Author: Amy Poehler
Pages: 329
Published: October 28th 2014 by Dey St.
Source: Library
Links: goodreads, Yes Please Official
In Amy Poehler’s highly anticipated first book, Yes Please, she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious. Powered by Amy’s charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice, Yes Please is a book is full of words to live by.
I have no idea why I picked this book up! I don't like nonfiction. But ... something about the cover of this book made me want to read it. I am not even a regular Saturday Night Live watcher, though when I do watch it I laugh so hard. I really enjoyed this book! I think I have discovered that my nonfiction tastes are the books that have a little humor to them. Or perhaps I am getting older and just enjoy learning more then I did ten years ago. I feel that is what nonfiction is all about, learning something. This book is heavy.... I picked it up from the library and was quite surprised. The pages are great quality and there are some great pictures included as well.
There is one part in the book where she talks about the day she was born. Well, actually her mother and father write a part about it. It was neat. At the end of the chapter she tells us to go and ask our parents about the day we were born. There are even blank pages in this section for the reader to go and write down what their parents say. So I texted my parents and asked. The answer is kind of hilarious... I love my parents!
Me: I want to know my birth story? What happened that day?
Dad: Like what? It was a long day.
Me: Was mom home? Were you at work and had to get her? Who came out to help?
Dad: She threw up and a lady came to help out.
Me: That is an amazing story! LOL!
The first part of the book was more about things that I was relating to more... there was advice in this part and I was nodding my head along. When the book actually got into telling her story of her acting career I began to get a little bored. I felt like there was A LOT of name dropping in the second half of the book. I don't want Parks and Recreation (though I know I should) and so the whole section about that show was also a little dull to me. While I enjoyed the book I got a little tired of it by the end. So really I can only give the book three stars.
The Crystal ball says:
Fog is coming..... in the middle of the road on this book!
I Like Amy Pohler so I kind of want to read this one but, like you, I think I'd be bothered with the name dropping and the TV show talk.
ReplyDeleteThe name dropping was soooo many! I didn't even know half the people she was talking about either. So that didn't help me be impressed.
ReplyDeleteI love Amy Poehler, but I wasn't crazy about this book. I didn't like how her time line jumped around all over the place. I read Tina Fey's book before this, and she started when she was young, and progressed. I just think that works better in a nonfiction book.
ReplyDeleteI did like the part Seth Meyers wrote, even though it was kind of redundant because Amy had just told the exact same story.
I read a few pages of this last year enjoyed it but thought it might work better as an audio. I'm hoping to get it in the next week or two. Since I'm not a big Parks and Recreation fan I'm a little concerned about the middle of the book but I do like TV talk. Have you read Mindy Kaling's book? I really enjoyed it. Great review!
ReplyDeleteI do want to read this book, mostly because I like Amy Poehler as a comedian but I haven't watched Parks and Rec either. And I so enjoyed Tina Fey's book so I was thinking I would like this too. Probably I'll seek out the audiobook version of this though, as I think that will help me enjoy it more. I love the idea of asking my parents about my birth! I'm going to do it today! :)
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this one - I think listening to it in audio made a real difference - it was so good as an audiobook! I haven't watched any of Parks & Rec but hearing her talk made a difference. I don't know if I'd have gotten it quite so well in print.
ReplyDeleteI admit I like celebrity memoirs (No Land's Man was one I recently listened to and really enjoyed) and I'm glad to hear you enjoyed this one despite not knowing too much about her. I've heard great things--though I'm not surprised about the namedropping. Seems to plague these types of memoirs!
ReplyDeleteYeah... I too felt the book was a little jumpy. I do still want to read Tina Fey's book but it probably won't be for a while. I need time in between non-fiction books.
ReplyDeleteI want to read Mindy Kaling's book even though the only thing I really know her from is the office. I never gave Parks and Recreation a chance... only because I have so much TV I watch already. So I just didn't want to add another show. Though P&R does look like it would be hilarious.
ReplyDeleteDid your parents answer you about your birth??? My dad's answer was hilarious. I thought there was going to be so much more detail. I did text him the question though so he probably didn't feel like typing a big story like that!
ReplyDeleteI can see enjoying this in audio format. Though I would recommend still checking out the print copy because it did have a lot of great pictures in it. Some positive messages in print.
ReplyDeleteSo many names... I mean soooo MANY. A bunch of comedians I guess. I guess though if another celebrity is reading it they will like to read the names. There was also a whole section about an apology she wanted to make about a skit and I feel like that part went a little overboard.
ReplyDeleteYes! It was pretty interesting, though nothing crazy happened. It just made me realize giving birth is scary! LOL At least I'm all for that epidural. It was shocking that my Mom didn't want to have it!
ReplyDelete