JOHTAJASTA MESTARIKSI
Tammi, January 2023, 174 pp.

Reading material:
Finnish edition
English sample in February
English manuscript in March

Leadership as Mastery
The Finnish Way

Asko Känsälä

Lead like a Finn! The Finnish way of leadership combines art and craftsmanship, like the great Finnish master architect Alvar Aalto.

✓  Discover a new, Nordic kind of leadership! Find out what makes a company beautiful!

✓  Growing up as a leader is like a craftsman’s path from apprentice to professional

✓  Full English text available in March 2023!

What does craftsmanship have to do with leadership? What makes a company beautiful? And what can the Japanese culture contribute to a good working life and good leadership?

Asko Känsälä spent his career building successful businesses and coaching new leaders. He has refined his leadership experience of more than 20 years into a vision of leadership as a craft. Growing up as a leader is like a craftsman’s lifelong path from apprentice to professional. Leadership is a way of thinking, and good leadership is good thinking. LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY: The Finnish Way presents the thinking patterns, tools of the leader-craftsman that good leadership requires.

Inspiring and humane, this book offers a new perspective on leadership, success in the business world, and a better working life.

Reading material:
Finnish edition
English synopsis
English sample in February

Whale in a Glass Bowl

Maria Katajavuori

Join the journey of a whale and a woman and uncover the keys to sustainability – the Earth can be saved with tools of human behavioral biology. Humans are like a whale in a glass bowl, trapped despite our big brains.

✓  Nominated for the Finlandia Prize in Non-Fiction 2022!

✓  Her previous book A Matter of Death and Life won the State Award for Public Information!

✓  Find out why the environmental crisis continues to worsen, although we know more about it with each passing day

Climate conferences and science studies, carbon caps and environmental education – sensible methods to halt the ecological crisis seem to have failed. Rational, collaborative and moralistic ways to prevent environmental destruction might seem like good ways to promote sustainability, but the equation breaks down once we notice that our species is not as rational, collaborative, and moralistic as one might wish. We are biological creatures with biological limitations, and without acknowledging those limitations, we are doomed to boil the planet and crush the biodiversity of our world.

In her new book, young researcher Maria Katajavuori sets out to uncover what’s wrong with our current Earth-saving approach – and how to fix it. She visits falling forests, melting glaciers, as well as preposterous scenes of environmental policymaking, and, on the way, illustrates the issues of our innate tendencies through latest science on human behavioral biology. Vivid examples of flying squirrels, migrating trout, African penguins, and numerous other species reveal the paradoxes of good intentions with bad outcomes. An encounter with a beluga, the white whale of the Arctic, provides a parable for humanity’s struggle: like the swimming of whales, behavior of humans is steered by our genome, and we are having hard time pushing against the destructive urges.

Yet, the beluga parable also provides us with the solution: the behavior of whales can be transformed by changing their surroundings, by shifting a small aquarium pool to an open ocean, and likewise, the behavior of humans can be transformed by changing our societal surroundings. If we fine tune our economic system and decision-making to fit the biology of our species, if we re-design taxation and democracy based on what we know about our evolutionary history, we can fight our destructive tendencies as well as harness the power of our positive tendencies, those of collaboration and prosociality. At the end of the day, all that is needed is to remember: we are no more or less than whales.

STALIN JA SUOMEN KOHTALO
Otava, October 2016, 240 pp.

Reading material:
Finnish edition
English manuscript in February

How Finland Survived Stalin
From Winter War to Cold War, 1939-1950

Kimmo Rentola

A meticulously-researched insight into critical points in the history of relations between Finland and the Soviet Union

✓  World English rights sold to YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS for publication in Spring 2024 in the US & UK!

✓  Winner of the Lauri Jäntti Prize for non-fiction literature!

✓  A title with huge resonance at the present time, with Finland joining NATO and the parallels between the Winter War and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

✓  English manuscript available, featuring updates and additions

How did Finland evade Joseph Stalin’s crosshairs three times? Did Stalin have a special relationship with Finland and the Finns? Why didn’t he continue the Soviet onslaught on Finland during the Winter War in 1940? Why did the dictator back down from his aspirations and demands towards Finland during the peace negotiations in 1944? Why did 1948 remain the year of an unfulfilled coup in Finland? The answer lies in the relations between Finland and Russia which remain highly timely to this day.

