All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This has gotten favorable press lately and it's deserved, but...
The story involves a German orphan and his sister prior to WWII and a blind French girl and her father in a parallel time.  Parallel is the key word because each chapter is a couple of pages long and bounces back and forth between the two as they age, the war begins and ends and their paths converge.  A subplot, which may be the point of the story, is a jewel that may or may not be cursed.  As all the parts come together, the tension should mount, but it is lessened by moving back and forth in time.  That time shifting gives a clue as to who lives and dies, at least to a point, and for me took away from the story.  It was not difficult to understand where in time the characters were, it was just mostly unnecessary and a contrivance instead of asset to the story.

That said, the author did an excellent job in portraying each character, no matter how slight their role and the writing is beautiful.  I liked all the characters I was supposed to like and the story was good.  As is the case with many of the books in this blog, Jackie read it before I did.  When I asked how she liked it prior to me reading it, she said "I want to see what you think about it."  We came away with the same conclusion.  Given the accolades, we expected a bit more.  Very good book, just left us a bit flat.  If you want to read a more riveting look at occupied France, look at "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky which was blogged about years back. 

The Innovators by Walter Isaacson

History with context and flow can be great reading. If it is done by an excellent craftsman with a reporting background, it can be a joy and an education.  This book is all of that.  Maybe that should be at the end of this post but know that Isaacson has nailed it in this latest addition to his many well-received tales of famous people.

In "The Innovators" it is not one person, but the fairly complete history of computers, from the initial concept of a computer by a brilliant 19th Century woman, through the steps toward invention and finally to where we are today. He weaves in the contrast of outcomes between brilliant loners and teams of brilliant people. To not give too much away, no matter how bright the single individual, the great idea seldom got far enough to reach a broader audience. The computers and supporting systems we have today came from teams.

At the beginning of the book, I'd read for a while and put it down, even though that section was interesting.  The further into the book I got, the longer the segments.  By the last 100 pages or so the book flew by.  It's that kind of book.  Everyone in the family will love this.

"Yes Please" by Amy Poehler

"When you are pregnant you can get away with a lot of sh*t. Women really are at their most dangerous during this time. Your hormones are telling you that you are strong and sexy, everyone is scared of you, and you have a built-in sidekick who may come out at any minute." - Amy Poehler, "Yes Please"

So, unlike most of my friends, I’ve never seen Amy Poehler’s “Parks and Recreation.” I also stopped watching Saturday Night Live right around the time that Poehler and Tina Fey left – mainly because it coincided with me liking to go to bed before 11:30pm, but if they ask, it’s because my world wasn’t complete without them.

Ok, so we all know how I felt about "Bossypants" And this is what I’ll say about “Yes Please”. If you like Amy Poehler, you’ll love this book.

Also, it' worth noting here that Mary and I have always referred to ourselves as the Amy Poehler and Tina Fey of the Everyman. Which I'm guessing is how you guys refer to us, too.

Moving on.

I liked this book a lot - there were parts that were laugh-out-loud  funny and parts that were touching. It’s a quick read and has some fun name-dropping and behind-the-scenes stories. Plus, I get the sense that I’d just like Amy Poehler if she’d ever return my calls. But I’m pretty sure nobody in the family will read it for reasons like….you guys really don’t care about Amy Poehler? And so I respect that. But some of my blog readers will dig this and this is how you’ll know, guys: if you liked/read the following: “Bossypants” or “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” – you’ll like this for sure. So check it out and let me know what you think!