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Wendy Elliott Wolfville’s Dean Jobb is the author of six books, three in just the last year. His latest, Madness, Mayhem & Murder, is a collection of 16 true tales of crime and justice drawn from almost two centuries of Nova Scotia’s history, from the province’s first murder case in 1749 to its last execution in 1937. The cast includes pirates and privateers, terrorists, shadowy Confederate agents, and a motley crew of smugglers, thieves, killers, duel-fighting gentlemen, and a few people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. These are stranger-than-fiction stories of crime and punishment, tragedy…
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Wendy Elliott The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer, a new book by Dean Jobb of Wolfville, is flying off the shelves, and no wonder. It’s the kind of book you have to keep reading to the end. True crime is mesmerizing because it really happened. Dean brings all the detail to his storytelling. Dr. Thomas Neill Cream was a deliberate murderer. Born in Scotland, but raised in Quebec City, Cream was a suspect in the deaths of two Canadian women and likely killed up to four people in Chicago before he…
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Wendy Elliott Two books published by Gaspereau Press in Kentville were nominated for this year’s Atlantic Book Awards. Year of the Metal Rabbit by Tammy Armstrong was the winner of the Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award. Shalan Joudry’s Waking Ground was also nominated for the Tynes award and the J. M. Abraham Poetry Award. The multi-talented Joudry is a writer, performance artist, and storyteller from the Bear River First Nation. Her first book, Generations Re-merging, was published by Gaspereau Press in 2014. She also works as a cultural interpreter and community ecologist and these roles figure strongly in her…
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Angela Reynolds, Annapolis Valley Regional Library Summer reading helps your children keep their reading skills sharp while school is out, and if you already love to read, why not track your reading and win prizes with our Summer Reading Challenge? We have 4 levels this year:Pre-Reader (ages birth – 4)Readers (ages 4-12)Teen (ages 12-17)Adult (Ages 18+) Each Challenge is tailored to the age group, and has activities embedded in the Challenge in addition to reading: activities you can do right here at home in Nova Scotia. Here’s how it works:Online registration begins June 1and the Challenge begins on June 26….
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Wendy Elliott Julia Coldwell is the author of a novel, Stolen Lives, a children’s book, Fred’s Friends Hold a Contest, and a poetry collection, Spoken Waves. A collection of free verse poems, Spoken Waves offers an exploration of words, cycles, and relationships. The poems bring together observations of water, light, and dark imagery interspersed with playful use of language. They draw on life experiences in Nova Scotia with a stir of creativity. Stolen Lives is about a young teen named Tessa. At the outset, she and her family are recovering from a devastating fire. Tessa grows in strength, acting to…
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Tim Jackson This month at the Annapolis Valley Regional Library it’s all about the LOVE: the love of books. Specifically, Canadian books. Wednesday, February 17, we’ll be celebrating Canadian books all day. I READ CANADIAN DAY is a national day of celebration of Canadian books for young people. This is a day dedicated to reading Canadian, to raising awareness of Canadian books, and to celebrating the richness, diversity, and breadth of Canadian literature. To help you read Canadian, we’ve compiled lists of Canadian chapter and picture books. Also on February 17, we will have online readings from children’s authors Rebecca…
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By Wendy Elliott Rum Tales: Down Home Yarns Around a Pot-Bellied Stove By David MossmanWolfville’s David Mossman is becoming a prolific writer. In his latest book, published by Pottersfield Press, Mossman sets out a time after the First World War when the men of Rose Bay gather at the local store to trade stories. The collection is focused around Arthur Benjamin Lohnes, who owned the Lunenburg County store known simply as The Shop. From 1919 until it burned in 1957, Lohnes allowed for male socializing and storytelling on Saturday nights in his shop. Born and raised in Rose Bay, Mossman…
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