Joseph Stalin has been one of the individuals with the most influence on the history of independent Finland. There are few who have made so many far-reaching decisions as Stalin: he decreed the beginning and the end of the Winter War, the Moscow Armistice of 1944 that ended the Continuation War was signed with his authorization, and when, in 1948, it was time to decide whether Finland would become a ‘people’s republic’ or not, he initially pushed forward but eventually backed down. All of these decisions can be seen as pivotal to the fate of Finland, its society, its independence, the life and death of the Finnish people.

The book focuses on the decisions of Stalin in which the entire existence or, at the very least, the essential nature of that existence, of Finland was at stake.

Reading material:
Finnish manuscript in March
English sample in February

The 50 Most Dangerous Families in the World

Hannu Sokala

They like to stay in the shadows. Who are the families that wield the most power in the world?

✓  The forthcoming title by the co-author of THE 50 MOST DANGEROUS COMPANIES IN THE WORLD, sold to 8 territories!

✓  English sample available, featuring 5 of the dangerous families: Rotenberg, Musk, Guriev, Grimaldi, Wallenberg

Very few of us know the Lees, the al-Nahyans, the Quandts, the Safras or the Wertheimers. We all know, however, their companies Samsung, Manchester City, BMW, Chiquita, and Chanel. Many of the world’s most influential companies are still family businesses, and many of these families go back many generations, some even to the 18th Century. Many of them operate around the world, and some are worth tens of billions of dollars. Still, we know astonishingly little about these families.

The stories of the families in this book contain larger-than-life characters, unbelievable plots, and numerous conflicts, tragedies, and successes. This non-fiction book by the experienced business journalist Hannu Sokala offers a comprehensive and surprising perspective on the world’s most important – and dangerous families.

Reading material:
English sample and summary

The 50 Most Dangerous Companies in the World

Juha-Pekka Raeste and Hannu Sokala

How could a few dozen business giants challenge the foundations of democracy, destabilize institutions, and determine the state of the environment?

✓  Rights sold to 8 countries throughout Europe and Taiwan!

✓  Now a fresh, updated manuscript available!

Large multinational corporations influence how we think, what we eat, who we meet, how we spend our time, and even who we vote for. As those businesses grow, their influence and power over people and governments also grows. To make sure the future is not dictated by corporations, but by people, we need to know more about them.

This exciting nonfiction title by experienced financial journalists Hannu Sokala and Juha-Pekka Raeste covers 50 companies that comprise a large part of global market forces. They determine what kind of a world we all live in. Some of the companies in the book are relatively unknown (Zhōngguó Yāncǎo Zǒnggōngsī and BlackRock), some predictable (Google, Amazon), some may seem surprising (Ikea and Disney), and some inevitable (Gazprom and Chevron).

Some of the companies benefit from our everyday needs (Cargill, Coca-Cola), some from our vanity (ByteDance, Facebook), and some from our greed (Goldman Sachs, Berkshire Hathaway). The book reads like a thriller, but it is nonfiction. It offers a comprehensive and often a startling perspective on the most important, and dangerous, companies in the world.

JALKAPALLON MUSTA KIRJA
Kuningaslaji ja rahan mahti
Otava, September 2022, 300 pp.

Reading material:
Finnish manuscript
English sample & synopsis

The Black Book of Football

Hannu Aaltonen & Tapio Keskitalo

A critical depiction of the destructive power of money in professional association football

✓  A timely insight into the challenges, soul-searching and scandals surrounding the most popular team sport in the world

During the 2000s, international association football has become a pompous, money-driven business. ‘The Beautiful Game’ has developed into a playing field with its own laws where oligarchs, sheikhs, and American billionaires run amok.

This startling book delves into the outrageously wealthy and powerful football clubs that do not abide by football’s own economic rules. Influential football bosses and governing bodies have become bogged down in bribe scandals, while small football countries like Finland have to count pennies.

The grotesque development culminated with the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where the authorities and organizers did not care about costs or construction worker deaths.

Reading material:
English manuscript

The Finnish Factor
Kekkonen, Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Cold War

Gordon F. Sander

With the fate of his country and relations between superpowers in the balance, what is the President of Finland to do?

✓  A gripping and lucid account of one of the lesser-known crises of the Cold War 

✓  The latest title from the Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter, historian, author and Nordic specialist

✓  Rights sold to Estonia!

