Sequel to "Random Passage". Further adventures of the hard pressed settlers of a tiny 19th century outport on the north shore of Newfoundland. As in the first book, richly realized locales and characters. This time the story is told as flashbacks from a couple of the now aged principal characters from the first book.

A 10-1/2x11-3/4 format coffee-table book about sealing. Filled with Blackwood's drawings that more or less relate to the topic. Meandering and disjointed text, containing many excerpts from other writers. There are numerous other works available that better cover this topic.

Subtitled "From Placentia to Port aux Basques". Tales of ships and shipwrecks in the seas around Newfoundland 1857-1970. The author's third book on this theme.

A novel where ".. Jesus Christ has returned - and he's living in the mind of a madwoman" [quoted from the back cover] in an institution in St. John's. Lots of the usual "earthiness". Not always easy to follow. Also not very interesting.

A novel. Quite dreary, actually. All about sex, drugs, sex, alcohol, sex, & rock'n'roll. Don't think any of the protagonists would remember a sober sunrise! Not the kind of book that I'd recommend as a first exposure to NF! I don't remember the 60s or 70s as being anywhere near as bleak as what he describes.

Subtitled "Growing up in old St. John's". An autobiography of sorts, up to around 1960. Started a bit slow, but got much better. He's a good writer - good variety, and knows how to paint a picture in words. Might have rated it a bit higher if he wasn't so relentlessly impressed with himself.

A novel of a slice of life as seen through the eyes of a young teacher, living in a remote settlement in Labrador, and the day to day involvements occurring in her less than fulfilling life. [A lot of the book is presented in an italic font, which is annoying] A mention in the book that it is set in Labrador is about the only Newfoundland content - it could as well be set anywhere in northern Canada.

A hefty one-volume 'book of knowledge' for the "youth ... of Newfoundland". The author fancies himself an educated and knowledgeable man, but in many instances displays superstition and ignorance of established knowledge in his pronouncements. He also tends to refer to "well known facts" when he is really touting his own assumptions, and frequently diverts into lengthy anecdotal stories, often with inspirational religious themes. Mostly the natural history of Newfoundland, and often a bit off-kilter, and includes, among many topics, astronomy and the names of numerous of the local flora and fauna. The style is sometimes awkward and flowery, sometimes tedious and dense, but generally entertaining.

Subtitled "St. John's During World War Two - An Album". [11x8-1/2 format] More a picture souvenir than anything coherent. A mixture of mostly poorly described pictures with bits of narrative inserted here and there. And poor printing quality for the photos.

Subtitled "Memoirs Of An Outport Doctor". First person remembrances of generally entertaining experiences, many non-medical, while a doctor in remote north coast outport Newfoundland in the 1960s and 70s.

A well-crafted novel detailing events in the life of Stella, an unhappy single adult living in St. John's, who is somehow always at odds with her outport upbringing, and especially with her mother. Then her father's death, and later her mother's terminal illness, force her to face her past.

Brief glimpses of various aspects of life in the Flat Islands, Bonavista Bay, in the 40s and 50s. Avoids the need for the reader to be familiar with the locale and people. Readable and entertaining.

A novel consisting of 10 stories about northern Newfoundland and Labrador, reprinted from various periodicals. The stories are like soap operas - windy, melodramatic, overwrought, and turgid - each involving all-powerful nature toying with human lives. Lots of highly descriptive and lengthy prose (giving one the idea that the author was paid by the word) and many pointless minor conversations between the characters. Each tale with a moral. "Boring" would be a good one word description!

More a compilation of names and dates, and photos of many of the people named, than a thorough history, but does contain the general history sprinkled throughout. A decent read.

Subtitled "An Anthology for the 20th Anniversary of the Newfoundland Writers' Guild". A selection of 19 poems and 25 short stories from numerous Newfoundland authors. At least some of the items previously published. The stories are on various topics, and are not all set in Newfoundland.

Originally published in 1905 as "Northern Trails, part 1", part of a series of the author's "Wood Folk" books for juvenile readers. The illustrations by Copeland, especially the numerous detailed line drawings of animal activities appearing at the sides or bottoms of many pages, are better than the text by Long, a naturalist. This is a novel (but claims, at length, in the preface to be absolutely accurate in all depictions of animal activities), centering around the wolf Wayeeses, her mate, and her cubs, and the wolves' day to day interactions with their environment. Written both from the view of an observer and from the view of the white wolf - and often provides the animals with human traits such as thinking. The author carried on a war of words with Teddy Roosevelt in the newspapers of the time, with Roosevelt and several well known naturalists calling Long a "nature faker", and it does seem at times that he mixes fancy with fact in his writing. The book is somewhat long for the intended audience.

