Timo
If you've ever had a proper brewery tour and a beer tasting training, this book probably doesn't offer much extra to what you already know. Given as a freebie to Equity for Punks shareholders, this book combines the essential knowledge of BrewDog classics, beer brewing, how to get started with home brewing and as the cherry on the top, recipes for many BrewDog beers and food and how to pair them. It's not all just about BrewDog beers though. I got this book years ago but I just didn't bother reading it until now. Well well, better late than never.
The history of Ruisrock, the second oldest rock festival in Europe, and the oldest one in Finland. I've been there only twice but witnessed great bands like Primus, The Mars Volta, The National, Carpark North and The Prodigy. I've felt how the ground shakes when the party gets wild and I've also seen how muddy the field can become when it rains.
This book tells the major events throughout the years, about the financial struggles, being threatened by the extremely slow local council and environmentalists, artist divas with their impossible riders and a riot in 1980. The pandemic cancelled the 51st Ruisrock festival and 2021 doesn't look any better. I've been hoping to visit there once again although a new generation has taken over and I don't even know the artists playing there. It has changed from a traditional rock festival into more of a rap and electronic music festival but that's what people want to see and hear.
If you've ever been to Ruisrock, this book might be an interesting read to you.
Jokaisen suomalaisen tulisi lukea tämä kirja. Se on kuin [b:Nikesh Shuklan The Good Immigrant 28668534 The Good Immigrant Nikesh Shukla https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1471514680l/28668534.SY75.jpg 48857467], mutta tarinat ovat hieman lyhyempiä ja käsittelevät elämää Suomessa, suomalaisuutta niin kulttuurin kuin kielenkin näkökulmasta, sekä haasteita, joita luultavasti jokainen identiteettiään etsivä nuori tai aikuinen on elämänsä aikana kohdannut. En halua käyttää heistä tässä yhteydessä sanaa ulkomaalaistaustainen, puoliksi suomalainen tai valtakulttuuriin kuulumaton, koska nämä termit ovat jo oletuksena hyvin lokeroivia ja määrittelevät vahvasti mitä suomalaisuus on (tai ei ole) ja kuka voidaan laskea suomalaiseksi. Kirjan luettuasi ymmärrät miksi. Jokaisella olkoon oikeus itse määritellä identiteettinsä, eikä meillä Suomessa täysin suomalaisille vanhemmille syntyneillä ole oikeutta toimia portinvartijana.Olen itse ulkosuomalainen ja monet kirjan tarinoissa esilletulevat seikat ovat minullekin tuttuja. Minulta on kysytty usein mistä aksenttini on peräisin ja mistä oikein olen kotoisin. En pidä siitä kysymyksestä. Ensinnäkin, se sisältää olettamuksen muukalaisuudesta ja paikallisesta normista poikkeamisesta. Toisekseen, en koe olevani kotoisin oikein mistään, koska olen asunut neljässä eri maassa ja kotini on siellä missä sillä hetkellä satun asumaan. Ystäväni ovat kaikkialta maailmasta ja puolisonikaan ei ole suomalainen, joten olen jo aikaa sitten kadottanut omat juureni. Kirjan tarinoihin on siis hyvin helppo samaistua.
I can recommend this book for anyone who's ever lived in Berlin and feels nostalgic when seeing the always elegant neon shopfronts, U-Bahn station names on the tiled walls or the dozens of variations of umlaut styles.
This book tells the story of Henrik Holappa who founded a neo-nazi organisation but abandoned the ideology after being a nazi for 15 years. He tells about his childhood in Oulu, northern Finland and how he got interested in nazism when he was a teenager. After getting disappointed with the local skinheads, he found connections with several notable names in various global white power organisations and even ended up in spending a few months in prison in the US before getting deported. He also tells about how he wanted to stay out of violence and fighting, having a couple of muslim friends and even dating a black woman without telling them his true identity. For me all of this sounded like a story that could happen to our close friends or family members, even when they seemingly have everything in order in their life. Radical ideologies destroy relationships with our loved ones and hurt people who need our help and support the most. There is a way out if you just want to walk through that door. Henrik Holappa found it and this book is a public apology of his actions in his former life.
This is probably the most iconic Finnish novel ever written, although most Finns are likely to be familiar only with Edvin Laine's movie which was released in 1955, only a year after this book was first published. I never liked the classic movie as I felt some of the characters are extremely annoying and unfortunately they do get quite a lot of space in the book as well. Usually books are always better than movies and so is this one. Linna was a war veteran himself so he very much knew what he was talking about. War is cruel and the character you just started liking might die on the next page. There isn't that much direct connection to historical events or battles and the background of the soldiers remains in most cases a complete mystery. Not much is told about their families, which is a shame. I was hoping to hear a little bit more who they were, where they came from and maybe also where they went after the war. Especially Rokka. He's a proper badass soldier who would be the ultimate hero if Hollywood ever decides to make a movie based on this book.
