What I've Been Reading So Far in 2017

Goodreads is one of my favorite online tools. I always find more books I want to read than I have time for in between renovating our house, teaching, and in general trying to stay fit and active. So having a way to keep track of what I'm reading, or what others have recommended to me is always nice. Here are a few of the good books I've read so far this year with some mini-reviews.

Friedman's Thanks For Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Living in the Age of Accelerations  was a surprise Christmas gift from C. I hadn't heard of it, or that it was coming out. It was an okay read but reminded me of how I've felt reading every Friedman book, it was too late. I feel like the trends he looks at in his books are usually fading by the time of publishing. The book was repetitive throughout but some of the points he presents, are interesting (especially on Climate Change). The last third of the book si largely about how Minnesota has done and is doing most things right, which was interesting for me, but probably not for most readers.

I was very late to the game on Freedom by Jonathan Franzen but I'm so glad I snagged it from the library. It's a long family character study parents and children superimposed on the changing American ethos of the early 2000s. It's hard to describe this book without giving away a lot of the plot but this is one of my favorite books I've read this year.

Since I stumbled on her (sadly only) 2 seasons of her Food Network show Heartland Table, I've loved Amy Thielen. Her recipes are fresh, well-made, and always impress. I've made her Cranberry Port Tart from James Beard award-winning The New Midwestern Table for multiple Thanksgiving and it's always a hit. So when I heard she had a memoir on the way, I downloaded it onto my kindle on it's release day and devoured it. Give a Girl a Knife traces Thielen's life from rural Minnesota, to New York City, and back. It's an easy read memoir and more of a niche read.

By far, the worst thing I've read so far this year is Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. I listen to a lot of podcasts that advertise for the Book of the Month Club and heard a lot of hype about this book. It was a kindle deal earlier this year so I downloaded it to try it out. It's the story of Jason, who is a physicist and how he is transported through time and space to another dimension by a alternate version of himself. Overall, I don't recommend this book at all. The science was lacking, it wasn't interesting enough to care. It was mercifully a quick read, but if you want good science fiction, I recommend Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.