The Happiness Passport

This is a warm beautiful book a book that takes the concept of hygee around the world.Introduces us to new words different cultures .Traditions each unique each makes me want to add something new to our traditions.Lovely drawings new words this book was a wonderful read will make a lovely gift. #netgalley #the Happiness Passport #quartobooks

The world beyond hygge. This is a brilliant look into other words and their meanings. It’s the perfect companion book for anyone who has tried the hygge lifestyle and want to try expand it further.
It’s a joy to read and I can’t wait to gift it to special people in my life come Christmas time.

I've read books about hygge and ikigai, but this book covers so many similar words from numerous cultures around the world. The author has collected 50 words that evoke the feeling of happiness and/or living well, arranging them into categories - home and environment, community and relationships, character and soul, joy and spirituality and balance and calm. Each concept is described in 50 words or less, making this a fun book to have around to pick up whenever the reader has a few minutes or to sit and read cover to cover. Readers are sure to find many practices they will want to include in their own lives to bump up their own happiness. We can learn so much from other cultures if we're open to the ideas. This book will also make a great gift for anyone intent on living a better life.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group - White Lion Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this lovely book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is like a little hug of niceness. I loved reading about the cultures and traditions of kindness from across the world and it was heartwarming to see there is still so much good in the world. Any book with a cwtch in it is fine with me.

We need more books like this! I loved learning about how different cultures demonstrate kindness. In a world that has so much negativity right now, this book was a much needed reality check showing that there is so much more good than bad out there and people still do care and look out for each other. I highly recommend this!

Phenomenal!

This book is beautiful. Unfortunately, the arc was a digital copy. The artwork is beautiful, there literally is no other word (haha) to describe it. I wanted to bottle up the illustrations and keep them with me forever.

The words were well chosen and the explanations were good. My favorite word from the book is Duyên Phận which is Vietnamese for 'fate in love', a concept similar to soulmates (not just the romantic kind)

Special mention to the Swedish word Lagom which means 'just the right amount'. Yes, yes, yes. My life is lived in either an excess or a lack. I want to lagom the sh*t out of my life. This is my one word answer for 'the middle path'.

Honestly, I can't move over the illustrations. Can I please, pretty please, keep them with me forever? I definitely want to go ahead and buy a hardcover.

I received a free digital copy of the book from NetGalley.

What a beautiful concept this book is! The author takes words from around the world that represent the simplest pleasures of living and illustrates how to bring these concepts into our everyday lives. Not only will you be adding 50 new words to your lexicon, you'll be learning new practices for adding more joy to your life! The words are uniquely tied to the culture and the people from which they originate, but the feelings they invoke are universal. A wondrous book from start to finish.

'The Happiness Passport' by Megan Hayes is an international exploration of what happiness means to various cultures around the world. Like most people, I have been guilty of being fascinated with foreign cultures and their seemingly relaxed and pleasurable ways of life. If you have ever wondered how to accomplish this, then this book is a must read. Megan takes the reader on a journey to every corner of the world and delves into what happiness means to each culture. Readers will be surprised to learn that the Danish 'Hygge' that has become somewhat of a mainstream fad, is only one small example of what different countries consider to be their idea of happiness. This book is more of a encyclopedia for happiness seekers, because Megan introduces the reader to a new vocabulary full of beautiful words to describe the state we are all seeking. I was moved reading this book because I learned that some cultures were able to articulate my own idea of happiness that I myself could never find the words for. This book was broken down into chapters regarding happiness that is found at Home, in the Community, in the Soul, Spirituality, and Calm of the everyday lives of the various cultures featured. This drove home the message that everyone has their own idea of what happiness looks and feels like to them. I would recommend that you keep a pen and paper close by when reading this book because there will be so many new words that will be added to your lexicon once you’re finished. Words are powerful because they are elements of language, and what better way to learn the language of happiness than through beautiful descriptive words from all over the world.

I love the concept of how happiness changes around the world. An interesting little gem of a book.


Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author. All opinions are my own.

When I was in college, I took an Anthropology course. The professor spoke about how different cultures have words for the things that they need; an example of this was the many words for snow that those who lived in very Northern climates traditionally had and the number of words for cars in the U.S. I thought about this as I began to read through The Happiness Passport. The connections between words and culture are every where in this lovely book.

The Happiness Passport is organized into sections. They include chapters on the following:

Home and Environment

Community and Relationships

Joy and Spirituality

Balance and Calm

As I began to read, I was bookmarking and underlining so I could share with you. I was starting to have no un-bookmarked pages so that had to stop! Instead I will say that many countries and cultures are represented in the book. Some terms will be familiar to you like "hygge." Others you will not have heard of. I can tell you that each word and write up will make you think about your life and what you value.

This book is enhanced by what I found to be very calm and lovely muted color illustrations. I recommend that you take a look at this one. It is a perfect antidote to the frenetic holiday season.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto for this one.

The Happiness Passport by Megan Hayes a phenomenal journey through Happiness illustrated by global languages. Each language has it own work or concept of happiness. It is wondrous how each cultural has their own concept of happiness and how it evolves around the world. The artwork in this book is absolutely beautiful.

