An evening with Scaachi Koul Sunday, October 29, 7pm Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library, 5440 Spring Garden Road $20 “It was funny and sad.” That’s how Scaachi Koul’s mother reacted after reading Koul’s book, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter. Although short, it’s an accurate review. In this […]
Books
Posted inNews + Opinion
When Daniel Paul found Cornwallis
Daniel Paul found his rival in a pub in 1965. He and his brother Lawrence and their Indian Brook friend Norman Brooks were upgrading their education together in Dartmouth. Getting out of school early one day, the trio headed to Halifax’s Piccadilly Tavern on Argyle Street for a few beers. They had enough cash to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Jade Brooks turns her trauma into teaching
When Jade Brooks was 15, she thought she met the love of her life. He wooed her, bought her gifts, took her on dates and told her that he was in love. Looking back now, she recognizes him as her trafficker—the man who manipulated her into moving from her home near Uniacke Square and selling […]
Posted inArts + Music
Review: A Bird on Every Tree, Carol Bruneau
Carol Bruneau’s collection of short stories A Bird on Every Tree gloriously explores the complex relationship people have with the place they call home. Through the lens of teenage angst, many of us see ourselves having a great big-city life and never returning home. However, tragedy, heartbreak or failure sometimes has us return to the […]
Posted inArts + Music
A witchy chat with author Ami McKay
Ami McKay’s new book, The Witches of New York, is the spinoff of her 2011 novel The Virgin Cure. Moth, the lead character from Cure, goes by the name of Adelaide Thom in this story. Thom runs a tea shop with her friend—a witch named Eleanor St. Clair—that serves as a front for potions and […]
Posted inArts + Music
Atlantic Book Awards nominees 2016: Read ’em and reap…
Nominees for the 2016 Atlantic Books Awards were announced today, and Nova Scotian authors were well represented. Locals Dean Jobb, Janet Maybee and Sarah Mian are the only writers on the list to be nominated in two different categories, and a new award has been created in honour of Cape Breton’s late literary legend Alistair […]
Posted inArts + Music
Hurt, hope, healing and the NS Home for Colored Children
“It’s a difficult read,” says Wanda Taylor, the author of The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, a comprehensive history of the structure that stood in rural Dartmouth for over 70 years. The Home was the site of extreme abuse and neglect for hundreds of African-Nova Scotian children in the protective care of the Nova […]
Posted inArts + Music
Top 10 books released in 2015
Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life (McLelland & Stewart) It’s the mid-1990s and Quebec is poised for its second referendum when Jim travels with his parents to his mother’s childhood home on a lake in Ontario. What follows next is the everyday meat of any family saga as Jim comes of age and finds out more […]
Posted inLifestyle
Season’s readings
We’ve got a read on who ended up on your list this year, and we’re telling you it doesn’t matter—there’s a book for that. Make your life easy and channel your inner Oprah this holiday season: “You get a book, and you get a book, and everybody gets a book!” It’s one-stop shopping at its […]
Posted inLifestyle
Read my list: books for your next beach trip
Emma Jane Unsworth, Animals It’s summertime and you’re probably going a little buck wild—it’s OK we’re all still young at heart. My hangover cure: Two Advil, coconut water, as many carbs as you can handle and this drug-and-alcohol-laced black-out of a dysfunctional friendship. Laura’s getting married and trying to grow up. Her best friend Tyler […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Increasing book taxes is bad for readers
[Image-1] In 2014, the McNeil government commissioned Laurel Broten, a former Ontario MPP, to review Nova Scotia’s taxes. Her review, entitled Charting a Path for Growth and completed late in 2014, made many recommendations including the removal of the POS rebate of the provincial portion of the HST on books. When the HST was introduced […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
United Bookstore is closing
After 36 years memorable years on Barrington Street, United Bookstore‘s (1669 Barrington Street) final chapter is upon us. The convenience store and source for loads of book and DVDs will be closing its doors in the next two or three weeks. Dave McConnell, who’s been with United for the last 20 years, says the perfect […]