From the Bookshelf of 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed]…

Yes Please

Amy Poehler

Start date: March 6, 2015

Finish date: March 6, 2015

Why we're reading this: Because it made me laugh out loud.
[close] Because it made me laugh out loud.

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Jan 19, 2015 Vince rated it liked it

Full disclosure: Amy Poehler is perhaps my least favorite of the funny television ladies who wrote books recently. Which, now that I think of it, is not true. That distinction definitely falls to Lena Dunham. But Poehler does place well behind Tiny Fey and Mindy Kahling in my book. Mainly this is because I am not as familiar with Poehler. I’m not much of a Saturday Night Live fan, and couldn’t ever get into Parks and Recreation (though may pull it up on Netflix after reading the book). I mainly Full disclosure: Amy Poehler is perhaps my least favorite of the funny television ladies who wrote books recently. Which, now that I think of it, is not true. That distinction definitely falls to Lena Dunham. But Poehler does place well behind Tiny Fey and Mindy Kahling in my book. Mainly this is because I am not as familiar with Poehler. I’m not much of a Saturday Night Live fan, and couldn’t ever get into Parks and Recreation (though may pull it up on Netflix after reading the book). I mainly know Poehler from her work with Fey. I love Tina Fey.

More full disclosure: I picked up this book thinking it would fulfill the “funny book” category of my 2015 Reading Challenge. I was wrong; I did not find this book funny. And thus I am now using it to check off the “memoir” category.

Despite the negative note on which this review has begun, I found Yes Please to be mostly enjoyable. As one might expect, Poehler has a great voice, making the book an engaging and quick read. She has some wonderful stories to tell about her life and her career. And she’s not afraid to share some of the messier aspects of that life, which I appreciate.

She is also surprisingly insightful about life in general (surprising, I suppose, because the book veered into a territory I was not expecting). Parts of the book (Poehler even calls them out on occasion) read like they come from a self-help book. Poehler likes to examine her own experiences and share wisdom with the reader based on them. Sometimes this works well. And sometimes it’s a bit cloying.

I personally wish there were less of that sort of reflection and more stories about her time in Chicago or the trials of being the new kid on the block at SNL. But, as I stated, Yes Please was not necessarily the book I thought it was going to be. It's still a good book, however. It just falls into a different bucket than the one in which I was prepared to drop it.

Yes Please was read as part of the 2015 Reading Challenge.
Category: A Memoir
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Mar 11, 2018 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks

I needed a humorous book and Amy Poehler's Yes Please was spot on. I did listen to this on audiobook and was perfect way to "de-stress" after a long school day. Poehler narrates the story and invites some of her family and friends to read along with her in various parts of the book. If you are looking for a happy book, definitely check out this one. The audiobook is worth it! ...more

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Jan 21, 2015 Mary Anne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, audio-book, audible, biography

I was really on the fence about getting this book. I appreciate Upright Citizens Brigade, Saturday Night Live, and Parks and Recreation. Not a super fan, but I do like the women of comedy. I feel similarly about Tina Fey, and I did like her book Bossypants. Other people compare it to Bossypants (which I loved) and to Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (which I remember really liking but not enough to give it a higher ranking?), and while I think it's in the same ballpark in terms ...more

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