This was a cute little book! As someone who loves books, it's no surprise that I love words. This quick little book features words from a variety of cultures, many indigenous, that explore the different ways humans find and celebrate happiness around the world. The illustrations were gorgeous, and I loved the list of further reading in the back. My only complaint was I had to keep stopping to google how to pronounce the words!

Fasten your seat belts! We are on a world tour exploring happiness with the help of this joyful book!

It is based on a unique concept. The author, Megan Hayes, is taking us on a world tour where she explores fifty different words that countries use to evoke feelings of happiness. It is based on a lot of research on how different cultures use specific words to promote feelings of contentment and wellbeing.
One word that you probably all know is the famous hygge (the practice of creating cozy and congenial environments that promote emotional well-being). The author has even included two words from my own country, Greece! The words are: meraki (to do something with soul or from the heart) and kefi (high spirits, merriment, love of life).
The illustrations of the book are absolutely beautiful by the talented Yelena Bryksenkova and the book is structured in 5 chapters: Home and Environment, Community and Relationships, Character and Soul, Joy and Spirituality, Balance and Calm.
One of my favourite words was the Swedish Gokotta which means to rise at dawn in order to go outside and hear the first birdsong. Doesn’t it bring you feelings of contentment just by thinking about it?
This book would be perfect for your coffee table and it would make a wonderful gift for you or a friend.

The Happiness Passport is a unique book. The author travels the world of dictation exposes readers to the words of happiness from other countries and languages.. Megan Hayes shares the different kinds of happiness of the world helping expanded our vision of happiness as US English speakers. While, I won't be adding these words to my vocabulary, it was fun to learn these new words and new concepts.

Charmingly illustrated, this book is like a warm hug. We've all become aware of the recent buzzwords Hygge and Lagom, which to Nordic people mean a lifestyle of cosy, calm living. This book expands on that idea, with similar words from many languages, divided into five themed chapters. As a language teacher I found it particularly fascinating. The illustrations are gorgeous, and this would make a great gift for those who are stressed and overworked. In fact I don't know anyone who wouldn't benefit from it! The only niggle for me was a couple of grammatical errors which should have been edited out.
Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

Thank you Quatro Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in return for my honest opinion.

I loved this book. It follows on from all the recent books on Hygge, Lagon, Ikagai by going a step further and finding words that relate to happiness. Wellbeing, community, belonging and more from all around the world. The book is really well researched and introduced me to many many beautiful words that I will use to inspire the year ahead.

I appreciated the reference pages at the back of the book, leading to more in-depth reading of the words that interested me the most.
This is the perfect gift or a gorgeous book to treat yourself to and take daily inspiration from.

I am fascinated with languages and trying to learn as many as I can. Learning languages is like getting a new life, with a completely new world of meanings and feelings opening up in the front of your eyes and mind. As a translator myself, I know that there are so many words hard to translate and finding locals equivalents is rather an approximation of the meaning than a reproduction of the word.

Therefore, I approached The Happiness Passport by Megan C. Hayes with a lot of curiosity, but also keen to learn new words. Although it makes the world tour in just 50 words, there are enough new insights into languages to win you more than a life. The words chosen are mostly words of yearning, expressing familiarity, intimacy and happiness. Words deeply rooted into the culture telling in just a few letters unique ancient stories full of hidden meanings to the non-native speaker. Take, for instance the Russian prostor which means yearning for wide plains. Or the Innuit unikkaagatigunniq, which reflects 'the power of storytelling and the role of stories in the communal ways of being'. I've also learned on this occasion two English words: petrichor - 'a noun that describes the pleasantly earthy smell of rain after a long period of dry, warm weather' and psithurism - 'the sound of wind whispering through the trees'. And I was reminded of an old Hungarian expression: 'Ugy szép az élet, hazajlik', meaning approximatively: 'Life is beautiful if it is happening'.

Of course there are many more than 50 words to catch the spirit of the world, as the number of spoken languages and dialects in the world is impressively high, but this small level approach open up your eyes to search in your own native language(s) about those words that are impossible to substitute.

The illustrations, the work of Yelena Bryksenova are nostalgic, romantic pastels that inspire to meditate about life, worlds and its making in words.

Take a surprisingly delightful trip through words of the world. Gift a painless & subtle encouragement for opening minds & hearts to inclusion. Learn a new word or better understand a popular phrase you may already be using. Lovely art & topic combos. Perfect gift.

I love the idea behind this book, sharing different words and happiness philosophies from around the world. The art throughout the book is gorgeous and depicts the various cultures and places that are discussed in the book. I felt that this was very well researched, but would have been better for readers if it was formatted with just one word, or several from the same culture in each section. Many section jumped between five different cultures and their words, and I felt like I wasn't digesting the information very well. Unfortunately, this book was only offered for Adobe Reader, so it expired before I was able to finish it. However, I read enough to feel confident in my review.

I enjoyed reading this book. The author takes you on an around the world tour of Happiness. Some of the words were familiar but others were new to me. The book is organized by theme. The illustrations enhance the text. Enjoy reading the book over and over again for inspiration.