✓  Read Sander’s article about how the events of THE FINNISH FACTOR connect to the modern day here: When Finland Mattered — And Why It Matters Again – POLITICO.

In the fall of 1961, Soviet and American tanks faced off at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin in an explosive confrontation known as the Berlin Crisis, which many feared might lead to World War III. At the same time, 1500 kilometers to the northeast, in Finland, the USSR and the US were squaring off for another potentially explosive confrontation over the Kremlin’s desire to maintain its sphere of influence over that country. This has become known as the Note Crisis.

The Note Crisis, the events leading up to it, and the three figures who were at the center of it—Urho Kekkonen, the Machiavellian president of Finland, fighting for his political life; Nikita Khrushchev, the feisty Soviet premier and Kekkonen’s sponsor; and John F. Kennedy, the US president, who sent a top secret message of support to Kekkonen—comprise the climax of Gordon Sander’s groundbreaking book.

Sander’s biography is based on three years of research and includes exclusive interviews with Khrushchev’s late son Sergey, and the President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö.

THE FINNISH FACTOR is intended for  general audiences and scholarly ones. It would be of interest to anyone who:
–is interested in reading and learning about one of the great “forgotten” crises of the Cold War
–is interested in Russian/Soviet history and/or Nikita Khrushchev
–is interested in the Kennedy administration

SUSTAINABLE INVESTING
Beating the Market with ESG
Palgrave Macmillan, June 2021, 241 pp.

Reading material:
English edition

Sustainable Investing
Beating the Market with ESG

Hanna Silvola and Tiina Landau

Learn how to stay on top of the investing game in an ever-changing world – and how to do it sustainably

✓  Rights sold in China and Estonia! Published in the US by Palgrave Macmillan!

✓  Recommended reading for investors and the interested public alike!

This book reviews the latest methods of sustainable investing and financial profit making, describing how ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) analysis can identify future business opportunities, and managing risk to achieve abnormal returns. Megatrends such as climate change, sustainable development, and digitalisation increase uncertainty and information asymmetry and have an impact on the future returns on investments. From a profit perspective, it is largely about how ESG factors affect the long-term value added by companies and the valuation of companies in the financial markets. Although sustainability provides an opportunity for abnormal returns, this phenomenon must be considered in a critical light. This book describes the risks and limitations associated with the accountability and availability of ESG data and tools.

SUSTAINABLE INVESTING provides both practical models and academic findings for assessing the sustainability of investees and introduces practical tools and methods to practice ESG analysis. It focuses on the ESG analysis of equity investments and fund investments in institutional investment organizations, and provides a handbook for all investment analysts who are involved with investment decisions. Readers will benefit from understanding the methods, opportunities and challenges that professionals use in their ESG analysis with cases, interviews and practical tools for both institutional and private investors.

The English edition of SUSTAINABLE INVESTING is an updated version of the original Finnish title Vastuullisuudesta ylituotoa sijoituksiin.

Reading material:
Book proposal
Partial manuscript in Spring 2023
Full English manuscript in Fall 2023

Hot and Cold
From Sauna to Sea: The Finnish Way to a Happy, Healthy Life

Katja Pantzar and Carita Harju

Hot and cold contrast therapy is fast becoming the must-do wellness experience. This new book inspires readers with insights into the powerful Finnish method of alternating between a hot and cold environment in order to boost health and happiness and delves into how experiencing these contrasting extremes of temperature can change your outlook, your wellbeing and your life.

✓  World English rights sold to YELLOW KITE/Hodder & Stoughton for publication in 2024!!

✓  Inspiration and practical tools for creating a wellness retreat at home using the Nordic contrast bathing philosophy, wherever you are in the world.

✓  The Finnish hot and cold method boosts happiness by increasing wellbeing and encouraging connection with nature.

✓  Unique collaboration by Carita Harju, Finnish sauna experience expert, and Katja Pantzar, author of THE FINNISH WAY, sold to 24 languages

The sauna was recently ranked as the No. 1 global wellness trend by the Global Wellness Summit. Cold-water swimming is also a growing trend and is being proposed as a cure for all manner of things – from improving mental health to boosting immunity. But why is being hot good for you, and why is submerging into icy water good for you? And what about alternating between the two? What exactly is hot and cold therapy and why is it so vital for physical and mental health?

Dive into the unique world of hot and cold via Finland, where a good steam and an icy dip in a lake or the sea are the foundations of wellbeing for mind, body and soul.

