What can make us happier? An evening with your beloved family, chatting with friends, recognition of our merits, love, time spent with children. Six books about such different happiness – to give yourself a festive mood and inspiration for the next year.
Love story
“Bella’s Flash” Boris Messerer
“Ah, it’s not enough luck that I lived, / I was completely happy / in that lane that is called Khlebny.” Artist Boris Messerer and poetess Bella Akhmadulina were connected by 36 years of a happy marriage. After they met, Messerer began to record meetings, conversations, disputes, trips to friends, all the important and not so important events of a long life in the circle of people of culture and art. Now he calls this story of life and love “a flash” – time, colored with happiness, instantly, even if it lasts for decades. Publishing house of Elena Shubina, 2016.
Bright fate
“Red-haired woman” Orhan Pamuk
Fate is favorable to the hero of the novel by Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk: all his life he gets exactly what he wants. Money, education, career, first love, casual and bright, and the second – for life, the named father – and the real one, even the son who seemed to be gone. He knows he should be happy – but he doesn’t feel happy. A delightful novel, where the emotionally intense, semi-detective reality of today is interspersed with fabulous stories of old Istanbul.Foreigner, 2016.
cozy house
“The Little Book of Hygge. The Secret of Danish Happiness Mike Viking
The phenomenon of Danish happiness with the untranslatable name “hygge” was discovered 5 years ago. It is actively researched, and in England it is even taught in colleges. Hygge is not about success and positivity. Hygge is synonymous with comfort, trust and warmth. Mike Wiking, founder of the Happiness Research Institute, explains that you can get comfort quickly and for money. And the other components of hygge are sincerity, love for yourself and the world – a state of mind. But during the holidays it is easier to feel them.KoLibri, 2016
warm conversation
“Happiness and Other Minor Things of Absolute Importance” Chaim Shapira
The mathematician and psychologist Chaim Shapira insists on nothing and advises nothing. But he willingly consults himself – about the meaning of life, pleasure, love and friendship, time and searching for himself – now with Winnie the Pooh, now with Wittgenstein. His charming book is not a scientific work or a workshop, but rather fables, jokes on philosophical topics. Which already after three lines cause a smile on the face of the reader, and after three pages – blissful bliss.Sinbad, 2017.
Christmas stories
“Christmas Traditions”. “Christmas Miracle” “Gifts of Christmas” Comp. Tatiana Strygina
A series of books that are hard to part with: they are small, cute and with silk covers. Under the covers are Christmas and Christmas stories written by contemporary authors and priests, memoirs of writers of the past… Christmas stories are a special genre, about miracles and upsurges of the spirit, about good and evil. Perfect for home reading aloud, by candlelight and Christmas tree lights. Nikea, 2017.
The game of imagination
The Snowman Raymond Briggs, The Snowman and the Snow Dog Hilary Odus, Joanna Harrison
In 1978, Raymond Briggs drew a tale of a boy and a snowman, and the cartoon based on it became part of the British winter festivities. There are no words in this fairy tale, but there is an atmosphere of magic: a snowman, molded in the evening, came to life at night and took his creator flying. 35 years later, a sequel was written. What do you do when you close your books? Of course, go sculpt your snowman.Polyandria, 2016.