Saunafulness

Finnish sauna culture has been inscribed by UNESCO on the official list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The sauna is part of an eternally developing and alive form of everyday routine, which is splendidly exemplified by the new wellbeing 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 mid-wifed 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 wellbeing 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.

The saunafulness method developed by Harju fits like a glove in the sense that, by going to a sauna, you could find within yourself the resources to process the traumas and stresses of your life, and learn how to throw the bruises of working life and increased hate speech on the sauna stove like water.

Kaarina Kailo, docent, sauna researcher, author


Sustainable Investing – Beating the Market with ESG

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.

PRAISE:

“Filled with useful case studies on companies and investors, the book discusses relevant recent trends, initiatives and approaches. The reader comes away with useful possibilities to consider, but also a sense of how much more there is to do and an understanding of why there are so many divergent approaches by investors being taken today.” (Cary Krosinksy for Responsible Investor)

Sustainable Investing offers practical advice to market participants, with a variety of examples from investors and corporates who have dealt with the challenge of integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) aspects into their operations. The authors anchor these case studies in emerging research from academic finance, while providing readers with a critical lens to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of what may sometimes appear to be contradictory conclusions. Sustainable Investing is an excellent resource for international investors, advisors, and corporates.” (Annie Bersagel, Portfolio Manager – ESG, Folketrygdfondet, Government Pension Fund Norway)

“A must-read to understand the tectonic shift of sustainable finance and how to be a part of it– through detailed case-studies and first-hand practitioners’ input, this book takes on the challenge of making sustainable investments clear and actionable.” (Carole Crozat, CFA, Head of Thematic Research for Sustainable Investments, BlackRock)

“Most of what is described as sustainability investing today is very far from the mark. If we are to build a truly regenerative economy, across all dimensions of value creation, we must transform not just financial markets but economics itself. This timely book by Hanna Silvola and Tiina Landau is a welcome guide to an increasingly complex landscape of risk and opportunity.” (John Elkington, Author of Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism)

“Pension investors want to make sure that their pension funds are able to provide their participants with a good pension. At the same time, they also want to contribute to a sustainable world with good quality of life, for current and future generations. Sustainable Investing provides a comprehensive overview with many practical cases that inspire to take action.” (Els Knoope, Senior Portfolio Manager, APG Asset Management)

“This book provides excellent advice for beginners in sustainable investing and also for those more advanced. The concrete examples are helpful and not easy to come by yet in the public space. Recommended reading for investors and the interested public alike.” (Eila Kreivi, Director, Head of Capital Markets, European Investment Bank)

ESG (Environmental. Social, Governance) investment is one of the megatrends at present… [—] This book provides complete and systematic guidance for institutional and individual investors.

Dong Huan, Editor, Cheers Publishing, China


The 50 Most Dangerous Companies in the World

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.

The best offering of the work is the presentations of the less well-known giant companies. Each chapter proceeds fluently and describes the history, business model and the owning families of the company at hand. It functions well as a Who’s Who reference book about the wealthiest people in the world. The book can be used for researching investment tips if you’re not steering clear from investing in the arms business, aviation, or alcohol. The book has a clear index and list of sources, and the language is fluent and neat.

Saara Koho, Talouselämä Financial Magazine


The 50 Most Dangerous Families in the World

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

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.


The Black Book of Football

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

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 culminates with the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where the authorities and organizers do not care about costs or construction worker deaths.

Hannu Aaltonen and Tapio Keskitalo go and take a multifaceted approach in going through the corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, bribes, manipulation of scores and illegal betting present in the sport. [–] The two journalists are doing important work as they find out who stole from the fans and the players.

Tommi Liljedahl in Kulttuuritoimitus magazine


The Note Crisis: Kekkonen, Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Cold War

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, focusing on Kekkonen’s pivotal first term and culminating with the Note Crisis and Kekkonen’s re-election, is based on three years of research and includes exclusive interviews with Khrushchev’s late son Sergey, Kekkonen’s former chiefs of staff, and the incumbent 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

PRAISE:

“Over the last quarter-century, the world has learned much about what happened behind the scenes during the Cold War.  One big story, though, remains largely untold, and this book finally tells it.  Finland and its brilliant leader, Urho Kekkonen, managed not only to balance enemy power blocs but also to contribute decisively to peace in Europe.  By telling this story, THE FINNISH FACTOR: KEKKONEN, KENNEDY, KHRUSHCHEV AND THE COLD WAR adds a vital piece to our understanding of modern world history.  It also provides a gripping account of the the greatest crisis in Finnish post-war history, the 1961 Note Crisis.” – Stephen Kinzer, former Berlin bureau chief, New York Times; senior fellow, Watson Institute for International Affairs, Brown University (US)

“THE FINNISH FACTOR is remarkable and significant for several reasons. For one, it is the first, not to mention the most thorough examination of Finland’s recent history by an American – particularly its crucial and little understood role in the Cold War, when its status as a Soviet sphere of influence was a test of wills between the East and West… [—] Perhaps the high point of Sander’s spellbinding book is his account of the meeting between Finnish president Urho Kekkonen and US President John Kennedy, on the eve of the so-called 1961 Note Crisis, one of the great “forgotten” episodes of the Cold War, which includes a full never-before-published transcript of the pivotal two day conference. [—] THE FINNISH FACTOR, which reads like a page-turner, is a great read and an important and worthwhile – as well as fun – work of non-fiction and creative biography unto itself.” – Michael Franck, documentarian and film maker

“So much has happened since the end of the Cold War that even a serious student of today’s crises would surely learn much by casting an eye back at Finland’s ‘active neutrality’ role in the dangerous Berlin crisis in the early 1960’s. Gordon Sander’s THE FINNISH FACTOR is gripping history, rich with insight, fascinating characters such as Kennedy, Khrushchev and Kekkonen, and valuable lessons in crisis understanding and management. Rarely does a small country play so large a role.” – Marvin Kalb, former Moscow bureau chief, CBS News; Murrow Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

“THE FINNISH FACTOR adds a vital piece to our understanding of modern world history. It also provides a gripping account of the greatest crisis in Finnish post-war history, the 1961 Note Crisis.” – Stephen Kinzer, former Berlin bureau chief, New York Times; senior fellow, Watson Institute for International Affairs, Brown University (US)


Baltic Fish Atlas

Detailed information of over 400 fish and other water inhabitants that can be found in the Baltic Sea area. More than 500 recipes, tips and instructions of handling different fish. Myths, beliefs, traditions, history and author’s stories about fishing waters and cuisine. You will never need another book about fish!

Over 6.000 copies sold in Estonia!