This definitive guide by two experts takes readers on a journey into the transformative powers of hot and cold by pairing the sauna, that quintessential hot Finnish steam bath, with a cold-water dip. Along the way, it serves up the inspiration and practical tools for creating a wellness retreat at home using the Nordic contrast bathing philosophy, wherever you are in the world.

The Finnish hot and cold method boosts happiness by increasing wellbeing and encouraging connection with nature. It’s the secret to how the world’s happiest nation keeps calm and carries on – no matter what life throws at them. Now you too can learn their secrets.

Reading material:
English PDF

Back to Nature Finland
Explore Nature, Myths, and Ancient Wisdom

Reetta Ranta and Antti Huttunen

Back to Nature Finland is a calming, relaxing experience that takes you on a journey throughout Finnish nature, with a touch of ancient wisdom, mythology and local history. Based on the internationally acclaimed TV show!

✓  A visually stunning slow travel guidebook that introduces Finland’s enchanting nature to an international audience!

✓  Reconnect with nature and learn about the mythology and tradition connected to the most breathtaking places in Finland

✓  English PDF available!

✓  The concept is based on a successful TV show that aired/will be aired in Finland (YLE TV1), Sweden (SVT), Czech Republic (Prima), Slovakia (RTVS), Italy (RAI), China (CBM), Japan (WOWOW), Thailand (Truevisions), and Finnair in-flight entertainment

The book presents 24 beautiful travel locations in Finnish nature. It reveals stories about Finnish mythology related to those locations, and provides delicious local food tips to enjoy when visiting. Learn the secrets of the Archipelago Sea, discover Lohja’s groves and caves, and meet the most beautiful tree in Finland. Travel with us from the Åland Islands, across the Nordic archipelago’s seashores and dunes, to the mysteries of lake Saimaa. Join us as we follow the origins of the Finnish national epic, Kalevala; climb to the top of Pyhä-Nattanen, the Mountain of the Gods; and explore some of the many sacred sites of Finnish Lapland.

The original Finnish book titled Metsien Kätkemä (‘Hidden in the Forests’) was based on the TV series by the same name. The series first format localization, Back to Nature Australia Season 1 (8 x 30-mins) is live now in ABC TV and has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the Australian viewers. The format has also been optioned by producers in New Zealand, UK and South Africa. The completed series (Finnish or Australian versions) have been sold to or broadcasted in Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, China, Japan, Thailand, India, and Finnair in-flight entertainment. Negotiations are ongoing with several other territories.

GENTLE POWER
A Revolution in How We Think, Lead and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu
Sounds True, January 2023, 192 pp.

Reading material:
English edition

Gentle Power
A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu

Emilia Elisabet Lahti

A manual for the evolution of everyday leadership based on the Finnish science of sisu—from a leading researcher and teacher on the topic.

✓  A pioneering work by the international keynote speaker and researcher of the Finnish power quality of sisu!!

✓  Learn how to use Gentle Power to overcome adversity and build a legacy of excellence through your everyday interactions

✓  US publication on January 24, 2023 by Sounds True!

✓  Rights sold to China and Thailand pre-publication!

The Finnish philosophy of sisu shows us a new way to look at power—not as force and domination but as the harmonious expression of human character in everyday actions. Finnish-born Emilia Elisabet Lahti explores sisu, world traditions, and modern research to provide a new way to approach leadership, resilience, and our power to create change.

Power is fundamental in our lives—we express it in every conversation, relationship, and choice we make. All too often, we equate force and domination with power, while gentleness and compassion are considered “soft” or “weak.” The destructive nature of this skewed perspective has never been more obvious, yet there is reason to hope. With GENTLE POWER, Dr. Emilia Elisabet Lahti shares an illuminating guide to an emerging shift in the way we define true strength—an approach that balances resolve with reason, grit with compassion, and personal success with service to the collective good.

To understand power is to realize that leadership is not just for some selected minority—we are all leaders whose choices impact those around us. “Each of us can play a vital role in the collective transformation that the world is calling for,” Lahti writes. “It all starts in our own heart, in our own gentle power.” Here you’ll discover a path of wisdom, resilience, and compassionate strength that will elevate your life—and uplift others to take part in a new revolution of human empowerment.

Reading material:
English proposal and sample chapters

The Meaning Manifesto
Why Work Needs to Have a Purpose

Frank Martela

Are you ready to experience meaningful work and make it possible? Start your journey with this book!   

