Comments: If we wrote a Scandinavian cookbook and organized the recipes by month, we're not sure we would start it in cold, dark January – we would probably opt for a fiscal culinary year and start with summer's bounty. But we're also not sure we could produce such a beautiful, inspiring book. The recipes and photos (of food and scenery) are equally gorgeous.

It is not all herring and lingonberries, but being a Scandinavian cookbook, there is certainly a lot of seafood. But there are pastries, roasts, salads, soups, vegetables, delicious desserts, etc. – really a huge amount of variety from a region where you might not expect so much variety.

There is also a recipe here and there for moose, pheasant, reindeer and a few other hard-to-find ingredients, but in general, the ingredient search won't have you heading for the Arctic Circle. A certain amount of raw egg is used, if that sort of thing bothers you (the book suggests you use pasteurized eggs, which may not be much easier to find than a bit of reindeer).

There are a very few issues related to translation, measurements, and proofreading: a meatball recipe calls for lingonsylt, while the accompanying recipe is for Cowberry (lingonberry) Compote. One assumes they are meant to be the same thing, but that is not quite clear. The beautiful Rhubarb Trifle says it serves 6, but you are instructed to spoon it into 4 bowls. In the photo of braised potatoes, they appear to be cut, but there is nothing in the instructions about cutting.

Otherwise it's a beautiful book for the kitchen or coffee table.