anew in this children’s picture book with illustrations from Pauline Young. A story of recovering what was lost in residential school, I Lost My Talk will raise conversation about language as a vehicle for truth and reconciliation. Published simultaneously with the companion book I’m Finding My Talk.
Bitter, Sweet
by Laura BestPru Burbidge lives a simple life on the family homestead on Dalhousie Road in 1940s rural Nova Scotia- until her father abandons the family and her mother falls ill. Her life is turned upside-down by these events, and she is forced to take on the role of primary caregiver to her siblings, Jessie, Flora, and Davey. Things go from bad to worse when Pru's mother dies, leaving Pru and Jessie, her older brother, to care for the family in secret so they are not separated and sent away to foster homes, or worse- the orphan house. Pru and Jessie do everything they can to hide the fact that their mother has passed away and keep the family together, but their situation becomes increasingly dire as their money and food supplies begin to run out and their neighbours start getting suspicious. When the situation comes to a head and they are on the verge of being found out, Pru and her siblings must work together to save their family from being torn apart.
Beneath Her Skin: A Kes Morris File
by C. S. PorterShe knew her process. Knew the itch in her nerves. The cold hardness creeping in. She was pulling on the killer’s skin too fast. Something wild flickered across her heart. When she fully donned it, there wouldn’t be room for anyone else but the killer and her. When a small east coast town falls prey to a series of shocking murders, city homicide detective Kes Morris is called in to lead the case with the aid of the local precinct. As usual, she’s the only woman in the room, and must draw on the lessons passed down by her detective father, a furtive and dangerous practice of going deep inside a killer’s mind to put on their skin. What Kes uncovers is a web of gruesome crimes reaching back decades, and a town that may have been complicit. With a reputation of being hard, relentless, and unbending to authority, she finds herself on the hunt for a killer seeking brutal retribution, someone who takes sadistic pleasure in death and who wants their work seen. The farther she follows the trail, the more the line blurs between guilt and innocence, predator and prey. An atmospheric thriller with complex characters, Beneath Her Skin signals the emergence of a bold new voice in crime fiction, and a dark and thrilling new series.
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (Be a Nature Detective)
by Michelle HébertKitten Love’s family is haunted by the memory of her teenaged aunt, Nerida, who died just days before Kitten’s birth in 1970. Her mother, Queena, believes the family is cursed, and she’s determined not to let disaster strike again. She won’t let Kitten out of her sight—especially to visit the beaches that surround the town. She’s built a bomb shelter to protect against Soviet attack, and she’s desperate to protect her husband, Stubby, from the fatal and mysterious Love Heart. Kitten thinks she knows how to defeat their curse: magic. But when protection spells and clues from tarot cards aren’t enough to save Stubby, Kitten turns her back on the things that make her life magical, and Queena turns her back on reality. She preserves everything as it was the day Stubby died in 1987—from the gold shag rug in the bathroom to the Duran Duran posters in Kitten’s room. Kitten, herself, is forbidden to change. Kitten tastes freedom when she falls in love and moves to British Columbia, but reinventing herself without the curse is harder than she expects. Tragedy and her own reliance on magical thinking eventually lead her back home to Queena, her brother Thom, and Aunt Bunny, who are equally stuck in their pasts. When tarot cards begin mysteriously showing up in her room, warning of a betrayal and encouraging an unlikely romance, she’s certain someone is watching her. Could the heartbreak that almost destroyed Kitten’s family be the very thing that helps them move on? A darkly humorous family saga woven around tarot cards and a mixtape of ’80s songs, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic is a heady mix of music, ghosts, love, and nostalgia.
Islands of New Brunswick: Living Between the Tides
by Allison MitchamCulled from her collections Offshore Islands and Paradise or Purgatory(1984), New Brunswick Islands is part ecocritical exploration and part historical survey, as Mitcham explores the province’s not-so-far-off islands in search of their unique stories. The result is an extraordinary collection of essays that illuminates the social and cultural histories behind New Brunswick’s islands. Exposed are the complexities of island history, from the Aboriginal peoples of Indian Island to the generations of lighthouse keeping on Miscou, to the tragic quarantine history of Passamaquoddy’s Hospital Island (Partridge Island). Industrious islands, from the once-lucrative quarries of Grindstone Island, to the still-flourishing fisheries of Grand Manan are also investigated, as well as the mysterious histories behind the now-uninhabited Heron and Shediac Islands, which have largely been reclaimed by nature. This revised edition features the original illustrations by Peter Mitcham.
Truth and Honour: The Death of Richard Oland and the Trial of Dennis Oland
by Greg MarquisTruth and Honour explores the 2011 murder of Saint John businessman Richard Oland, of the prominent family that owns Moosehead Breweries, the ensuing police investigation and the arrest, trial, and conviction of the victim's son, Dennis Oland, for seconddegree murder.Oland's trial would be the most publicized in New Brunswick history. What the trial judge called "a family tragedy of Shakespearian proportions," this reallife murder mystery included adultery, family dysfunction, largely circumstantial evidence, allegations of police incompetence, a high-powered legal defence, and a verdict that shocked the community.Today, the Oland family maintains Dennis Oland's innocence. Author Greg Marquis, a professor of Canadian history at the University of Saint John, leads readers through the case, from the discovery of the crime to the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. Offering multiple perspectives, Truth and Honour explores this question: was Dennis Oland responsible for the death of his father?