✓  A revolutionary, mind-blowing and timely new book by Finland’s #1 internationally bestselling non-fiction author!

✓  Martela’s previous title, A WONDERFUL LIFE, has been sold to 30 countries!

✓  Making work meaningful is simultaneously a moral issue, a well-being issue, and a performance issue!

Work occupies a more central role in our lives than just a way of making ends meet. At best, work fills our lives with meaningfulness, making our whole existence more worth living. At worst, it is a desperate toil that alienates us from who we are and what’s good in life. In modern knowledge work requiring expertise and self-management, innovativeness and productivity require commitment and high-quality motivation – key benefits that meaningfulness can offer.

How, then, can we make work more meaningful? In principle, the recipe for meaningful work is surprisingly simple: do personally interesting and engaging things, while making a positive contribution to other people. However, making that into reality is the tough part. Here, the book will offer you key tools, mindsets, and strategies to make both your own work and the work of those around you more meaningful.

THE MEANING MANIFESTO by Frank Martela, the acclaimed author of the internationally-bestselling A WONDERFUL LIFE, helps you navigate modern work life towards a more purposeful career and meaningful everyday work experience. The book also explains what managers and leaders can do to enhance the meaningfulness that employees are experiencing. Finishing by taking a broad, societal perspective on meaningful work, the book shows what structural changes are needed to make purpose-centered business an industry standard.

The book relies on the author’s extensive research into meaningful work combined with examples of vanguard individuals and companies around the world that are making a new, more meaningful world of work a reality. Along the way we meet entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors, and politicians making their mark as forerunners of work with a purpose.

A WONDERFUL LIFE
Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence
HarperCollins, March 2020, 200 pp.

Reading material:
English edition

A Wonderful Life
Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence 

Frank Martela

✓  The book to address our turbulent times, by the eminent Finnish happiness researcher Frank Martela, from the happiest country in the world!

✓  An international bestseller with the rights sold to 30 countries and counting!

Is happiness a worthy goal? What is the foundation for meaning in a secular society? Is life an existential void?

Frank Martela answers these questions and more in a relaxed, conversational tone and with a wry sense of humor, placing some of life’s greatest philosophical concerns and quandaries into a modern-day context. Martela quickly and concisely gets to the heart of the matter – your place in the world and how to find meaning in life – yet the emphasis here is on what we do with the life we have and how we can make it more meaningful.

The search for life’s meaning is perhaps the most important quest we can undertake. And for any quest, it’s essential to have a guide. Philosophically probing yet eminently readable, A Wonderful Life is a book you can refer to again and again on your journey toward purpose.

MINÄ, KOIRA JA IHMISKUNTA
Lajien välisen yhteiselon historia
Otava/Like, February 2022, 317 pp.

Reading material:
English sample and synopsis

Me, My Dog and Humanity
A History of Coexistence Between Species

Tiina Raevaara

Has humanity become so powerful through its own merits alone? Or do other species deserve a thanks as well?

✓  An entertaining and narrative deep dive into the shared history of humans and animals

✓  The Finnish answer to Yuval Noah Harari and Rutger Bregman! 

✓  Now a longer, nearly 100-page English sample is available!

In the Autumn of 2018, biologist and award-winning author Tiina Raevaara found herself exhausted and anguished, with her mind dark like a Finland November. She did, however, find comfort in the company of her dog, Igor. She started pondering the reasons for her exhaustion and, simultaneously, the evolution of the human species and its relation to other animals.

The current ascendancy of mankind is, according to Raevaara, not a result of humanity’s innate superiority, but, in fact, a result of its connections and relationships to other species. Ours is not a story of a purpose-driven humankind achieving its predominance in grand solitude, but of a humanity which has striven for connections with other animals.

In her book ME, MY DOG AND HUMANITY, Raevaara compellingly describes the coexistence between humans and animals, both personally and from the perspective of humankind, and seeks answers to a number of questions:

• Why does an exhausted person prefer to spend time with their dog than other people? 
• Why do animals arouse such strong empathy in us?
• What does the human-animal connection mean from the perspective of evolution and humanity?

The domesticated dog is a much older creation of humankind than agriculture, religion or even writing. Mapping out the mutual journey between humans and dogs, Raevaara sheds light on the most fundamental essences of humanity and its relationship with nature.