Subtitled "British War Brides in Newfoundland". Brief memoirs, typically one or two pages, from 76 of the brides.

Subtitled "Personal first-hand accounts by former fishermen of Change Islands, Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland". A pretty fair description.

The author's second collection of humorous Newfoundland short stories and tall tales.

A slim collection of ten short stories, not all about Newfoundland, covering a variety of minor life happenings (one of which is the title story). Nothing deep here.

Subtitled "The Voyages of Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real". Take the historic records and fill in the details to create a novel based on history, and you get a tale that takes imagination too far - in this case a windy tale of Portuguese explorers who spend a lot of their time fighting off treacherous Indians in Newfoundland. Looks to be targeted at a grade school audience.

A slim stage play, set in 1965 in the graveyard of a recently resettled tiny outport in Placentia Bay. It is All Souls' Eve, the one night of the year when the dead, while still dead and in their graves, can communicate with their neighbors. Ten of them discuss topics ranging from what brought them here to resettlement and their abandonment by their loved ones.

[11-1/8x9 format] Lush color photos of various locales, plants and animals, with sometimes spare but always appropriate captions.

Subtitled "Whales and Seals of Newfoundland and Labrador". Lots of details and excellent drawings illustrating the individual species appearances, actions, locales and interactions with man and each other.

[8-1/2x7 format] A slim (32 pages) story about a young humpback whale named Blower, who gets snagged in a rope attached to a string of crab pots. Includes black&white illustrations.

A whale is stranded in a pond at Burgeo, on the south coast of Newfoundland, in the late 1960s, and the author attempts to save it. Rich local color (he lived there for several years), but the author gets both whiney and petulant when anyone fails to react as he wants in his self-centered universe, and strident anti-whaling diatribes are included.

A detailed yet very readable treatment of the opening of the Battle of the Somme, July 1 1916, centering on the Newfoundland Regiment's involvement near the hamlet of Beaumont Hamel. Presents a fairly detailed narrative - as if speaking to her daughter while on several vacations in France walking the battlefields. Includes enough about other nearby British units to present an overall view of the events. "Corporal Pittman" was in the regiment, but is not central to the story other than as the title.

A novel set in Africa in 1972, which, although by a Newfoundland author, has nothing to do with Newfoundland other than a few brief trivial references.

A Newfoundland author. A collection of unrelated short stories, most set in Newfoundland. Easy reading. Mostly set in the here and now.

A sequel to "Sylvanus Now", told through the eyes of his now grown daughter Sylvie. Sylvanus and his family still live in a small outport, just about on the water. The story starts out well, but after Sylvie and her brother head off to Alberta to work in the oil fields, the story not only loses it's Newfoundland content, it also bogs down in lengthy ruminations by Sylvie about her life and those of her family. A relief when it finally ends.

A remembrance of the old days in Englee. Told in a gossipy style, including extensive quoting of supposed conversations that the author wouldn't have been party to. Probably of interest to a descendant of Englee.

The author's third collection of humorous Newfoundland short stories and tall tales.

Subtitled "A Chronological Dictionary Of Important Events In Newfoundland Down To And Including The Year 1922". A reprint of a document from 1923, consisting mainly of events and people in Newfoundland, compiled in a dictionary format with brief remarks for each entry. Entertaining at times, but of limited use as a reference work due to its age.

Subtitled "Tickle Cove Newfoundland". An outside writer's narrative of a small town in Bonavista Bay, consisting of a mixture of general history of Newfoundland and Bonavista Bay, second hand anecdotal local history, and generalizations and pronouncements presented as if facts (but without supporting evidence). A light read and doubtful to be of much interest to anyone not from Tickle Cove. Includes numerous photographs.

Relates the stories of a handful of crimes that took place in Newfoundland. Decent, but didn't really hold my attention.

An anthology of previously published Christmas related (or at least Christmas 'season' related) material by various authors. Of varying length and varying quality. Many of these same stories were included in "A Christmas Box", an earlier book by the same editors.

