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.
Participation is free and open to NSCC students, alumni and employees.
Now reading
Craving a summer read with mystery and heart? Our current book pick is The Spirit of Scatarie by Lesley Crewe. It's a stunning new work of historical fiction from the bestselling author of The Spoon Stealer, set on Nova Scotia’s remote Scatarie Island, following three friends whose lives are inextricably bound, and the spirit who guides them.
Dive into The Spirit of Scatarie now and join us online on Monday, August 24, from 7-8 p.m. (ADT). Lesley Crewe will join part of the meeting to spill secrets from behind the scenes.
Register for the Book Club meeting
About the author
Montreal-born Lesley Crewe is a best-selling author, columnist and screenwriter, living in Cape Breton. She has written seventeen books since 2005, the latest, The Spirit of Scatarie, launched in 2025. She won the Dartmouth Book Award in 2021 for The Spoon Stealer, which was long-listed for Canada Reads in 2022. Mary, Mary and Are You Kidding Me? were long-listed for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 2017 and 2020, Relative Happiness was made into a movie. Recipe for a Good Life, debuted at #3 on Globe & Mail’s bestseller list and was the #1 bestseller at Indigo stores in Nova Scotia and PEI for three months.
The Spirit of Scatarie
A stunning new work of historical fiction from the bestselling author of The Spoon Stealer, set on Nova Scotia’s remote Scatarie Island, following three friends whose lives are inextricably bound, and the spirit who guides them.
You might be startled that this tale will be told to you by a ghost. I prefer the word spirit but it’s all the same. The truth is, I have as much right to tell this story as anyone. Scatarie Island belongs to the living and the dead
Christmas Day, 1922: three babies are born on Scatarie Island, off the coast of Cape Breton. Although born to different parents, Hardy, Sam, and Mary Alice grow up together in their wild homeplace, exploring the rocky coastline, picking bakeapples, and scavenging treasures from the countless ships that have wrecked there over the centuries.
But change is lapping at the shores of this isolated island, the Second World War the biggest change of all. One friend leaves to fight, one tends the light, and one struggles to understand how a place where wealth is measured in fish and family can possibly survive this outmigration.
Only one of them knows about Cara. A girl who wrecked on the island’s shores a hundred years earlier, emigrating from Ireland. A girl who fell in love with the windswept grasses and salt-scrubbed air and tight community of Scatarie, and remains as a spirit. A girl who keeps watch, everywhere from the rugged island to the blood-soaked beaches of France?nudging the three friends towards their destinies.
Part ghost story, part romance, part history, and a stirring tribute to young soldiers and their brave war brides, The Spirit of Scatarie is an epic tale with whispering island winds at its heart.
Dealing with important themes (a desire for independence, identity, first love, familial tensions) from the nuanced perspective of a biracial teen, this story tackles key contemporary social issues.