EVERYDAY SISU
Tapping into Finnish Fortitude for a Happier, More Resilient Life
Penguin Random House/TarcherPerigee, March 2022, 250 pp.

Reading material:
English edition

Everyday Sisu
Tapping into Finnish Fortitude for a Happier, More Resilient Life

Katja Pantzar

Discover how the happiest people on earth survive—and thrive—through tough times!

✓  The brand new book by the bestselling author of The Finnish Way, sold in 24 territories!

✓  Published by Penguin Random House in the UK & US

✓  Rights sold in Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and World English

Sisu is a powerful mindset that makes Finland one of the happiest countries in the world, despite long winters, social isolation, and a history of challenging times.

Words that express happiness can help you improve your own. Katja Pantzar, author of The Finnish Way, says that a good sense of “sisu”, a Finnish concept that means not giving up in the face of challenges, can improve physical and mental well-being, which has the spillover effect of happiness. Practicing sisu “means using resilience-building skills such as looking for solutions when faced with setbacks and trying to break out of negative lifestyle habits and thought patterns,” Pantzar adds.

In Everyday Sisu, journalist Katja Pantzar explores the simple practices that make Finnish life so stable, sustainable, and healthy for body and mind, even when life doesn’t go as planned. You’ll discover ways to boost your mental and physical resilience to face life’s challenges head-on, including:

• connecting with nature
• strengthening community
• using what you have
• reframing what you can’t control
• adopting a solutions mindset
• finding strength in the struggle
• dealing with stress, anxiety, depression and burnout

Featuring insights from Finnish experts in mental health, wellness, sustainability, social justice, and more, this practical and empowering guide presents a roadmap for overcoming what you thought you couldn’t — and finding hope and tools to create a brighter way forward.

THE FINNISH WAY
Finding Courage, Wellness and Happiness Through the Power of Sisu
Hodder & Stoughton (UK); TarcherPerigee (US); November 2018, 320 pp.

Reading material:
English edition

The Finnish Way
Finding Courage, Wellness, and Happiness Through the Power of Sisu

Katja Pantzar

Forget hygge – it’s time to blow out the candles and get out into the world!

✓  A bestselling title, with rights sold in 24 territories!

✓  Bestseller in the US, published in 2018 by Penguin Random House!

An engaging and practical guided tour of the simple and nature-inspired ways that Finns stay happy and healthy.

Journalist Katja Pantzar took the huge leap to move from North America to the remote Nordic country of Finland. What she discovered there transformed her body, mind and spirit. She shows readers how to embrace the “keep it simple and sensible” daily practices that make the Finns one of the happiest populations in the world, year after year.

Topics include:

• Movement as medicine: How walking, biking and swimming every day are good for what ails us–and best done outside the confines of a gym
• Natural mood boosters: Cold water swimming, steamy saunas, and other ways to alleviate stress, anxiety, insomnia, and depression
• Forest therapy: Why there’s no substitute for getting out into nature on a regular basis
• Healthy eating: What the Nordic diet can teach us all about feeding body, mind and soul
• The gift of sisu: Why Finns embrace a special form of courage, grit and determination as a national virtue – and how anyone can dig deeper to survive and thrive through tough times.

If you’ve ever wondered if there’s a better, simpler way to find happiness and good health, look no further. The Finns have a word for that, and this empowering book shows us how to achieve it.

TULEVAISUUDEN LUKUJÄRJESTYS
Otava, 2020, 192 pp.

Reading material:
English edition

Future Skills

Perttu Pölönen

What are the 12+1 essential skills that will help you defeat the fear of the future?

✓  An essential book for parents, educators, and anyone who wants to prepare themselves for an uncertain future!!

✓  Sold to 7 territories, most recently to Indonesia!

✓  Perttu Pölönen has studied future technologies at Singularity University think tank, based at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, co-founded an edtech company in Myanmar and won EU’s biggest science competition for youth. In 2018, MIT Tech Review honored him among the 35 Innovators Under 35 in Europe.

✓  With practical advice on how we all can develop the skills needed to “futureproof humanity” when faced with AI and technological revolution

The next revolution is a human revolution, says Perttu Pölönen, a futurist, inventor and inspirational speaker. We should develop courage, adaptability, compassion, storytelling, patience and curiosity, to name a few, in order to succeed in the era of machines, robots and artificial intelligence such as the ChatGPT. Pölönen explains how.

