Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow

"This is the first book I remember reading that felt like a punch, a shocked wonder. It’s a thriller set in Copenhagen in the winter about a small boy who dies and the woman who tries to find out how. For a while I reread this book every other year, gave it to everyone I know, carried it around with me for inspiration. It’s savage and freezing and intensely beautiful and strange. It taught me to love writing about strong women and extremes of nature."