I was too young in the 1980s to go to any of the gigs mentioned in the book, but I saw some of these bands later. The book tells how different the event organising and the gig culture were in Finland of the 1980s. Extremely bossy and inflexible security, lights on to the whole venue when the audience gets too excited and obviously a lot of stories about rock & roll lifestyle with, booze, drugs and the girls. Nowadays, event organisers are hard boiled professionals, but the security guys haven't become much better. I remember being yelled at during a Motörhead gig in 2008 because I had the guts to stand up from my seat. I only did it because Lemmy asked everyone to stand up! Anyway, if you've been going to gigs in Finland and are a big fan of Iron Maiden, Dio, Motörhead, Rainbow or Metallica, you might be interested in reading this book.
Although Mr Loiri has had a long and well recognised career on stage, TV, film and in music, and there are certainly a lot of stories and little anecdotes to tell, I think that the writer Tervo simply doesn't know how to focus on the essentials. He's off at the tangent all the time and the reader needs to verify whether it's still the same book and not someone else's biography. This book is way too long and probably half of it could have been thrown away as it's simply irrelevant, not related to Mr Loiri at all, or simply just adding too many details that the reader can find out themselves if they wish to do so.
Anyway, there probably aren't many people in Finland who wouldn't know who Vesa-Matti Loiri is. I grew up in the 1980s, meaning I had a very high amount of exposure to Uuno Turhapuro, the second incarnation of Spede Show and numerous other productions where Mr Loiri played a major role. He is an insanely good actor and a very good musician too. I especially like his versions of the poetry of Eino Leino. I learned new things about him and his career, and I would be happy to see those 1980s classics again.
An interview type of story about the Finnish pop star Antti Tuisku. His music has never really been my cup of tea but nevertheless I was curious to learn more about his background and look behind the scenes. I can honestly say that I am impressed how hard working and determined person he is. He has very much earned his success and I hope to see him become even a bigger star worldwide. He genuinely seems to be a nice and positive person and I think the world really needs more role models like him.
Alexi Laiho was the frontman of melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, one of the most popular Finnish metal bands. He was also an insanely talented guitar player, featured often in the covers of guitar magazines and guitar ads. He has surely motivated many young people around the world to grab a guitar and start practising.
This book was published a couple years ago so it doesn't cover the last 2 years of Alexi Laiho's life. He passed away a few months ago, way too early for such a talented and hard working musician. The book tells his story mostly from the perspective of music and his bands, starting all the way from childhood. It doesn't go too deep in his personal life outside of music circles, which is a little bit shame, but he probably also wanted to keep his private life a little bit separate from the professional one.
I enjoyed reading this so I'd recommend it for any Children of Bodom fan around the world. Finnish books rarely get translated to English though, which is also a shame.
How Finnish comedian Ismo Leikola conquered America, or more precisely, how does it feel when you move from a Nordic welfare nanny state to Los Angeles to continue building your career as a world class comedian. The book is not so much about comedy itself, but life in a new country in general. Power couple Angelika and Ismo Leikola are highlighting several differences between Finnish and American cultures and telling about first hand experiences after moving abroad. For me as an immigrant myself, there is a strong connection with many of the struggles they had faced when settling down in completely new surroundings in a new country. This book is very easy to read (or listen in case of an audiobook). Good shit!
One of the most iconic classics in Finnish literature, actually the first part of a trilogy. It's well written and historically accurate description of life in a small Tavastian countryside town from 1880s to early 1910s. Hardworking Finnish men in their crofts are trying to feed their families while developing an interest towards socialism. A language question both divides and unifies people living in the Grand Duchy of Finland, still part of the Russian Empire. Wealthy and the well educated landlords are seen as oppressors, paving the way to the civil war in 1918. This book doesn't get that far, but the story continues in the second part of the trilogy. In my opinion this could have been way shorter, maybe one book instead of three.
The story of Razzle, the drummer of Hanoi Rocks, who tragically died in a car accident caused by Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil. I didn't know much about Razzle or where he came from but there probably isn't a single person in Finland who isn't aware of how his fate also marked the end of the success story of Hanoi Rocks. After reading this book, it seems that the world indeed lost a great person and a musician that day. Don't drink and drive, folks!
Every Finnish school kid has to read this book at some point. I dodged the bullet a couple of times by hiding in the back of the class, reading something very different and managed to pass the exams by reading a short summary. I thought that now it's the time to read this for real as it wasn't really too appealing when I was 15. Unfortunately, even 30 years later, it wasn't really a delightful experience.
First of all, the characters are supposed to be illiterate men from the woods but yet they quote the Bible all the time, they seem to have pretty good understanding of the big world outside of their home village and the dialogue is often even poetic. It just doesn't add up.
The language is old fashioned and outdated and there's simply too many words that I have never heard before and the meaning of some of them I couldn't figure out from the context. It gets quite hard to chew.
The whole story also feels like mockery towards Finnish people and it raised criticism already at the time when the book was published.
