Blood on the Snow

You can think of As Red as Blood by Salla Simukka as Nordic crime fiction "lite" -- it's a young adult thriller in the (less gruesome) vein of works by authors like Jo Nesbø and Stieg Larsson.  This first in a trilogy introduces readers to 17 year-old Lumikki, an invisible outsider living on her own while attending high school in frigid Tampere.  When she discovers a stash of euros covered in blood, she's pulled into a dangerous mystery that takes her deep inside the Finnish criminal underworld.  Honed by a childhood trauma that is hinted at throughout the book, Lumikki possesses a unique skillset that makes her part detective, part action star -- she herself jokes that she is the secret lovechild of Lisbeth Salander and Hercule Poirot.  Fast moving, this title is enjoyable on its own, but is also an effective setup for the rest of the trilogy, as readers will want to know more about Lumikki and her own mysterious background.  HM

Brrrrrrrr!

For those who maybe aren't ready for winter or don't even want to hear the word, "snow," this book might make you feel a little bit better about Michigan weather. In The Palace of the Snow Queen: Winter Travels in Lapland, travel writer and translator Barbara Sjoholm journeys from her home in Washington to the arctic circle -- in December. Just a reminder here: the winter solstice usually occurs around December 20th, marking the shortest day of the year. In the far north, that means that for weeks before and after the solstice, the sun never actually rises. Sjoholm recounts her adventures in this perpetual twilight, including a trip to the original Ice Hotel, a visit to Santa's Village, an ill-conceived dog-sledding excursion, and an outdoor film festival where the movies are projected onto a giant sheet of ice. Along the way, she slowly comes to realize that the untouched north is full of vibrant and sometimes irreconcilable stories. HM