FUTURE SKILLS challenges assumptions about the future and provides insightful and thought-provoking observations – there’s a lot to digest. With the world developing so fast, we should not focus on what is changing but rather find what is not going to change. What makes us different from machines, makes us happy.

FUTURE SKILLS has become an instant bestseller in Finland where its readers have reported to have changed their career paths and found meaning in their current jobs. It is a book that gives hope. Pölönen is a bright young mind whose personal experiences and stories make the book lively and engaging, and you will find yourself laughing and sobbing. When nothing is certain, everything is possible.

TULEVAISUUDEN IDENTITEETIT
Otava, January 2021, 192 pp.

Reading material:
English synopsis

Future Identities

Perttu Pölönen

Are you an expander, inspirer, crystallizer, or an enlightener? Find out how to forge your own, unique identity!

✓  The inspiring and thought-provoking follow-up to Future Skills, sold to 7 territories

✓  Perttu Pölönen has studied future technologies at Singularity University think tank, based at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, co-founded an edtech company in Myanmar and won EU’s biggest science competition for youth. In 2018, MIT Tech Review honored him among the 35 Innovators Under 35 in Europe.

The years and decades to come will force each of us to rethink our place in this world. Traditionally, identity has been based on a profession, for example, but in the future it is worth building on skills.

Future Identities is an immersive book on identifying one’s own strengths and verbalizing them. If you were an extender, linker or cross-pollinator, what could you do in the future? In his latest book, Pölönen delves into the notion of identity and ponders their formation from different perspectives, then provides the reader with the necessary knowledge and tools to find their strengths and, by extension, their potential identities. Pölönen’s goal is not to arrange people into specific molds, but to break the molds.

Reading material:
English sample

Saunafulness
Wellness with Saunas

Carita Harju

The humble sauna can be your pathway to reducing stress and improving your health!

✓  A veritable resource of exercises that can be adjusted according to one’s needs

✓  The newest book by the founder of the Sauna from Finland association

✓  Big publication event in Japan in 2023! Sold to Hungary and Estonia!

Finnish sauna culture has been inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and the sauna is part of an eternally developing and living form of everyday routine, which is splendidly exemplified by the new well-being concept of saunafulness.

Saunafulness is all about holistic wellness, the aim of which is to help you relax. The heart of saunafulness is the sauna and its heat therapy. Fulness, in turn, refers to a holistic approach that combines exercises and wellness to positively impact both mind and body.

It’s only natural that the beneficial effects of sauna – confirmed by many researchers – have brought about a new model for sauna wellness. In her new book, Carita Harju sheds light on the diverse and multifold health benefits of the sauna and how the sauna has increasingly become a source of well-being by reducing stress, strengthening the heart, and improving sleep quality.

Saunafulness is divided into two parts. The first part offers the reader ample information on the health benefits of sauna, based on numerous studies, and presented in easily accessible writing. The second part provides the reader with a variety of natural wellbeing exercises that anyone can adapt to fit their own specific wishes. The exercises unite the mind, the body, one’s health, and all the different senses. Saunafulness can be practiced in any sauna with easy-access materials accompanied by clear instructions.

Reading material:
English PDF

Putin’s Trolls

Jessikka Aro

A journalistic nonfiction book that reads like a real-life spy thriller and reveals the methods of the Kremlin’s modern information warfare

✓  Rights sold to 16 territories!

✓  Published in Spring 2022 in the US by Ig Publishing and Blackstone (audio) to excellent reviews! Followed by publication in Germany by Goldmann and Norway by Mangshou!

✓  An international TV Series “KOMPROMAT” is being developed as an European co-production, inspired by Jessikka Aro’s international bestseller PUTIN’S TROLLS. Producers are Kathrin Lohmann (Germany), Gudny Hummelvoll (Norway) and Tanja Rusi (Finland).

✓  Jessikka Aro won the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage of Journalism Award for her investigation!

PUTIN’S TROLLS is a first-hand memoir/reportage account by award-winning Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro who was bullied out of her country by Putin’s internet trolls, revealing the true face of an invisible threat that is only growing in power. Russia wages war against civilians online. Every critical voice is an enemy. 

PUTIN’S TROLLS presents the criminal smearing campaign, launched and approved by the Kremlin against private individuals around Western countries. It is a chilling account of Russia’s modern tools of information warfare, shedding light on the individuals and organizations behind the Kremlin’s coordinated, military-style social media psy-ops.

