Yes Please in 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed]

Nov 06, 2014 Sadie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

4.5 stars/audio book. Well done, Amy Poehler. Loved it.

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 12, 2016 Michelle rated it liked it

I really like Amy Poehler. And yes, this is pretty much how everyone who writes a critical review of her book, Yes Please, starts their review. But I have to say it because even though her book was somewhat of a dud for me, I like her that much more after reading it. To me, Amy Poehler is like a bright, refreshing, sweet, cool, fizzy drink of charm that I want to sip on eternally. I've even convinced myself that Amy Poehler and I would be dear friends if we traveled in the same circles. Or maybe I really like Amy Poehler. And yes, this is pretty much how everyone who writes a critical review of her book, Yes Please, starts their review. But I have to say it because even though her book was somewhat of a dud for me, I like her that much more after reading it. To me, Amy Poehler is like a bright, refreshing, sweet, cool, fizzy drink of charm that I want to sip on eternally. I've even convinced myself that Amy Poehler and I would be dear friends if we traveled in the same circles. Or maybe that's just the rampant fan girl within me playing tricks on my good sense. Anyway, you get the point. I adore Amy Poehler and I regret to have to write this review declaring that her book was less "yes, please" for me and more "no, thank you."

So what are my major gripes? Well, for starters, it wasn't nearly as funny as I had hoped it would be. Amy Poehler is this firecracker of comedy and I expected her dynamic personality to burst forth from the pages and shower me with that celebrated Amy Poehler drollery! I thought the book was kind of all over the place - it jumps from childhood stories to young adult stories to adult stories and back again. There's no real format here which, in my opinion, makes for some wearisome pacing. Having never seen Parks & Recreation, I didn't mind reading about her experiences on the show but I could have done without the rundown of the entire cast, what she liked most about them, her favorite scenes with them, and what about them made her laugh. I also could have done without the gratuitous name dropping. Yeah, like a grossly uncomfortable amount of name dropping is in this book. She isn't even sly about it. It's overt and obnoxious. I submit this actual paragraph from her book as evidence:

"I don’t want to back-door brag as I make my way to the end of this apology tale, so let me just front-door brag and talk about the cool people I get to be friends with. I am friends with Kathleen Hanna and Adam Horovitz, aka Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys. I can’t believe I am friends with them. I love Kathleen’s music and I am in awe of her social activism and general awesomeness. I asked her to interview me for Interview magazine when I was just a sketch performer whom nobody knew. She said yes because she supports young women. This is the artist who pulled women to the front at her rock shows. She shows up and does the work and is the real deal. Now she is my friend. Her husband, Adam, is also my friend. I used to listen to the Beastie Boys on my Walkman and dream about meeting them. Now I have Adam’s e-mail. I’m blowing my cool cover but I am so psyched we are friends. I am also friends with Spike Jonze. Guess who else I am friends with? Kim Gordon! Norman Lear! Martin Short! It’s awesome! I can’t lie, it’s so awesome!"

TL:DR: "I don't want to brag, but I know a lot of cool famous people." Okay. Now you know. Amy Poehler is famous and she knows a lot of famous people who are awesome. This is very good to know because I, for one, wouldn't have expected a famous person like Amy Poehler to, in fact, know other famous people and to even call some of them friends. Thank the stars she put that in her book or I could have gone on for ages ignorant to this critical piece of Amy Poehler trivia. Crisis averted! Maybe I should give her a little credit here. It's hard to write a book. I know because Amy Poehler told me no less than a dozen times in her book. Writing is hard. Books are hard. Writing books is hard. Can I give the money back and not write the book? Prepare yourself for rampant redundancies, my friends.

But I did give it 3-Stars. It wasn't all bad. Some of it was disappointing, true. I would have liked to read more about what it was like coming up as a comedienne in the Upright Citizen's Brigade or delve into more tales from her time as a performer on the massive and manic live show that is SNL, but some of her essays caught me off guard by being surprisingly heartfelt and thoughtful. I loved reading about the beautiful reverie her children bring her and tender moments between them. I was enthralled by her experiences in Haiti. I found her commentary on how technology is strangling us to be both humorous and significant. These are the kinds of essays that made me more appreciative of her, the ones I felt gave her more dimension. I'm going to say it was better than Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, but not as good as Tina Fey's Bossypants. ...more

Like · see review

Oct 11, 2015 Hannah Norman rated it liked it

This book was good, but I don't think it was as good as I had hoped. It took me a really long time to get into. Once I was about halfway through, though, I loved it! I loved the way that Poehler used multiple forms of writing and techniques. It kept me intrigued. I also started to really like Poehler the more I read. At first, she just seemed annoying.

I liked this book, but it definitely was not one of my favorite memoirs. ...more

Like · see review

Nov 01, 2014 Morgan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-own, 2015-reading-challenge

Amy is my spirit animal. She understands the soul. One page I would be teary-eyed/crying, the next, I'd be choking I was laughing so hard. I love, love, love this human. ...more

Like · see review