Subtitled "Women's Suffrage in Newfoundland 1890-1925". An informative book on a subject about which I've seen little written. Strong when providing the history of the various movements and participants over the years; weak when in advocacy mode, praising the leading advocates as if they were faultless, and trotting out even the most specious supporting arguments.

Subtitled "Journey Back In Time ... 1884-1984". Essentially a town history, but chock full of pictures, many of them very old. Primarily of interest to those with roots in the town, but a huge cut above the typical town history. [8-1/4x11 format]

Subtitled "Nursing in Newfoundland to 1934". A history of the nursing profession in Newfoundland. Provides many fascinating details of the changes to health care quality and availability over the years, but frequently bogs down with praise filled mini-biographies of seemingly every nurse who practiced in Newfoundland. Includes numerous photos, primarily of nurses and hospitals.

Subtitled "A Novel of Labrador". Purports to be a somewhat historically based adventure tale set in Labrador in 1920, but is primarily a platform for the author to espouse his opinions about the natives (at the time called Eskimos and Indians) and their 'lost' traditional lifestyles, and to demonize most anything white or modern, including the government, the law, most traders, and all missionaries and doctors (especially Grenfell in a thinly disguised characterization). The author certainly knows his way around words, but this novel ends up being mostly just tedious.

Subtitled "Sir John and Lady Hope Simpson in Newfoundland, 1934-1936". Excerpts from 244 of the letters that Sir John or his wife wrote to their adult children back in Britain, containing commentaries on events, activities, and people in Newfoundland. From the trivial to the important. Often repetitive, as each person often wrote to more than one child and included many of the same items to each. A fascinating view of the times as seen through the eyes of a British member of the Commission of Government and his wife. At times effusively complimentary or affectionate, at times catty or whiney, generally patronizing or condescending, often gossipy - but never dull! The writers tend to see the average outporter as being something akin to a noble, if lazy, savage, and use the merchant class as a foil upon which to heap blame, while ascribing a lack of a proper British style upper class (such as themselves) to serve as natural rulers as a primary reason for the colony's failure to develop. They both saw the Commission of Government (at least those members who were Brits such as themselves) as Newfoundland's only path up from past failures.

A novel for "age 11 and up". The setting is St. Lawrence on the Burin Peninsula in 1975. A strike has been declared at the fluorspar mines. A teenaged boy, son of a miner, and his girlfriend, daughter of a mine manager, are caught up in the day to day events. A romantic adventure, richly textured with local color and details of the strike.

Subtitled "Stories of a Fisherman's Daughter". A novel consisting of thirteen related stories, centered on a pre-teen outport girl and various people and happenings in her life. Lots of local color.

A book for grade school readers, dramatizing the life story of each of eleven Newfoundland animals (lynx, moose, hare, ...), starting in youth and often ending with death at the hands of a predator - either natural or man. Each animal has a name, such as "Cervier the lynx" and "Alces the moose", and is featured in a narrated story where it is the central character in a richly described environment.

[9-3/8x12-1/4 format] A fairly thick book consisting of full page color paintings, each paired with a facing page of often sparse descriptive text. Certainly better than the usual line drawings found in books of this type, but still not as good as color photos.

A slim volume of excellent color photos of various Newfoundland flora, accompanied by brief comments and even a few pieces of poetry.

A slim biography, seemingly written as an uncritical tribute. Appears to be pitched at a student audience.

Subtitled "Sea Tales From Around Our Coast". Tales of ships and shipwrecks in the seas around Newfoundland. The author's ninth book on this theme.

[8-1/2x10-3/4 format] To be read with a young child. A series of poems about topics such as 'the river', 'grass song' and 'blizzard', each accompanied by a very nice well-matched full page color drawing.

Subtitled "Notable Newfoundland Events". 75 or so "notable events" in Newfoundland history, the majority concerning St. John's, told through newspaper clippings, each accompanied by a photo with an informative caption.

A series of first-person memoirs about the author growing up in a small outport. Excellent. A literate memoir full of details! And contrary to most of what is written about the outports by the younger generations of writers, the people and settlements are portrayed in a positive light - living a mostly decent life, at times hard, but generally not one of deprivation, in contrast to those frequent portrayals of outporters as some kind of tragic noble brutes suffering at the hands of the evil merchants and living a harsh life of desperation.