I think it's just pure torture to force teenagers to read this. Choose something better, like Under the North Star trilogy or Unknown Soldier from Väinö Linna instead. Those are real masterpieces. Kivi's Seven Brothers is not.
The story continues from Part 1 of the trilogy. Socialist revolution is in the making but due to the slow start of this book, it's first a bit like watching the paint dry. When the action finally starts to happen, the reader is taken to the frontline to face the harsh realities of a civil war, where friends become foes and loyal companions may betray you. There is death and destruction and brutality on both sides. Winners wrote the history and the Red Guard was usually seen as the bad ones, even though they often only wanted justice and freedom from the oppression. It gets easily very political but suffering in a construction camp before being taken to the woods to get shot was the reality in 1918 and this book might have been one important reason why the suffering was not forgotten.
It's supposed to be satiric and funny but it's mostly just listing dad jokes and puns which are often heard in real life. The rest is just nonsense. Save your time and read something else.
Kallio - A district with personality. It's cool and hip, poor and sexy and everything in between. Copywriter ace Kimi Kataja enjoys his luxurious lifestyle in the world of advertising, games, sex, drugs and rock ‘n' roll, but suddenly he is facing the greatest struggle of his life. With the help of his friend who knows a lot about psychedelic drugs and philosophy, they decide to get some answers and find the murderer.
I enjoyed reading this! One shouldn't take this book too seriously. It's an annoyingly funny mix of philosopher Spinoza and Kyösti Pöysti from the Pasila cartoon series. There is also an awful lot of product placement but it's all ironic and underlines the fact that Kimi Kataja is a proper hipster. I hope the author has an endorsement deal.
Definitely the weakest of the trilogy. People are getting old, second world war brings even more death to the village. I probably got an overload of Koskela family saga as I started losing my interest towards the book but finished it anyway.
This book is more like a podcast masked as an audiobook as it contains interviews and is quite short. Anyway, for those who don't know, Vastaamo was a private service provider offering psychotherapy services in Finland. Few years ago their whole patient database was leaked by a malicious actor who called themselves as “ransom_man”. The breach occurred due to the negligence of the company management. The rumours say that the patient database was accessible without a password in the public internet.
The amount of victims and crime reports received by the police is up to 33,000 so it is possibly the largest crime that has ever happened in Finland. This book reveals insights about the data breach and the aftermath. Persons interviewed include e.g. a psychotherapist, a police investigator and a well-known computer security expert Mikko Hyppönen.
The main suspect, ransom_man still hasn't been caught. Vastaamo wasn't able to continue their operations and the company went into administration.
Bloody long audiobook, nearly 35 hours of facts about Lordi. I had not really paid any attention to what they had been doing since the Eurovision Song Contest victory in 2006 so it reading this book was very educational!
When you start reading this book, it quickly becomes very clear that the author is a Christian conservative who doesn't like Democrats or leftists. He's also very clearly opposing abortion and pretty much all the values coming from the left. As an academic church historian with a PhD from Cambridge university, he's often dragged into discussion panels in Finland to give his insights about the American conservatism, which he knows like his own pockets.
This is definitely not a neutral book. He fails to be objective and doesn't really raise much criticism even when there is a perfect opportunity to do so. He blames FBI for the deaths of the apocalyptic Branch Davidian cult members in Waco, Texas. He also mentions the birthers in a context of “Obama claimed to be born in Hawaii” and then continues to mention that the person who verified the validity of Obama's birth certificate had died in a plane crash. It's like he's actually a birther himself.
The only few bits of criticism are pointed at Donald Trump but there would have been opportunities to do so much more. He's almost completely ignoring Trump's personal traits and tendency for narcissism where anything, including the conservative movement and their values might have just been something he used for his own benefit.
Meanwhile there's plenty of critical views towards Democrats, especially Obama and Carter. Reagan is obviously a hero for him. After a couple of pages of celebrating Trump's victory in 2016 elections in various demographic groups and states, he acknowledges in one little sentence that Trump didn't actually win the nationwide popular vote (doesn't mention the numbers though) and then claims that this did not matter because it cannot be seen as the opinion of the majority. What the f*ck.
One thing where I'm agreeing with him is the fact that America is very much deeply divided and without Trump there would have been someone else. I'd probably put my bet on DeSantos winning 2024 election (I hope not).
En koskaan käynyt Lepakossa koska asuin silloin vielä Keski-Suomessa, mutta kirjan lopussa tajusin että olin kaupungissa juuri viimeisten bileiden aikaan koska samana viikonloppuna oli Red Hot Chilli Peppersin keikka ja jäin Helsinkiin viikonlopuksi koska mulla oli lippu myös pari päivää myöhemmin vuorossa olleelle Jamiroquain keikalle. Jospa vain olisin tiennyt suunnata kulkuni Ruoholahteen!
Legendaarinen paikka ja tämä historiikki tiivistää kaiken olennaisen mukavan mittaiseen tietopakettiin.