Nova Books

Eric Franey appears to have written the best book on African-Americans and economics that I have read yet. I'm glad to have run across this one. It has had a profound impact on me, and caused me to re-evaluate plans for my business. A great read for anyone in business, or who is just curious about what's going on with African-Americans in America. My hats off to Mr. Franey.

Eric Franey did an excellent job opening my eyes. I believe lots of African-Americans can gain a lot of insight by reading this book. I highly recommend it.

I concur 1000% with the reviewer from Alexandria, and would only add that some of these songs include verses lost in Scotland! Some are over 300 years old, and in the archaic bardic tradition. No serious Gaelic learner, scholar, or singer can afford to pass this gem up!

I personally knew and learned from a number of the people recorded (all alas gone now!). John Neil, Angus Ranald, and Christine Gillis, and Mae MacGillivray, (the children of Sandy Seumus and Maggie Sarah Gillis), and the many other great folks from Gillisdale and elsewhere in Inverness County, the Mabou area, and other places in Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia.

These people were among the kindest, warmest, and most generous people on earth, and always willing to help a learner along. I had many pleasant and happy hours in their company.

The late Ms. Creighton, and the late Major Calum Iain N. Macleod did the Gaelic world an invaluable service with their work!

Among my personal favorites is "Alasdair mhic Cholla Gasda" (Alasdair Son of Gallant Coll) a MacDonald brosnachadh (battle incitement) in the form of an orain luaidh (waulking song) celebrating the deeds of Alasdair MacDonald (aka Colkitto) who was Montrose's brilliant and bold Lieutenant General in the "Year of Miracles" during the Covenanter and Civil Wars in Scotland in the 1640s. This song memorializes the great victory at Inverlochy when the forces of Alasdair and Montrose smashed the Campbells.

Again, a must-have for serious Gaelic scholars of any level!

"Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia" contains a great store of Gaelic songs from Scotland and from Nova Scotia, including some not available in print anywhere else. Each song is accompanied by a direct translation in English. There are more than 200 songs in the book. Many of the songs illuminate the experience of the Highland emigrant in eastern Canada. Some of my favorites, "An té a chaill a Gàidhlig (the woman who lost her Gaelic)" and "Oran a' Mhathain (the bear's song)." The first is an attack on those who quickly traded their Gaelic for English after moving "to town," and the second is the story of a bear-hunt, from the bear's perspective. Many classic songs from Scotland are included as well. Cape Breton singers preserved these songs for five generations. Many songs forgotten in Scotland remained popular in Cape Breton. The songs represent almost the entire Gaelic repetoire, running the gamut from love songs and laments to topical songs and waulking (work) songs. The music is in standard notation, rather than the sol-fa notation used (unfortunately) by many Gaelic music books. This is a seminal text and a must-buy for the serious student of Scottish Gaelic language, literature, music and history. Note: This book is also extremely difficult to find in bookstores. -- Liam O Caiside

This is an in depth story of a poor but educated family struggling through economic hardships that result from a series of misfortunes: first the father, Charles LeBlanc, loses his decent-paying white-collar job and starts a business selling candy from a truck to the corner stores in the city, but eventually poor health and age leave him ill suited to the physical demands of the job, and business fails as a result. His wife, Claire, who is 25 years his junior, begins to work as a substitute teacher out of necessity and also out of determination that her family should enjoy some degree of prosperity, however limited. The marriage is strained. The story is told in the third person with a shifting narrative perspective; the reader is given, at various times, the thoughts of Charles, Claire, and Nicole, the second eldest child. The tone is wistful and the sadness that permeates will probably produce some tears, but there are also a few screamingly funny scenes of misbehavior on the part of the four children. This novel neither sensationalizes disfunctional relationships nor idealizes family values; it is a clear-eyed portrait of one family's complicated life, a portrait that is always subtly handled, never heavy handed. Candyman is storytelling at its best--emotionally and psychologically astute, it remains always a great novel and never a case history.

This book was a real eye-opener. The author portrays the 1950's and life as it was then. There is a real story behind the images. Excellent book, I would recommend it to anyone in the market for a really good novel.

Created by attorney Daniel Sitarz, and part of the Nova Publishing Company's oustanding "Legal Self-Help Series", Divorce Yourself is a "No-Fault" divorce kit that spouses can use to obtain a divorce without resorting to lawyers. With careful instructions, legal forms, questionnaires, checklists, courtroom guidelines, and up-to-date in this fifth edition (which is legally valid in all 50 American states and Washington DC), Divorce Yourself is the recommended do-it-yourself guide for divorcing couples who wish to remain on speaking terms. An accompanying CD contains copies of the various forms described in the text.

I used this book when I went through my divorce and I would recomend it to anyone. So many people think you have to pay for a high priced lawyer to get divorced but you don't. All you need is the information accessable to you and you can do it yourself. It has so much information you can't go wrong.

This book gives a very good outline of Einstein's life, accomplishments, philosophy and theory with anecdotes to keep readers' interest. It has the simplest mathematical derivation of Einstein's theory compared to what is available on the market. His most famous equation E=mc2 is derived in four simple steps using high school arithmetic. Einstein's grandson Bernard wrote a Forward that adds a personal touch to his biography. I recommend the book strongly.

Einstein's theory, believe or not, high school algebra is suffice in this book. It also has interesting anecdotes on his life and philosophy. Einstein's grandson wrote a foreword for this book which is great. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Einstein's life, philosophy and theory.

An invaluable collection of empirical testimonies!

