Welcome to Book Club
Connect through stories, ideas, and conversations — wherever you are.
NSCC Alumni's Book Club is an online reading community for NSCC students, employees and alumni. Whether you’re a casual reader or a dedicated book lover, it’s a space to share, learn and grow.
What we read
Our reading list features a mix of books by NSCC alumni and local authors — titles that spark conversation and fresh perspectives. Have a suggestion? Email .
How it works
- Fully online through Microsoft Teams
- New book every 3-4 months
- 45-60 minutes of virtual discussions
- Guided conversation and, when possible, guest appearances by authors
Join the club
Participation is free and open to all NSCC students, alumni and employees. Register anytime to receive updates on upcoming books, meeting dates and special guests. You can register at any time.
You can borrow the book from your local library — including any Novanet Library, which is available to graduates through alumni benefits — or pick up your own paperback, eBook or audiobook from your preferred retailer.
Now reading
Our current book pick is The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. This award-winning novel explores family, identity and belonging through the lasting impact of a decades-old disappearance, telling a powerful story of the search for truth, the shadow of trauma and the enduring strength of love.
Join us online on Monday, November 9, from 7-8 p.m. (AST). Amanda Peters will join part of the meeting to answer your questions and share insights on the novel.
Register for the Book Club meeting
About the author
Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry and a member of Glooscap First Nation. Her debut novel, The Berry Pickers, was the winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, the Dartmouth Book Award and the Crime Writers of Canada Best Crime First Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award and the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
She lives and writes in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, where she is an associate professor in the department of English and theatre at Acadia University. The Birthing Tree is her second novel.
The Berry Pickers
A four-year-old girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.
July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, is seen sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a field before mysteriously vanishing. Her six-year-old brother, Joe, who was the last person to see Ruthie, is devastated by his sister’s disappearance, and her loss ripples through his life for years to come.
In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as an only child in an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, while her mother is overprotective of Norma, who is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem to be too real to be her imagination. As she grows older, Norma senses there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she pursues her family’s secret for decades.
The Berry Pickers is a riveting story about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.