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The art of hygge

Tuesday, Feb 14, 2017 at 10:35am

The centuries-old Danish tradition of hygge (pronounced “hue-gah”) comes from a country voted to be the happiest on Earth, and its special custom of emotional warmth, slowness and appreciation, is becoming increasingly familiar to an international audience. To hygge means to enjoy the good things in life with good people.

Look after the jump for a selection of our favourite books on hygge, Scandinavian cooking, and the joys of living like a Dane...


 

Categories: Saskatoon, Winnipeg, New Releases, Cooking

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Hygge

- Marie Tourell Soderberg

Hardcover $27.99 - Add to Cart
Reader Reward Price: $25.19

Bring Hygge into your home this year with this beautiful and essential guide to the globally celebrated Danish art of happiness

'At these times it is crucial for me to have hygge. Hygge time with family and friends, hygge moments with myself and a hyggelig home.

It's small moments that money cannot buy you, finding the magic in the ordinary.'
_______

Whether it's listening to the rain with a cup of tea, or going on a long walk with a loved one, hygge can be harnessed all around us.

We all know the feeling of hygge instinctively, but few of us ever manage to capture it for more than a moment.

Now Danish actress and hygge aficionado Marie Tourell Søderberg has travelled the length and breadth of her home country to create the perfect guide to cooking, decorating and enjoying yourself, inspired the hygge way.

Full of beautiful photographs and simple, practical steps and ideas to make your home comforting and content, this book is the easy way to introduce hygge into your life.

'Pretty, homey and intimate, scattered with reflections from ordinary Danes' GUARDIAN

The Book of Hygge

- Louisa Thomsen Brits

Hardcover $29.00 - Add to Cart
Reader Reward Price: $26.10

"One of the best guides to creating a more socially connected and rewarding life."--Shelf Awareness

Whether you're seeking mindfulness gifts, meditation gifts, or are looking for a way to bring calm and comfort into your home, hygge is the solution. Hygge (hoo-gah) is a Danish word for a feeling of being warm, safe, comforted, and sheltered--an experience of belonging to the moment and to each other. When life gets hectic, work grows stressful, and the days fly by, unplug and tune in. This definitive guide to hygge deserves a place on your coffee table--and in your heart.


Hygge anchors us, reminding us to slow down, to connect with place and with one another, to dwell and savor rather than rush and spend. 

When you curl up by the fire with a blanket, or have a simple meal with friends, that is hygge. When you acknowledge the sacred in the secular, or focus on people rather than things, or when you express love through small gestures, that is hygge. 

The Book of Hygge
 is an invitation to welcome abundance and contentment into your life. It is a call to live more fully by focusing on what moves you.
 
This beautiful gift book is packed with full-color photographs and instructive meditations on relishing the everyday. It is your essential guide to cultivating the coziness that has made Danes the happiest people in the world. A perfect gift, The Book of Hygge is designed with an unjacketed, textured cover and crisp, clean interiors.

As seen in the The New Yorker.

Happy as a Dane

- Malene Rydahl

Trade paperback $19.95 - Add to Cart
Reader Reward Price: $17.96

This international bestseller shows why the Danes are happy and how we can be, too.
For decades Denmark has ranked at the top of the world's happiness surveys. How is it that these 5.6 million Danes are so content when they live in a country that is dark and cold nine months of the year and where income taxes are at almost 60 percent? At a time when talk across the Western world is focused on unemployment woes, government overreach, and anti-taxation lobbies, our Danish counterparts seem to breathe a healthier and fresher air. Interweaving anecdotes and research, Malene Rydahl explores how the values of trust, education, and a healthy work-life balance with purpose--to name just a few--contribute to a "happy" population. From eye-opening stories about open-air vegetable stands to babies safely left unattended while parents have coffee, to very generous paternity leave policies, Rydahl provides tips that we can all apply to our daily lives regardless of where we live.

How to Hygge

- Signe Johansen

Hardcover $27.99 - Add to Cart
Reader Reward Price: $25.19

The "Danish coziness" philosophy is fast becoming the new "French living" in terms of aspirational lifestyle books and blogs. There are countless viral articles comparing the happiness levels of Americans versus Danes. Their homes are more homey; their people are more cheerful. It's an attitude that defies definition, but there is a name for this slow-moving, stress-free mindset: hygge (pronounced "hoo-ga"). Hygge values the idea of cherishing yourself: candlelight, bakeries, and dinner with friends; a celebration of experiences over possessions, as well as being kind to yourself and treasuring a sense of community.

How to Hygge by chef and author Signe Johansen is a fresh, informative, lighthearted, fully illustrated how-to guide to hygge. It's a combination of recipes, helpful tips for cozy living at home, and cabin porn: essential elements of living the Danish way--which, incidentally, encourages a daily dose of "healthy hedonism." Who can resist that?