Subtitled "The Newfoundland Diary of Sophie Loveridge". A novel written in the form of more than a year of entries from the diary of 12 year old Sophie, as her family relocates from England to an isolated spot in Notre Dame Bay in Newfoundland in 1721. Traces her thoughts and opinions from departure through the ocean voyage and then to her day to day activities, encounters and adventures in her new home. Looks to be for middle grade schoolers.

[8-5/8x10-3/4 format] A slim (30 pages) tale for young readers, claiming that the Micmac and Beothuk once lived together as friends until the killing of a black weasel in winter by a young Micmac cursed the tribes, after which the Micmacs befriended white men, traded for guns, and the Beothuks were wiped out. Includes color drawings. Awful!

Subtitled "The Wreck of the Florizel". An above average telling of the passenger ship wrecked on the rocks in 1918 off Cappahayden on the Southern Shore, and the resultant heavy loss of life. Takes the reader aboard the ship with the passengers and crew.

A novel set around a spoiled and 'soft' teen aged boy from New York society, who is dragged along on a Labrador adventure to try to improve his ways. Lots of outdoor adventures, as he and a young local guide are separated from the adults by a forest fire and must spend many weeks making their way back to the coast. A combination of adventure and growing up, and told in the author's usual invigorating manner. Looks to be for younger teen boys.

A novel for teens, set in 1940-1941 during World War II and featuring a 15-yr old Newfoundland girl who slips back and forth between her real world on Newfoundland's Avalon peninsula and a parallel medieval fantasy world of fairies and ghosts and magic and Viking invaders in the same locale. A decent fantasy action tale for those who enjoy them, but the Newfoundland content doesn't amount to much.

Although this memoir contains some scattered interesting thoughts about living in Labrador in the first half of the century, it is mostly a diary of events from the day to day life of the author, particularly details of the arrival of each of her children. Probably mostly of interest to her descendants. Includes a section of photos.

Subtitled "Interviews with 87 women across Newfoundland and Labrador". [8-1/2x11 format] Edited interviews of varying length, from around 1/2 to 3 pages or so, with women affected by the cod moratorium in 1992. Appears to cover all areas of the province. The women speak from their personal experiences, mostly as now unemployed fishers and fish plant workers, on various topics that have been affected - including jobs, finances, homelife, relocating and retraining. TAGS and other programs are often discussed - usually negatively. As might be expected, there is often a share of whining, self pity, and finger pointing, but many fascinating insights are also provided by the respondants. The study is by now almost ancient history, and the hopes often expressed that the fishery would somehow come back soon have doubtless long since dimmed, but still a worthwhile read.

A novel. To quote from the back cover "It is 1926. Sadie and her little sister, Flora, are struggling with the challenges of a new school, a new town and a life without their parents. Since their mother is dead and their father is prospecting for gold .., Sadie and Flora must stay in a cold, grim boarding house in St. John's ..". Told from Sadie's perspective. The target audience is "young adult", in this case meaning mid-teen girls, but still a good read, especially for anyone who can do without the crudities that are meant to pass for "grit" in most recent novels.

Subtitled "Aspects of Social History in the early 1900s". A slim volume of three essays on trade unionism before confederation, public housing 1911-1921, and the NIWA 1917-1925.

A novel for younger readers (the back cover says "Juvenile Fiction/History") based on the real events surrounding the wrecking of the coastal steamer SS Ethie on the northwest coast of Newfoundland in 1919. The story centers around a heroic Newfoundland dog that reportedly swam out to the wrecked ship with a rope so that the passengers and crew could be saved.

A novel. A romance on the rocks and WWII seperate a young couple. He spends most of the war as a POW in Japan; she marries and moves away. 50 years later they meet again. Complex and intense, and little upbeat about it, but the author is a terrific wordsmith.

A stageplay. To quote from the back cover "A Midsummer's Night Dream meets Deliverance when mainland carpetbaggers fall into the clutches of traditional Newfoundland cannibals. Set in the ruins of a post-industrial wasteland, ..". Includes general stage directions, but as can be expected it's mostly dialogue - and assumedly much more enjoyable when viewed rather than read.

Actually a gathering of previously published newspaper articles by Brown, who died in 1986, an unpublished autobiographical essay, and an edited transcript of a taped interview.