The Little Book of Hygge

The world has reached unprecedented levels of wealth, but while we have succeeded in getting richer, we have failed in getting happier. While many people live lives of quiet desperation, a few people find themselves at the very top of the scale when it comes to happiness. Their behaviour is different. Their outlook is different. Their priorities are different. What can we learn from the world's happiest people?

Uncover the secrets of the Swedish philosophy of life called Lagom - meaning 'just enough'. At its core is the idea that we can strike a healthy balance with the world around us without having to make extreme changes and without denying ourselves anything. This delightful audiobook, written by Niki Brantmark, founder and curator of the award winning interior design blog My Scandinavian Home, gives a taste of the philosophy behind Lagom and shows how to include some of the principles in our daily lives.

Discover the parenting secrets of the happiest people in the world. What makes Denmark the happiest country in the world - and how do Danish parents raise happy, confident, successful kids year after year? This upbeat and practical guide reveals the six essential principles that have been working for parents in Denmark for decades. A revealing and fresh take on parenting advice, The Danish Way of Parenting will help parents from all walks of life raise the happiest, most well-adjusted kids.

Bringing Up Bébé meets Last Child in the Woods in this lively, insightful memoir about a mother who sets out to discover if the nature-centric parenting philosophy of her native Scandinavia holds the key to healthier, happier lives for her American children.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Ikigai by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles, read by Noako Mori. Bring meaning and joy to your every day with the internationally best-selling guide to ikigai. The people of Japan believe that everyone has an ikigai - a reason for being; the thing that gets you out of bed each morning. And according to the residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa - the world's longest-living people - finding it is the key to a longer and more fulfilled life.

Michelle McGagh has been writing about money for over a decade. You'd think that would make her a whiz with her own cash, right? Wrong! Spending with abandon and ignoring bank statements were her modus operandi. Just because she wasn't in serious debt apart from her massive London mortgage, she thought she was in control. She wasn't. Something needed to be done ,but rather than cut back here and there, Michelle's approach was more radical.

If simplicity is an art, then Dominique Loreau is a master. Having lived in Japan for many years and inspired by oriental philosophy, Dominique Loreau discovered the beauty of a life well lived through the art of simplicity. Her lifestyle rests on the principle of 'less is more' and imbues all areas of existence, from the material to the spiritual.

Transform your home into a permanently clear and clutter-free space with the incredible KonMari Method. Japan's expert declutterer and professional cleaner Marie Kondo will help you tidy your rooms once and for all with her inspirational step-by-step method. The key to successful tidying is to tackle your home in the correct order, to keep only the things you really love and to do it all at once - and quickly. After that for the rest of your life, you need only to choose what to keep and what to discard.

When she was suddenly given the opportunity of a new life in rural Jutland, journalist and archetypal Londoner Helen Russell discovered a startling statistic: the happiest place on earth isn't Disneyland but Denmark, a land often thought of by foreigners as consisting entirely of long, dark winters, cured herring, Lego and pastries. What is the secret to their success? Are happy Danes born or made?

Spark Joy is an in-depth, room-by-room guide to decluttering and organising your home. It covers every room in the house, from bedrooms and kitchens to bathrooms and living rooms, as well as a wide range of items in different categories, including clothes, photographs, paperwork, books, cutlery, cosmetics, shoes, bags, wallets and valuables. The secret to Marie Kondo's unique and simple KonMari tidying method is to focus on what you want to keep, not what you want to get rid of.

A round the world trip through 33 international happiness concepts, from the best-selling author of The Year of Living Danishly, Helen Russell.  From Australia to Wales, via Bhutan, Ireland, Finland, Turkey, Syria, Japan, and many more besides, The Atlas of Happiness uncovers the global secrets to happiness, and how they can change our lives.  

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Rituals for Every Day, written by Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips. We all feel that desire for a calmer, more spacious way of living, but we’re often unsure exactly how to step off the crazy treadmill of day-to-day routines and responsibilities. Nadia and Katia have learned, through years of practice, that simple rituals can help you press the pause button on the pace of modern life. In Rituals for Every Day they share their easy-to-follow advice, step by step. Let rituals bring you back to yourself.

Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things that clutter our lives so we can make room for life's most important things - which actually aren't things at all. At age 30, best friends Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus walked away from their six-figure corporate careers, jettisoned most of their material possessions, and started focusing on what's truly important.

In this era of mass consumption, we are all drowning in 'stuff', despite our best efforts to keep on top of the clutter that collects in our homes, our office spaces and even our cars. All this clutter causes us mental anguish. However, as we all know, throwing things away can be difficult - it clashes with the values instilled in us from an early age of not wasting things, reusing items and keeping things 'for a rainy day'. Simply put, we feel guilty about getting rid of things. Enter Nagisa Tatsumi and her bold suggestion - that it's okay to throw stuff away.

In her late 20s, Cait Flanders found herself stuck in the consumerism cycle that grips so many of us: earn more, buy more, want more, rinse, repeat. Even after she worked her way out of nearly $30,000 of consumer debt, her old habits took hold again. When she realized that nothing she was doing or buying was making her happy - only keeping her from meeting her goals - she decided to set herself a challenge: she would not shop for an entire year. The Year of Less documents Cait's life for 12 months during which she bought only consumables.