Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About jormis

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I read books, watch movies and occasionally make music. Website: tilde.club/~jormis. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: jormis' Quick Questions interview.)

jormis's Reviews:

The Road to Hell

The Long Walk by Stephen King

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Cliff Young, a 61-year old sheep farmer, won the first ever Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon in 1983. He did it by running slowly but most effectively and by sleeping only for two hours during the first night when his competition slept for six hours. Eventually, he skipped sleeping altogether. He won the race by a landslide and also set a new record. His stamina was forged in the 1930s when he run for days finding and gathering sheep in the Australian wilderness. Effectively, he had […]

The Year of the Hare – Modern Life is Rubbish

The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna

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Last November I got the opportunity to see The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna at the Finnish National Theatre (it is the oldest Finnish-language professional theatre, established 1872). The Year of Hare is one of the most internationally successful Finnish book. And 2025 we are celebrating its 50th anniversary. After reading the book I watched the movie again to complete the Trifecta of the Hare. It is Midsummer’s Eve or Eve’s Eve in Finland in the mid-1970s. Sacred time. Mr Kaarlo Vatanen, the […]

Nobody knows the Troubles I’ve seen

Cal by Bernard MacLaverty

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‘Would you die for me?’ asks Marcella from Cal after they’ve spent the night together, just the two of them, in a remote farm where Marcella lives with her children and her late husband’s parents. In flashbacks we learn that Cal had been the driver of an execution squad that has killed Marcella’s police officer husband in their doorsteps and gravely injured Marcella’s father-in-law. He hasn’t told Marcella any of this,  of course. The novel tells the story of Cal McCluskey who is a young […]

Ain’t no mountain high enough

Evening Class by Maeve Binchy

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Remember book clubs? Ever been a member and getting a new book delivered home once a month, to be read or at least to help fill the empty bookcase in your living room? It was late 1990s and I and my then-wife were members of the Great Finnish Book Club. I don’t remember for how long, most likely only for a year. The monthly selections must have mostly been mediocre: there are not that many books left from that period in my bookshelves. (Or my […]

Tsas letmi hisamatö rokkänrol mjuusik!

Popular Music by Mikael Niemi

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A little primer. There is a lot of history – good and bad – between Finland and Sweden that goes back to the time the Crusades. Finland was the Eastern part of Sweden for roughly 700 years. The basis for government, legal framework and education were established during our time as part of Sweden. The written Finnish language took it first steps, even though it was for a long time the language of the lower classes. Swedish was for upper classes, aristos, the university folks […]

We always lose those who we love.

The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams

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My first dog was a Scottish Terrier named Ukko (after an old Finnish God – the God of Thunder and also the Supreme God [1]). Brought from Eastern Finland to Helsinki in 1993. As a puppy, he had a penchant for eating the insides of my shoes. Must have been due to my natural, vibrant scent. Otherwise, like all terriers, he was a fearless creature and built like a tank. Sadly, Ukko had a congenital heart disease which ended his life twelve years later. At […]



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