Knitting from the North

- Hilary Grant

Trade paperback $33.00 - Add to Cart
Reader Reward Price: $29.70

Nordic knitting projects that blend contemporary patterns with traditional colorwork for a style that will appeal to all knitters.


     Hilary Grant takes a thoroughly modern approach to Nordic knitting with this collection of thirty projects. With designs that are fresh, bold, and graphic, these geometric motifs give a contemporary spin to traditional colorwork patterns. With a range of accessories and sweaters there is something from everyone here: hats, cowls, fingerless mitts, sweaters, and more. 

     The allure of colorwork tugs at the heart of all knitters. From traditional Fair Isle designs to Icelandic Lopapeysa and clean Nordic patterns, knitting projects that use a kaleidescope of colors are eye-catching and inspiring. Knitting from the North is the perfect entry into knitting with color, with patterns to help you keep your hands warm and spirits high.

ScandiKitchen

- Bronte Aurell

Hardcover $34.99 - Add to Cart
Reader Reward Price: $31.49

A follow-up to the successful 'The ScandiKitchen' (published September 2015), this new book from Brontë Aurell features over 60 recipes for cakes, bakes, and treats from all over Scandinavia. From indulgent cream confections to homely and comforting fruit cakes and traditional breads, sweet buns, and pastries.  FIKA is a Swedish word meaning to meet up for a cup of coffee or tea over something delicious. It is also the word for the delicious treats themselves. Swedes traditionally stop twice a day for fika: taking a much-needed break from the daily grind. People fika with family, colleagues, friends, children, and even go on fika dates. HYGGE (pronounced hue-guh) is a word that originated in Norway but is now mainly used in Denmark. It means "a sublime state of cosiness you feel when you are with loved ones and nothing else matters". Hygge can be enhanced by the addition of a log fire, a good movie, a cup of something warm, and a sweet treat...hence the ideal combination of the two terms. Chapters are divided into Biscuits and Cookies, Tray and No bakes, Everyday Fika, Little Fancy Cakes, Celebration Cakes, and Bread and Batters. This beautifully illustrated, authentic guide is a celebration of Scandinavian baking in all its glory. It is evocative of cosy days shared with friends, slowing down and taking the time to enjoy simple, homemade, wholesome pleasures--encouraging a lifestyle to aspire to. With features on special Scandi winter celebrations, their baking traditions and how to bring fika and hygge into your life.

Scandinavian Gatherings

- Melissa Bahen, Paul Lowe

Hardcover $24.95 - Add to Cart
Reader Reward Price: $22.46

Relax with family and friends the hygge way with this whimsical collection of Scandinavian-inspired recipes, crafts, and entertaining ideas

Scandinavian Gatherings is your hygge handbook (pronounced HOO-guh) for turning your home into a cozy retreat! The creator of the popular Lulu the Baker blog shows you how to create simple pleasures throughout the year with 10 seasonal, family-friendly gatherings filled with the flavors and traditions of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland (a region regularly reported as the happiest place on earth!). 
 
The book boasts 30 simple craft projects for entertaining and decorating, as well as 40 sweet and savory recipes that put a modern twist on well-loved, traditional Scandinavian treats. You'll soon be warming your home with the comforting smells of Mom's Maple Pecan Rings, Swedish Meat Pies, Lucia Buns, Hot Chocolate with Homemade Cardamom Marshmallows, and more.
 
With ideas for year-round gatherings such as Nordic Brunch, Woodland Tea Party, Afternoon Fika, Lucia Day, and Christmas Cookie Exchange, you'll turn your home into a stress-free hygge oasis.

The Year of Living Danishly

- Helen Russell

Trade paperback $22.50 - Add to Cart
Reader Reward Price: $20.25

* NOW WITH A NEW CHAPTER *

'A hugely enjoyable romp through the pleasures and pitfalls of setting up home in a foreign land.'- Guardian

Given the opportunity of a new life in rural Jutland, Helen Russell discovered a startling statistic: Denmark, land of long dark winters, cured herring, Lego and pastries, was the happiest place on earth.

Keen to know their secrets, Helen gave herself a year to uncover the formula for Danish happiness.

From childcare, education, food and interior design to SAD and taxes, The Year of Living Danishly records a funny, poignant journey, showing us what the Danes get right, what they get wrong, and how we might all live a little more Danishly ourselves.

In this new edition, six years on Helen reveals how her life and family have changed, and explores how Denmark, too - or. her understanding of it - has shifted. It's a messy and flawed place, she concludes - but can still be a model for a better way of living.