Swede is a memoir to a great father who happened to be a humble, legendary New Jersey athlete. It is also a visit back to a storied time and place, Newarks historic Weequahic section. Swede covers the life of Seymour Swede Masin: his growing up in Newark, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants; his marrying out of the faith, temporarily breaking his parents hearts; his fascinating competitors and contemporaries; numerous anecdotes that best define him; the saga of Newarks Weequahic High School, past and present; and Swedes final years battling Alzheimers Disease. Of special note is the attention he received after serving as an inspiration for Philip Roths main character, Seymour Swede Levov, in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, American Pastoral. There was something very special about him, especially some of his fascinating contradictions: strong yet gentle; frugal yet generous; individualistic yet a great team player; a worry wart yet with a great sense of humor. For Robert Masin, this was the father he was so fortunate to have known, admired, and loved. This memoir will allow people a glimpse of the Seymour "Swede" Masin he idolized.

When Tillie Anderson came to America, all she had was a needle. So she got herself a job in a tailor shop and waited for a dream to find her. One day, a man sped by on a bicycle. She was told "bicycles aren't for ladies," but from then on, Tillie dreamed of riding—not graceful figure eights, but speedy, scorching, racy riding! And she knew that couldn't be done in a fancy lady's dress. . . . With arduous training and her (shocking!) new clothes, Tillie became the women's bicycle-riding champion of the world. Sue Stauffacher's lively text and Sarah McMenemy's charming illustrations capture the energy of America's bicycle craze and tell the story of one woman who wouldn't let society's expectations stop her from achieving her dream.

A riveting family saga immersed in the gritty, dark side of Swedish immigrant life in America in the early twentieth century When Gustaf and Anna Klar and their three children leave Sweden for New York in 1897, they take with them a terrible secret and a longing for a new life. But their dream of starting over is nearly crushed at the outset: a fire devastates Ellis Island just as they arrive, and then the relentlessly harsh conditions and lack of work in the city make it impossible for Gustaf to support his family. An unexpected gift allows the Klars to make one more desperate move, this time to the Midwest and a place called Swede Hollow. Their new home is a cluster of rough-hewn shacks in a deep, wooded ravine on the edge of St. Paul, Minnesota. The Irish, Italian, and Swedish immigrants who live here are a hardscrabble lot usually absent from the familiar stories of Swedish American history. The men hire on as poorly paid day laborers for the Great Northern or Northern Pacific railroads or work at the nearby brewery, and the women clean houses, work at laundries, or sew clothing in stifling factories. Outsiders malign Swede Hollow as unsanitary and rife with disease, but the Klar family and their neighbors persevere in this neglected corner of the city—and consider it home. Extensively researched and beautifully written, Ola Larsmo’s award-winning novel vividly portrays a family and a community determined to survive. There are hardships, indignities, accidents, and harrowing encounters, but also acts of loyalty and kindness and moments of joy. This haunting story of a real place echoes the larger challenges of immigration in the twentieth century and today.

Since 1776, more than 100,000 Swedish-speaking immigrants have arrived in Canada from Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Ukraine, and the United States. Elinor Barr’s Swedes in Canada is the definitive history of that immigrant experience. Active in almost every aspect of Canadian life, Swedish individuals and companies are responsible for the CN Tower, ships on the Great Lakes, and log buildings in Riding Mountain National Park. They have built railways and grain elevators all across the country, as well as churches and old folks’ homes in their communities. At the national level, the introduction of cross-country skiing and the success of ParticipACTION can be attributed to Swedes. Despite this long list of accomplishments, Swedish ethnic consciousness in Canada has often been very low. Using extensive archival and demographic research, Barr explores both the impressive Swedish legacy in Canada and the reasons for their invisibility as an immigrant community.

An historically accurate novel about an international showdown between police forces, and at the same time a picaresque tale of cops and robbers and life along the Canada/US prairie border at the end of the 19th Century. Swedes' Ferry is the story of Constable Leslie Simpson, a Manitoba-born member of the North-West Mounted Police, who takes a little time off from his day job to make a quick buck south of the border, robbing the First National Bank in Bismarck, North Dakota. When he gets away with the Great Northern Railroad payroll, but inadvertently kills the bank manager in the process, he winds up battling to stave off the intentions of not only a very nasty Pinkerton agent, but the third-richest man in the United States. The chase is on, across much of the Canadian prairies and the northern American plains, because the bank happens to be owned by Canadian-born James J. Hill, the real-life railroad millionaire who is named in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Hill crisscrosses the plains on his recently-completed railroad, with his opera singer and dominatrix travelling companions. He’s used to getting what he wants and keeping what he has. So when he loses his Great Northern payroll in Bismark, what he most wants is for the vicious William Pinkerton and his sleazy henchman Jiggs Dubois to bring him the head of the varmint that took it. This is fascinating historical fiction, full of detailed information about the prairie border country, the people, the horses, and the weaponry, as well as the customs and cultural peccadilloes of the day in neighbouring nations that are developing in very different ways.

A true story and travelogue, originally written as a diary meant for the author's daughters to read when they got older, to let them understand that he thought of them and loved them all those days they were apart. The story begins in a desperate situation where the author's children are taken away from him abroad by his ex. He makes the decision to sell and give away all his possessions to be able to rush after them, from Sweden down to Portugal. Without knowing it, the process of letting go starts a cleansing that step by step leads him into insights high and low. The author travels through beautiful landscapes in his trusted survival capsule, a campervan called Beatrice. Surfing glassy waves and skiing big mountains he encounters both adventurers, misfits and freedom fighters. Many in similar predicaments. The story about this epicurean journey has been let to be as it came to the author sitting in his blue campervan, with the experiences, encounters and great surf and ski happening to him only moments before. Maybe, just maybe, his liberation can set you free as it did him. - - - - - - - - - - - - Reviews "In Alex Epicure's strong, heartfelt, revealing but at the same time deeply inspiring and life-affirming book, you are given vivid descriptions of powder-fluffy slopes of the French Alps and challenging surf spots along the Atlantic coast, all while taking part in his ups and downs on this epicurean journey through Europe. His fluent writing let you travel beside him in his trusted campervan called Beatrice, taking part of unexpected encounters, existential reasoning and poetic moments. I can only say that the book invites to read in one go, and I highly recommend it to anyone nurturing dreams of vanlife, or want to take a break from the grey treadmill for a while." / Fredrik Ekblad, Editor in Chief at Österlenmagasinet "A story that is confident with itself and creates a world where you want to be." / Åke Högman, Swedish Author and Journalist "The Book by Alex Epicure, is a highly readable break-up novel. I read it during a hot summer day in August, once I'd started I couldn't stop. I'm a picky book reader. Growing up with books like Jack Kerouac's" On the road "and Robert M. Pirsig's "Zen and the art of riding a motorcycle", my expectations of an unknown debutant were not high. To my surprise the book surpassed my demands by miles, giving exciting perspectives on life. I can not help but recommend everyone to read it." / Lars Magnusson, Editor in Chief at Magasinet Kullaliv