RAKASTAN SINUSSA IHMISTÄ
Aino ja Alvar Aallon tarina
Otava, September 2021, 450 pp.
Approx. 50-80 photographs & drawings

Reading material:
English manuscript

The Story of Aino and Alvar Aalto

Heikki Aalto-Alanen

The love story of the world-famous, pioneering design couple Aino and Alvar Aalto, written by the Aaltos’ grandson

✓  World’s most prestigious art publisher Phaidon Press will launch the book in 2023 for the English-speaking world!

✓  Rights sold to 7 territories, most recently to France and Italy!

✓  Based on previously unpublished correspondence, photography, and drawings from 1921 to 1949

✓  Full English manuscript available!

Alvar Aalto and his wife Aino are internationally celebrated for their architecture, furniture, glassware, and other interior design, but their personal lives have been relatively unknown – until now. This book, written by the Aaltos’ grandson, stands apart from countless other works on the Aalto’s lives and careers. It contains photos, sketches, and personal letters between Aino and Alvar, beautifully illustrating how inseparable this couple was both in work and love, and bringing a deeply human element to their story.

“Countless books have been written about Alvar Aalto’s architecture and other works. Recently, Aino Marsio-Aalto has also received the recognition she deserves in her own right as well as in her role as the partner of Alvar Aalto in his rise as one of the leading architects of the 20th century,” says Heikki Aalto-Alanen. “The voice in this book is personal. I want to tell the story of Aino’s and Alvar’s unique partnership, relationship, and their joint life work from the perspective of a family member. I also want their own voices to be heard.”

In addition to the photographs from the family archive, the book is illustrated with Aino’s and Alvar’s drawings of each other and of their children, along with architectural drawings and photographs.

ELLA
Helene Schjerfbeck
Otava, September 2022, 270 pp.

Reading material:
English sample & synopsis

Ella – Helene Schjerfbeck

Mari Tossavainen

The story of the most well-known Finnish artist in the world, supplemented by previously unpublished correspondence

✓  A pioneering insight into the life and artistic work of one of Finland’s most beloved artists!

Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946) is one of the most well-known Finnish artists in the world. Her modernist and realist works have been on display in galleries all over Europe, North America and Asia, a biographical film based on her life was released in 2020, and her birthday, July 10th, is a national day for the painted arts in Finland.

This innovative and fascinating book, drawing on previously unpublished correspondence and archival materials, paints a far more multithreaded picture of the life and artistic work of Helene Schjerfbeck and brings into light the significance of previously forgotten people in her creative work. 

In her letters, Schjerfbeck divulged both her works and her thoughts not only to fellow artists, but also to her art dealer Gösta Stenman and people outside the artistic world. Among others, this book elucidates the friendship between Schjerfbeck and her childhood governess, Lina Ingman. The letters Schjerfbeck wrote to Ingman during the 1920s and 1930s have warmth in them and she signed them with her beloved childhood nickname, Ella.

Reading material:
English edition

The Women I Think About at Night

Mia Kankimäki

What can a 40-something childless woman do with her life?  Hop on a plane and follow the footsteps of the historical female heroes of their time! 

✓  Over 55,000 copies sold in Finland!

✓  An international hit sold to 21 territories, published in the US by Simon & Schuster, and recently in Italy, France, Germany, and Sweden to raving reviews!

✓  A TV series based on the book in development by napafilms!

Have you heard about Artemisia Gentileschi, Lavinia Fontana or Nellie Bly? What about Karen Blixen? The Women I Think About at Night follows in the footsteps of 10 historical women, who did what was impossible for women to do in their own times: travel the world or create a career as an artist. And these women were quite successful – some of them actually became celebrities of their own time! So why have they been forgotten by the history books?

Finnish writer Mia Kankimäki sold her house, packed her suitcase and traveled the world to find out. Part biography, part travelogue, this book takes you from Karen Blixen’s farm in Kenya to Renaissance artists’ Florence and modern-day Japan.

Warning: May cause strong case of wanderlust!

A publishing sensation in Finland with over tens of thousands of copies sold, The Women I Think About at Night solidifies Kankimäki’s standing as one of Finland’s leading new authors. Her book was translated by Douglas Robinson and published by Simon & Schuster, one of the four largest English-language publishers in the world. Her book has received positive reviews in Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal, Travel & Leisure, and Kirkus Review, along with Fortune magazine.