It is great to finally hear the silenced voices of the foreign born African Americans. These voices became loud and clear in this unique work of Obiakor and Grant. It is healthy when the tongue ceases to be docile. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of many good things to come and more and more silenced voices will snap out of docility. This is the beauty of America!

A master of language and emotional nuance, Caley's poetry is something you must experience. I was lucky enough to have shared a couple of creative writing classes with Caley back in high school, and even then he was nothing short of brilliant. As a teen, he wrote: "I rember when childhood flowed like rings in wood", or something like that...causing me to abandon the idea of writing poetry, just like the art of Jimi Hendrix compelled players to hang up their guitars. I'm proud to see his work published. He will amaze you.

What amazes me about this collection is its ability to connect with the reader on so many different levels. O'Dwyer evokes a psychological landscape with honesty, humor and generosity. But these are not sentimental poems. The beauty of the language carries with it a sense of urgency that give the poems edge. O'Dwyer's subjects are diverse as well. He explores relationships concerning family, childhood, love and geography (Texans, take notice!). However, the poems delineate a space that transcends these categories, a truly incredible feat for any book of poetry. These are the kind of poems that do not get old, that keep on giving through third, fourth and fifth readings. After each reading, I am gratified that the world can be re-made into something quirky, unexpected and new.

This tough story redefines realism. Jean McNeil's remarkable first novel stunningly combines poetic images of place with haunting parallels of lives that are inextricably tangled by mere fact of being family to each other. Morag, at age 8, trapped between the rages and hatred of her grandparents, must choose to stay with her grandfather who has held her literally and figuratively in the line of fire or to flee with her grandmother who survives, barely, by bitterness. The mystery of Morag's mother, who has deserted Morag, parallels Morag's story via descriptions of snapshots she sends from Africa.

Told from adult Morag's viewpoint, the novel shows how memory incorporates evil alongside good in a child's unhappy life, how nightmares grow from family history. The characters aren't drawn in great depth, which accentuates their distance and the fears they bear. But the juxtaposition of harsh landscape and harsher life, of tough love and the masks that hide love, beautifully hold the tension of the novel taut as a bowstring from beginning to end.

This tough story redefines realism. Jean McNeil's remarkable first novel stunningly combines poetic images of place with haunting parallels of lives that are inextricably tangled by mere fact of being family to each other. Morag, at age 8, trapped between the rages and hatred of her grandparents, must choose to stay with her grandfather who has held her literally and figuratively in the line of fire or to flee with her grandmother who survives, barely, by bitterness. The mystery of Morag's mother, who has deserted Morag, parallels Morag's story via descriptions of snapshots she sends from Africa.

Told from adult Morag's viewpoint, the novel shows how memory incorporates evil alongside good in a child's unhappy life, how nightmares grow from family history. The characters aren't drawn in great depth, which accentuates their distance and the fears they bear. But the juxtaposition of harsh landscape and harsher life, of tough love and the masks that hide love, beautifully hold the tension of the novel taut as a bowstring from beginning to end.

When I first read this engaging book by Sonia Jones in about 2000, I couldn't put this book down. Closing the last page, I attempted to look up the Peninsula farm, envisioning a trip to Novia Scotia, only to find the farm recently shut down. Appears the farm continued operating well after the book was published. If you loved this book and enjoy arm-chair traveling, I highly recommend another inspiring book of a road less traveled. See my review of Atchafayala Houseboat by Gwen Carpenter Roland.

It All Began With Daisy is an inspiring book filled with humour, local colour and excellent storytelling. It is encouraging to read of the adventures of such an entrepeneurial couple and their "vigourous muddling" through the years of establishing their yoghurt company. Characters come alive and conversations quiver with the skill of the author's recounting. Highly recommended for light, inspirational reading.

LOST HERITAGE is a rivetting historical novel--superbly told. The story unfolds during the turbulent period in Europe from the end of the '20's to the end of World War II; it tells the tale of 3 families and the passions, despair and courage with which they addressed the momentousevents of these times. The cast of characters assembled by Natasha Borovsky is varied and compelling--a Russian princess-physician, a German nuclear physicist, their son, an idealistic young man with reservations about his priviledged status, a dashing Polish aristocrat and patriot, and his troubled British wife: their tender and tangled love affairs play out as the reckless mood of Euroope in the late 20's progresses into the dark ad murderous Stimmung of the Nazi time. The life of Natasha Borovsky renders her uniquely suited to relating a story painted on such a broad canvas. She was born in Paris of Russian emigre parents; her mother was an aristrocrat, her father a concert pianist taught music to the nephew of the last Tsar. Natasha was educated in France, Germany, Switzerland and the US>S>; during the war she worked for the Allies out of New York, then spent some post-war years in the southwest desert (writing a novel, as yet unpublished, on McCarthysism in that region); shefinally settled down in Berkeley, California, to bring up a family and to write. Her previous novel, DAUGHTER OF THE NOBILITY has been translated into ten languages. Lost Heritage is a book full of rewards and riches which will remain within the reader's mind and spirit long after the last page has been turned. It is, in short, a captivating "read".

Lost Heritage is an excellent historical novel about Europe from the early 1930s through World War II as portrayed in the lives of three quite different families. It shows great insight into politics, religion, child psychology and different cultures. Especially noteworthy were the glimpses into life in a nazi conscript labor camp, life in Germany and Eastern Europe including aristocratic shooting parties, war battle scenes as the Battle of Britain, and the suffering of rich and poor Jews throughout Europe. Ms Borovsky shows her knowledge and research by details on music, art, literature and culture. Especially interesting to me were the recounting of the development of atomic science including Italian as well as German contributions. The romantic undercurrent ties this story all together in a fascinating story that keeps one's interest.