Moonrising: A Novel
by Claire BarnerA debut near-future romance, where Sea of Tranquility meets Winter's Orbit, told against the backdrop of the first lunar colony, with a multicultural and LGBTQ+ cast, about a cynical agronomist and charming Emirati businessman who fall in love, and battle eco-terrorists.In 2073, controversial agronomist Dr. Alex Cole has dedicated her life to mutagenetic food, the only solution to feeding a world torn apart by climate change. When fierce opposition from radical environmentalists wipes out her lab funding, a surprising lifeline appears in the form of Mansoor Al Kaabi, a charismatic Emirati businessman who needs a sustainable food supply for his guests on the Moon’s first hotel.Alex moves to the Moon colony with Mansoor, and they immediately dive into the challenging work. As she smuggles in illegal chickens, fights a vexing tomato fungus, and dreams of olive groves on the Moon, Alex is surprised to find herself falling in love not just with the lunar colony, but with Mansoor, whose vision for the future of the Moon extends far beyond luxury hotels.Back on Earth, eccentric genius Victor Beard and Mansoor’s younger brother Rashid fight to push the Homestead Act through Congress. Without the support of the US government, they’ll never be able to achieve their goal to relocate humanity to the Moon and secure a second chance for life on Earth. When eco-terrorists threaten the lunar colony, Alex, Mansoor, Victor, and Rashid must choose what they’re willing to die for–and what they’re really living for. Is it their grandiose visions of saving the planet, or is it each other?
Bluenose Ghosts
by Helen CreightonGhosts guarding buried treasure, phantom ships, haunted houses and supernatural warnings of death- these are just some of the strange and mysterious phenomena that you will encounter in Bluenose Ghosts. These unexplained mysteries are all the more chilling because they are based on personal experiences of ordinary people, told to Helen Creighton, one of Canada's most respected and renowned folklorists, over a period of thirty years. So when the moon is full and the wind is howling, be prepared to be spooked by apparitions and things that go bump in the night. Bluenose Ghosts was an instant hit when it was first published in 1957.This new edition of Bluenose Ghosts features a new foreword from Nova Scotia writer Clary Croft that explores Creighton's enduring influence on the province's folklore.
Secrets of Sable Island
by Marcia Pierce HardingAfter a vicious storm aboard ship, fourteen-year-old Caleb is tossed into the Atlantic Ocean. Frightened and alone, he finds himself nudged awake. He’s been recovered by one of Sable Island’s legendary wild stallions and is given shelter by a mysterious stranger, Norse, who is secretly living on the island. As Caleb recovers and gets to know his strange rescuer, learning the art of scrimshaw, storytelling, and survival, he wonders how he’ll manage to remain on the island he’s come to love. When he befriends the ghostly girl who rides bareback over the dunes, he knows he must do whatever he can to save her, and himself.A heartwarming and captivating adventure set on the infamous isolated sandbar that has captivated so many, and featuring original illustrations, Secrets of Sable Island will leave young readers spellbound.
Life Sentence: How My Father Defended Two Murderers and Lost Himself
by Amy BellOn December 15, 1974, when Amy Bell was one year old, the city of Moncton, New Brunswick, was consumed with the search for two missing police officers—Corporal Aurèle Bourgeois and Constable Michael O’Leary. They had been abducted by petty criminals Richard Ambrose and James Hutchison after a kidnapping that had scored them $15,000. The search would lead to a clearing in the woods where the officers were found—murdered, and buried in shallow graves. Amy’s father, Ed Bell, stepped up to defend the killers. His unpopular stance—“every person accused of a crime deserves a defence”—eventually led to the ruin of his career and his marriage, and Amy and her brother lived with the aftereffects: poverty and isolation. Ed Bell never spoke of his involvement in this case. It wasn’t until forty-two years later, when he lay dying, that Amy, now a crime historian, stumbled upon a Polaroid photograph of one of the killers among her father’s things. That discovery led her on a search for answers. Life Sentence: How My Father Defended Two Murderers and Lost Himself is a riveting work that fuses personal and criminal justice history to tell the story of a horrific crime and examine its terrible costs. Includes personal and archival news images.
Mystery of Ireland's Eye
by Shane PeacockDylan is twelve years old and embarking on his first ocean kayaking trip with his parents. He has spent the last year convincing them that he is ready for the challenging—and very dangerous—adventure. In fact, he has been determined to go ever since he heard about the destination: Ireland's Eye. The small island off the coast of Newfoundland is the easternmost settlement in Canada. Or it was. It is now hauntingly empty, a ghost town clinging to the edge of the unforgiving Atlantic. What is it about Ireland's Eye that so captivates Dylan he is willing to take such risks to get there? Does the ghost town have anything to do with the dreams Dylan keeps having of his favourite grandfather who has just passed away? And why does the old man on St. John's docks grimly whisper, "Don't go to Ireland's Eye" when he hears of Dylan's plans?