A review by bellatora
The Palace of the Snow Queen: Winter Travels in Lapland by Barbara Sjoholm

4.0

I know nothing about Nordic history, so I figured a travelogue would be a good way to go about it. Sjoholm is a good travelogue writer and also brings in some interesting modern-day experiences – the Ice Hotel, dog sledding, etc. But what I didn’t realize but becomes more and more blatant is that Sjoholm’s main focus is not the countries themselves but the Sami people (the native people of the area). Sami people and their rights is Sjoholm’s passion. And it is definitely interesting to learn about a group of people I barely knew existed but I wish that Sjoholm had also taken more of an interest in the general history of Sweden, Norway, and Finland. When Sjoholm discusses maybe one or two things about general Nordic history, when the past is talked about, it’s usually about the Sami (which, since her focus stays in the arctic north does make sense, because the Sami history is the history of that area).