Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Yes Please by Amy Poehler
"Do you want to get to know the woman we first came to love on Comedy Central's Upright Citizens Brigade? Do you want to spend some time with the lady who made you howl with laughter on Saturday Night Live, and in movies like Baby Mama, Blades of Glory, and They Came Together? Do you find yourself daydreaming about hanging out with the actor behind the brilliant Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation? Did you wish you were in the audience at the last two Golden Globes ceremonies, so you could bask in the hilarity of Amy's one-liners?

If your answer to these questions is "Yes Please!" then you are in luck. In her first book, one of our most beloved funny folk delivers a smart, pointed, and ultimately inspirational read. Full of the comedic skill that makes us all love Amy, Yes Please is a rich and varied collection of stories, lists, poetry (Plastic Surgery Haiku, to be specific), photographs, mantras and advice. With chapters like "Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend," "Plain Girl Versus the Demon" and "The Robots Will Kill Us All" Yes Please will make you think as much as it will make you laugh. Honest, personal, real, and righteous, Yes Please is full of words to live by."- summary from Amazon

Just like Tina Fey's Bossypants, I absolutely adored this book. Poehler's writing is compelling, hilarious, and honest, and gives readers a wonderful balance of memoir and inspiration/advice. It's not just about Poehler's life, though of course there is a lot about it- from growing up in Boston to living in Chicago and doing Second City to her time with Upright Citizens Brigade and SNL to her years on Parks and Recreation. But there's also life lessons told in the book, how to deal with a multitude of different issues, how to be yourself to the fullest extent, and so much more.

Poehler's writing made me feel like I was listening to a close personal friend talking about their life. There's a lot of personality and emotions in her prose, which helps to give that familiarity to the reader. One of the things I loved about this book is how much she talked about how hard it was to write this book. As an avid reader who knows many authors and as a writer myself, I know this sentiment all too well and it was nice to see a celebrity write about how hard, difficult and tough it is to write. She compares writing to "hacking away at a freezer with a screwdriver." How very true.

Overall, this was a fantastic memoir and I urge everyone to go out and read it!! You will not be disappointed.

FTC: Borrowed book from local library. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.